The MeatEater Podcast - Ep. 731: Work, Workouts, and Worms | MeatEater Radio Live!

Episode Date: July 18, 2025

Hosts Janis Putelis, Brody Henderson, and Cory Calkins have one last dispatch before Janis' big race in the Crazy Mountain 100, chat with habitat manager Jared Van Hees about his work in Michigan, discuss the fitness it takes to be a hunter, talk with Ashley Morgan-Olvera of the Texas Invasive Species Institute about all things worms, and peruse the MeatEater Menu. Watch the live stream on the MeatEater Podcast Network YouTube channel. Subscribe to The MeatEater Podcast Network MeatEater on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTubeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. You're live, Yannis. Welcome to Meat Eater Radio. I'm your host, Yannis Patelis, and today I'm joined by Big Bad Brody Henderson and the capable Cory Kalkins. It's 11 a.m. Mountain Standard Time. That's exactly seven days, 19 hours before I start my journey running 100 miles in the crazy mountains of Montana. On today's show we'll talk with Habitat Manager Jared Van Hees. While he's hard at work on his Michigan property, Brody and Cory will share their pre-hunting season fitness routine. Ashley Morgan Olvera from the Texas Invasive Species Institute is here to talk worms.

And finally, we'll see what the crew has been cooking lately. But first, since Spencer's not here, fellas, let's start off with just some general chit-chat and catch up a little bit. Will the real Giannis Patelis please stand up? Please stand up. Are you just saying that because I told you my wife's been calling me M&M since? The live chat is exploding with M&M references. You look like Slim Shady.

Okay, well then there you go. That was not my goal. I'm just, I'm going to run this race in week, and a lot of times for these big races, people like to, people that are sort of middle of the pack and lower, which is where I'm gonna come in at, you got like to have some fun with it, you know, dress up. Sure. And so I didn't really have any like costumes

that I was gonna wear and didn't feel like that's gonna be comfortable running and that kind of stuff. So I thought, well, what could I do to be fun? Bleach my hair. That's great. The last time I bleached it, I went back in some photos. I was 21 years old. So that's 26 years ago.

Last time I had hair, I was 21 years old. Wow. Did you ever bleach your hair? No, like I had, like, it wasn't that fakie blonde, but it was very light. Like, yeah, yeah. Blonde. Yeah. I had pretty blonde hair too as a kid.

I did diet a lot though. This is, it was very nostalgic to have my wife do this to my eggs. It brought back the skater days. And I pretty much did every color under the rainbow over the course of maybe, I don't know, three or four years. So you said it's all about having fun. You don't got like any nerves or anything like that Oh, no, I definitely have some nerves

For sure. Yeah, it's getting to be that moment where it's like Yeah, you just wake up thinking about it and you like one moment. You're like, oh, this is gonna be great fun and easy I'm gonna be the dark horse. I'm a rolling in the 11th place and then like an hour later You're like, I don't know if I'm gonna finish. Dude, that's a long way. I know, we cleared trail last weekend as we had to do volunteer work. You gotta do an hour of volunteering

for anybody that's gonna participate in the race. And the race director would like you to do it around trail maintenance or a race. I'm sure she'd probably take any kind of volunteer work. But anyways, we went to Clear Trail and we had a pretty long section, 13 miles of trail to Clear. And another fellow helped us

and he's already run it twice. I was like, oh, that's great. I'm gonna get to just quiz this guy. And basically the main takeaway, he was like, yeah, the first 50 miles is fun. Then you find out what you're made of. I was like, yeah, the first 50 miles is fun. Then you find out what you're made of. I was like, oh right, yeah. Because you know, the longest I've done is basically 50,

little bit over. And then so from there on out, it's all virgin territory. And yeah, so there's definitely some nerves in there. But the taper has been easier this time than it has been for races prior. You might wanna explain taper to people who don't have any idea what you're talking about. Yeah, so when you're training for a big race,

I don't know, probably for any race for that matter, like depending on the race, I'm sure, and depending on the athlete, anywhere from probably a week to three weeks prior, you sort of start tapering off the high volume and extreme effort that you've been putting into the training, and you taper down. You don't wanna quit running altogether,

because you're letting your body all kind of forget about it. But you just, like, so I've been, I went from probably running 15 hours a week for two or three weeks prior, to now down to like five or six, or I had a week that was maybe eight, and like this week it's gonna be like four. You're kind of resting up a little bit.

Yeah, totally, resting but still maintaining. But definitely the name of the game is just to chill out right now, eat a lot of calories. But it can be hard to chill because your body's ready to run, your brain's kind of jacked up, ready to run. And I've had troubles almost like sleeping years, years before, but this year it's been easier.

I've been keeping myself occupied doing other stuff and yeah. That's what blows my mind about this hundred mile race is the amount of time that you're just up and moving and awake. Is there any like training to keep you rolling for what is it? Like 30 hours? Well, my goal is 30. I haven't really done any sleep deprivation training. I talked to my coach about it and she was like,

you know, she felt like the damage that could possibly do or the recovery would be so long from just trying to stay up for a night and running through the night. So what I did instead, it was like I did a couple like real Alpine starts where we like get up at three and be running at like 4 a.m. and then go for like a four-hour run. Man that's great for getting ready to hunt huh? Yeah exactly, exactly.

So um yeah my wife is probably that's what she she's going to be my crew chief which means that she's going to run all my crew and my aid where they can meet me along the course, keep me fed, keep me lubed up, keep me in fresh clothes, whatever I need, you know? But her main worry is that I don't do well staying up. Like I'm not, I'm not like a night owl whatsoever. Like usually I can barely get a love you out of my mouth and I'm out, you know what I mean? So she's like, she has a.m. she's like, are you gonna run while you're sleeping? Like how's that gonna work? I think you're, like, you'll just, like, I don't know, I've never done it,

but I think you kinda go on autopilot, man. You know what I mean? Oh yeah, and I think just the energy of the race, right? I should be pretty, hopefully pretty jacked up. And the nice thing is that the second half I get to run with my friends with Pacers. And so they'll be there to keep me fired up. What else else did I want to bring up?

Oh, newest episode of Roast is out. It is a really good one as they all have been so far. This one, Sarah Delaney and Matt Miller face off in a small game shootout and Brent Reeves and Clay Newcomb judge them. Clay steals the show in my opinion. Everybody else is just kind of supporting actors, but it's a great episode. They do squirrels and then they have a little bonus rabbit that was killed that morning right here in Bozeman, Montana. We actually had to, we skinned it right outside the door of the office.

And it was kind of a funny moment because Brent and I are out there skinning it. Clay might've been there too. And we look over and there's a lady from the office next door with the meanest scowl on her face. She's closing the blinds because we were just skinning and gutting this rabbit. She's in her office and can see all this.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. She was not happy with us. But anyways, if you want to see who won, go watch it. Like I said, it's a good episode. And it looks like there's some good kitchen mishaps in there. Yep. Yep. They both, they both almost, almost burn us down. Burn down the office, but they pull it out. And again, I've been so impressed because every time someone cooks something on this show,

I'm like, oh, I'm gonna go cook that at home. Like that wasn't that hard. Like, oh, well, I'm not gonna give it away. You guys gotta go check it out. Yeah. Anything else? You guys are ready to move on. All right.

