Limb Junkies – Out on a Limb

Episode 6: Vermont Connection

Limb Junkies Season 1 Episode 6

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Ian and Bobby bring on their Vermont hunting buddy Chad for the first time to tell the story of how a chance introduction through Ian's wife's family turned into one of the most meaningful friendships Limb Junkies has made. They walk through the whole origin — from that first spring trip to the Northeast Kingdom where Bobby doubled up on Jakes and Ian spent four days chasing pressured long beards through cow pastures, to Chad and his son making the trip down to Virginia to fill their freezers with deer. Then Ian breaks down his second Vermont Turkey trip in full detail: the dairy farm bird on day one, the heartbreaker long beard that skirted them at 70 yards on day two, a perfect morning that went cold on day three, and the final-day chase through cornfields and rock walls that ended with two birds on the wall and cigars lit. Along the way Chad shares what Turkey hunting in the Northeast Kingdom is really like — late-season timing, a sea of Jakes, birds that won't come off roost in the rain, land access that works nothing like Virginia — and Ian admits he may not hunt quite like the locals up there.

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Speaker 2

Welcome to Out on the Limb with the Limb Junkies, recovery, resilience, and the outdoors. We believe in the natural world as a therapy like no other, and we're here to prove it. Whether you're tethered in a hunting saddle, pitching lures into deep cover or set up on a roosted gobbler, you're in the right place. This is a space for anyone who's found healing in the woods, forging fishing, hunting, and all of those wild things in between. We're building something here and we want you with us, so let's gear up and get into it.

All right, so today we wanted to paint you guys a picture of how it is that we have a connection to Vermont and I know that you guys have seen our videos and you've heard us talk about our buddy Chad from Vermont. So I figured what better idea than have him on here and kinda introduce him to you guys. Hello everybody. It's nice to be on. Yep. looking forward to doing this. And you know, maybe more in the future too. Yeah. When you come down in the spring, we'll have to do one with me, you and Bob sitting around talking about the hunt. Yep. But, so I wanted to dive into how me and Chad met. So my connection to Vermont is through my wife. Some of her family is from the Vermont area, and years ago, we talked about going up to Vermont. It's something that she grew up doing every year. They'd go up to Vermont in the spring or the summer. So, her grandfather that frequents up there and has a house up there mentioned that his handyman, was a big hunter. And you never know how these kind of introductions are gonna go. so anyways, we head up there for the first spring and Bobby joined me and we had done some e scouting and looked at public lands and all this stuff and we were excited and prepared to have to work our butts off to try to find some birds. So we get up there after a long drive and her grandfather has Chad come over when we meet. He seems like a great guy. Immediately we hit it off and I kind of tell him my plan, especially about the public lands and he kinda looks at me and smirks like, you crazy. Especially. Yeah, that was, kind of different for us up here. 'cause we don't, you know, our lands aren't really pretty much all public. Even the private land is public up here, unless it's, you know, posted or normally you can get permission on. Just about anywhere you go up here. So it was, that was a little different. Yeah. For us to, to hear the, to work on the go, go on public land. Especially the piece of public, I told you I was looking at, you were like, oh, you don't want to go in there. Our public lands are pretty wild, so you, you have to really scout quite a bit and, and, do a lot of walking around. So yeah, it's a little bit different than down there, that's for sure. and this is also northeast of Vermont. This is not like southern Vermont by any means. I mean, you guys are what, 30 minutes from the Canada border? Yep. We're in the, actually they call it the Northeast Kingdom is what they call it in our area. Yeah. It's up there, bud. So it's still wild and still, you know, natural and up this way. Yeah, it's beautiful. So we go up there. That first year, I didn't know what to expect, but super grateful that Chad was there and you were able to take us around and you're like, you know, I got a couple spots and I remember we rode around that first day in the evening. we saw a bunch of birds and fields and you took us around to a couple different spots and we got real excited for the next morning. And that first trip, was awesome for me because The landscape is so much different than we'd have down here in Virginia. And like Chad mentioned, we could hunt just about anywhere. I mean, Chad's a very courteous