State of the Union

There’s a lot of noise out there right now negativity, complaints, and talk about changing laws permanently for temporary situations. It’s easy to get caught up in it. But here at Duck Dependent, that’s not how we move.

This is your reminder to stay positive, stay consistent, and keep showing up. Put in the work. Compete. Live with the results. Check your ego, face your insecurities, and adjust your mindset when needed. Growth doesn’t come from complaining it comes from discipline, perspective, and effort.

We live this every day: good, better, best. No shortcuts. No excuses. Just progression.

If you’re listening, you’re already part of that mindset. Let’s keep building.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

All right, everybody, thanks for joining me on the Duck Dependent Podcast. I'm so fired up as usual. Episode 16, guys, this is going to be a real one. State of the Union. We're going to talk all things duck hunting, the negativity, what's going on with some of these rule changes. I'm also going to talk about the brand, but first, obviously, let's talk about the partners. They helped this thing go. Retail USA, guys. The baddest inertia shotgun on the planet in totality from the recoil system, always going to battery, removable trigger guard, length enforcing cone. Guys, you guys know about it. My favorite gun, the Retay Ace. Always reliable. Go check them out, Retail USA. Also, guys, Les Schwab tires. They have a slogan that I love that I use good, better, best, guys. The best warranty in the game, the best service in the game. Les Schwab tires, you can find them all over the West, Midwest. Guys are growing. They're one of the biggest tire companies in the game. Les Schwab tires, I absolutely trust them. They're on the boat, they're on the Jeep, they're on both trucks. Guys, go check out Les Schwab tires. And then Flight Day Ammunition, guys. You know about it. Max payload, steel shot, 20 gauge, number six. I actually just bought some 12 gauge, guys. I'm going to chase Turkey with it. Go check out Flight Day Ammunition. You can save some money with checkout DD10. Flight Day Ammo, guys. Check out DD10, save you some money. Okay, so I'm going to hop right into this. You know, I listen to other podcasts, and obviously I'm active on social media. And I don't know if it's clickbait or if it's uh you know something to get their own podcasts going and more viewers. I get that, that's part of the industry. But man, I I'm gonna hop right into the State of the Union of duck hunting, guys. The negativity that I'm hearing in states reactive, and I just want to talk about it and give my thoughts and opinion on it. Um and I'm gonna you know be open and honest and a straight shooter. And I'm also gonna talk about some experiences that I had that that I would call once again, it's good, better, best. So if you say good's on the lower end, then I'm gonna talk about all that and some of the some of the trials and tribulations that I've been through in my duck hunting career. So I just want to start off with saying, guys, you know, I'm hearing a lot about um, you know, waterfowl season is it's been terrible and things are changing, and I and there's uh people arguing about, hey, you know, there's too many dry field hunting um going on, and people aren't hunting the roost anymore, and it's just like this, and there's no spots and there's no birds, and guys, you know what? I don't want to argue with anybody about their specific region or what's going on, or the lack of water, or a lack of their state putting the right resources into uh duck hunting or water and all that stuff, guys. What I want to talk about is the mindset, and I am just gonna be open and honest about it, whether it's duck hunting or life. Mindset is half the battle, and um yeah, so I'll dive right into some of the stuff I'm hearing. You know, when I hear uh it was a terrible year, guys, it's hard to argue with anybody about that, you know. Um, you know, I've talked to some people in my backyard that kind of track their birds, and they've shot to me a lot of birds, and they're like, yeah, it was terrible. You know, and I don't know if that's for show or or meaning they're just saying that, um, even though that's probably a high number of bird count for most people, if they're just saying that to act like that, but guys, here's the reality. Let's just get right into it. Anything we do, it absolutely is not gonna be perfect. You know, when I hear, hey, I'm down here in the south and I'm here, there's no water, and guys, I won't argue with you. If the if if the if the water is not being flooded and it's gonna concentrate a lot of hunters in one area, it can frustrate you, right? Because you're gonna be hunting on top of each other. But what my what I would temper that with is the fighting amongst us, when I say us duck hunters, does not