We can, we can. I mean. You guys can keep chit chatting? Oh yeah. I mean, Spencer would like you guys to add in onto into the chit chat segment. Well yeah I mean we always do. You were, I thought you were moving on. You're just like anything else? Move on. Well we do have guests lined up for particular times of the show you know but we're not too over the top here. Nah, like Phil said we don't ever

ever stick to those times. No, no What have I been up to man doing a lot of camping a lot of fishing? My seven-year-old boys really into fly fishing right now. So like my dreams have come true really, you know, but it's hunting season He's just into fishing. He's into catching fish Doesn't matter how we were together because we were taking some pictures of some meat eater merch the other day, and I brought a spinning rod. And it was really sad to me, because it seemed almost as though Marshall had never even seen a spinning rod

up to this point in his life. And I kind of showed it all to him, and he was like, you know, bud, I'm interested in this, but that other thing that my dad's been working me with, like I already know how to whip that right around And so I just don't quite have like the patience to learn how to cast this thing, but I'm gonna keep working on the kid No, I get on last weekend My kid hopped on his bike last night and rode over to the local bass pond and did some fishing. Nice

Yeah, love it. Catch any he caught a couple it's like a like. Subdivision pond, you know what I mean? More for swimming than fishing, but yeah, he caught a couple. We've been catching some good. The walleye fishing has been very good lately. Oh, good to hear. Yeah. So we're stacking some of those up in the freezer. Some of these suburban Bozeman ponds, though, man, like

I know a couple of kids that hit it pretty hard oh yeah there's uh if you kind of know the inside track there's some there's some honkers out oh yeah yeah sure wouldn't want to eat them but they're fun to catch yeah exactly no these these this is all just for the adventure of it yep catch and release is that it? Yeah, we can move on. Is Spencer in the chat room today? Spencer's not in the chat. We've got, uh, Randall Williams though.

Oh, what's Randall saying? Uh, he's just, I think he's just trying to procrastinate writing. Uh, I'm sure doing an incredible job writing the next meteor. Well, he told me on days that there's a trivia recording, which there is today. He can't even work. Like he can't get anything done. Oh, really? Because he gets so worked up. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, man. Well, he's got to, he's got to, he's got to come back big. Well, he had like a, what did he get? Like a five or a six? It was, it was a tough game for Randall, uh, this week, but, uh, I'm,

he'll talk about it more on trivia today, but Randall and I went to bar trivia last night. Oh. It went well, I'll just say that much. Oh, I can't wait. So I think his spirits are high. Tune into future trivia episodes. All right, my buddy Jared Van Hees is waiting. Let's get him on, Phil.

Here we are. Our first guest today is Jared Van Hees. Jared is the host of the Habitat podcast, co-owner of Vitalize Seed Company, hope I got that right, a land consultant and holds a regular job in packaging sales. Jared is joining us from his Michigan property

to show us the Habitat work he's doing in mid July. Jared, welcome to the show. Hey guys, how you doing today? We're doing great. It's a lot cooler, which is surprising because this podcast studio can be a hot sucker, but it looks like it's cooler here than it is where you're at.

Phil, we don't have Jared up on the screen yet. Something. Oh, sorry, Yanis. That's all right. Oh, there he is. Oh, I like that T-shirt, Jared. I got one of right. Oh, there he is. Oh. I like that t-shirt, Jared. I got one of those.

I wear it all the time. Appreciate that. Thanks for having me on, guys. This is great. All right, so tell us, you're in Michigan. What part of Michigan? You don't have to be too specific, but what part of Michigan?

Well, you know what we like to do? We like to do this. That's right. So I'll go right down here. Southeast Michigan. But yeah. But how come you don't bust out the pinky just a little bit for the Lelandaw Peninsula, huh? Like a real Michigander would have done. I like that. I'm a west side originally. I like that move. I've lost my touch apparently. That's all right. It's all right. All right. Tell us us what you're doing and why you're doing it in mid July.

Yeah, so today I am on my 40 acre parcel. I'm opening up the canopy. So it's very heavily timbered parcel, not a lot of undergrowth or early successional habitat. And if you're a deer or a critter, usually five foot number is where you want all the food. So today I am opening up the sun to hit the ground and July because there's any time to cut a tree is the best time to cut a

tree. So food plot season is around the corner and I'm getting some more work done today. Okay, so what, so you're getting more sunlight to the ground and you said the critters like it five feet and under. Like what do you think this is going to affect your hunting for this upcoming season? Like will just this amount of work in three months already have deer in there feeding on new growth? Yeah, there will be deer in here tonight feeding on the maple leaves that have hit the ground from the canopy that I've already cut this morning. And this is just helping all the oak regeneration and ash regeneration flourish before, you know, between now and frost. So it'll definitely help by the time this hunting season comes around. So you think you'll have a tree stand in that

spot this fall? I think when I'm done, I'm going to have a tree stand or a saddle in that big gnarly oak tree back there. You can see that behind me or not, but that's my plan. Okay, just for for reference and for I guess for people working listening that are not watching on YouTube. What's the diameter of this opening that you're making? Oh, that's a good question. I'd say it's probably 40 yards by 80 yards. It's kind of runs lengthwise from another spot I have back here, which is a bedding area

that I cut in the winter time and springtime. And then there's agriculture that way. So it's kind of a little staging area, runway design. In between the timber, I'm gonna have edge feathering on both sides, so they're still secure. You can't see very far in here, especially when I'm done with it. You don't wanna be able to see more than like 20, 30 yards

at a time, that's where the deer feels secure. So just a narrow kind of runway through the timber with good succession coming up and security cover on the sides. Talk a little bit more about the thickness and why those critters feel comfortable in there because I think that's been one of the things that I've learned the most,

like going down this whitetail habitat journey is that growing up, the folks that I hung with a lot, like when we would set up mostly for rifle, like you're always trying to be in a spot where you could see the most country because you figured you're covering the most country, you're getting a better chance of seeing a critter and getting a shot.

But now it's almost like the exact opposite for me. I want to like set up in a spot where my Mac shot's gonna be 50 yards. I learned the same way. I started hunting public land in Michigan on top of the hillside with a seven millimeter mags and see as far as you can. But I learned that over time, my best spots were the archery spots, even, you know, going to see 30 yards max.

Um, you know, deer bed in those types of areas, they feel secure if they're going to bed there and they don't lay down all day long and they get up and they feed around five times a day. And if you can mimic that area where they feel comfy, you can get there and have them, you know, hopefully present a shot within daylight hours. Otherwise the big park like setting that this timber was before I started. Um, they'll come through maybe right at dark and throughout the night. They just like to have cover nearby there, you know, the creatures

of edge and they feel secure. Got it. Um, fellas, any questions for Jared? Uh, you're just going to leave those trees laying out there. Are you going to get rid of them or what? Good question. So right now I'm in the, the fun part where you just drop and make a big mess, right? Kind of kind of amazing pocket effect all over the place, but no, I'm in the fun part where you just drop and make a big mess, right? Kind of amazing pocket effect all over the place.

But no, I'm going to come in here and clear a lot of the big trunks out, feed the worms as they rot, push them off to the sides, maybe use some as firewood. But no, this will be all cleared up. The edges where you see along the back, that will remain. So I'll push yourself off to the edges and create some habitat there and some structure for site blockage. I don't want them to be able to see too far. So now I'll be cleaning this up just not to that part of the stage yet. Jared, I grew up in Northwest Montana where logging was king forever. It's kind of slowed down a little bit, but I had this theory growing up that deer and elk

loved fresh cut clear cuts. Like I don't know if it was the sap off the trees that they would lick up, but have you ever noticed that critters like a fresh clear cut to get something extra out of those downed trees? Yeah, you nailed it. Northwest Montana is gorgeous. My beautiful wife went to school in Missoula. So I've been out there and I love it. Actually, if you hold on just one sec, I'll show you what a clear cut looks like. Here is a oak stump right here. Can you guys see that? Yeah, we got it.