guy, so he would still knock on doors or we were hunting land that he's already got permission on previously. But really, the whole world is your kingdom up there. You just, you kind of use whatever land you can see, It was a blast. You know, Bob ends up shooting two Jakes and, he's tagged out. And then we spent three or four days, that first trip, just trying to find a long beard. And I think Chad thought I was nuts, the first time I ever met him and I'm dragging him across a, a cow pasture trying to find a long beard. Yeah. You guys had come out, what? That was later in our season, like last. Yeah, last week wasn't it? Yeah. The first time we came up there, it was Memorial Day week. Yeah. So I think it was like the last week of your season. by that time, all of our birds, because of the land situation, have been hunted by everybody that. Can pick up a Turkey call and drive around. And so they're, they're real skittish, real call shy. And, of course, by that time, you know, the, the hens are starting to set, so they're, they're coming out of their breeding season. So that was it. It it's tougher that time of year. Yeah. And that was the one thing that I noticed, like right off the bat, is that the turkeys didn't seem super interested in the whole breeding cycle at all. I think that first trip those Jakes that came in and Bob shot a couple of 'em, they gobbled like hell. But for the most part, I don't remember much gobbling that first trip unless it was on the limb. They just weren't acting like spring turkeys at that point. Yeah. that's what we've always talked about up here, that, our season seems to be a little bit later than what we think it should be. Yeah. Because, usually April, probably about the same time of your guys', they seem to be more. responsive to calls and whatnot. So about middle of our season, it's tough to even get a bird to gobble on the limb. they're all done with it. Yeah. I'm not sure what the plan is or how they figure that out. Maybe. they don't wanna shoot too many birds, Well, you guys have a healthy population, that's for sure. Yes, we definitely have a healthy population, but it always seems to be that they'll be Strat in, mid April to about, maybe first or second week of May is really what we see is hardest in this area. Yeah. And your guys' season is the month of May. It's typically the 1st of May to the last of May, correct. It's correct. Yeah. And then our youth weekend, which is actually our best weekend for, the kiddos. Yeah. it's the last weekend of April. And that seems to be their peak Of the breeding season here. Yeah. Well, I remember too, you guys just having so many Jakes and that first trip, especially like just the behavior of the birds was so different than I was used to. You know, a lot of Jakes, the Toms didn't seem real eager to breed. but you would just see, you know, groups of birds moving around together. Like I remember telling you, in our area, these Jakes would be beaten up on this. Tom, if this was the case down here, and you're like, no, this is pretty much normal. You see nine Jakes walking around with two long beards and they just don't have a care in the world for each other. I don't know if it's, definitely different. down your way, whether there's not as many hens or there's enough hens or what it is, but, I mean, you'll see. 10, 15 Jakes together sometimes and a couple long beards they'll just be wandering around and, I don't know if it's maybe all the long beards end up getting shot the first couple days and that's what we've got left because a lot of those hunters, don't wanna shoot Jakes. So, you know, that's what we end up with. But I do know one thing. The long beards that you guys have left by the time I come up are usually really tough to hunt. And that's kind of proven itself the last two trips. but for me, I think that makes it fun. The first trip was great, especially the fishing aspect. You've come down here a couple times now and you see the difference in fishing and it's hard for me to get real revved up about fishing, but up there, man, wow. I think if I lived up there, I would be a fishing nut too, because you guys just have this, just the broad spectrum of species you guys have and the waterways that are available to you guys. outta that first trip, not only was the targe hunting surreal and definitely a stark difference than what I'm used to, but the fishing was incredible. Yeah, we're, we're really blessed up here with, a lot of access to, state and federal lands. And, all of our waterways are basically federal or state. So they have to put in, public access for all of us. And, we're really blessed to be able to just. basically drive anywhere and jump out and hit a fishing hole and go to the next spot. And yeah, we have a lot of lakes and rivers that, you don't really have down there. it's kind of different in your area. Yeah. Yeah, it was cool., Even your, what you guys call Brooks, but which is a small creek to us. you guys have native trout just running