help, guys. That's a dividing thing. Okay. Let's get involved and talked with the states that you're you're living in. Guys, I've I've gone to a couple of meetings here in my home state of Utah and brought up some ideas. And you know what, I'll be honest, it feels like it didn't do anything because things take take time in the government, and I absolutely know that because I've worked for the federal government prior to this for 17 years. There's a lot of red tape, there's a lot of funding and allocation issues that takes place. And when the State Department for each state gets funding for their outdoors, it's not necessarily just concentrated on you know duck habitat, it's every habitat, you know. And if you're in a, I'm doing parentheses, in a big game state, um, that might lean that way. But what I'll say is I'm just hearing these conversations that, oh man, this year was terrible. And I'm gonna bring up one example that I heard, and I think the perspective is off. So, and this is not a judgment, this is just me talking like, hey guys, and you've heard me talk about it on other podcasts before. You know, when you're climbing in your career or you're having kids and you're going back to school, you're gonna have less time to scout. And I know a lot of listeners that you guys are out there, I know you know this, but man, I don't know if it's just the people putting podcasts out right now, but they just want to lean on how crappy it is. And I'm here to tell you, I think the opposite. I think public land duck hunting in here, which I hunt about four or five different states, is amazing. And I do not want to get into regulations that limits me to go to this state to that state based on local people complaining and based on local people not wanting to compete. And I'll get to that later. I'm not calling anybody out, but in all of life is a competition sometimes, you know, whether you're at work or your kids in little league or whatever, it always is just, you know, that's how we're wired, and that sometimes is the way it is, and I'm not totally agreeing that it should always be that way, but that's the world we live in, that's the times we're in. And I don't think if we go way back dated that people weren't competitive. So, anyways, uh what I'll say is um I'll key in on one of the scenarios and and that it really caught my attention on why wouldn't that guy just change his perspective? And so I'm listening to a podcast and I hear someone saying, Man, this duck season this year just absolutely sucked. And once again, I'm not gonna speak for him in his area. Um, but as he starts peeling, peeling the onion, so to speak, he's like, Well, you know, I had my second kid and uh they're both under five, and I'm actually having my third, and you know, I just you know I don't have time to do all this. And right there I just said, timeout. Guys, you can it is so uh tough to have a young family and to and to provide and to work and then also want to be successful in duck hunting or whatever that that other thing is. And once I heard that, that for me would have been a self-checker and should be a self-checker for all of us. And once again, guys, I'm not talking to anybody. I'm just fired up about this because it's all positive uh mindset that can just, I don't want to say fix everything, but can alleviate some of that crap, I would say. So, so right there, you're peeling the onion back. Okay, so you have a couple kids under six, you're the provider, you're gonna have another kid. Guys, that's gonna be very difficult. I will admit that, because uh, you know, we've all done that. You've gone back to school, you've had a major career change, a major career promotion, you have a family. Guys, that your mindset should change instantly, and it's all temporary. So for that year, if you have your your second kid, you're going on your third and you're and you're doing all those things and you can't scout and you can't get out as much, guys, it's gonna simply equate to you might get less birds. That's just what it is, you know. Um, especially if you don't have time to scout and you go to the same areas, um, you know, you're gonna limit your opportunity because the birds are either coming through there or not, or if you're going to the same area again, uh your success rate might go down. But here's where you can fix that and change that. It is all temporary. You know, we're only on this planet for so long, and so I get the urgency because I'll fall into that too of like, hey, I don't want to wait, I want to go because you never know. So I totally get that. But what I'll say is if you just change your mindset a little bit for the time, okay. Right now I have young kids, I can't scout. But what the complaining is doing, and I'm hearing other states, is they're changing it. We're out of staters, um, you know, they can't come at this certain times, and they're not