That is heavily browsed on. That's the stump. That's heavily browsed on. So that's what you're seeing and what the clear cuts are doing. They're feeding all those animals with the fresh shoots with all the nutrients that are still on the ground from that root system that's previously there

from the big tree. So yeah, you know it. That was a good spot to sit in November is a fresh clear cut. Yeah, sure. Oh man. But yeah, I know a lot of people are, especially with this, like their possible rescinding of the roadless rule

They're real worried about like all this mega logging is gonna happen I don't think there's gonna be as much that is gonna really happen But like a little bit of logging in your area, man. I'm telling you it's gonna be good for your hunting man There's places in northwest, Montana. They're Disgustingly overgrown and need to be logged for the health of the animals. Totally. All right, Jared, thanks for the update from, I guess I'd call that South Central Michigan.

Tell everybody watching and listening where they can find more information and watch and listen to your stuff. Thanks, Giannis, I appreciate it, guys. If you want more of the habitat content where you try to make your property better for hunting and wildlife, it's the Habitat Podcast. And if you want some food plot seed,

that's super attractive and also helps build the soil and maintain organic use and save you money on fertilizer. That's a vitalized seed. So I appreciate the time for the shout out, guys. All right, thanks, Jared. Good luck out there, be safe. You bet. If you guys want, I can drop a maple as we roll out. Oh, there we go. Bring it. Let's go. No one. No one's gonna say no to

that. I mean, isn't it in the entrance of the meat eater podcast, right? That's right. Oh, he's got it pre-cut. Oh yeah. He had already done his face cut. This is what this show is all about. Timber. Oh, look at it. Yeah.

Excellent. Bravo. That right there makes me extreme. I have extreme FOMO right now because I would love to be in Wisconsin with my chaps on. Jared, I was just saying I have extreme FOMO right now because I'd love to be in Wisconsin with my chaps on. Jared, I was just saying I have extreme FOMO right now because I'd love to be in Wisconsin with my helmet and chaps on and my saw in the hand going and cutting down maples. And I would actually be probably spraying that stump too so that sucker doesn't sprout back on me. We'll talk about that next time. Hey, thanks again for joining us. All right. See you guys. Thanks. See ya. Thanks, Jared

Oh, I love it I love it. I know it's probably real foreign concept to you just being a straight-up western western boy Because like people don't do a lot of like habitat management. I think it's coming to the west I think like the real high-end ranches it's happening on oh for sure But like paul lewis that just owns a small chunk in the, in some mountains that far from here. I haven't heard him talking about doing habitat improvements, you know?

Yeah, I mean, I think it's all dependent on what kind of forest you got, terrain you got, what's gonna come out of it, you know? Sure. Yeah, my quarter acre in Bozeman doesn't need a whole lot of habitat enhancement. It does need is like you could like in a lot of places you can do that if you have like valuable timber you can do that and make oh some serious money for sure. My dad's he's only got like 30 acres but he's done a couple cuts in the

last 20 years and made some coin and made it better for the deer you know right what was he mostly you know kind of timber you selling mostly did he have what like a very oak and walnut maybe yeah all right our next segment it's called we're gonna come up with a better title but but today it's going to be called Training for Hunting. And, uh, oh no, I had two versions of it. Our next segment is called Hunting Fitness. This segment is brought to you by Mountain Ops. How about Hunting for Fitness? Hunting for, oh, yeah, it's not bad. Oh, I like it. Yeah. Oh, punch-up. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All right first off fellas I want to know like do you think this is a real thing? Do I really need to be fit to be a successful hunter? No, no, I

Don't think it's cut and dry. I know where you're going. Yeah, I don't think it's cut Oh, I don't have I don't have an end goal here. It's just a question. You got some coinage. You don't have to get off your ass. Oh, right. And I mean, look, there's dudes that road hunt. There's dudes that drive their four wheeler to their tree stand and walk 10 feet, get their tree stand, get back in their four wheeler and kill big stuff. So I think it's like situationally dependent. I'm not trying to say don't bother at all.

Don't get me wrong. Yeah. Yeah. To each their own. You can hire. It's not mandatory. No, you can hire somebody to do it for you. Or, but if you want to like really earn an animal, say a Western Rocky

mountain elk, you better get fit. I think, yeah, you better get fit. Yeah, it could be mandatory. And I don't like, the like extreme elk hunter athlete thing, it's like so annoying that narrative to me. But like take running around in Eastern Montana, hunting like sharp tails and pheasants. Like you can cover a lot of ground

and you look at that stuff and you're like, that's easy walking. You go do it for six or eight hours and it'll take it out of you. So I don't think it's just this like killing a bull on top of the mountain thing. Yeah, yeah, it's not like you're gonna just wait to get in shape for when you finally

decide to go sheep hunting or you draw a sheep tag. It's a lot more fun if you're in shape. Yeah. That's kind of my, I think takeaway and my thought is it's just like, it's easier. Yeah. It's easier and you can like enjoy yourself. Yeah. Like you don't look at a thousand foot climb and like, you're like, Oh God. You know, then you get up there and you're sucking wind.

Yeah. And you're only going gonna do it once. And really, with elk hunting, and again, we kind of always fall back to that, but you're gonna have to do that multiple times, multiple days in a row. Yeah, rather than successful, I would say it makes you more efficient, makes you more capable,

and you're gonna be more comfortable and you're gonna have more fun. and you're going to have more fun. Yeah. You're going to do more smiling. All right. So what are you guys doing to get ready? It's middle of July. Are you guys thinking about already sort of doing a little fitness prep?

Well, I'm always thinking about it. Yeah. It's never not on my mind. Brody, you going to go ahead? Yeah. I mean, like I keep it simple, man. Like I don't, you don't need a gym membership. You don't need to pay for a personal trainer or a coach or whatever.

Like I run and I do pushups and sit-ups, you know, like I probably put in, I don't know on average 35, baby 40 miles a week. I do a, that's pretty heavy load Brody. Yeah. I mean, I mean, that's nothing to shake a stick. I do. That's pretty heavy load Brody. Yeah, I mean I Mean that's nothing to shake a stick at. Yeah, right but uh And I also like I think it's good to have a goal that keeps you motivated like you got your Hundred mile race. I do a half marathon in early September which keeps me going

Through the summer, you know? And I just think it's like simple. You do cardio for legs and lungs, a little resistance with pushups and sit-ups and like, I'm no superhuman athlete. That's for sure. And I still get tired out there, but I'm also like, I'm in my fifties, buddy. And stuff starts getting harder. That's right. Whether you want to admit it or not?

so if I want to keep doing this like that's that like yeah you get to a point where it's not even a Do you or do you not want to like you pretty much have to if you want to continue doing what we do? Yeah, which again is not like the extreme hunting that that you know some portray out right? It's pretty general, basic, Western United States hunting, and whether it's upland birds or elk in the mountains or deer out east, whatever. If you want to keep doing it, you got to stay in shape. For sure. I want to keep doing it as long as I can.

The thing is, I don't know how you were when you in your twenties, but like I wasn't even in my thirties, like you can kind of get away with it for a while in some respects, but like you're just like grinding through it, you know, tough young guy, but yeah, you could eat whatever you wanted, drink whatever you wanted. Can't do that anymore. But I also look back now and I'm like, what if I had been training then? Like, holy shit. Yeah.

Yeah. What I noticed too is that I used to just like just start running, say, and I don't know the summertime and then I'd be ready to go for the fall. Yep. But like now, like I can't even afford to do that. Like I pretty much have to run or just stay active somewhat through the fall. But like now, I can't even afford to do that. I pretty much have to run or just stay active somewhat through the winter and then maybe up my volume of running. But you can't, you let it drop off, just the rebound takes so long to just get back to the baseline again.