around down there. So that first trip I think really solidified everything, man. It was from that point on, we were kind of meant to be buddies, I think. And, You guys ended up coming down here. That following fall. Because that was another crazy thing I realized when I was up there is like we spent I think five days up there, the first trip. And I think I saw one deer and I was like, man, you guys, where's your deer at? Yeah. We, in this part of the country we have, A lot of land. So if there are deer there, you don't see 'em very often. And our population is, is, not like down there. Of course, we have hard winters up here and a lot of predators, so, it's, it's quite a bit different for our deer population. Yeah. So you really, you really have to work for 'em. Yeah. So after that first trip up there, I was like, Hey man, why don't you come down to Virginia? We got more deer than you can shake, stick at. Yeah. It's, you guys are. Definitely blessed down there with your deer population. I don't know if it's a blessing or a curse now for you guys, but Yeah, I, I definitely have a lot more, I don't complain about our population. I wouldn't, that's why I come down there. So you ended up coming down here that following fall and,, you brought Josh with you and. WI think that was a fun trip too. When you guys came down., I know that was a little bit of a shell shock for you guys too. 'cause I'm like, so I'm gonna put you in a tree stand and you're gonna sit there for four hours and you're like, what? Our dear season up here is usually in the cold months, you'll get up and it'll be zero out. And to go sit in a tree stand for more than an hour or two is a real challenge. So to be able to go out and just. Sit in a tree stand and see all nature while you're sitting there for hours on end is pretty exciting for a northern boy It was pretty good. I think we were down there, we were gonna be down there like a week and a half, but we ended up, leaving early. 'cause Josh, he likes to go to Maine that week too, Yeah, I remember that. He ended up shooting a nice buck in Maine that year, if I remember correctly. He did, yeah. Very nice year. Yep. Yeah. So then after that you guys came down here for your first spring and you brought Cody with you. and we had a good trip that weekend. I mean, you guys only came down for an extended weekend, if I remember correctly, yeah, I think we got in like what Friday night? We hunted Saturday and Sunday and then we left Monday, something like that. I think we hunted Monday morning and then you guys headed home maybe? Yeah. Yeah. Maybe Monday morning too, We were able to get your boy a nice bird up in the Shenandoah Valley. That was a great morning. I don't think you can ask for a better hunt, a better setting to shoot a bird, especially a Virginia Bird. So that was a blast. Yeah, that was pretty amazing to have, the mountain in the background there. Sun coming up over the valley on the other side, so that was pretty exciting. I know our mountains are like foothills to you guys, but you got to see what our mountains look like. And I guess the funny story too, that is worth telling is we shoot that bird, And we took our time with it too. I think we enjoyed the moment. We weren't in any rush. And, I had a good morale mushroom spot, out there in the valley that we decided we were gonna go hit on the way home and we're in the middle of the national forest. No cell service whatsoever, and my vehicle throws a belt in the middle of the National forest. So we had kind of a panic moment somehow we ended up making it off that mountain all the way down to the nearest town and ended up having $500 tow bill from there back to my shop so that was an adventure. it was a good thing that it went on top of the mountains there, so I think we coasted it pretty much all the way, didn't we? Yeah, and it wasn't a short distance. I feel like we went at least five miles. It was a long way, you know, luckily that vehicle was a diesel and had a huge battery But it all worked out. It was just funny. The circumstances of the day was, was very comical, especially we get back to my shop and my wife shows up and the Subaru wagon and we all had to shove in it. And Cody's in the very back, the hatch part, just cuddled with his bird on the way back to the house. Yeah. Well, you know, that's what makes memories too, when you have something out of the ordinary, happen or anything like that. 'cause if it was just a regular hunt, you'd probably put it in the back, back corner and forget about it. That's what brings it out to life, We'll never forget that. So needless to say, I think we've become pretty tight at this point. it's become pretty much an annual thing that you guys come down here in the fall and try to fill your freezer with some deer meat. 