Beasts Of Burden

In this episode, I had the honor of interviewing Dr. Marcus Lashley. Dr. Lashley is host of Fire University is co-host of the Wild Turkey Science. Dr. Marcus is assistant Professor at the University of Florida's Department of Wildlife and Ecology. In this episode, we discussed more about fire ecology, but also discussed fire behavior and safety. Fire is one of the ultimate tools in wildlife management, but there is a time and place. Inappropriate times will lead to disaster. Let's use prescribed fire in the safest way, but also the most effective way.Fire University Podcast:https://fireuniversity.libsyn.com/Wild Turkey Sciencehttps://turkeysfortomorrow.org/wild-turkey-science-podcast/Forest Service s130 and s190 Online Training:https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/angeles/fire/?cid=FSEPRD1059372

In this episode, I had the honor of interviewing Doug Duren. Doug is a hunter, land specalist, and conservationist of Cazenovia, Wisconsin. Doug manages his family farm and it has been in his family for 115 years. Doug has started Sharing the Land Initiative. Sharing the Land Initiative is a network to connect hunters looking for access to hunt with landowners to acheive stewarding the land together as a partnership. Doug has also contributed tremendously to Meat Eater.Folks, I had a lot of questions for Doug, but I asked him about the Sharing the Land Initiative and I just let him roll! I could listen to him talk all day and I immensely enjoyed this conversation and hope you all do as well!Doug Duren Website: https://www.dougduren.com/aboutdougSharing the Land: https://www.sharingtheland.com/

In this episode, I had the pleasure of interviewing Iowa's Department of Natural Resources own Deer Biologist, Jace Elliott. Jace has a Bachelors of Science in Conservation Biology of University of Wisconsin and a Masters of Science in Wildlife Biology of University of Auburn. Jace and I talked about the need for prescribed fire to promote early successional plant communities. We talked about manager deer numbers focuisng primarily on does and how to conduct deer surveys. The current state of the deer population across the state of Iowa. Jace and I also talked about EHD and CWD and what the future holds for the health of the deer herd of Iowa. I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did!

In this episode, I interview in training MMA fighter, Micah Washington. Micah is from Burlington, IA. Micah grew up as an athelte being in as many sports as possinle. Micah was introduced to the world of fighting and fell in love with it. Due to a bad shoulder injury and one prescription of pain killers led Micah down a dark path of addiction. His fighting career gone and lost in the darkness. Micah met the love of his life. Micah worked on getting clean and once Micah and his wife found out they were going to have a baby, Micah was determined to stay clean. Micah started a health journey and found purpose in fitness and challenging who you were yesterday. Micah earned his certificate throuhg AFAA and NASM and is a personal trainer. He currently works at Impact Fitness in Fairfield, IA.Micah is currently training as a MMA fighter again and his first fight of March 30th! I love Micah's story and want to have him on so he can share it.Micah has his first fight in Des Moines, Iowa at the Val Air Ballroom Hosted by Midwest Cage Champisonship301 Ashworth RoadW Des Moines, IA 50265Micah Washington Health and Fitness Facebook https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61556328366705Impact Fitnesshttps://impactfitnessandsportsperformance.com/

In this episode, I interviewed Lindsay Thomas Jr. the Chief Communications Officer of the National Deer Association. Lindsay and I discussed the positive outlook on whitetail management. Land managers, hunters, and land owners are actively switching from monoculture management to quality management promoting prescribed fire, early succesional plant communities, and soil regeneration for food plots. Not intended, but this episode became a positive response ot my previous episode, "The Ecological Conscience". Lindsay and I discussed the fear mindset I've noticed from whitetail deer oriented landowners ecspecailly noticeable in the Midwest. We discussed the back and forth finger pointing from hunters about different methods of take, which I feel has been settled in this episode. I enjoyed this conversation so much I became a member of the National Deer Association the next day. This is beyond whitetail management, this is beyond us as hunters, it's about managing the ground as God intended.