What about you, Cory? I do a little running. I had a lot a lot more motivation last year. Of course we did that mountain marathon last year. Oh, you're not going for the Bridger Ridge run again? Nope. I'm not. No, probably one and done. I don't know. It was fun, but, uh, I mean, my motivations, yeah, just, well, spring and fall and throughout the winter trying to keep up with the animals I'm chasing.

But I run a little bit. I have the seven mile loop that I do around town. That's got a couple ups and downs to it. If I can do that under an hour, I run a little bit. I have the seven mile loop that I do around town that's got a couple ups and downs to it. If I can do that under an hour, I'm feeling pretty good. Um, but come August, I'll really start thinking about it a lot harder. I'll probably stop running and do more mountain climbing with a weighted pack.

I think kids call it rucking these days. Yeah. Do a lot more of that, whether it's in my hunting spot or just here locally, just trying to find a steep hill. Um, I'll definitely start eating better too. Like a lot of people do dry January. I do dry August, try not to drink as much, many beers. Oh dude, like I got, I cut the alcohol about whatever, seven months ago.

Um, and I, it's, I think it ties into fitness for me. Like I got, I sleep better, got more energy. My guts work better. Yeah. I win more trivia games if I haven't been drinking. Yeah. So yeah, if I'm sneaking a beer, I feel like I do better at trivia, but come August I'll stop drinking, but then come September while I'm hunting, I'm going to crack a few

Coors lights out of the ice cold box, you know? Um, and then stretching is a massive one. I've skied my whole life and my knees and my back already paying for it. And if I don't stretch like for a solid 15, 20 minutes every morning, I pay for it later. Pretty basic stretching. Is it more like a mobility routine, or what are we talking about?

Mobility, yeah, a lot of basic stretches, hips, knees, back, and it's amazing how much more you can get away with, and how the aches and pains just aren't there if you just stretch. Yeah. I've never had knee problems since I've started religiously stretching in the morning. When it comes time to throw a big load of meat

on your back, that makes a big difference then. Thought, man, to throw a big load of meat on your back, makes a big difference then. I've said it dozens of times before, but when I was on my strict yoga routine for those two or three years, you know how you get stoved up when you're bent over an elk gutting and skinning? It's painful. Yeah. And then every time you stand up, you're like, oh, I don't know if I'm going to make it up to vertical. Like when I was doing the yoga thing, like I could do three elk in a row and never even have the stoved up come through my head. Not once. Yoga or Pilates.

So good for you. Just because the core, I think, was just strong, you know? Yeah, you're back. Tyler Jones from The Element, he recently posted that he was working out, getting ready for an elk hunt, and he was asking people on the internet, what should I do? Any other, he kind of said, this is what I'm doing,

should I add anything in? And what I commented, and I think it's good to think about and remember, because I've been caught on it too and it really helps, is that when you're on your Western elk hunt, like he's gonna to come up from Texas, right? He's probably going to have a week or so, right? Or whatever hunt you go to do, if you're that kind of a hunter and you're not just doing the weekend, right? You're going to hunt five days in a row, seven days in a row. And I think your training kind of has to mimic that too,

right? Because if you're like, oh, I trained and then you take a day or two off and then I trained again, right? That's not what an elk hunt is like, because an elk hunt is like, Oh no, you pounded it hard day one and then you really want to do that day two, three and four as well. So a lot of people, yeah, that first day, especially if they're not like acclimating for a couple of days, hiking around for a couple of days before the hunt. Like, and they just go like. Go hard that first day. And then the second day, it's just like, oh, you have maintained, man. Let's get lucky opening morning.

First, no. Yeah. Who does that? I haven't killed anything on opening morning. I don't know maybe ever All right. Thanks Mountain Ops for sponsoring that segment. We appreciate it Phil I think it's time for some listener feedback. Let's do some listener feedback get those questions in for the crew if you have any We have a question for Brody from the Brothers Harrison. They ask hey Brody. I'm not so experienced while I ang. What is your recommendation for baits and structure to start at on a smaller lake? Um, I am not an expert while I angler, you should be asking this to Seth or, uh,

Chester, but we fish like. I wouldn't call it a small lake. But we fish like, I wouldn't call it a small lake. Like our main lake that we fish is probably like, I think it's 2,500 or 3,000 acres. So it's not giant. And weed lines in the summer are like our go-to spot. This time in the summer, it's anywhere from 12 to 20 feet deep off weed lines. It just concentrates the fish because that's where the little perch are. So like that's one thing.

And you can do like, you can jig those weed lines with a soft plastics or throw a half a crawler on a jig head. Um, you can troll crank baits along those weed lines. So you can run bottom bouncers. Um, the other thing that I know, Seth and Chester look for a lot are contours. So like, maybe you've got like a Bay that's 10 feet deep and then it drops off to 20. Pretty quick. Those kinds of contours.

I know walleye guys look for a lot. Um, I talk about, and we catch our share of walleyes, but like I'm still learning. And luckily we got some good lakes around here to learn on. So that's all I got for you, man. That is a pretty thorough answer. That was. Chris asks, as you know, it's the preference point application period for Wyoming and Montana. Is there a particular state or species where you guys are banking points or acquiring points, I suppose? Do you guys have a strategy or preferences?

I mean, it's different for residents and non-residents, right? Like for us here in Montana, like we already applied for our bonus points. We don't have preference points here as non-residents, but yeah, I'm building up points in Wyoming for mule deer and antelope. I got so many deer points in Wyoming, but like not enough to get the top tier tag. So I'm like every year I'm wondering whether I should burn them or not Yeah, um, yeah, I don't know if there's anything still left open besides Wyoming, Montana But yeah, I've already got my Wyoming points. I still do pronghorn mule deer elk down there What else do I apply? I get I get points in Arizona and Then I think just Idaho and New Mexico, I apply,

but that's not a point system. That's just a straight lottery. Oh, and then Colorado. And it would be a lot less, but the reason I still do Colorado is because we lived there for a long time. So I started banking points when I was a resident and it was cheap and now I feel like I can't stop.

And I guided in Arizona. And so I already had to buy the hunting license and then the points were cheap and So they kind of got me the one thing about points man. Like you got to have some kind of plan because like Like you can't just expect like oh I'm gonna get points for five years and I'm gonna get some crazy awesome tag Like you need to do research and see what your points are gonna get you know in whatever state or unit you might species you might be interested in just having points isn't enough you know no but man it's like it's kind of like when was a good day to

you know any day is a good day never mind let's get that one um we're live get the points because you just have to start and maybe do your research once you already have five points, but you'll be so happy that, because I started right about at the age of 30 and now I'm coming on 50. And it's taking 20 years to kind of be in that position

and be like, oh, yeah, look at this. I have a pretty good chance to draw on that one or that one or that one. And it's gonna be a once in a lifetime kind of be in that position and be like, oh, yeah, look at this. Like I might have a pretty good chance to draw on that one or that one or that one. And it's gonna be a once in a lifetime kind of a deal because I'm probably not gonna apply for those same tags when I'm 70, you know? No, no. I'm just saying like, it's an investment over time.

You put in for 15 years at whatever, 50 bucks a point, you know, you're. Oh yeah. It adds up. It adds up. Yeah. I would definitely like, uh, stick to one state or like, like don't spread your money thin to where you just have a little bit here and there, or like by 1.1

year here and another point another year here, like pick one, stick to it and make sure you're accumulating those. And, um, yeah. And set your expectations. So I think like you're saying, a lot of people think that, Oh, like pick one, stick to it, and make sure you're accumulating those. And yeah, and set your expectations. So I think like you're saying, a lot of people think that, oh, I'll just apply for 10 years next thing you know, I'm gonna have some, you know, I'll have the best tag in Wyoming. Yeah, you gotta study draw.

