Go over to Michael! The Joe, Wilgen, experience. Train by day Joe, Wilgen, podcast by night! All day!
I'm ready to see you. I'm going to the microphone, sir. No, right? You were fucking great at that mcconnay thing last year.
I really enjoyed that. That was my first time seeing you perform live. It was really cool. It was really cool.
It was very cool. You're so relaxed up there, man. So it was like you brought everybody into a nice, like, comfortable, chill vibe. It was cool.
I'm glad you guys felt that way. Sometimes it takes me a minute to get into the groove, you know? Yeah, but it felt like that. You know, like it felt like you were in it.
Like it brought the whole crowd into it too. That he does, the two events, the one, the singer-songwriter one, and then the other one with the auction and everything. They're so cool. Such good events.
Yeah, they're good people too. I really ground it just to appreciate the community around here in Austin and the Hill Country area and all of that stuff. I definitely wouldn't have the career I don't think if I wouldn't have been for the community around here. This is a support in songwriters and music and the way that they do.
It's pretty incredible. When they get behind anything, it's just like it just feels so good to see that many people come together and have that support. It's a really good place, man. Austin is a really good community.
It really is. It's a very positive place in a lot of ways. Yeah. I mean, nothing's perfect.
It's a really good place, but it's really good. I like it so much better than when I was living in California. It feels like real people. I miss it now.
I mean, I'm in the process of moving back to Texas as well. Where are you at right now? Outside of Dallas, Texas, out by Tyler. I've been in the Pangucanian in LA for years.
Oh, Jesus. I've been in the middle of it. In that Hollywood thing. Every time I get across the state line, it's just like that weight comes off.
You're like, man, I'm home. Did you have the coolest fucking character on Yellowstone? It must be so fun to play. It was so much fun, man.
I had that I laugh. I felt like I had one of the easiest jobs there. The character was kind of a smaller role. Most of the time I'd work one or two days a week.
Then the rest of the time I'd just be fly fishing and get lost out. Really? It was awesome. God, Montana's awesome.
They show me so many people move out there, though. I know. Take your license plate off your car before you go. You better not have a California plate.
They'll fucking write things on your hood. Run you off the road. They get upset. It's very interesting.
Very proud to be from Montana. You want to keep it to themselves. Let it go. Motherfucker.
We're all Americans. That's a big dick. You're American. It's not the United States of Montana.
Shut the fuck up. I guess it's kind of anywhere, right? Not that much here. Here's pretty inviting.
I've never had that experience here. Not really. Texas is a pretty friendly place. There's so many different walks of life that have been here for so long.
I think of it. And Montana and stuff. If you were tough enough to survive those winners and stay clean up there back in the day, you had to fight for it and they're still fighting for it now. That does make sense.
That's also one of the things that's highlighted by the whole series. All the different Yellowstone series, the older ones with Harrison Ford. They really do explain. It's kind of a cool chunk of history to see how this all got started.
The kind of people that had to survive out there when, oh yeah, it was a fireplace. That's it. You got a fireplace. You just have all those mountain end stories and all that stuff.
It's just like, man, you get up there in those mountains and get into your bones and get into your blood and it's a different thing. It's a spiritual place. It is. And it's also the most potent art.
It's nature's art. And you don't think of it as art, but God, it's so beautiful. It's like, sometimes when you're up there, you just have to stop and look. God, this is gorgeous.
It's overwhelming if you have it out there. It gives you a feeling. It's almost like a drug that hits you because of the beauty of it all. You take it in with the blue sky, you see the clouds in the mountain, and maybe there's a lake below you in the canyon, and you're like, God, this is gorgeous.
You feel it in your DNA, man. It's like your body knows this is a fertile, beautiful place that's filled with life. And this should excite you. So all your natural human reward instincts are all like, this is the place I should be.
Look at the sky. Look at the lake. Look at the mountains. This is fertile.
This is like life-giving. Yeah. Several years ago, I went to a guide school up there, like a hunting guide school. And it was a whole pack.
It grew up cowboy in a ranch, but I've never really been up there in those mountains like that. And my dad always fantasized about that. We'd talk, you know, one day we're going to go on a pack trip up in Montana, and we'd watch all those moves like Lonesome Dove and all of that stuff. So it was always just kind of a daydream.
And years ago, I was just kind of overwhelmed with music stuff and all that. And I didn't know what I was going to do. I just wanted to go up there for a trip, maybe go on a pack trip. And I was looking up places and I found this place called Royal Time Outfitters.
And they're like, yeah, you know, we come up and you can take you on a pack trip. But we also have like this six week school that you can train to be a guide. It's all mule packing, all kinds of stuff. And I was like, man, I'm going to sign up for that.
And it was life-changing. It was only six of us in the class. And spent weeks back in the backcountry pack of mules and horses. Oh, wow.
We just tie a rope between two trees with a tarp for sleeping at night and always post up a couple of guys to watch over the horses at night. And I remember one morning I woke up and it was in June. But we were way back in there and I woke up and the snow was coming down. And I just kind of raised my head up and I was looking out at the horses and the snow was just falling down in their backs.
And there was that moment and me was like, I don't know if I'm ever going back. You know, it's like, this is where I need to be. It was tough to come back to civilization after that. I think we're doing something with ourselves, to ourselves, with civilization that we can't really fully appreciate because we're wrapped in it.
And it's not until you get to nature where all that weight just gets lifted off of you. And you feel more normal. And you're like, oh, this is where people are supposed to be. Yeah, you know, no phones.
There's no nothing, no distractions. And it's just like, all your senses heighten, your eyesight, your hearing, your smell, all of that stuff. And I remember going into it. I didn't know what to expect really.
I've done some camping and things like that and grew up ranching and all that. This was a way different deal. And I remember I decided to have this backpack full of gear. You know, and by the time I got out of there, I just felt like all I needed was a pair of scissors and some way to start some fire.
I was about it. Yeah, I follow this one dude. I'm trying to remember his name. Clay.
Let me pull it up because I really enjoy his videos. But this dude, he lives, I believe he lives in Alaska, but he does a lot of trips in America, like all over America in the lower 48. And he goes and lives by himself in some kind of harsh environment. Like he's done it in the swamps.
Clayays, that's it. Does he like take his kid out there? He has. He's taking his dog.
But a lot of times he just goes entirely by himself. And they're very, very interesting. Like he starts his own fire. He'll figure out how to get food.
He figures out how to purify water. He's taking salt water and made his own thing that kind of distills it into fresh water and removes the salt. Like very slowly by using a piece of bamboo and fire and boiling the water in the bamboo so that the water evaporates and then drips down and it doesn't have salt in it, apparently. I love that stuff.
I love it. I love it. I mean, just to know how to do it, like whether you'll ever need it or not, just to know how to do that. So cool.
I remember in that guy's, there was a lot of different parts to it, which was so cool. It was like we did a whole week of like back country, like William his first aid. You know, he had a dramatic come in and teaches all this stuff. And then it was a whole week of just like leather work.
There was a whole week of shoe and horses. There was a lot of fishing and entomology and all these kind of little skills. But one thing that really stuck with me was a fire building kind of drill. And we started when we first got there.
And it was pretty wet and it's been snowing. And there's only six of us, you know, and we're guys from kind of all over the country. And I grew up in New Mexico and West Texas. Where it's pretty dry, you know, and you kind of build a fire.
You can kind of just take some little small twigs and get a little fire going, you know. So because all right, you've got two minutes to build a fire and you need to have, you know, like a flame to be three or four feet high. And I'm running around grabbing like little sticks and twigs and I'm just, and we have a lighter too. I'm just struggling.