using, in my opinion, great data and a totality of data to make these decisions. They're basically reactive to people complaining, guys. And we're seeing that on planet Earth. That is not the way to go. And I'm gonna stand on that. That is not the path you want. More regulations is not good for anything. And so um, I would change my expectation on that if I was going through that kids working and just say, hey, you know what, this year is gonna be difficult. But if I can get out every Saturday, if I can scout a little bit, or if I can't, I am so thankful. This is the good, better, best. This is still gonna be good because I'm gonna get up, hook up my boat, walk in, get my pack, get my cart, whatever it is. I'm healthy enough, I'm able enough to just go walk into a public marsh. And I get to enjoy things and pursue something that just absolutely I'm obsessed with or just makes me feel good, you know. And this is not to be, you know, a cornball and all this, but if you enjoy a sunrise or a walk-in, I totally understand it's about getting birds. But remember, if you have some tough things going on in that season, you're still able to get out. You can walk in, you can boat in, and try your best that Saturday to get it out. I don't believe in the heart, my heart of hearts is that it's going to be like that forever. Right? And so I'm just talking that specific thing because it really hit home with me about well, I have young kids and I'm and I'm just a worker and grinder, and this season sucked. And it's like, okay, the correlation I took was you probably spent less time in the field, or you sp or you tried to go as much as you could, but you didn't have enough time to scout. And guys, that's absolutely okay. I've talked about it before. It's a limited time in your life, and I don't want to keep rehashing this and just beating the dead horse or beating the drum. But guys, in a prior life, as a chief for the federal government, high-level position, climbing the ladder, young ones, getting extra education. Guys, there wasn't a lot of time for me to scout. But I tell you what, my relief and my pressure relief, I'll say, was to get out Saturday, to get out Sunday, enjoy the boat ride, get my dog out there, kill a few birds. I can look at my season totals because I've tracked it for so many years on XL spreadsheet. It wasn't the biggest uh total a total duck number season. I got out as much as I could, and I just enjoyed it, and I never looked at it as a bad season. So I think I think we all know that, but for some reason we want to fall to the negative trap. Well, it's my state, you know, there was no water. Okay, well, that could be true. But the times you did get out, could you have a good time? You're telling me the breakfast sucked, everything sucked? No, I got to go with my friends. Uh guys, there was years where I went and I was tired and I traveled and I went to some other states and I got to hunt with friends and family, and guys, we just didn't have the birds. And we were like, wow, this is weird. This is very difficult. Um, but I tell you what, that never skewed me from enjoying time at my aunt and uncles. That never enjoyed or never skewed my time hunting with my cousin or a good friend that I haven't seen in a while. It wasn't, it never did. Those things were always they're tried and true, they'll never get old. Um, and the hunting was just good. You know, we got a few birds here and there. So not to go in on that one individual topic, but that when I hear those things, it really, you know, it gets me fired up, and I wanted to share this, and I was kind of going back and forth if if I even wanted to put this on a podcast, but I did because I am all positive. Okay. And so I'm gonna dive into some of the other states. I'm hearing states restrict, well, you can't come on this day and that day, and there's too many tra too much travel and too out of state, and these and other states want to go to a lottery. And guys, I am just telling you right now, that is not the path any hunter or outdoorsman or fisherman or anybody in any any industry wants to go down. I do not want to get up in the morning and have to go to a check-in station and hope and pray that I get a pull ball to get a lottery. It would be a sad day for me if you had to only be able to hunt certain days in this state. And the only reason I can think states are doing that is because of myself, not just me and myself, us complaining about, well, I don't want to put the work in. And that's what I get out of that when people complain, I don't want to put the work in, I want to put the time in. I'm tired of going to the marsh and there's other people there, and I'm not getting birds. Okay, well, your answer to that is is you want to be told what days to hunt and what blind to go to. Did that to me take the easy that's an easy road out? Well, yeah, I don't have to do anything, I