Maybe not, maybe not. You gotta study draw odds and things like that and figure out what your points are gonna get you. What else we got? Freddie Rick asks what the crew is cooking with with their wild game this week. Freddie, hang out for another 20 minutes and you'll find out.

Wow. River Rock Dental says, Phil, what determines the cast of the Meat Eater Radio Live crew? Seems like whoever isn't in a special meeting. This is a great question for one of the guys sitting at the desk right now because he did this for a long time.

Corey, it's not an easy process. No, yeah. It's a little tough with a crew like ours who's constantly in and out of the office, sometimes without letting people know. Yeah, it's whoever's in the house on a Thursday from a 1030 to 1230 mountain standard time. That's really it. I mean, and it gets tougher obviously as hunting season gets closer. But I mean, there's a reason why I'm here because Steve's in Africa. Otherwise Steve would have done this episode.

No, probably not. Yeah. Yeah. Well, we kind of plan it out. It's very planned out. I knew that I was hosting this episode for at least a month, I think. Yeah, we try and have it planned out at least three weeks ahead of time, but yeah, it's, uh, it's kind of a crap shoot. Everybody's so busy. Yeah.

All these guys, they're out, whether they're kissing babies at an event somewhere or out hunting. Uh, it's tough to track them down even on just a random Thursday. So I thought this was a fun question from T Patsfield. He or they ask what other animal is the biggest nuisance to hunters. For example, gray squirrels hunting whitetail or coyotes disrupting hunts, etc. Like other wildlife or nature getting in the way of your hunt. I actually don't think the gray squirrels actually are such a nuisance with whitetail,

coyotes disrupting hunts. I've had on two occasions, I've had coyotes screw up a mule deer hunt. Oh really? Like they spooked your game? Actually, I don't know if it made it into the episode or not, but the episode that I did with Steve and like season seven, we had coyotes come in on a very nice mule deer buck that I was getting ready to shoot. Oh yeah, yeah. And there they went. But I thought all the does ran, the buck just stayed there, didn't it?

No, no, he went over the hill with them. We watched him just... Isn't that, is that in the first location or the second location? Second. Oh, okay. That's right, because coyotes came in on the first location. But the buck just stood up and then slayed back down. He was slick. He was slick.

I once was, I think, calling in a coosdeer by doing some rattling. And I had a buck coming around this basin. I'm pretty sure he was coming to me. He's looking pretty determined. And then on the same trail, I could see a coyote going the other direction. And when they met, that kind of blew that whole deal. But I would say for me, cows, cattle. Mm. Yeah.

Like, you know, as an elk hunting guide, you're up on the forest a lot and there's, you know, you're sort of at the tail end of the grazing season up there in the first couple of weeks of archery season. This was in Colorado in September, and like never fail, like, oh, there's a bugle, let's go. And all of a sudden you're like, oh my God,

we gotta go through 50 cows to get there. And like, there's no way you're gonna do that being sneaky. Like you're gonna bump one, if it's in the dark, then they all run off and then guess what? There's no more bugling after the whole herd of herfords. Yeah. We had Derek pop in and say that cattle has ruined multiple turkey hunts. Yeah.

And like. Tricky. Deer will ruin a deer hunt a lot. Too many. Elk are ruining elk on. I've had wolves howl in September, bugling elk and then pack of wolves start howling and then it's over. Try a different spot after that.

I, I, I've had, um, I had a late season cow tag one time back in Colorado and it like had this herd like brick and dialed man or snow on the ground. It was pre everything was lined up just right. Um, went back the next day and a lion had killed one and heard it's gone. Yeah Yeah, we have Ryan saying fall season seasonal allergies screw up the most funds for him. I don't get fall I get spring Yeah, it's a big one for me Kai says kids on four-wheelers

Um, Kai says kids on four wheelers. Our producer Jake in the chat said that, that his kids too, the biggest, the biggest nuisance. Cool. I think we're, uh, we're good for now, but if you have any more questions, we'll do this one more time at the end of the show. Thanks for the questions, everybody. All right. Next we are interviewing Ashley Morgan Olvera, who is the Research and Education Director

at the Texas Invasive Species Institute. Ashley works on invasive species concerns associated with hogs, carp, doves, and aquatic plants. Ashley, welcome to the show. Thank you. Hey, I don't feel like I did a real proper description of your job. Can you give me like a nice detailed layman's overview of what you do? I mean, I kind of liked it.

Yeah. So I do research and education. I basically I talk about invasive species. I live and breathe invasive species. So we do a lot of grant work for USDA APHIS to look for newly emerging ones. We do a lot of community outreach and then things like this. You know, like I was mentioning to you yesterday, it's like I will talk about invasives at any point in time just to kind of get everybody more comfortable with that term and aware with what invasive species are. All right, since you

just mentioned that this that it's sort of like a term you're still trying to get people comfortable with, it's probably not really comfortable so much as it is just aware of because you were telling me yesterday that the federal government didn't even really recognize that term up until how many years ago? It was 1999, you know, President Clinton had to issue an executive order that finally defined what an invasive species is. So people often mix exotic ornamental weed. They'll use those words instead of invasive, but invasive is like a very special subset. So it's often an invasive, it's often a species that's not native to the environment that it's in, and it causes harm.

So that's where something can become invasive, because you might have exotic animals that have been imported for hunting purposes and such. And so maybe their populations are maintained, and so that's going to just be an exotic animal. But like down in Texas, you know, people were importing things like access deer, the deer got out, and now we have an invasive problem with them because they are outside of their normal area and they're causing harm by competing with the native species. So it's that harm factor that really is what

makes the species invasive. Okay. Now, Ashley, you came across our radar because producer Jake Birch found an article about the invasive hammerhead worm, which is a nasty looking creature. Tell me what's up with the hammerhead worms and what we need to do about them.

Yeah, so as I was mentioning yesterday, yeah, that's kind of like our little poster child right now. It's just a really unique looking organism that catches a lot of people's attention. And it's what helps me start that conversation on invasive species. So this one, it's a predator of earthworms. So that's why we call it invasive. So this is one of those species that's actually been in the United States for over a hundred years.

It was brought in when people were moving plants and it got out of greenhouses because it can crawl and stick to just about anything. And then it's really in the past 20 years that we started realizing, wait a minute, it's eating our earthworms. This is a problem, it's causing harm. So really in just like the last 20 years,

have we started calling it invasive and realizing like what it is. And that's some of the stuff too, is realizing just because something's been here for a long time doesn't mean that it's, it's a good thing. So that one definitely catches a lot of attention, but it's mainly a threat to earthworms. Okay. Do you know, does it use that little hammerhead? Like what does the hammerhead part of that worm do? Do you know specifically if that the shape of the body sort of like helps it in its day to day? So it doesn't have eyes and that head is basically full of receptors.

So yeah, they will use that head to kind of survey for their, their sniffing for their worms. I see. I see. But like, so, but it's been also in the news, not just because it's a nasty looking critter, but because it's got neurotoxins on it, right? That can actually be, I don't know, would you call it harmful to humans or?

I'd say more annoying. Okay. So that's always part of my PSA with this thing too is because humans hear neurotoxin and they're instantly thinking, oh, it affects us, right? Because humans are very human centered. And the thing is that neurotoxin is to digest earthworms.