It's just smoking and we can't get going. I look over and there's a kid from Alaska in the class and he just runs over to this big dead pine tree and just breaks off the biggest branch of dead pine needles and takes his lighter and just, whaar. Within like five seconds as this massive fire going, I was like, okay, that's how you do that. And it was so just the littlest things, you know, to have that knowledge, you know, and part of it was, you know, he was explaining to instructors.
Like, yeah, you know, if you're out here with your guy and somebody that's hunting, maybe he's an elderly guy or somebody gets hurt and you get caught back in the mountains and it's no one's like, you better get a fire going and keep them warm real quick. You know, so it was always a reason and a purpose behind it, which was really cool. And I'll never, some of the things I'll never forget. Did they teach how to start fires with like a piece of metal and like flint, like, you know, what's that, striking rods?
Yeah, we did stuff and with like the pitch wood from some old pine trees, you know, you can find that pitch wood and we did some bone wood drill stuff. Not a whole lot of it. That fucking changed hard. It was so hard.
I did it in the Boy Scouts and it took like hours to start a fire. You have a fucking keep song. And if you're doing it with your hand, you're going to blow your hands up. You better get your technique down.
You have to have to stick on the top and the stick that goes all the way to the base thing and you cut a hole in the base thing so that like all the little embers can fall into your kindling and you got to saw the shit out of the fucker. And imagine trying to do that, you know, in the snow or it's wet, you know, on site, man. It's very, very unlikely. You know what's really good for kindling?
Fritos. Really? Those chips? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's kind of shocking. We were in Alaska and it was raining all the time. It was one day where it stopped. I was with my friend, Steve Rinella, took me up there with my friend Brian Cowan.
Brian Cowan, all these guys. So we went up there and when we got one day, like a 10-hour stretch where it was not raining, we were like, we got started fucking fire because it was raining every day for like five days in a row. And we couldn't find any deer. It was a nightmare.
It was tough hunting. So we did this one day and we were trying to figure out things to light on fire because everything just so can wet. And so we got some pieces of wood from like underneath the bottom of trees and shit and dead trees that were covered by other things were kind of sort a little bit dry and we used Fritos. And Fritos when you light them, man, it's crazy how much oil is in those things.
They just, and they stay lit for a long time like a candle. And so we started like piling little things. We got that fire. I was like the happiest I've ever been in my life.
Oh, I bet. So good wet. Once you get that kind of cold too, it's just like there's almost nothing to do with it. You're cold wasn't that bad cold wise.
It was like in the 50s or 60s. Yeah, it was just the wetness. The wetness was impossible to get away from. I thought once you get in your tent, you'd be dry.
You'd be getting your sleeping bag, you'd be dry. But I had to take a piss in the middle of the night and I had to turn on my headlamp in the tent. And when I did, it was all just mist everywhere. It was kind of safe in it.
I was like, oh my God, I'm never going to be dry. I had to just accept like there's no drying here. How long were you guys back in there? About six days.
We had to leave. We were supposed to be there for seven. We had to leave on the six day because the storm was coming in. I was like, I could get stuck.
Because you can get stuck up there. You run, I guess Prince Edwards is out there island is. Yeah, you get stuck up there. And I was like, I gotta get back home.
I gotta work. Y'all get fly in like on a puddle jumper. A bus playing. Yeah, landed in the pond.
You had to drink right out of there. Yeah, exactly. And you could drink right out of the pond. The pond was all rain water and it was too high for peavers.
So you didn't have to worry about Jardia or anything in the water. You could just drink right out of the pond. Like this is crazy. Yeah, it's the best.
I've never been. I've been a last but only in the winter on a skiing thing. I've always wanted to go up there hunting fish. The people are extraordinary.
Those are rugged people. Like when I did a gig with my friend Ari in Anchorage. And one of the things, and it was weird because you get there at 11 pm, it's bright out. One of the things that we talked about after was like, those people were fucking cool.
Like there's something about living up there. Like where you could die going outside. Like a good six months out of the year. This fucking bears everywhere.
If you look sideways at a moose, it'll stomp you to death in a fucking Walmart parking lot. Yeah. It's just shit together. It's bald eagles everywhere.
The salmon are as big as your thigh. I mean, the people there are, they work together. They're very friendly, but they're very rugged. But they're also like, they realize you need each other.
Like there's a sense of like community cools. Yeah, you need each other. If your fucking car breaks down the side of the road, you could die. Like someone's not gonna let you die.
They're gonna pull over. In California, they're like, someone will get them. They just keep driving. So you just lose this sense of community?
Yeah, you're not calling. That's who you're calling for. Helping times in need of your neighbor. Exactly.
And even if like the bridge washes out, so here comes your neighbor with the backhoe and tractor. And that makes a cool friendship when your friend helps you out. Or when you help your friend out. I thought I missed about living in Texas too.
You know, it's just like some of the small things or whatever. You can even up up my place into paying. You know, you want to build some fans or whatever. Like I do feel lucky.
I've got a couple of really good friends up there. Neighbors that you know, let you come work with their hands and get their hands dirty and we'll build stuff. And like man, Texas, you want to weld something. You need something with a tractor.
Some heavy equipment thing. You know, like you're not getting that done in California. It's got to cost you a fortune to get someone with a skid steer up to your house to help you move some dirt around. You know, but here in Texas it's like, oh man, it's called Frank down the road.
He's got one. It's people that have a long tradition of doing stuff. You know, it's like, it's a real place. I grew up like that too.
You know, people cutting hay and stuff like that. Especially when you're young like, man, we go stack hay for everybody around. You know, it's like, that was the summer job. You know, it's like, let's just go.
That makes a strong person. People that throw hay around, those are strong mother for like that term, like farmer strength. That shit's real. Yeah, you guys said I was always a little guy too.
So I had to use and learn how to use leverage real quick. I rose up on your knee. I was going to last time, so I did that. I remember I was going to school in Stephenville, Texas and had a good friend over in Glen Rose.
And it was the middle of July. And he's an older man and asked us to come help in stack hay in his barn. And it was, you know, we're stacking it in the barn. And you know, it's just like you're inside the barn.
It's just hot. It could have been 110 degrees in there. You know, we're talking hundreds of bells of hay. And it's just all we could do.
Of course, we're hung over. And we're stacking hay. And I was like, I think this is my last hay-hauling job right now. Yeah, those jobs, those are good for letting you know that this is not the life you want.
Yeah, like get a good rugged manual labor job. It'll knock some fucking sense of de- I got the guitar, man. I've learned pretty quickly that the guitar felt a lot better in my hands than that shovel. Yeah, I know that feeling.
I spent one summer doing insulation in an attic. It was all that fire glass insulation. I had it in all my skin. And your sweat.
Yeah, your sweating because it's hot. It's summer. So it's getting in your pores. And you're always itchy.
You feel like it's on you. It's also like it's got a terrible to be breathing that shit in. Oh, the worst. Yeah.
And I don't even think we were using equipment. I don't think we used any safety equipment. Heck, no, we didn't have a mask on or anything. I don't believe so.
I think we just installed it. Just unrolled that shit and stuffed it into the rafters. Using paint with lead in it. And then like back then the gasoline had lead too.
It's a drinking out of the water hose. Right. Oh yeah. I think it makes a resilient person to drink out of water hose.
Heck yeah, you get tough or die. You get extra minerals from the fucking copper on the faucet. Yeah. And then the jobs are really important for a young person to figure out what they don't want to do.
It teaches you work ethic, teaches you like, hey, this is, you can get some satisfaction out of a hard day's work and a hard week. You did it. You put it in. You feel good about yourself.
You know what it's difficult to do. But don't keep doing that. Yeah. Figure out a way out of this.
You got to understand it. You got to feel for it. You know what the hard labor is. But don't ruin your life.