'cause we got tons of deer down here. And, likewise, I like to come up there in the spring because our season ends and your season's still going on Late spring, I feel like is, at least from my experience, which isn't very vast, I think I'd rather be up there in the late spring than any other time. But I think one of these days I will make it up there and try to track some deer with you guys in the frigid temperatures, but it just didn't happen this year. Yeah, I think that probably every Southerner should try that just at least once and see if they like it or not. Then they'll probably decide that it's not quite for them. Yeah. Our deer population is sparse in this area, and you have to travel a long ways. But fortunately, the land up here allows us to do that at this point in time. Yeah, that we can travel for miles and miles and not see anybody, any houses, maybe a few logging roads. And, you can find that, stud of a buck if you want. you just gotta work real hard for it. Yeah. And just chase 'em down. So, It's so amazing to me that the turkeys survive and seem to thrive up there though, like you would think, man, just with the harsh winters and, we were just talking before we started recording that you guys have been below freezing since before Thanksgiving, and somehow the turkeys. Not only survive, but come spring, you guys got birds everywhere. And the deer just don't seem to multiply like the birds do. But you know, I'm not complaining. It's just one of those weird things that the wildlife is so different depending on where you are in the country. Yeah. and I think turkeys, they're adaptable. They like bird feeders. Of course, we feed our winter birds up here, so you'll have a flock of 50 turkeys at your bird feeder We still have dairy farms in this area, beef farms. So, they like to get on the corn fields and the hay fields and all that, that are still being worked. So we're thankful to have dairy farmers up here and beef farmers that let us, hunt on their land. I think your bird, last year was on a dairy farm? Yep. One of 'em. And, He was pretty excited that we got it and I'm looking forward to go there again 'cause there's more birds there. So Yeah, they they don't, they don't take it as tough, I think as deer. 'cause you know, deer are browsers and grass and the buds and stuff, so. They, they can't just walk into a, manure pit and pick the corn out and, you know, walk up to a bird feeder. They're a little bit more skittish. So I think that's what's helped our turkeys, survive the, northern winters up here a little bit better. Yeah. Well, I guess that's a good segue into kind of the main point of, having you on here today. I had an idea when we started this podcast, The videos, tell the majority of the story. But, there's so much more to 'em than the nine minute video that we put out about a harvest. So, this year there was two videos from last spring up there in Vermont, That we waited to post this season before the season came in. So last week, the first video was posted and that's the dairy farm bird that you just spoke of. And then we have another video that's gonna be posting this week, which was the consecutive days that I was up there hunting. And so I figured, it'd be best to have you on because you were there. And, we can kind of run through the whole hunt of last year. We came up a week earlier. 'cause I remember you saying or Josh was saying like, Hey, you should probably come a week earlier than you did. the first year it might be a little bit better. So instead of waiting until Memorial Day weekend, we came up the weekend before that. I think we drove up to 18th of May. So we were there 19th, 20th, 21st and 22nd. And honestly, I don't think it was much different. The bird seemed just as uninterested as they did the first trip, but it was just me and you that trip. Bob wasn't with us. And don't get me wrong, I think the more the merrier. I think Turkey hunting is really about comradery. It's very different than deer hunting in that aspect. But the first trip, it was me, you and Josh and Bobby, and you guys had your nephew come along the one day which is great. Those memories will last forever. but I think, just being me and you, we were able to kind of hunt a little bit harder. I ended my season in Vermont the previous year chasing those birds in that cow pasture because we drive around and that's what's so crazy about hunting in Vermont compared to Virginia, is if you're not on birds, you just drive around and you try to find them, we drove around that first trip and I remember. We pulled up to that cow pasture, I think it was the second to last day. And remember that bird was sitting there strutting in the field, and we thought it was a decoy. About 150 yards up in the field. He was just sitting there like, a decoy for, 20 minutes, 30 minutes. we pulled over on the side of the road because there was a flock of birds in the middle of this cow pasture, and it's elevated, so the road is lower than this pasture, and it's a steady hill that goes up to like a wood line, and about halfway up the hill in the middle of this pasture. It is probably eight or nine birds and they're all kind of moving around. But the strutter is frozen as can be like, like Chad said, for almost 20 minutes it seems like. And we're sitting there, me, you and Bob in the truck. Like that's gotta be a decoy. And we're looking in the wood line for a hunter sitting there and we're like, this. can't be real. That was nuts. So eventually he moved and we realized, holy crap, that is a strutter. It's a long beard. He is just. Content sitting in the middle of that field in full strut. So we ended our season that year chasing those birds in that cow pasture. So when I went up last year, I told Chad I know where I wanna go first. 