So for us, it could cause a very mild allergic reaction, like maybe if you encounter poison ivy, or it can lead to kind of a more severe, but I've talked to thousands of people. I've only maybe known about 10 that have had any sort of slight itch on their hands. So overall, we recommend don't touch them with your hands, but we do want you to remove them and kill them if you see them. Okay how should someone kill one because I heard you don't want to just cut them in half. Correct yes they're flatworms so they'll regenerate you cut them in half they suddenly become two worms you got twice as many problems so they're soft body organisms they're susceptible to a ton

of household products so you can spray vinegar on them pour salt on them or you can remove them with a glove tan stick them in a sealed container and throw them away. You know, I've had people say, oh, they're susceptible to blowtorches. I say, well, I'm susceptible to a blowtorch. Yes, fire does work as well. Yeah, but a 12 gauge shotgun would work too. All right. It would, but that's a waste would work too. All right. It would, but that's a waste of ammo.

It's only a few inches. Good point. All right. I feel like this is a great segue to take us to the earthworm conversation because I recently found out through the habitat work that I'm doing in Wisconsin that not only are earthworms not native, but that they can be invasive. So tell us how earthworms impact our landscape.

Yes, so that's something that I also was learning a few years as well too. So it's just really important for everybody to remember that earthworms in general, your European earthworms, those red wigglers that you use in your gardens, your compost piles, even as bait, they are not native to the United States. They were brought over by the colonists because the colonists said, hey, this is great in our garden, we're starting a new colon, like, let's bring our life with us. And so earthworms are very good at

nutrient cycling, and that's why we keep them in our gardens, and they're really good in our agricultural fields. But the thing is, North American forests, prairies, all of our natural landscapes, they have adapted to not have any kind of earthworm. They don't need things milling about breaking down the leaf litter. They need the leaf litter to stay there on the ground. So even if a European earthworm, right, our nice little aerating one, if that gets thrown into a forested area, it can start removing all that leaf litter and it starts exposing tree roots and all of this. So it's really important that earthworms who kind of view as more naturalized, like a honeybee, but they actually do cause problems. So it's really important that, especially when you're done fishing, please don't dump any worms in the lake. Yes, in theory, most of them drown,

but it just takes a couple of them to make it to the shore and start over, and then they're inhabiting a natural area that genuinely does not need them. Did you know that, Cory? No, no clue. That's why I fly fish. No worms at all. Tiché. And so what's been really not fun in all this is we've realized there's an invasive

earthworm out there. It's called the Asian jumping worm. It's often sold as an Alabama jumper, snake worms, things like that. It is not from Alabama. It is not native. And this one is not even a nutrient cycler. So it doesn't even do the good stuff that the other earthworms do. So this other Asian jumping worm is just flat out invasive. And so that's one that we really need people to just be aware of, you know, talk to I've talked to bait shops around here. You know, they say they've called and I've appreciated it. They say, Well, I've heard about these jumping worms. Should I be breeding them? I said, Please don't. Please don't. They say,

Well, what about you know, red wigglers? Yeah, of course, African nightcrawlers. I said, not a problem. Those are exotic species. They are not invasive. They still provide a good benefit. But again, it's just important to be careful with any worm. But yeah, those Asian jumping worms, they flail around. They look like little baby snakes. It's kind of like you'll look at a worm and you'll say, this is not like any worm I've ever seen. It's not, you know, it's not floppy. It flails around like a snake and then it also just completely degrades the soil. It causes erosion. Plants won't seed, all that kind of stuff. So they're just more aggressive than these other earthworms that you've been talking about. Yes, yes. These Asian jumping

worms, we won't even like say that they're good in one environment. They're just flat out bad and we want them out. But the problem is, they look a lot like the other earthworms. And that's why it's one of those sneaky invasives where I became more aware about it. Five years ago, I put up something on our website two years ago and within three months I got reports from Houston, Dallas, Austin, and I think along the coast. And it's one of those with a state this size. If you get hits that quickly, it means that the worms probably been in our soil for a long time. We just didn't know any better. Okay. Um, I feel like we'd be remiss not to bring up hogs while talking to you since, you know,

that is like the poster child for invasive species, right? Especially in Texas. So what stance does the Texas Invasive Species Institute take on them? Please remove them. Please remove them. So in, at least in Texas, there isn't it. You don't need a permit to hunt. The state wants you to remove them. So that's kind of how we feel as well. Please remove them when you're out hunting. If your state doesn't require any sort of permit, please, please kill them.

But especially for us, I get that question asked a lot. Like, well, what are you going to do about hogs? And I have to say, well, the conquistadors brought them over in the 1500s. So we're not going to win that war, but we can at least slow the spread, win on a local level or at least stop it from invading every state in the United States. What about Ashley? What about Ashley what about our dad like I saw that recently Texas like legalized shooting those suckers from from helicopters

Like air gun and um, do you guys do it like did are they considered an invasive species in Texas? They must be if they're well, you know if they're allowing permits It might be one of those where they're trying to prevent it to become more problematic like an access Yeah, or you know, it was imported. It's getting a little out of control. And so I think they're trying to Call it before it becomes just outright invasive So that might be why they're like lifting or allowing more types of hunting to happen allowing more types of hunting to happen. Awesome. Those like borderline ones where it's like the states like, we'll

allow it for right now. Yeah. Fellas, any other questions for Ashley? Nope. Hey, thanks for taking the time, Ashley. We really, really appreciate it. And yeah, hopefully this helps, man. Everybody, uh, dispose of your worms properly and watch out for them.

Jumping ones. Yes, please. And clean drain and dry your boats. I just want to say, you know, naturalists and outdoorsmen, you're kind of like our first line of defense. So it's really up to you all to help just clean your equipment before you leave your site. So thank you all so much for having me. OK, thank you. Have a good day.

Bye. Now on to meat eater menu. Nice bill. Yeah, hey, I said hey, what's a last do? Nice, Phil. Yeah, every time when we, is this a new segment or have we done this one before? We've done it before, but the drop is new. The drop is new. The drop is relatively fantastic.

I need to do more, I guess, pre-production the next time I host just to make sure I can get as many new Phil drops as possible, because that's definitely my favorite part. This is the segment where we all talk about what we've been cooking with our Wild Game lately. And today, it is taco themed. First, we're gonna start off with a PSA I recorded yesterday just before I bleached my hair. Hey, it's Yannis Patelis from MeatEater and I'm here with a hot tip slash public service announcement.

This is regarding what's considered the unusable or tough cuts or sinew laced chunks of your wild game. Okay, like this like shank. I call them shank pieces. They're actually not the shank. It's a little muscle next to the shank. Everybody knows what I'm talking about. It's just got sinew all laced through it.

There's some neck in here. Just you know what I'm talking about. A lot of the lower legs and the neck is what is what gets lumped into this category. Okay so think about lots of silver skin and stuff that you like you don't want to put into the grinder. Yes you could grind it but do you really want to be chewing on all that silver skin while you're eating your burger? No. So instead, low and slow. Cook it low and slow. Then you'll end up with a meat that can be shredded and turn into tacos, burritos, pulled meat, barbecue type sandwiches. It's easy and the opportunities are endless for what to do with that meat.

And now you're thinking, well, what happens with all that silver skin and everything in there, okay? This stuff, if you go slow and low, five to six hours, it's just gonna slowly dissolve and it's gonna become part of the sauce and part of the juices, and it's gonna give you that wonderful silky texture that you're really looking for. Okay so it's not, this is not just like a way to use this chunk of meat, this is actually a way to have some of the best wild game meals available

because this silverskin, the connective tissue, is gonna, it's gonna give you a great palette, great flavor, it's gonna give you a great palette great flavor it's gonna make it seem more moist if you do the same recipe that I'm about to give you with just whole muscle cuts out of the back leg you're gonna get a much drier product that you're not gonna be having anyone near as happy with okay so trust me lower legs a lot of sinew. Now, real quick, if you wanna just do the simplest version of this, chunk it up. I've been doing like two to three inch chunks, okay?