Yeah. I feel real grateful. My granddad was always a real hard worker. And even when I was 12 and 13, you know, in the summers, I spent a lot of time living with him.
And I had a job lined up for me. You know, it's like, hey, you're going to go over here and we're going to mow so-and-so's lawn this morning and we're going to go over here. We're going to send you out to Kins and you're going to build some fence this weekend. And I always enjoyed it though.
I enjoyed those guys. I was around and you know, I'd work all day and then we'd sit around and drink beer in the afternoon and tell me stories. And you know, and even now, like I'm on place, you know, it's like I don't want to be building somebody else's fence, but I'm glad I know how to build my own. Even though it comes like that and how it goes.
I still love working around the house and doing little projects and things like that. I mean, a lot of younger guys and kids that sometimes I guess I have an expectation that they know how to do that kind of stuff. I want to come over to the house and help us in projects and stuff. I'm like, oh, yeah, cool.
We'll just, you know, I already dug those holes and set up a string line and we'll set these posts and they're like, okay. And then after about a half hour I look around, they're just kind of looking at the ground. I'm like, what do we do here? You know, they're like, I don't have a clue what you want me to do.
Yeah, that's hilarious. That's hilarious. But yeah, it's wild. It's changed, man.
Kids ain't got their mowing lawns no more, that's for sure. Well, there's something about that kind of work, like putting in fences and all the stuff that you see the Cowboys doing on Yellowstone and then hanging out together afterwards that's so like viscerally appealing to people. There's something about watching that life. Like you would say it's like a simple, difficult life.
Maybe. I don't know what it is, but whatever it is, it's like it's so appealing. Like so many people wanted to be Cowboys after they watched your show. I think it's something goes to like you're talking about that guy living off the land and stuff like that.
It's just something that's been ingrained in us over thousands of years of survival. And we all have that in us still today and we just unfortunately lose in touch with it because we're not doing it as much. And so when you get the opportunity to even just go plant a garden or something like that, I think that's in us. And it wakes up something within that's just been a little bit dormant for a while.
I think you're right. I think that's exactly what it is. I think it is in our memory, the memory of our genes that this is like a pleasing life. This is a satisfying life.
It's like that mama bear energy. You know, kids kind of just like, oh man, you know. Yeah, yeah. It's there.
You know, it's just like I realize that having kids is just like, oh man, it wakes something up within you that's always been there. Right. You know, that you were born to have, you know, that survival instinct and all of those things. And I still, that's what I still love about it.
Like I even at home being on the road and being in big cities all the time and you're just surrounded with information and screens. And as soon as I can get home or get outside or get into nature, it just wakes that stuff back up in me and I feel like it puts that spark back in my eye, you know. Yeah. Try to stay in tune with as much as I can.
Well, it's clearly so appealing to people that don't experience it. I mean, how many people that are watching shows like Yellowstone never go into those areas, but they watch it like, oh, I want to live like that. I think the prices of horses, just skyrocketing. Oh, sure.
Like five grand to no. I'm sure. Like 50,000 bucks for a trail horse, you know, which is cool. You know, I hope people are enjoying that and getting something out of it.
Like, you know, I still, I mean, I'm not running a bunch of cows these days, but I keep a few horses around and especially for the kids, you know, and whether they want anything to do with them or not. Like we enjoy so much of the afternades go out and beat them some carrots or brushing their tails and just being around that energy. My youngest little boy, he's just got, he's got some kind of mojo with animals, you know. And I've got this old mule and her name's honey and she's big ears and she's massive, you know.
And she's like three or four, I'd be looking around for him in the backyard and I'd look out in the pasture and he'd be out there with that mule and she'd have her head down and he's just out there petting her ears, you know. And just like his connection with those animals and then, you know, getting kids up to the house or from the city that aren't around those animals the first time around horses or maybe even dogs and stuff like that. And you can see they're, they're so anxious and, you know, not maybe so scared, but this is nervous, you know, it's big animals and stuff. And within like 20 minutes, they're just sitting them on their back or petting them and they you see them relax and you see that energy kind of slow down and I just, I love that.
You know, I think it's so magical to watch. Yeah, that's another relationship that's like primal, the relationship between people and horses. They do that with addicts. They do equine therapy where they just have like people that are like heavy anxiety and depression, they have them hang out with horses.
I don't even mean I still do. I mean, I have get depressed and stuff like that or now and then I love being around them. I can walk out to the barn and just being around and laying on their backs and it's just like, ah, yeah, all right, here we go. Just touching their head makes you feel better.
Like, hey, how are you, honey? What's happening? Hey, look at me. Yeah.
Can I get eye contact with them? I think it's a looking into your soul. An ancient thing. I mean, they helped us survive.
And we, you know, and we took care of them. It's like this ancient relationship. And then when you're around them, that connection like immediately re-bombs, re-establishs. I think it's in our DNA.
I mean, just think about like how many generations of humans had to survive on horseback before anybody invented anything else. Like if you wanted to travel faster than you can run, it had to be a fucking horse. So that was probably thousands and thousands and thousands of years just cooked into our DNA. And when you're around them, it's like, ah, my friend.
This is my friend. It's waking it back up. Yeah, it's weird. It's there.
Yeah. It's weird that stuff is in you. Is that nature stuff is in you. I mean, that's why we like watching shows like this clay guy.
Isn't that too, I love that Steven knows show that me, either I like to have my kids. Aren't you friends with Remy Warren? Oh, yeah. I ended up being my neighbor when I was in Montana working on Yellowstone.
Oh, really? Yeah. That's crazy. And I, you know, what I really liked up there was where they filmed the show, you know, kind of way out there, Southwestern Montana.
A lot of folks that were working on the show would go back to Missoula in the cities. But I was like, man, I want to go get as far away out there as I can. So I kind of went down this West Fork area, this on the right on the edge of the most massive wilderness areas out there, goes into Idaho. And the road I was on, you know, was paved dirt and it did it and it turned into dirt road.
And then I got this cabin and it was just way back up. And they were no wife. I know nothing, you know, just just disappeared out there and ended up meeting some folks in Remy was just right down the road going towards Sue. And so I got the chance to just go there and hang out with him and go stomp around the mountains with him.
It's such a cool dude. It's like, Remy's the best. Just, you know, like you're talking about going to Alaska, you know, I love going into those places, but like you want somebody like that with you when you go. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. He knows how to get around. Yeah.
And he used to have a great show. Well, first of all, he had solo hunter where he'd go and film everything himself, which is so much more difficult than just hunting. Yeah. He set up to keep carry tripods with him and shit and set it up and make sure the camera is on the animal before he shoot it and then film himself, film himself moving up to their set of different cameras that could show him executing the shot.
I'm like, God, that's so complicated. And he's a beast, man. I just tried to keep up with him. You know, just walk around the mountains with that guy.
I'm like, Oh man, wait up. I'll be coming. Yeah, they get that mountain cardio. Yeah.
He's like a mountain goat. Well, you know, he hunts probably 200 plus days a year. Yeah. On top of that, he does a lot of guiding.
And when he's doing guiding, he's like always in the mountains, always hiking. It's like you just get conditioned to it. He's fit. He's the coolest thing ever did.
And I got this buck and we're loading him up in the truck and all that. And he was like, man, I'm going to, I'll meet you guys back at camp. You know, it was dark already. And like I know, you know, during the day we were hunting, we was just steep mountains up and down.
And so, you're just going to meet us back. He's like, yeah, I'll meet you back. And he just put it on his back pocket and just took off running. And we, you know, drove down this mountain road and go back and he beat us there by half an hour.
And that was his workout. He was like, yeah, I'll just part of my workout. I'll meet you guys back there. I was like, Oh, you're an animal.