In this episode, I started off reading one of my favorite essays from Aldo Leopold from his collection of essays called, "The River of the Mother of God". The Ecological Conscience was a collection of personal examples Aldo Leopold experienced under the guise of conservation. After reading this, I came unglued. I was angry. I have my patience with the current status of so-called conservation in this country. God bless to the landowners either in state or out of state that work with locals to give them access to land. God bless those that take a kid or a veteran or disabled hunting. God bless those that are tired of the status quote and fire up a chain or light a drip torch. God bless those that listen to the scientist getting the funding to fund a fire ecology study or early successional studies. Thank you to the ones that care for the next one's turn. 60 Year Prescribed Fire Studyhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sjww5GYne7YDoug Duren's Sharing the Landhttps://www.sharingtheland.com/Correction: I did mention about this 60 year Prescribed Fire Study here is the correct amount of browse per acre depending on the intervals1 year intervals: 200#/acre2 year interval: 400-500#/acre3 year interval: 6000-800#/acreNever burned: 25-100#/acreBut this took place in Florida with more denser plant communities and longer growing season. It would be interesting to see the amount of the browse from these fire intervals in the Midwest or New England

In this episode, I chat with a good friend of the show Al Tomechko of Vitalize Seed. Al is a driven citizen soil scientist who has developed food plot mixes with the focus of soil health and quality forage for wildlife ecspecially whitetail deer. In this episode, Al and I talk about Vitalize new products such as the "Fish Fertilzier + Humics", the Seed Feed, and the "All Natural Seed Armor + Inoculant". Al and I focused on the importance of thinning doe numbers to help draw whitetail bucks, reduce browse on early successional habitat, and so you can actually have a food plot for hunting season! I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did!https://vitalizeseed.com/

In this episode, I had the priveledge to speak with Timothy Youngquist of Iowa State University. Timothy is a Farmer Liason for Science Based Trials of Rowcrops Integrated with Prairie Strips or STRIPS. Timothy and I discussed the reality of the relationship of prairie and agricultutre, how the two can bump heads, but also how the prairie benefits the farmer. I hope you enjoyed this as much as I have!

In this episode, I have on a good friend of mine Brian Halbleib of Copperhead Unlimited and the Habitat Podcast. Brian and I discussed not being stuck on one-species hunting (whitetail hunters LISTEN UP) and how pursuting other game can take the pressure off of whitetail season. Brian and I also discussed his hunting seasons in different states such as Ohio, PA, Michigan, and Texas. Brian and I talked about the importance of doe management as well. It was a great conversation always a pleasure to have Brian on. Check out his instagram: @copperheadultd View this profile on Instagram Brian Scott (@copperheadultd) • Instagram photos and videos and YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@CopperheadULTD

Lock up your daughters. Lock up your wives. I have the one and only, Joshua Hickenbottom. My brother in law, whom I have adopted as my little brother. Josh is a cinephile (movie lover), a talented photographer, a hard working farmer. Josh and I talked about his work on the Hickenbottom farm, we talked about his love for movies, what captivates him about movies, and also his work in photography.Josh has been there to help me get jobs done or pick me up from jobs since we resurrected Dbltree. I'm proud of Josh and it's an honor to have the one and only, Joshua Hickenbottom.PS Folks my daughter was with us and she is 3. She was having an off day. There was some noises in the background and I do apologize.

In this episode, I interview Chase Burns of Dogwood Land Management, real estate and broker of Land Guys, and podcast host of Land Your Ground. Chase and I discuss his career graduating with a degree in wildlife biology he founded Dogwood Land Management in Western Illinois. Chase primarily managed properties focusing on forestry practices. Chase and I discussed how he moved from land management into real estate. Chase and I discuss the goals of his podcast, Land Your Ground is focused on the stories of landowners and their goals with their properties. Chase and I also disucss the homesteading movement and how it might be a radiant hope for Rural America.Land Your Ground Podcasthttps://www.landyourground.com/Land Guys - Chase Burnshttps://landguys.com/about-us/chase-burns/Dogwood Land Managementhttps://www.dogwoodoutdoors.com/page5

In this episode, I had the privelege to interview my good friend and long term mentor, Kevin "Bobcat" Andersen of the Iowa DNR Private Land Biologist. Kevin and I discussed the brutal reality of how snow affects our upland game birds such as quail and pheasants. We disucss the difficulty hunting 2023 bow, dove, and duck seasons. Then we discussed the word load of 2023 for Kevin. I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did.If you are a resident of Iowa and have a question for Kevin Andersen: kevin.andersen@dnr.iowa.govhttps://www.iowadnr.gov/portals/idnr/uploads/contacts/staff_privatelands.pdf