I'm gonna brine it in a water, vinegar, and a little bit of salt mixture, okay? About a half cup of vinegar, I've probably got, I don't know, two, three cups of water in here, about five pounds of meat. I don't know exactly what this does, but this is basically how you start birria or how you start barbacoa in those Mexican taco dishes. It's been working excellent for this stuff. So I'm just going to brine it in here, but today instead of doing those fancy Mexican dishes, I'm just going to make it so it's ready for pretty much anything. My plan is to do pulled meat

barbecue sandwiches. I'm gonna brine it for 30 minutes then without searing it I'm just gonna put it into my gut chugging, this joker right here, all of this meat. I'm gonna rinse it first. I'm gonna rinse my brine off, I'm gonna put it all in there, and then I'm gonna cover it with some kind of stock, chicken stock, beef stock, whatever. Just barely cover it, put a lid on it, and in my oven at 260 for probably five to six hours until it's fork tender. So you can pull it apart with a fork and then take it off. At that point, when it cools, I'll put it out on a sheet pan, I'll pick it.

If there are any of the bigger chunks of sinew, silver skin, whatever left, pull those out. There won't be many. We'll put it back in there with the juices and then the world is your oyster. Barbecue sauce, salsas,as whatever you do as you please you're gonna be extremely happy with the results Okay, so use your lower leg meat cook it low and slow You'll find that you'll be reaching for that more than you're reaching for a lot of the whole muscle cuts

Out of your wild game. Thanks for listening Um, add your wild game. Thanks for listening. Nice tip. Be honest. What do you boys think about that? I think it's a good segue into what I'm going to talk about. Okay. You don't, you don't have anything to add there.

You covered it all. I sure hope so. I felt pretty thorough. I was distracted because the chat was so worried about your missing drawer. Yeah. But it looked like right below your sink. Oh, oh, oh, oh. Maybe a little shortcut to your trash can.

I can give you a quick explanation of that. That's funny. I'll actually love it. It's the best thing that's ever happened in kind of a weird way. We're in a, you know, kitchen remodel is probably gonna take 15 to 20 years. But we put a new sink in and the measurements were off to the point where

that drawer could not be in there anymore when the sink was in there, right? But the sink was more important than the drawer. Well, what's underneath that missing drawer is the trash can. Perfect. And so it's pretty much like being at a McDonald's where you don't have to open the trash can slider every time you just want to drop something in there. Now if you got something big and messy, yeah, you got to open the trash can, but if it's just like a, you know, you blow your nose, Kleenex, just right through the hole, pops right in. So when I complete this whole remodel and there's maybe some new cabinets, I'm gonna incorporate

that. I'll probably have the little swinging door, you know, not just a hole. I'll have a little swinging door, but yeah, it's awesome. I hate dealing with trash cans. I love having them hidden away, tucked away. I don't like one in the middle of the kitchen and where it's just always, I don't know. Shout out to Leland for solving the mystery

before you announced it. That was his theory. Good work, Leland. Anywho. Yeah. So going back to Yannis' video, all that, everything he said applies to wild turkey legs and wings, which is, Phil, you got teed up there. So we're talking tacos. So the other day I made tacos out of turkey thighs, drums, wings, like save your turkey wings. I know it's a pain to get those wings off of a gobbler, but it's worth it.

There's enough meat there to make it worth it. So I cooked those things the exact same way Janice just described with that shank and shoulder and other tough like deer cuts. And then what you do is you shred it up and then you got to crisp it up. And like I've crisped this stuff up a couple of different ways. You can do it in a cast iron pan. You can put it under a broiler, which is I think how Steve likes to do it.

But this time I got one of those big black stone suckers for Christmas. And I did- Like a big flat top grill. Yeah, yeah. And I did it on there. And it worked. It was so much. It just was, it worked great, man.

What kind of grease did you use? Uh, there's a little olive oil and I did, did a mix of olive oil and I think canola, but I'm not like attacking it was super high heat, so I try to do olive oil. It's got a low smoke point, you know, so you can't get after it too hard, but either way, the great thing about that big outdoor griddle is I was able to cook the tortillas while I was cooking the meat. And so that made, that made it nice. I'm not dirtying up a bunch of pots and pans.

Um, and those things, like we eat them more like, uh, like a Mexican street taco, like real simple cilantro, little chopped onion, queso fresco. Like don't be putting American taco cheese on there. Don't be dumping half a bottle of paste salsa on there. Like keep it simple. And they're very, very, very, very good. Just awesome stuff.

Yeah, it's amazing. If you do the meat right, how well a taco can taste when it's just tortilla, meat, very good. Just awesome stuff. Yeah, it's amazing. If you do the meat right, how well a taco can taste when it's just tortilla, meat, fresh onions, and usually white. Yeah, white onion. More of that bite. Cilantro. And freshness. And cilantro, it's really all you need.

Even that, the cotea or the queso fresco is like, you know, it's nice, but you don't, definitely don't have to have it. Yeah, and you can put a little like, spicy hot sauce on there Maybe if you want a little heat, but yeah, I'm not a fan of drowning it in red red salsa. Yeah Cory what about you man? I've been eating a lot of black bear recently Last night actually made some black bear smash burger tacos

last night actually made some black bear smash burger tacos. So talk about- Tell me more. Bringing the world together with tacos and burgers. Yeah man, very international meal. Interesting. Yeah, the photo didn't turn out great. But yeah, it's a taco shell and a smash burger. Everybody knows how to make smash burgers these days.

These are not homemade shells, but I did fry them myself to get them nice and perfectly crispy and folded them. So you started with a corn, a corn, uh, just tortilla. Yep. Corn tortilla. And then, uh, I did cook half of it in oil, fried it in oil, whatever. And then, uh, smash the burger, flipped it over being blackberry. I really wanted to make sure it was cooked, which doesn't take long with a smash burger style. And then I took that

half cooked tortilla, put the uncooked side on the outside, gave it a flip, put some cheese on it. So you're like burger smashing the tortilla on there. That's typically that's how I would do it. I did it separate this time But yeah, I think that's the kind of classic way to do it smash it with the tortilla But then you're only cooking one half of the burger. So I did the burger Yep, and then flipped it and then tortilla on top just to make sure it was fully cooked And then I put a little bit of garden fresh Romaine lettuce on there, garden tomatoes.