Access to you in Hawaii is very interesting because they were given to King Kamehameha in like I don't remember what year it was find out what year they're gonna introduce there, but they're everywhere now I've gone to Lanai a bunch of times where we went. Yeah, it was wild there thousands of them everywhere You're trying to sneak up on a group of ten and then you don't realize there's like a hundred right here Landown that you didn't even see and then they get up and spook the rest and stand well, you know you've been there Okay, it was in the 1800s a gift to King Kameha from India and There's 30,000 of them in Lanai and only 3,000 people it's crazy We're in this only place where you can go hunting bow hunting and you state the four seasons right He was hunting so much and you know that red clay there, you know On your boots and stuff so the whole hotel was just like red clay everywhere the the fridge is full of meat, you know Like blood dripping out the kids I don't know they kicked me by like he's like well, maybe we ought to go find somewhere else to stay you know Just take off your boots before you come and say yeah, that's all this yeah It's that weird red clay and it all used to be part of the dual pineapple plantation So when you're around there you when the things you notice is like there's layers of dirt But then there's like almost like it's like plastic bag underneath it like a like a hefty bag from all the farming Yeah, I guess they had a layer of like that kind of whatever the fuck up Hefty bags made out of whatever plastic is and the dirt was on top of that somehow and then the pineapples would grow up through it I'm just keeping moisture and stuff like that in the ground. Yeah, but it's every it's disconcerting because it doesn't feel like nature feels weird It's like it does plastic everywhere in the ground. Yeah, it's also like the mountains in like those old World War II turrets and stuff that are up there I mean it's like first of all like hunting access deer in Lanai and like you get up on the top and you're surrounded by the ocean I mean what a trip I know seeing that and then coming across all those old relics and just all the history there's just something to take into and We are laughing because obviously they're trying to control the population of the access deer there And I think somebody somebody mentioned like man just get a couple of bangle tigers out here They're not the population the population of people to unfortunately yeah the thing about them is that they did evolve around tigers That's why they're so fast like they'll jump a string faster than any animal I've ever seen in my life I have a video of me shooting at an access deer at 80 yards and it's we have a slow mo of the arrow So as the arrows coming is a perfect shot within 10 yards of him.
He hears it and he's gone And he's gone it's the craziest thing like you look at it like how the fuck did he move that fast? This thing's going at least about from the actual like leaving the bow It's going 275 feet per second. Yeah, and he would come in yards within 10 yards He's hearing it coming and he's like say yeah, yeah, and nowhere near him like he was a foot in front of it was the arrow landed a foot behind his ass She that's how fast they move. Yeah, it's crazy.
How long did you go there for a while or just kind of like a few times Yeah, we found that the best time to hunt is actually in the afternoon because in the afternoon It's really windy and when it's really windy it covers your sound a little bit. Okay, the morning's rough Yeah, the morning's rough like the morning I got a couple of them in the morning couple of times morning hunting I got a deer But it's a lot of blown stocks. You got to walk super slow You got to be real cautious and again is a lot of high brush and you don't know where the fuck they're hiding Yeah, you got to kind of find a pinch point now you jump one in the rest of the way they bark and all of that's pretty crazy What you got to kind of do is like find where they're going to be and just wait because they travel so much they do so much moving You think I'm just gonna go, you know still hunt and spot and stalk and I'll find one and I'll you almost better off Just stay and put yeah just stay and put and wait for them because they're moving all over the place They're so fucking many of them. It's crazy.
Yeah, but it's amazing how unsuccessful people are bow hunting them Mm-hmm rifle. It's a done deal. Yeah, if you want meat and it's the best meat in the world So it's for the people that live there. It's incredible I mean they have access to the best meat in the world 100% they're gonna do their and so if you ever but if you have a boat We went there and then so I went with Remy I went with John Dudley Cam Haines and Adam Green tree Like all season bow hunters everybody everybody got a deer and we've made a podcast about it We had a good old time they had a hundred and fifty people go over the next year and one was successful with a boat That's how hard it is because it's like these fuckers are there dialed in man and they move a lot of people chasing them to They know the game right 365 days a year they get hunted There's no season and then they have snipers that are after midnight because you know They use it for meat for the restaurants and meat for people and and they just have to control the population Yeah, there's so many of them and no predators.
Yeah, and still can't think them out, right? I know it's crazy. I think they got a good head start. They eradicated them from the big island Oh, did they?
Yeah, somebody try to reintroduce them or introduce I should say to the big island and they're like no no no no no No, we know what this is going to destroy people's crops and destroy people's gardens take over and they already have plenty of Wild pigs on the big island. So they just they whacked them all unfortunately It's kind of like the pigs here in Texas, right? Right? I don't know.
I don't know. You know growing up here I was younger I never remember on being like how they are now they don't stop they have three or four litters a year And each litter has I think they can have as many as six piglets It's crazy. They just and they can get pregnant six months old at six months old. They can get pregnant They're ready to rock and just spitting out pigs and just tearing tearing shit up.
Yeah I we have a lease out here for hunting land me and some of my friends and the amount of pigs is disturbing It's like you hear him everywhere. You hear him in the bushes. They're all over the fucking place It's like most of Texas probably that's not like city has wild pigs in it Taking over man, and it's all came over on boats. Yeah, that's how it all got here Yeah, it's important in man.
Yeah guys from Europe they brought boats and in the boats some of them brought pigs and then they let them lose It's crazy man Caring stuff up. Yeah, I don't ever remember being as bad as they were no last 15 years or so It's actually bad in California too in California has them from William Randolph first Didn't they take didn't they like eradicate them off the Channel Islands out there? I think so they I think the islands and they had mule deer on some of the islands out there too, right? Mm-hmm.
Yeah, I forget which island had mule deer, but apparently they had like a what you could go hunt on one of these islands Yeah, I think you might still be able to like on Catalina or a couple but maybe They did because I know my my buddy Matt he did it like maybe the last year or the year before but I think they're trying to put a stop to it And you know and kind of stop it those Channel Islands are pretty interesting I remember first moving out there even just going out there 15 years ago and Seeing the islands out there, you know I'd ask people all around it's like what's the deal with these islands out there and half the people that I would talk to Like what are you talking about islands and have like that island right out there? They're like oh, I thought that was Long Beach, you know, I'm like really I was like if you looked at a map, you know I love map so I started you know doing some research and figuring out all about it and they're really cool And over the years I met some really cool guys go out there a lot spearfish and just to go out there too I mean besides Catalina like Santa Cruz and San Miguel and you know, they're all like nature preserves and protected So it's like going back in time when you get out there and love it out there It's such a cool spot. Did they try to are they trying to eradicate deer from Catalina? I think I've read something about that It seems that's true I think they're trying to remove the deer because I said the deer were non-native to the island.
Yeah Yeah, I think that's what they did with the with the hogs I don't know there's like a specific island fox out there Yeah, here it is as of early 2026 California officials have approved a controversial plan to fully eradicate the non-native mule deer population on Santa Catalina Island To restore the ecosystem around 2000 deer introduced in the 1930s for hunting will be removed by ground-based hunters to protect native biodiversity Come on That sounds crazy. How about just let people hunt them? So the issue is Catalina Island Conservancy considers the mule deer an invasive species that disrupts the ecosystem as they consume native plants and seedlings while spreading fire-prone invasive grasses Really? I have I just always worry about Conservancies and their their judgments on things like that because there's a lot of they want to eradicate all the pigs from Texas or from California rather they think of them as non-native and they want them out too, but you're not going to they want to eradicate the There's like elk in California that are Yellowstone elk that were brought there in like the 1950s that they want to eradicate that too Like the Tule elk?