'cause I, I had it out for those birds. We hunted them hard. So we started there and, I kind of had a plan in mind. Based on how those birds acted the year previously. So I said, Chad, you know, I want to go there. I think if we set up in this hedgerow that separates the two pastures,, I think that we have a good shot. And I remember getting up in there and guys, this pasture's not easy to navigate by any means. You gotta. Go through a ditch, crawl underneath a pasture fence, like a barbed wire fence, and then you're walking across this. Deep rutted pasture for, I don't know, 300, 400 yards until you get to this headrow where we're setting up. It's not easy walking by any means. No. the cows, those are beef cows in there and they've got it all rutted up from, just walking through the mud and in the wet pasture. So your feet are squishing and ankles are bending and everything else to get up into this spot that He had planned out from the year before. Yep. And it's definitely a muck boot spot. And what's funny too is the very last day of the year, previous, I brought my wife with me and she forgot, I forgot her boots at home. I'm sorry, I should correct myself. this poor girl runs across this pasture with me, before daylight in Crocs, Yeah. So she's a trooper. She is. She's one of a kind. I was determined, because just like the year previous, there's four long beards that frequent this pasture. And like from all the other scouting that we do in that area, you'll find one long beard and a ton of Jakes and, But this pasture, there's four long beards, and they were there the previous year. They were there last year. And it's like, man, these birds have to be killable. right. That proved otherwise again. But, we started our morning there and the birds were roosted in a different spot, so our plan was just completely asinine. It did not work out. we heard a lot of gobbling. They were gobbling their brains out that first morning. Yeah, they were pretty receptive to your calling. Yeah, that's for sure. turkeys are habitual and they have their habit and if they're not really excited about it, they'll just follow their same path every day Unfortunately, their path is, To those two houses with bird feeders and then down to the manure pit down behind the barn. And we just weren't in the right spot to get 'em to come We called, you know, we had a couple Jakes come in though. Yeah. And we had that hen come in, remember she walked in and she mouthed off for 20 minutes and she was as close as like 10 yards to us. I guess we were hidden pretty well. Yeah, she never spooked and she was kind of miserable to us, so, yeah. But that was cool. At least we got to see a hen come right in and she mouthed off the whole time. Got some good footage of that. It's always fun for me to see a live hen talking because it always, educates you on. Like, okay, if I'm gonna call, this is a good example of what I should sound like. so I think we ended up leaving there. Because I had learned from the year previous that don't spend my entire time trying to hunt these birds 'cause they could care less about me. So we ended up leaving there and if I remember correctly, we just drove around for most of the morning. We went and got a biscuit and kind of just enjoyed the morning. Eventually it started raining and you wanted to take me over to the dairy farm where your daughter worked. Yeah. I don't know how it is in, Virginia, but when you have a front coming in or possible rain, it's a little tougher to get them to, respond to calling and they'll hang out in the trees longer too. We've seen them hang out till 10, 11 o'clock when it's raining up here. I don't know if that's a standard thing down there or just a Turkey thing or what it is, but, I knew there was a couple birds over on that dairy farm that Ed had pressure and, a couple buddies I know tried it and were defeated and I had told 'em that, seeing how they were defeated, that I was gonna go show 'em how to do it. we ventured over there and what'd we do? We walked out through the cows and the calves, and I think we scoped it down in the field. Right? Yeah. What happened? Yeah. And that was surreal too. I mean, I'm sure I've been close to cows in my life at some point, Chad's like, here we're gonna go check out this place. There's, been some birds here and we pull up and there's just cows everywhere. it's like a little barn right next to the road. And it's a dairy