And then that was my kid's meal there. He wanted some taco sauce on it. Normally I'd make like a fancy sauce as Will Farrell put it, uh, ketchup and mayonnaise with a little dill sauce in there. But, uh, so it's, you get that burger bite, but it's in a taco shell. Yanni, I think I made some for you when we were out pronghorn hunting a couple years ago

You did you me and Max Barta they must not have been that memorable you made Burger tacos smash burger tacos. I think that was with some elk, but no you must have been tired Yeah, I was tired. I got a question for you when you do ground Bear meat. Mm-hmm. Do you add any fat? I do. You do? Not as much as a deer or elk. Yeah. But definitely through in some pork fat. Just a little bit. Yeah. Okay. Because I haven't ground mine yet and I'm wondering, what about you? You've had some bears? You ever ground your bear meat? Yeah. If I'm making sausage or whatever I'm gonna add a little bit. What about this regular old ground? I don't

think I made any other last bear a shot. I think I did all sausage. Cause like when you handle the meat, like my hands get greasy. There's fat in there. Yeah. So I'm wondering like if I need to do it. But I still think you're missing, like,

like if you were to slice a bear's thigh muscle, down the mid, like crosswise, is there like, are you seeing like internal fat in there? You know what I mean? A little bit. Not a lot. Like I said I feel like you can feel it more than you can see it. Yeah on the outside. Do a few pounds one way and without. Yeah I did it and it just cooks so much better you know there's just a little bit more fat to cook. I will say I recently did some ground just because of the way that the portions

ended up that I had maybe five pounds left of deer meat and I didn't have any fat to mix into it. I was making meatballs and then the leftovers I was like well I'm just gonna freeze this ground but didn't have any fat for it so I just did it just plain deer meat and it's been fine. Mm-hmm. I've been just salt and pepper and making patties and the burgers have been coming out just fine Yeah, you can add an egg to it if you're really worried about it. Yeah Okay, um, I guess a little more feedback Phil. Yeah last call for questions We're a little late right now and I get quite we get questions like this a lot almost every week.

And I normally don't pick them because it's kind of a big topic, but everyone has their own opinion on it. So I'm going to bring it up now. It's kind of a big general question, but Ethan Blair, realtor and auctioneer. He's just a Swiss army knife. This guy, uh, he says we're wanting to experience hunting out West next year. We're focused on elk, but open to other big game. What would you recommend for prep? And would you go DIY or hire an outfitter?

First trip, I'm assuming. Sounds like it. Yep. If you can afford an outfitter, it's not a bad way to go. Yeah. Take a lot of guesswork out of it. That's my answer too. I'd hire a guide.

Especially if it's going to be like a one and done thing. But if you're like, oh, we're gonna start doing this and making an annual tradition, and I've got like the next 10 years, like I'm gonna become an elk hunter, you know, go DIY. And you can kind of do a combo. You could do an outfit or drop hunt where they're gonna pack you into a decent area,

help you pack all your stuff in, pack all your stuff out, but you're out there hunting on your own. Yeah. Do your homework, man. Call a lot of referrals, you know, if you're looking at the outfit or thing. Other preparation? I don't know.

Go back to listen to earlier in the show. Yeah. Get in shape and shoot your gun or your bow. That's right. Yeah. Nathan, I've been seeing this question for weeks. I don't pick it because I have no effing idea. I'm not a part of these conversations.

This is about the first light waders. When will they be available? I'll try to get some info for you and update, but I'm sorry. I'm not the guy to come to this. I don't know if anyone at the table can speak to this. Yeah, I didn't think so. How about you, Corey? I have the power of knowing this right in front of me, actually. I saw these come up earlier. There was a whole chat about waiters that look like. Yeah. I have the date right in front of me, but just the way things have been

going with the waiters, I will say very soon. Yeah. And leave it at that. That's a great answer. Global economy kind of thing. Yeah, but very, very soon. They're like leave it at that. That's a great global economy kind of thing. Yeah. But very, very soon they're like in stock, ready to roll. So yes. Would you believe that this tariff stuff has affected us in some way? Yeah. No, get excited though. They're badass. Cool. Well, great. I'm glad I brought it up because I normally just skip right, right past those ones. Uh, let's see. T Patsfield once again asks best snack in the stand? Jerky. I like, I mean if I really just had to pick one go-to from the last five years of deer hunting in

Wisconsin it would be my liverwurst and butter sandwiches on Latvian rye bread. Now all of you can probably get your hands on some good liverwurst, but that Latvian rye bread is a little harder to get a hold of. That's not a snack though, man. That's a meal. It might be, but that's a meal. Come on, a snack. I think when they're asking about snacking the stand, it's like anything that's gonna sustain you as you're going throughout the day. PB&J. But I do eat a couple, multiple of those. I usually, and I pack a breakfast sandwich in there too. Oh there you go. I've gone to not eating really breakfast before hunts and really just packing in food that I will, as soon as I'm set, whether I'm glassing or I

finally get in the stand, I'm gonna start eating at that point. There's no reason to waste the time at whatever, four o'clock in the morning, putting down food, you know? Yeah, I agree there. I eat all kinds, I mean, I eat all kinds of different stuff. Yeah man, the thing with us, Pat's Field, is that we get to hunt so much that all snacks get old after a while. You got to keep it fresh, man man. Varieties the spice of life. Yeah man, so I'll switch up the candies, I'll switch up the bars, chocolates sometimes, I don't know. Yeah that's why I say jerky. There's a million flavors you can toss in your jerky and every bite reminds you why you're out there. There you go. Meat.

Yeah. What else Phil? Yanni, you're, uh, your new hairstyle inspired Chase to do some freestyle rap in the live chat. He's asking, he's asking me to recite it. Chase, I'm not going to do it dry right now because you know, rap cadence is, they require a little bit of practice. You gotta, you gotta really dig in. Uh, if I have time, I'll go back and read them and see if I can prepare something, but no promises whatsoever. Well, I'm excited Phil Oh great. Now I have to do it Russell says DIY Alaska moose hunt this September have two rifles in the safe 300 weather be mag and a 338 win mag your choice Of these two. Yes

Which one you shoot better they're both gonna whack them Yeah Both those calibers are gonna do just fine. If you can shoot them. If you can shoot them. If you can shoot a 270 Winchester better, shoot take that. Yeah and yeah make sure you got a good bullet. I'm not gonna like throw any bullet companies or bullet models under the bus here but both those calipers with a cheap bullet might not do the job. Right. So make sure you got a good bullet that's going to stick, stay together and, and really hammer them.

Amen. Uh, James, I don't know this for sure, but just as someone who has done TV stuff, he, uh, he asked, why does Meteor still make episodes 22 minutes long when they are probably primarily a streaming show? Well, the key word there is primarily, because sometimes we make deals with TV networks and 22 minutes is still the standard length for a half-hour episode of TV.

But that's why we make so much other programming on our YouTube channels that don't have to play within time constraints. So check those out. But yeah, that's the answer. Yeah, Phil. Let's see think i think it's good i think we're good well i don't think we can go through the entire show without bringing up uh tony hawk pro skater three plus four phil oh yeah what did you decide are you gonna play it or not we can't play

it for for licensing reasons but my wife and kids are out of town and i i made an instagram reel um that i had some fun with so if you want to it I had some fun with. So if you want to. It's really good. I had some fun watching. If you want to check that out, Phil Taylor 25 on the old Instagram. It was fun. Let me ask you a question. The thing that caught my eye, the little Easter egg, was that when you grabbed the skateboard,

the truck was loose. I have not, nobody has touched that skateboard in years. We inherited it from my brother-in-law and it's been collecting dust in the garage. Okay, so you didn't set that up. Like it was, the truck was already loose on the board. Oh yeah, the truck was already basically falling off. Wow.

So it was like, it was just waiting for you to make this real. It was waiting for me, yeah. And there's another Easter egg that the skateboard is themed as well. So go back and pause it and see. Ooh, better go again. This coming from the skater boy haircut over here.

Yeah. Oh man. Yeah, no, that got me a little nostalgic too. I was like, man, I wish I had a skateboard kicking around. Although at my place, there's no place to ride it. No, it's all the gravel, which is a bit of a bummer. But I'm jealous. All right, thank you all for watching today. If you're looking for some new swag, MeatEater's got some new hats out. I especially like this

new one from Wired to Hunt. It's pretty hip in my opinion. Go check them out at the MeatEater store you know where to find that and again thank you for watching and listening this week and we'll be back next week, Thursday, 11 a.m. Mountain Standard Time. Adios.