No, they're actually they're actually Rocky Mountain elk. Okay. Yeah, but they're they're a larger breed of Rocky Mountain elk They're they called yellow apparently like in the sierra's they're down on the coast and so touch me touch be open that area on those mountains Big fucking elk like 400 inch elk like a couple of those elk out there that's what they're from there. That's that's a massive Yeah, it's a home ranch.
Okay. Yeah, and oh, yeah, it's like going up over the grapevine. That's where you got those. Uh-huh.
Wow I had no idea that they were that big out there. It's all it's the biggest private ranch in California It's like 270,000 acres. I've heard the ranch, but I didn't know like that up there Yeah, yeah one of the rare places gorgeous fucking place but they also go out was kind of funny they go up to um, there's a golfing community higher up and touch me and The elk just hang on the golf course. I just said like giant elk like 400 inch elk Just chilling hanging out together on the golf course and dudes are playing golf.
That's why they're lying down next to them like 20 yards away It's crazy. I've seen I saw some one time I was driving up the coast I think I was going up San Francisco to play gig and maybe they're the two of the elk I'm not sure what they were but I was along the coast there and I looked over in the field and I was like 30 He had them just laying down. I was like, oh, man. I didn't even know they were held down here It's just I love seeing a lot like that in unexpected places, you know, yeah They've recently just found a wolf for us anyway.
Oh really? Yeah, see see if you can find the story about that wolf that they just discovered in Los Angeles There's a mama mama bear black bear with three cubs now running around in Topanga. Oh, yeah There's a lot of those lines running around There's a lot of a lot of bears. I've seen him in Pasadena and people's pools There's a bunch of Pasadena like this wolf detected in Los Angeles County for the first time in more than a century Crazy And that nuts.
Yeah, those guys can fucking travel I had a lady on who was a wolf biologist and she was talking about like the you know, they'd call her some of these wolves and they would track them They would go 500 miles. Yeah, like it's kind of insane. I didn't know that. Yeah, that's incredible Well, that's how they learned about them It's really the only way to tell is like put a collar on them and track them by GPS Mm-hmm, and you know, they mean they're extraordinary animals like where were they originating from in Montana?
Wyoming and how where were they going the ones that they're tracking? I think the ones that they were tracking were the part of the group that was brought in, you know in the 1990s Mm-hmm, you know, so there was that pack in the subsequent packs that came after that They were all the reintroduced wolves and so they would you know dart and call or some of them and when they would do that They'd just track their motion. They're like Jesus Covering some ground They're covered some ground and it's interesting to that they actually make mountain lions kill more deer They're competing with them. Yeah, because the mountain lions kill a deer and then the wolves will steal it Oh, so they'll come up on the mountain lion and they're surrounded when the mountain lion will go fuck this I'm out of here and just go kill another deer So he doesn't even get a chance to eat his deer because the wolves keep stealing his deer keep tracking the lion It's probably just following him around there.
They're smart We're smarter not harder. So does it say the wolf that they found? Yeah, this is from when February when they first spotted it. So the wolf was born 2023 Plumas counties.
Where's Plumas County? It's traveled more than 370 miles. Wow, including crossing state route 59 near Tachapi. There you go Yeah, they had one up in Tachapi too that a buddy mind it was actually closer to The city that's down there.
What's that fucking city? Makerfield? Exactly. Wildlife officials now estimate at least 60 wolves live in the state.
Wow One crossed over in 2011. Wow from California from Oregon. So they find him in the Tachapi Mountains interesting I'll just told you spit oh, but I was just told newspapers that she could encounter a mate in the nearby region such as Tachapi Mountains potentially forming a new pack or Continue to roam. What was that picture?
You just had the elk? Yeah, that's that golf course. Look at that Fucking elk shield it on the golf course class flag. Yeah, look how beautiful that is.
God so pretty out there massive elk oak tree country club Perfect sanctuary for him, right? Oh, yeah, man And it's just it adds to the coolness of playing golf. I mean you're playing golf around giant beautiful animals I bet those greenskeepers love them though Fuck up all kinds of things up there. Yeah It's the wolf thing is interesting because they just brought him back to Aspen and they did a really stupid thing They brought him into an area where it has a lot of livestock and they brought him in from a place in Oregon where these wolves Had all been captured because they were killing agriculture.
Yeah, so what did they do? They captured him and they dropped him off in Colorado where they started killing cows Mark, I just do it. Well, it's on people's my friends ranch one of them. They dropped three wolves off on my friends ranch That's tough man.
I was even with the bears and stuff You know you get some problem bears or whatever and then they go drop them out where farmers and rancids are living And I was like man, how's that gonna work? Well, it's the people in charge of these things and making these decisions They don't understand what they're doing. They're monkeying around with wildlife nature biology and you don't know what you're doing Yeah, you don't you have no idea also like how the fuck are you in good conscience? Take a wolf that's used to killing cows and put him around other people's cows Yeah, that's a program that knows exactly how to do it knows it's easy.
They're all fenced in They taste delicious. Why would it stop or why? Yeah, why would they chase chase tougher prey, right? So now these poor ranchers have to have people monitoring their cows 24-7.
They have to have cowboys up all night They're wandering around and on horseback and just looking for wolves. I mean, it's a disaster They've killed dozens of cows and they're folks that you know been like we said surviving on this land for generations and dealing with that and You know have a history with managing that stuff. You know probably be the folks I'd want to ask Yeah, I'd handle it, you know, well, they would certainly tell you don't let the wolves in if you do kill them You know, but now it's gotten to the point where I think they're gonna have to do something about them I think honestly that would probably do something but really what you should do is hire someone to recapture them and Don't drop them off there. Don't drop them off and fucking ask me Yeah, cuz they're gonna eat people's poodles too I mean they don't give a shit if they run out of cows if somewhere another rancher scare them away from the cows And they make it into the town of Aspen you don't think they're gonna eat your golden retriever.
They're gonna eat all kinds of dogs Dogs gonna last all the time. Yeah, yeah Yeah, I hear a lot of like the lions and stuff man coming after your kids. Yeah You know, I've got a bit of Creek Park. You know I've heard a couple of incidents there, you know hit like man there They're gonna go eat something especially when they're old.
Yeah, they get old Mm-hmm. You know they can't catch a deer anymore Yeah, they're hungry and they have any in a few days and they see a kid hang around a little too close to the outside of the woods I got a big one that comes right by my house I got a little game trail cameras set up and I got a little fountain right in front It doesn't come around when I'm there because we got the dogs, you know a lot But whenever I'm out of town for weeks at a time I'll come back and that sucker just laying on my front boards just massive And then the other day a friend of mine was taking the trash out and that's like Around lunchtime and it jumped over the fence into the driveway and had a dead rabbits in it dead rabbit in its mouth Just looking at her you know, she's like, oh, they're there, you know So every time I'm even walking around by myself or with the dogs you're just like this sucker just being a tree looking at me right now Yeah, you just live in monsters. Yeah, whoo there? California spent more than a hundred million dollars trying to make a bridge over I forget which freeway it is Is it the one on one?
I think you're right. So they spent over a hundred million dollars and still not done Oh my gosh for a bridge a bridge for the mountain lions like you fucking dorks. Oh It's like this idea of like it's gonna be a bridge but it's gonna have dirt and grass on it So it'll encourage them to walk across so they don't have to go over the highway and die Nice it in the roads. We're driving on.
Yeah, well a hundred ten million dollars is crazy and it's still not even done Yeah, it's like it's so crazy So that's it early twenty six. They're going to be sure right? Yeah So they want to have this this big dirt mound in this bridge so the animals can get across the highway But it's just like it's so goofy and they never want people to do anything about the population of Mountlines regardless of how out of control They are they don't do anything about it. They have to hire people the state has to hire people to go and get the bad Mountlines ones of the problems.