farm so there's tons of people walking around and cows mooing and we get out and I'm just like. there's cows in front of us. Like we're trying to walk through this area to get to a high point where we can glass down into this little cornfield, and there's cows right there. You must think I'm crazy. all the stuff that I put you through, it's just. For you guys. I've come to expect it at this point. The look on your face while we were walking out there was, kind of funny. Yeah. So we walked through all these cows and I just remember thinking, man, my kids would love this. So we walked through these cows and get to this high point and he's like, you know, down in that cornfield and we're talking, I mean, it's an easy 300 yards from this high point. Down to this cornfield and we walk out and sure enough there's a bunch of birds in this little cornfield, and from where we're standing, the cornfield looks small., I would guess it's probably 60 yards wide by maybe a hundred yards long. But we can tell there's a strutter and there's, at least six or seven other birds, from that distance. I don't have a spotting scope, but just from by nose I can tell there's a strutter and I can tell there's a bunch of other birds. So. Chad's like, let's go back to the truck. there's a snowmobile path that comes into the backside to that cornfield. And at this point, your guys' cutoff time. Is noon right? Or is it one. It's noon. Okay. Yeah, so at this point it's like 10 45, so we don't have a whole lot of time. So we race back to the truck, get through the cows and get back to the truck. we drive down the road like a mile or two and just park on the side of the road. And you can't see this field at all, but. Chad's very confident, Hey, there's a snowmobile path, but we gotta walk across this fallow field. Across this creek that's, probably knee deep and 20 yards wide. Maybe I could be exaggerating. It wasn't that wide, but I remember it was somewhat deep. 'cause it was flowing. It was pretty deep. It was over our boots, I think. Yeah. So we were, and it was misting at this point too, so we're already wet. But we make this long trek, man, and It paid off. We're coming up out of this snowmobile path that goes through the woods and this wood section is on the downhill side of this cornfield. It actually sets up perfect from a strategic standpoint when you think about it. So we inch our way up to this cornfield. We know that they're in the field at some point, but we don't know where. I mean, it's been 20 minutes at this point since we glassed them. So luckily on the edge of this corn field is a bunch of younger pines, so we're able to creep through these younger pines and get it set up in a position where we can see out into that field pretty good. But we're hidden. We're very hidden. so we get to the edge of this field and I can just barely see, 'cause the field kind of rolls and I can just barely see some birds on the tip of that field. I'm able to do some calling and I can see the Jakes running around and they're kind of fighting with each other and everything. But I can't see the long beard. But every once in a while we would hear 'em gobble. So I'm doing some light calling and he would answer, every once in a while, but slowly but surely, I think we peaked the interest of the Jakes because the Jakes all came up over the rise and again when we glass these birds, I didn't know that they were all Jakes. I mean, you can't tell from that distance in Binos. I thought they was a bunch of hens and a strutting Tom. So we're in position and we're trying to get these birds interested and it's just one after another. Jake, Jake, Jake, another Jake. And I'm like, geez. it's like Jake's are an obstacle. Jake's are an obstacle in Vermont. Yeah. Like I said, when we came down there, we didn't, I don't think we saw Jake in Virginia and we're so used to seeing them. Yep. And a lot of times that's, you can get those Jakes that you get 'em fighting, then they jump around like they were doing and get 'em excited and then you can get the long beards to follow them around. Yep. And that's pretty much what happened. You know, we were set up in a good position. Our hide was perfect. There's no way That they could have spotted us, you know, in hindsight too, I wish I would've waited a little bit longer and let 'em come in closer. But we get set up and I'm calling and you hear a gobble every once in a while, but I can't see the long beard. but these Jakes, they get interested in me calling and they slowly but surely make their way over the rise and start making their way toward us. And I think the long beard was like, Nope, I'm not having that. If there's a hen over there, that's my hand. and the footage is not great. You know, again, hindsight, I should have readjusted the camera or got closer or whatever. But they come up over the rises and the long beard follows and he ends up gobbling right out there in the field at like 40 yards. And it was pretty clear to me at that point which one