don't have to get up as early, I don't have to worry about anything, I can just show up. I'm here to tell you that is not the method because that's gonna get old real fast. Especially if you're still not getting birds. And so, guys, I uh it is just something I don't want to do, and I want to alleviate all that, and I want to ask the hunters, and I ask myself this what are we hunting for? Right? Are you hunting for for food to survive? Are you hunting because it's a great sport for you? Are you hunting because it it feels your heart good? Are you all the above? Um, are you growing a business in the industry? Um if you check all those boxes, great. If you don't, that's great as well. I just want to let people understand what what a great place we live where we can go hunt public land and we get to choose where we go. That right there is a baseline for good better best. I believe we could fall out of good better best if we start going to draw systems and having to um, you know, hope that we get a spot that morning. And if we don't, oh well, we just go back home. That that absolutely makes no sense. And I think people want to be heard and they want to voice their frustration. And I'm here to tell you guys, I don't know what that is, if that's um insecurity, ego, those two things smell and act the same. I don't know what it is, guys, but you know, um I'm obviously active on social media with with uh myself, Dion DuckDependant, and my and my company duck dependent, but guys, I there's never been a time in my life where I felt like posting anything negative. And I get that some people say, well, that's the whole point of social media. It's all good, good, good. Guys, it's not. I am not seeing all good on social media. I'm seeing people just not be good and not positive and not posting the best. Now it's like swinging, or I feel like it's swinging. Um, well, let's post how crappy everything is. And guys, I don't want to, I don't want to do that. And so that's that's all I'm gonna say about some of those things, but I want to talk about some of the trials and tribulations that I've done that have gone through that still has not affected me to go anywhere other than good, better, best, okay? And so I'm gonna hop into some of that. So there's a time in my life, going to school, buddies dropping off, right, because of fan of family and and not having the desire to go chase ducks as hard as they want to because they have family obligations, guys. Once again, no judgment, just stating facts, um, taking care of their family and and rising up in their job or trying to start a company, and they kind of fall off. And there was a time in my life when I was going to school, working my butt off, um, trying to get the best grades I could, um, where I was doing a lot of solo hunting, and reliability in some of those people fell way off. Not showing up, not calling, all that stuff. And I had we had social media, and I think that was a time and an opportunity for me to get upset and negative. And I simply, it doesn't even, it's not even a factor. I simply doubled down on myself, stayed positive, lifted it up to for me faith, and just said, I'm gonna keep pursuing and I'm gonna keep being positive, and I know the right people and the right timing will come into my life, and I'm just gonna keep doing it. And I think that equates to duck hunting, life. Guys, if you're having those same negative thoughts about a a hobby, a secondary thing, even if it is a way of life, if you're having those second thoughts, I promise you, those same individuals, you're having those same issues in your workplace, your relationships. So to combat that is, guys, it's not even gonna enter my mind. I want to continue to pursue and chase and be happy about it, and put as much effort into it as I can and live with the results. Whether that's two that day, a limit, whether I kill 150 birds that year or 35 birds that year. It is I feel absolutely truly blessed that I can get in a reliable vehicle, a truck, boat, car, however you get there, go hunt public land freely, openly, whenever you want. I think that right there is the good, and that should be the bar. I'm not gonna say it should be the bar for everybody. I'm just saying that is a great uh starting point to have success. Um and then also, you know, the thing with with um I think duck hunting and anything, obviously, this is a duck a duck hunting podcast, is I honestly don't see anything wrong with being competitive, being respectful in doing that. And if that's something that bothers you, you know, when because I've heard people say, well, why does duck hunting have to be competitive? And it's like, you know, guys, I think that's anything. You know, you're in your workplace, you're competing for a promotion against somebody. You might not have to worry about that other individual, but you are technically probably