Yeah, and when they capture them one of the things they find out is there They actually kill them right so one of the things they find out when they examine their diet It's like 50% pets. Yeah, 50% dogs and cats. That's what your mountain lions are eating That's crazy. Yeah, and they spend money like a lot of money going after these mountain lions And instead they couldn't make money by letting people hunt these mountain lions and giving them tags and control the numbers in That place to hold ranch one of my buddies works there And they have a trail camera set up on a pond and they found 16 different cats that were drinking out of that pond.
Oh my god I was like when I first started going out through to the coyotes, you know and even around like in Hollywood and stuff Yeah, that's where I just saw a coyote running down the street with a pair of sunglasses on Eating better than any of us When I went there in 94 those the first time I ever saw coyote I couldn't believe it I was staying at the you know they have those furnished apartments the Oakwood furnished apartments Oh, no, it's like temporary good like for people that are like don't have a house yet And you got to move to California quick They have this place called Oakwoods and you got a couch already got a TV. It's already got a bed Okay, I can't hear me and just move in and I was driving up to the entrance to the place and I see these little dogs on the street I was like what the fuck is going on? He's done. That ain't a dog.
I was like, oh my god. They're coyotes Like this is weird and so there's like 94 I had never seen a fucking coyote and they've heard of a coyote being out Just wandering on the street. I just couldn't believe it. They just wander around on the concrete.
I mean it's Everywhere I feel like I've seen more there than anywhere. You see them more in town than you do anywhere else Yeah, well they have large populations of them in downtown where they know where they don't up They don't up in certain warehouse buildings. Okay, like abandoned buildings and under bridges and we freeways and stuff Yeah, they live there. They probably keep the nature of take back over one day.
You want it? Yeah, I think they probably keep the rap population check though. Yeah, if you think about it, yeah I keep a lot of things in check too. Right Well, there's a terrible video from Woodland Hills a few years back where a guy was unloading his car and his toddler was out there in In the grass that I saw that and the guy who grabbed his toddler to run away with his kid Yeah, I saw that man, you know, I'm always watching around for stuff and with my arkettos or dis people around the neighborhood and stuff You gotta remind yourself, you know, they're there and they're not scared of you You know, they're not afraid up.
I remember the first time I went up to oh hi This north of LA there, you know, I just wanted to go up there and go hike around and check out the area and those an archery shop up there and this old guy kind of looked like Charlie Daniels just big overall his big old beard You know and I walked in there and just to check out the shop and also just asking about you know Some areas to go stomp around and and I had a Australian Shepherd dog at the time and just asking where you know good places to go stomp around He said yeah, you know, you go up there He goes, but I wouldn't take your dog with you. I was like really why he's like now those lions are real deal up here You know, he's like you he goes you won't see him. You know tell her on you Yeah, and I just be I knew they're lying to stuff like that But hearing it from from that guy, you know, maybe he's trying to scare me a little bit But you know, there's it's a real deal. It's real It's real and they try to downplay it because the all the wildlife lovers all the greenies They don't want you like so you're long and killing them Yeah, but their goal is to have zero hunting their goal is to have all the animals just balance each other out I think I'll happen.
Yeah, it's not even in the mix though. No the humans have interrupted that whole idea, right? So it's got a city and then you've got wild giant predators like 170 pound cats that are killing dogs And they're like you got to control them can't manage one without managing another, right? And so the first way the first thing they did to stop people from doing it is they ban hunting with dogs So if you ban on hunting with dogs guess what you basically you're killing most of the hunting because the reality of mountain lines is you can't find Them they're really hard to find really hard catch really hard to find and the best way to control their population is to Treat them and you get dogs to treat because that way, you know if it's a tom or if it's a female You know if it's mature, you know what size it is.
You have a really accurate estimation You can look up at it. Oh, that's a mature Tom. That's what we're looking to kill and then you can control their population That's the only way same with bears. I see what it is and decided it needs to go work It needs to stay right yeah, but they do little things to stop the effective hunting first So California you can still hunt for black bears But you can't use dogs anymore so as soon as they stopped the use of dogs the amount of black bears They harvested went way down.
Yeah, the amount of bears in the population went way up Yeah, I don't think they've I know they've been around in Pasadena a lot But I don't think there's been one in Topanga for a while I mean I've been up there Shoot almost 15 years and hadn't heard of one This is the first time I'd like once kind of made it over and that air that I know of anyway Maybe up, you know around the Malibu Creek and those state parks, but in Topanga is probably people feeding them. Oh 100% I've got berries for you my friend You know them weed The pang is great, but it's always sketches me out of a fire catches. Oh man We got hit hard last year as you know the palisades stuff and man I didn't that was kind of it for me too I was like I'm out, you know, it's a terrible I've evacuated out of there several times over the years But I've got horses up there now and stuff like that and luckily I had like a always keep a big truck in a trailer Just in case and got some friends down in Burbank to have some stables You know that I have like as a backup plan and now but this was just a different deal As a crow flies I could see the smoke from the palisades, you know, it's like a mile away You know and we were actually working in our arena there and smoke came up and I was like shoot Let's just go every time I see the smoke I don't wait and just like we'll be the first ones out and yeah beat the beat the mad rush of everybody This is gonna decide to try to stay and loaded up the the trailer and the truck and the camper and the dogs and all that stuff And I was like let's go and my wife I went down to Burbank and I remember we were driving through the night and the wind was just howling like I've never seen before and power lines are snapping and it's just like trees are coming down and it just felt like the end of the world You know and we get to Burbank and we pull back in these stables and there's a kind of a big cinder block wall And I just got as close to that as I could because it was blocking the wind, you know from the hitness and next morning I woke up and I was sore and hurt and I could hardly breathe and I opened the camper door and the Alta Deena fire had started It was right there and it was just a mountain of black smoke coming over the top of us there and So like let's go and let's get out here Let's like head north and had some friends in Moor Park, you know up in that area going towards Ventura that had horses Trying to find some places to go with some horses and they're like yeah come on up here So we went up there stayed there a night and then I cut all the power off up in that area because the winds were snapping power lines and they were About fires and and you know after doing that a few nights and I was like let's just head east and go to Texas There's only so but so many friends you can like show up with five horses and a bunch of dogs You're like hey, we're gonna stay for a while, you know, especially in California Yeah, let's just get out of here and head back and you didn't know when we were gonna make it back And they you know closed indefinitely or whatever and just like now I'm over it I got evacuated a bunch of times when I lived there But the last one was 2018 and when the last one we got out early I came home from the comedy store and we saw fire coming over the top of this hill and it was probably like one o'clock in the Morning me and my wife were sitting there. I go.
What do you think? She's like let's get the fuck out of here. Let's get the fuck out of here Let's grab some shit and maybe it'll come this way. Maybe it won't so it didn't burn the house down But my neighbors the front front three neighbors all lost their house and my next door neighbor His his roof caught on fire But my friend who refused to leave he stayed in the neighborhood and protected his house and guided firefighters He brought the firefighters to that house and showed them that it just started on this guy's roof and they hosed it down They stopped it in its tracks, but it's pretty fucking bad But it's wild because you know what's gonna burn and it's not a matter of if it's just when and I mean that's that's canyons I've been burning like that for thousands of years and they're eating the two-man's were setting them on fire on purpose to get ahead of it Right and controlling all that stuff and now there's so many houses and communities back up in there It's just a tough thing But when they hit man, it's they're rolling through how fast they come through and those Santa and wins are blowing like that and It's just very surreal in person You can watch on the news and you kind of get a feeling of it But when you're there and you're driving down the 101 and you look at the side of the highway and you see like these hills and the distance They're just covered in fire hundreds of yards of fields of fire Just making their way over the top of this hill and burning houses and we saw it when the palace You know the palisades thing will start you know from our house It's kind of a little mountain that comes up on the back and I hiked up there and was watching it And you can see the smoke and then you could like start seeing little flickers of the flames And then it was just like somebody don't gasoline on this thing and I mean The flames shot up hundreds of feet into the air and my wife is on the balcony You know the house and I'm kind of up on this little mountain looking over looking in her eyes I'm like start packing up It's up.