was the long beard and I was able to, take a shot at him and it all worked out. But I had spent the entire Virginia season without tagging a bird of my own. So this was the 19th of May, and I finally shot a bird. And he was, a beautiful bird. Farm raised, Very healthy. Colorful. it's a big bird. And I remember something really cool that I envy that you guys do is you have a tradition of taking everything to the game Check station. So you're like, I think it'd be really cool if we take it down there and, we get it weighed and we check it in person. It's kind of a tradition and it ends up in the books, of everybody else that's checked birds in that year. They usually do a list and you get to sign your name next to it and see what your buddies have got you know, I said tradition and I think that's cool as crap, man. I wish we would do something like that around here. I just think we have so many hunters and it's just gotten to be such a big thing that, you don't really have places like that, at least to run the area of Virginia that I'm in. I shoot that bird and again, we take our time, we enjoy the moment. I had brought cigars and of course the lighter was outta fluid, so we couldn't smoke a cigar that day. But we hiked back to the truck and we had to cross the creek again, and that was really cool to get all that footage as far as what we had to do to get to where we were. And we get to the way station and. You guys will see this in the video, you could hang a moose on this fricking scale, giant thing with a digital scale that you can hang a moose on. We get my bird up on there and we had talked about like, I don't know how much it weighs what's the average long beard way up there you think? So I'm gonna say the average is right around 16, 17 pounds. Yeah. For, for decent birds. You know, you, you, you push 2022. That's a, that's a big bird for us around here. Yeah. You know, we've shot long beards that, have never been on, a farm around houses like way out in the woods state land. They were 15 pounds, 16 pounds, you know, but they had nine, 10 inch beards. Yeah. So it just, all depends on. Where you're at, normally around farms you average like 1920 pounds. Yeah. For, for a good, for decent, good, decent bird. Yeah. So we go and we weight and it was a 21 pound bird. I felt pretty good about that. And we worked hard for that bird too, it was no simple task to, make a large loop around it, get to where we needed to be. And I think the stars aligned too, that we just were in the right place at the right time and made the moves that we needed to make and didn't hesitate. I think we both kind of share the sentiment that when it comes to chasing turkeys. You really want the game. we don't want to deer hunt turkeys. We don't want to just sit back and wait for 'em to walk by. But, I think in this case, and even with the second bird to a degree, they responded, we influenced them to make the moves that they did. They can't all be gobbling coming through the woods, down the gun barrel. But, I feel in this case that, Felt like an earned Turkey. Yeah, it, it, it's definitely a more enjoyable hunt when you actually have to work for it. you know, nothing should come easy, when you take game. Exactly. And, Just being able to hear a bird once or twice gobble and, with a shotgun, you gotta get 'em into a certain range. So even if they're not gobbling, you can convince them to get in with that range and still take them, sometimes it's, like you said, it's not quite as fun when they gobble a hundred times and, They're strutting around and whatnot, but you still influence 'em enough to get within range to make a decent shot. And, it's still a lot of fun. And again, we're dealing with birds that have been pressured and hunted already for a couple weeks. we went fishing that day in the afternoon and caught some small mouth out on the river and that was great. So day one was a blast. we get up there and we're able to find a long beard and get on it, and we had some success on the river. I remember it rained like crap the rest of that day too. And at this point I wanted to try to get. You a bird. I wanted you to shoot one and day two. I don't remember where we started the day. Probably one of your spots that you frequent and we had no luck in the morning. Seems like a tradition that we'll start driving around and we'll end up going to get a biscuit at the country store at around 9 30, 10 o'clock. It's kind of like a morale booster. Like, all right, we. We've got no action going on. It's time for a breakfast sandwich. Fill the tank out. Yep. So to drink. Yep. So we drove around day two, we found the birds down there in that cornfield by the river. Yes. We drove through there. And they were in one of the neighbor's backyards. I remember we drove by a couple times and we started thinking about like, how would we get to them? And we're looking on Onyx and I noticed below that neighbor's backyard was a big cornfield that almost went down to the river. And I was