competing. Or if if and and if you have a business like I do, you you you think in your head that you're competing with somebody. Well, you kind of are, but the reality, guys, is it's ourself. You're competing with yourself. All the promotions and everything that I've ever gotten. Once this is 10 years ago, once I fell out of like, I'm not competing against him or them, or I don't need to look that direction. I don't need to look at their lawn. What can I do to make my lawn greener? I know it's a cliche, but it's real. What can I do here? Let me look around to make my setup perfect, and let's see what happens. And guys, I'm here to tell you it's worked out. I've done that with life, relationships, and now duck hunting. How do I make myself better? How do I stay in shape so that if I do have to walk in longer, it's not a hassle, I'm not angry that I have to walk, I'm out of shape, tired, guys. Right? And some people might say walking or jogging is not working out, guys. I'm here to tell you, when you go to walk public land, like I do right now, and I boat in too as well, but I'm just saying if you stay kind of active and in shape, and you're, you know, I walk 15, 17 miles a week just because I want to. When it comes to duck season, I don't feel like it's a burden. If, hey man, I got beat to like all these spots, I gotta walk to that mile and a half spot or a mile spot. You can get it done. So, anyways, I know I'm hopping all over, but you know, those are just some things that I wanted to talk about when we talk about State of the Union and how I'm feeling about what I'm listening to. This this can't be real, guys. It really can't be. Um, I think we need to just absolutely stop with these expectations. And here's the thing, when I say that, I don't even know what those expectations are. Right? Because we can all have different expectations. I totally get that. But when somebody says they have a crappy year, I really dive into and I listen to their words and say, okay, well, why was it crappy? I talked about earlier. Well, I had two I had my second kid, I'm having my third, and okay, well, maybe duck honey wasn't that crappy. Maybe life's just heavy right now. Right, and this is your opportunity to vent and vent to that because you don't want to vent towards that guys. That's fine. You know, life does get heavy, but separate that stuff. So, anyways, you know that that's just a a a big one for me. Um and I don't think any of us can avoid that in life, so why not just you know, accept a little bit your destiny for that year? Maybe it's just that month, that season, the next month, right? You we're even talking about um water situations. Situations. That's a tough one, I will admit, with anybody, because I don't know your region, so I'm not talking to anybody in that region because I only hunt out west, three or four, or five states. And you know what? It's a dry climate out here lately. One of the warmest wet uh winters on on record for my state. Um and that makes you go farther into the marsh. It makes you look for places that do have water, it concentrates people. I totally get all that, but I'm willing to have all that, and the trade-off be I can just go whenever I want. Seven days a week, all hunting season, I can go when I want, where I want. I would trade that for a down year. And I think what happens is you have two or three dry years, okay? Once again, not going to argue with that. But then we get reactive. When I say we, the hunters, the states, everybody gets reactive and they want to make a permanent solution for temporary times. We do that, I'm not we do that with everything. If you just look at the totality of what's going on on planet Earth. If we can, as duck hunting community, just stop that. Somehow trick yourself, because I'm here to tell you duck hunting is an amazing positive in people's life as well. And so that's what I'm here to talk about. What an opportunity to get out with your family and friends and take your son out, enjoy the outdoors, shoot a few birds, or don't. Right? And if you want to be successful, guys, it's it's like anything else. Time, effort, consistency. And even with that, nothing's a guarantee. And so that's what I really enjoy and obsessed with in life and duck hunting. Is being consistent and then feeling okay and and good with the outcome because of it. Hey, I gave it my all. I really did. Spent everything I could, all the budget I put out for it. I scouted, I I hunted, and man, I didn't kill as many as I wanted to, but it was still a dang good year. And so I'm just gonna keep kind of regurgitating that as I talk throughout this podcast because it's so it was so powerful for me to get this one out because I just was I'm just hearing so many of the opposite of that. And I'm and and now that I'm kind of dialed in on you know the wanting to get better and grow this podcast, sometimes you have to