I'll start with the horse trailer. I'll be up say let's load up and just and you know the wind was blowing Like offshore then you know so the fires like all on the coast You know and just depending on where that how that wind is blowing You know at the beginning was blowing offshore and then within a half an hour It just shot up the coastline and just ripped up through Malibu and burned all that coast like that's the stuff that you always thought was the safest Right, you know Yeah, and then the next day the wind shifts coming back on shore and it blows it back towards Burbank You know going back up like the fourth up that way and then she wins her shipping again and then coming back across You know so I was amazed at the some of the fires that I've been through seeing the firefighters up there Those guys are incredible man those helicopter pilots the airplane pilots seeing those tankers fly through there I mean, it's just incredible what those guys can do. I mean if it hadn't I mean they saved that whole canyon Yeah, up to panga at least you know It's like man there's so much brush in there that probably needs to burn has been accumulating over years, you know And cutting those fire breaks and see them drop the retardant on the ridge lines and stuff and watching the wind is just like man I hats off to those guys. Yeah, absolutely Yeah, I mean think about the amount of damage that was done in that fire and how much more would have been done if it wasn't for the Firefighters, that's how crazy it is.
Yeah, yeah, it is and I met one of the helicopter pilots I was on a flight somewhere and we just happened to be sitting next to each other We were talking about it and just you know learning from him You know about you know the thermals that come up from underneath and trying to hold those helicopters and you know Information and all that stuff and how heavy they are when they're full right and as soon as you release all that water Whatever's in them that you know all the sudden that the power that they got your throttles full throttle You know when they're loaded down and then they drop all that water and you know trying to get back hold of it and I never even thought of that. Yeah, you got a Different 90 mile an hour winds blowing and you know And you can see them from the house You know there'd be like two or three helicopters that would come in start dropping water And then they would move out and then the tank that planes would come in and then Helicopters back in and you had the guys on the ground, you know trying to contain it as well Just the coordinated effort between them, you know, I can imagine the conversations there. Yeah, man It's so crazy that they didn't have the reservoirs ready. Oh, dude, it's so sad It's I had Spencer Pratt on you know, he's running for mayor now.
He was explaining it like how bad it was Yeah, how do you fuck that up that bad? It's devastating here. It's like you know that that stuff's coming. Yeah, you know It's just not be prepared for that.
It's a complete supple in confidence. Yeah complete total incompetence and yet they still are there Like you're definitely not good at the job and yet you don't take any personal responsibility and blame everybody else. Mm-hmm. The problem It's just fucking it's a problem that happens every few years.
You're gonna get fires period the fact you don't have a full reservoir is crazy It's crazy. Yeah, but don't all your resources into fixing that fucking reservoir stack get the residents are more prepared than anybody You know cuz I think they just got to where they you can't depend on it, you know I mean our neighbors and stuff have a pretty good program in place And we all get together and talk about you know He's got fire hoses and swimming pools with access to water and where you know evacuation plans or you know There's some folks that have horses, but they don't even have a horse trailer up there and you know, okay I'll come get yours to or whatever, you know, you know, we need to do and you kind of just have to have that mentality I think you know, yeah, definitely definitely It's you know what's really freaking me out about like the pal seeds is what is in the ground now? You know it how much toxic shit you got melted into that ground because think about how many people have electric cars now? Well, the house old houses to get on the right the materials that they're made out of yeah I'm best is or I mean the stuff and stuff and air that was even if you you know You were several miles away from the actual fires that will wind and blow in all the ashes and the smoke and all that stuff over I remember going back up in there, you know weeks and just trying to get stuff out of the house or whatever when they let us back up You could still it would just make your throat hurt, you know, yeah breathing that air and stuff, so right that's not just wood fire Yeah, no, no like chemicals Yeah, wood fires hard enough, but the chemicals Burke TVs and computers and hard drives and electronics and refrigerators treated lumber Yeah, all that shit's gonna get in your groundwater.
Mm-hmm. Like it's it's on the surface. It's gonna rain It's gonna seep through like what happens to the water is anybody checking the water out there? No, you gotta imagine I doubt it especially like to pang I bet a lot of folks have wells Don't you think I think there's some you know, it's definitely all like on septic up there, too You know, right all of that building code stuffs got pretty crazy up there I don't know I would just I would just worry about even breathing the air that has the dust of all that shit in it Mm-hmm like I probably wouldn't want to live there anymore if I was in a place where all the house is burnt to the ground I knew there was toxic shit in the ground.
I'm like hey, let's get the fuck out of here and sell our house to China Oh, man Because that's the other thing Spencer said they're the ones who are the number one land buyers in the house it's China It's gonna be a golf course resort up there for we know it. Who knows yeah or affordable housing Yeah, one of the other I don't know either I don't know but it's just I really wonder what the long-term damage of all those chemicals in the ground is it has to be pretty high Gotta be you know, I don't know You know I was talking to some friends of mine out the other day that have grown up there lived out there Their whole lives and you know going over the Channel Islands You know, they got those oil platforms out there in the water and there's been oil spills obviously throughout their through history and But also like when you're surfing and stuff like that. There's oil that's been on top of the ground It's just like so surface level. It's been there for millions of years, you know, and so I don't know, you know, it's like I'm sure all the toxic stuff that happens How long does it take for it to dilute?
You know, it's not much rain or the wind or like what? You know, I'm not an expert on it But I feel like mother nature takes pretty good care of herself. You know, we're the ones in trouble, right? Right mother nature has sorted out over time, but I just don't know how good it's gonna be for the people that live there It can't be it can't be the long term, you know I have a buddy that has a house out there and he lost his house and burnt down I asked him about it He said I think what they're gonna do is take all the dirt out of their backyard and then replace the dirt and I'm like Okay, I don't know that's enough Because what about his dirt?
What about your neighbor's dirt? What about the all the toxic shit that's in his dirt? It's gonna get down into your ground as soon as it rains and also the Round up and everything else is coming down. Yeah, it's it's it's uh, it's sad, man You know it's sad.
That's just a kind of state of it's like it's it seems like just it's so far of a mess That even the folks that do have answers that do want to fix stuff It just kind of becomes impossible for brain solution, you know, it's like all the red tape and all the hoops and things and all the permits or whatever You're like you can't even you know, the roads blocked Okay, well before we could even get somebody out here with a tractor to move the rocks You got to call ten other people to get it approved and in the process and it's not and it's like that's the part I'm just like now. I wish I could just call Frank down the street Well government has increased so much in California and they just want more regulation so they could justify more government And so they just regulate themselves to place where people just want to leave just go look I can't fucking do this anymore. I'll get out of here and it's expensive man. It's so expensive You mile it's beautiful.
It's such a great place. They fucked it up so hard. It's paradise It's prawn a mountain within like two three hours. Yeah being a Sierra Skiing yeah, and then swim in the ocean on the same day.
It's gorgeous. Yeah beautiful places. I've ever been you'll send it You know incredible weather Kern River. Yeah, it's beautiful But they got ruined they got ruined with progressive politics and bureaucracy that just ramped up all the control They have over people to the point where you can't even buy flavored zins They banned blackjack you can't have blackjack anymore.