In this episode, I have had the honor to interview Dr. Dwayne Estes of the Southeastern Grasslands Institute. We talked about Dr. Estes upbringing, what led him into acedemia, and what led him to co-found Southeastern Grasslands Institue (SGI). SGI goal is to bring awareness and reclaim the forgotten grasslands of the south east part of the United States. People are not aware, but the heavy wooded landscape of the southeast was no different than the Great Prairie States. When fire was king and the bison roamed what is now pine plantation was prairie. I hope you enjoyed this conversation as much as I did.https://www.segrasslands.org/

In this episode, I chat with my good friend Bob Hicks host of Tales from the Dark podcast and Youtube Channel and new host of Missing Persons Msyteries. Bob and I chat about mysterious disappearances of people in our National Park system and other places as well. We discussed about what could be happening that is the most logical explanation, but also explore the paranromal side as well. Bob and I also expressed what 2020 did for our podcast careers in exploring the mortality of life has prompted us both to jump into our intrests and drive.We also finished the episode talking about UFOs and how to find joy after being submerged into the darkness of the missing person's world.Tales from the Dark Youtubehttps://www.youtube.com/c/TalesFromTheDarkMissing Persons Mysteries Youtubehttps://www.youtube.com/@MissingPersonsMysteries/featured

Folks I made an attempt in talking about health and wellness on this episode. I will be brutally honest I went off old notes and my chicken scratch got the best of me. The seed oil section was rough and I apologize, the segment on phthalates was better. I did misquote a tad, but bare with me. I should do this episode over again, but I deciced to post it as a reminder to improve. I will continue to improve for my family, you my listeners, and myself. The point of this episode is to help others see how dependent we are on a fragile system and to encourage to become more self-sufficien to become more physically whole and spiritually whole.

I had the distinct honor to have Matt Williams of Shiitake Creek and MycoHabitat on the show. Matt and I discussed his origins from his beginnings in south western Indiana, moving to Wisconsin running a white water rafting buisness, then moving into market place farming eventually settling with raising mushrooms. Matt follows the golden rule in Permaculture, "The problem is the solution". Matt was battling whitetail deer devouring his Garden Gaint or Wine Cap mushrooms and instead of fighting he embraced the behavior the whitetail were expressing. Matt has built a whole new buisness around using mycelium to attract whitetail deer, but also using mycelium to build soil in food plots as well. Grab a coffee, bourbon, whatever your favorite drink is and sit down and take a listen to Matt's incredible journey into the world of mycelium and the integral role it plays from soil to whitetail deer.https://myco-habitat.com/pages/mushroom-food-plot-benefitshttps://www.facebook.com/ShiitakeCreek

Today, I talk about ownership in archery hunting. If you've been at it long enough you know what I mean. I also talk about getting a gameplan for next bow season, while discussing this years bow and shotgun.I talkj about the dopamine highs and lows from social media. Perhaps it's best to leave the phone down this time of year.Finally, I talk about my new journey in MMA style training for cardio workout and discussing importance of gut health and where this new journey is taking me and what that means for the podcast.

The last upload of chemical warfare I was not happy with. It was rushed and also there was some information I presented that was not entirely transparent. I deleted the old episode and created a new one with more facts, figures, and price crunching to help you make the best descsion which chemical to use for your habitat project such as invasive foilar control, hack n squirt, or basal bark spraying. Hope this is more informative. A Discalimer: You are an responsible adult. The label is the law. Ignorance is no excuse. You are responsible for reading the label and exhausting resources to make sure you are using the herbicide at your choosing responsibliy.

Happy Halloween and Dia De Los Muertos to our listeners! This is our 3rd Halloween Special where I share my personal spooky encounters. This year I talk about potential UFO and maybe some Bigfoot activity. And I say a big maybe I am not dying on this hill by any means. This is for fun and I hope you have fun listening!

In this episode, I give a brief life update. I focus on a question for a listener about how to market his services to obtain more FSI or TSI work. I talk about doing your own work first to show to other landowenrs, get to know your forester, the work your forester sees will help to build trust to refer you among other contractors. Also having an understanding of the natural history of your area, knowing your trees, and techniques will help build confidence with a landowner that you are the guy for the job.