be a little bit bold and talk about these things. And um, I want to be bold in a positive way. So that's another thing. Um I'm gonna hop to the State of the Union for Duck Dependent. Guys, I am just so excited and thankful I've had uh a tremendous amount of people reaching out and giving me some real good feedback and and keeping it 100 with me, saying, hey, good job, or hey, maybe you should try this or add this. And I'm very appreciative of that, guys. And DuckDependent.shop is doing amazing for just the outreach of friends and family getting there, and I'm selling, and I'm thankful for some of those hat sales. And for me personally, I'm always working with vendors to try to find the best hat material, the best blanks, you know, and and I'm really working with people here, um, obviously here in the states, stateside. Um, you know, I'm not saying that's the end-all, be all the most important thing, but I I really strive to do that, and I really uh strive to get a price on some of those on my hats that are reasonable and that somebody can buy and wear and wear it proudly, and then I just want to reemphasize uh what DuckDependent means as a brand for me and for the team, and it's simply positive, good, better, best, always uplifting people, our teammates, um doing the right thing when no one's looking, guys. I can hear to I'm here to tell you that I our team and myself, I take pride in that. I want to do the right thing, I want to make sure all rules will are followed, wherever state you are, whatever the regulation is, because at the end of the day, I want to make sure that I got my birds right, fair, and I think you can live with that, and it makes you feel so much better. So I just I want to echo that. I know you guys know that. I know you guys are great dudes and great stand-up people out there, but I just don't cut corners when it comes to rules and regulations and getting birds the right way and getting landowner permission or public land, whatever you're doing, guys. If you do it the right way, you live with the result. And I definitely don't want to come across as talking at anybody, but that's what I live by. And I hope that we can, as duck hunting nation, um, improve on that. And so for me, guys, I'll say this. I think we can get there. I think a lot of us need to, including myself, I do it all the time, check your ego, check your insecurity, and just understand that the times are not forever, okay? The dry seasons not forever, the young families not forever, the promotion, the grind at work, whatever you do is not forever. It's a season or two. Um, and I know how important those are because they're very important to me. But I think if you look at the big picture, I look back at it now. Um, and you know, it's been a long it's been a long uh duck hunting career, and I look at some of the ups and downs, and I think about it right, you know, right now when I talked about some of my times about going to school and having nobody to hunt with and people really being inconsistent and uh not thoughtful of your time. Guys, it was a season or two in my whole life, and I've got to hunt a lot of seasons, and I look at those times and I spin it to a positive. I honestly do. I was like, wow, you know what? I got a lot out of that. I got to really go on some solo hunts and just enjoy the time with my dog and see, find out some things. Are you really a good caller? Because you're by yourself. Are you a really good scouter? You just kind of find out some of your skills. You get more strategic when you hunt solo. And there is something really gratifying about just taking your boat and your dog and going on a solo hunt once in a while. So a lot of those things I think could happen to you and turn negative, uh, but they haven't for me. Um, it's all positive. And so the big picture on this guy is State of the Union. Please uplift duck hunting. It's okay to compete. It's okay to get your butt kicked. You tip your cap and you move on, guys. That's just what it is, you know, and and um I think I want to talk a little bit about that um is public land. I think that's the majority of what everyone's talking about. And I think the reality is all of us need to self-evaluate and check and say, hey, you know, you didn't get up early enough and you got beat, well, I don't understand the issue with that, you know, and and to me it's the ultimate place to duck hunt is where you can get up and if you uh want to sleep in the marsh at 2 a.m. or midnight, or if you want to get there right before light, the ability to do all that is amazing to me. And if you don't want to do that and get up at two or three o'clock in the morning, I still don't have an issue with that. That that's up to you for that day, but but don't let that turn it into what we talked about earlier. Well, now it's a draw hunt everywhere. You gotta pull a pull ball to get your blind, because