They just stopped blackjack in the casinos they stopped flavored zins They just they just regulated into oblivion They're all these people that want to be they want to be the mommy of the world and tell you what to do like fuck off Yeah, like fuck off with all your goddamn rules You're just making your government bigger so you can justify all these fucking rules and you need the rules for the government to sustain itself So you just keep adding more rules and adding more government Yeah, we were reading about it the other day like what was the number the California's government went up by like 24% and their population went up by like 1% I know and I were running out of places to go Everyone the actual numbers where that we found but it's yeah I'm always looking for hideouts, you know to kind of get away from it's like now You find a spot to go to you kind of don't want to tell nobody about it. I know, you know That's what here about West Texas. I know it's hard about Montana You know when I first started going up there years ago I mean it's just such a and still is it's a paradise It's just you know and I think that's why a lot of people are upset about lived up there It's like man that secret got out a little bit not gonna understand that but I get it I get it from the aspect of that go where's the next place, you know the thing about Montana though or like Wyoming another example is that winter Will thin the herd it's like West Texas like that's funny same kind of you know Martha and that area you know I grew up all out there going to junior rodeos and all kind of stuff and it was just ranches You know look you know local diners and stuff like that and you know I hear people going out there and buying houses and you know I'll have to then go out there for like a week and they realize that the only thing open at nights the Dairy Queen Back in New York pretty quick. Yeah, but the you're right about my dad's winter So thin amount yeah winter gets you the winters rough.
It's cold. Yeah, we were the first time I went hunting was with Brinella, that's where I got that mule deer that's on the table right there and it was nine degrees in October and we're camping And so we're sleeping on the ground and nine degrees I'm like bro How did these fucking people and you also you go buy these old homesteads so they were giving land out there for people you just you get A chunk of land just start farming on it and the government was encouraging it pretty good up, but yeah It's all this like muddy ground like the ground is like mucky like when you hike in it after you know a while your boots are so heavy Because it's just playing with this clay. Yeah, just muck all over your boots, and so it's not fertile It's not good like in the Missouri breaks like that area. It's not good for growing things So you'd find these abandoned homesteads.
It's really eerie Yeah, and you just think like this family that came out here in like the 1800s and they tried to set up shop and maybe got killed by Indians And maybe all the way I think about my family and I've got stories You know them selling in New Mexico and you know coming out on a covered wagon with maybe a steer in a pig and then like yeah Here's you a bunch of acres and you got to prove it up, you know And dig a hole in the grounds what they're living a dugout, you know And dig a hole in the ground that's where you're living and you try to build a ranch out of it and I always I was talking to family or my grandparents. I'm like why did y'all stop here? He just like you were so beat down. They're like oh, this is the driest, flattest place You know, but we're here the most rough is you know, I was like it's only maybe another thousand miles out to California Or just keep going.
They're like, no, this is it. We're done. Yeah, I guess people didn't know what they were gonna find if they kept going Either like you want to keep going for like another month. Oh, yeah Miles and miles of the desert and no water.
Yeah, I mean how long without wagon trail take weeks Yeah, you know, I'm leaving just like Missouri, Texas and now to through Even I guess going through West Texas to get to you know southeast New Mexico and all that and you know That's just rough country and the people have always been tough out there and you're sitting duck. Yeah, you're sitting duck You're slow moving with a wagon pulling the horn you got all your shit in the wagon and they just looking at you from the hills Yeah, who wouldn't glamorous? No, I know my you know my granddad was pretty tough old guy and just real cowboy's you ever want to know or meet You know, but he wasn't really one to ever brag or you know talk their fantasizer romanticize about the cowboy stuff You know because it it wasn't romantic then you know It was survival and it was rough and it was work and you know had no running water and I remember Him having a conversation with this guy and he was like something like a tech guy You know his website shit or whatever and he was asking my granddad He said you know what's the most important invention of your lifetime? And I think he was expecting my granddad to say like the computer or the internet and my granddad said refrigeration Was the most important invented, you know, yeah, he was growing up.
He was like they had no way to keep their food cold, you know Like a root cellar you kept it underground, you know, so it was just a perspective, you know I think everybody was surprised to hear it, you know I think people are so accustomed to electricity and so accustomed to things like refrigeration. Yeah, just like a run of water Yeah, yeah, I mean when there was no refrigeration you had to eat what you had you know Like that day and then the next day you have to get something else Yeah, and unless you knew a place that was an ice house You know that would get a giant chunk of ice and you could have an ice box and stick it in there and cool things Mm-hmm like you're fucked. Yeah, you're on your own. Yeah Well, you had to learn how to dry meat that was a lot of it make pemican dry meat make things that'll survive and last and You know, that's also how market hunting almost wiped out all the deer in this country because people needed fresh meat every day Mm-hmm, so they were just shooting everything that existed.
Yeah, and then finally I started looking around going Hey, we lost all the elk. There's no more deer left like let's make some fucking regulations on this ship And they stopped market hunting. I didn't know that. Yeah, interesting beginning in the 1800s by you know the time I guess I mean, when do they start doing regulations in terms of Hunting regulations in this country because obviously they wiped out almost entirely the American bison There's not their own scone completely and you know a lot of that was just for tongues.
No, that's crazy Yeah, they send them back each they pickle their tongues being Steve We don't have a show on my buddy was telling me. I've seen it yet It's a really interesting stuff about the history of the bison and all that yeah Yeah, I think is a book is called American Buffalo, but it's really good First hunting regulations appeared in colonial laws in the 1600s mainly as seasonal closed seasons for certain game like deer In terms of nationwide US law the first major federal game protection statute was the Lacey Act of 1900 which targeted commercial and market hunting and Interstate trade in illegally taken wildlife Yeah, there was elk in every state and then we wiped them out and there was deer in every state But now there's more deer than there ever has been before which is interesting Congress passed the Lacey act when modern regulations start so the 1900s most states had game and fish commissions I think seasons bag limits and license requirements all reinforced by federal laws like Lacey Act and later migratory bird protections Well, it's amazing that they did that we have an amazing system to like the the fact that the United States has so much public land Mm-hmm There's so many different places where people can go and they can hike they can white water raft they can fish they can hunt they can camp I mean we're unlike any country when it comes to that It's like the amount of land that we have that's available to Americans that every it's public for everybody. Yeah, it's fucking incredible Yeah, I mean up in Montana New Mexico's like that to in California and up in Montana what I let you know stand in that wilderness area like that little cabin that I stayed in You know probably didn't have much land with the cabin, but man there's thousands and thousands of acres of wilderness Public land with dirt roads everywhere man I would you know almost days off that I had I would just drive back in there for miles man And just see the most beautiful country, you know And I'd haul my horse back in the way of the trailheads and just go explore stuff You know you had to go over one ridge into the next and there's a waterfall and there's another drainage and it's just like You know, this is the wilderness area to this isn't even a national park. You know, man This is beautiful country is I've ever seen did you know I was always All my toes about it and I talked you know, no one ran you up there He knew that area really well So I kind of asking them spots to go check out and about bears and stuff He said man, there weren't too many grizzlies back in there, but you never know, you know Especially coming over from Idaho and stuff like that.
So I never did I run into some black bears Never in any wolves and all that but you know, I don't know maybe being horseback to I don't know a lot of those places Right did but I definitely had my eyes open Yeah, that's another animal that want to enlist again and make them available for hunting particularly in Montana and Wyoming They just have a lot of grizzlies. Yeah, they have a lot and people don't want you to shoot them They think of it as trophy hunting or whatever it is like it's just tough man, but man You live like you say like those folks that live back up in there, you know They all they have is their neighbors and people to depend on you know, and it's like man You get mauled by a bear taking your trash out No, or something like that. That's what you your experiences with them and you know Everybody wants to keep them as pets until they're in the backyard with you They don't play by the rules. They don't play by the rules and they're 900 pounds But like 900 pound giant buck and wild animal that eats everything it can Yeah, like that that line rang around my house.