I promise you, once it goes to that, it never goes back the other way. So what I would just say to all of us, it's okay to get your butt kicked. And I th I I hear a lot of people say, well, I know that, but not in the moment you don't, because this is what prompts uh those negative thoughts and the negative feeling about the area and the state, the whole duck hunting community. And I'm here to tell you whether you've had good encounters or bad encounters in public land, I just don't think those snapshots should paint the picture forever. It's just like life when you're out there and somebody cuts you off in traffic. That's one second, one moment in your 30-minute drive, or think about your driving career. Who cares? Right? So if you go to a mars on Sunday and you get beat to your spot, or someone's too close to you and they're crowding, and you have a conversation and they say, hey, well, I'm not moving. Well, hey guys, that probably sucks for that morning, for that three-hour batch, for that whatever two-hour batch or four-hour batch. But it's not gonna happen every single time. And if it does for you, then that could be a frustrating time, and maybe we transition to a different part of that wildlife management, a different part of your state, a different, and that's what I'm talking about, the ability to be flexible like that. I think it's an amazing time if you don't have any water in your state and you can hop over and be respectful and go hunt in another state and give back to their community. That's another thing that I don't want it to be lost either, before I before I go and forget about it. Guys, when we travel and we get to hunt other people's states, there's so many awesome local businesses, so many places that I've eaten at, local mom and pop burger shops, um, a local, you know, a local repair shop that I've had to use, or I'm looking for auto parts. There's so many places, hotels that I've used in my lifetime traveling, just out west. Um, we love it. We live it. We I I meet people there, the owners are working there, we just have great conversation, they're so thankful, they're like, oh yeah, we love it. You know, it's hunting season. We guess, guys, I don't want to lose that. I think the big picture is if we start restricting state to state and doing all this, those businesses go away all because we were upset we couldn't get a duck that day. And so my mindset is good, better, best. I've probably said it ten times, but I want to just set that home. We are all go, we are all positive. I'm absolutely obsessed with duck hunting, the grind, this the brand, everything. And I want to lift up everybody. I've I've talked to so many people recently since I've started this and putting videos out. And I've had a little bit of some negative comments. Guys, it doesn't even bother me. It's it's their perspective and their thought. It's not gonna, it's not gonna uh affect anything that I do or say. Um, and so it's just so much easier for me to just roll with it and and be and be positive and grind it out, guys. So with that, I know I've hopping all over, but the State of the Union for me is all good times. I'm getting ready to go on a turkey hunt. It's been the first time I've turkey hunted in 20 years. I'm gonna have another podcast about that, so I'm excited about that. I'm in the off-season prep, the wager clean, the decoys, and all that. I'm gonna have lots of episodes of that this year, but I wanted to address some of the state of the union with the duck hunting stuff, guys. Get out of the negativity, stay positive, hit me up at any, talk to me about it. If you want to be a guest on this and say, hey, Dion, I heard you, but I'm in a state that has no water, I'm in a state that's restricting. Reach out to me. Deon DuckDependent on Instagram, DuckDependent. Um, on Instagram, reach out, TikTok, Deon DuckDependent. Let's have a conversation. I'll have you on. I'd love to talk to anybody about it. And I'm not, I don't want to call anyone out specifically. I just want to have a conversation, a positive conversation, because I think if you just limit some of those things that I talked about and just go hunt, enjoy the day, I think it'll all work out, guys. So with that, I'm so pumped up about this podcast. I can't wait to get the next one out. But before I go, once again, the partners that make this thing go, duckdependent.shop, guys. Go get your hats. If you subscribe, your first checkout's 15% off. Um, I've got tons of hats going right now. Go check that out. Retay USA, the baddest inertia shotgun on planet Earth, Les Schwab tires, good, better best. The best warranty in the tire game, Les Schwab tires. And then Flight Day Ammunition, Max Payload Steel. What a great company. Making premium products. Guys, I absolutely obsessed with that steel shot. It was an absolute hammer this year, guys. And I'll catch you on the next one.