like, Chad, we gotta get down there. So we find a place to park. We mosey our way down to this cornfield Where we park is way above this cornfield. So we gotta make our way down this hill and it's probably 150 yard walk from where we park to this cornfield. And we're able to skirt the edge of this gravel road in the woods. We make our way through the woods and there's a big berm that goes up before you crest that berm into the cornfield, and we're able to pop up right there. And sure enough there's a long beard at the other end of this cornfield probably 200 yards away, and he's got a hen with him. He's gobbling, he's strutting, and it's just him in one hen. We set up, I remember calling to this bird and he would respond, but he had a hen with him we watched this hen walk away from this long beard and go into the woods. We're assuming she went to nest, especially at this time of the year. And he stood out there strutting and looking our way and gobbling and he starts running right towards us. And I remember thinking like, oh man, this is it. This is gonna happen. He ends up skirting us for some reason, I still don't know what happened. He didn't see us. He wasn't spooked, yeah, he didn't like something or something just didn't tweak him enough to come in to range. I don't know what he, he was probably what, 70 yards or so? Yeah, something like that. They always seemed to hang up about 60, 70 yards. So I think, I think he saw more turkeys because we're set up on the edge of this big corn field and then It bottlenecks down and we're in the woods. We're, tucked in this, like hedge row between two corn fields but it's steep. We're standing on an embankment. I mean, this embankment is probably 45 degrees or something. and he kind of skirted us just outta range and went into the adjacent cornfield and just ran right through it. But he was stopping and strutting as he's moving. So it's not like he was spooked. he wasn't getting the heck outta dodge, but for some reason he decided he was done and you know, had we been in a different position, I think you probably could have taken a poke at him. But just the way we were set up, it was just too far. Yeah, it's possible too, because of the house up on the hill there, there might have been a dog in the yard or coyote, we've seen coyotes out, hunting. So something might have just distracted him enough to that he didn't feel comfortable. Yeah. And we ended up ending our day there. Because we sat there watching him and trying to get in position for the last hour of legal. I remember being really bummed 'cause he put on a hell of a show for us. And I thought we had a real chance, but he walked out of our lives and we called it a day and probably ended up fishing the rest of that day too. I know one of those nights, I can't remember which one it was, but we ended up down there near that cornfield, and remember we saw like 10 or 11 Jakes in that cornfield? Yes. I don't remember a single long beard being with him, but we watched. These Jakes walk through this cornfield and inevitably head to roost. they exited the cornfield toward the river and it's like, well, they're not gonna fly the river. So they're, they gotta be going to roost. But it was like 10 or 11 Jakes like completely mind boggling to me. Like, how do you have this many Jakes in one spot? I think that must have been day two. We went down there in the evening to try to roost. Because we had seen the one long beard that skirted us, and there was at least two other ones that we saw in the person's backyard. So I'm like, there's definitely long beards down here. We tried to roost, we saw all those Jakes, and it was like, holy crap, this is what we're up against. There's a ton of Jakes in here with these long beards, and we know there's some hens. We saw one And at that point in time of the season up here, they're pretty much, nesting. I'm not sure when they start nesting in Virginia, but by that time the older hens I think are sat in and, the younger hens haven't either come into it or are not, of breeding age. So it gets a little tougher during that time of year. So I think. Day three, we started out down there at that cornfield. I was like, let's get down there early and set up and it's like three cornfields, and the middle one is the one that we had experience with. The one to the left of the middle is separated by a nice hedgerow. And I remember there was like some apple trees, if I remember correctly, that were in that hedgerow. Yes. An old orchard down in there. Which another orchard, which is another great thing for turkeys. So I figured, let's get to that hedgerow that separates the two corn fields. we saw 10 Jakes go to roost in that area. We had the experience with the long beard the day before. Plus we've seen the other two long beards in the. Neighbor's backyard that was within a hundred yards. I'm like, this has to be a great spot. So we get in there early, we set up in that hedgerow. I remember it being a really awkward set too. We're like sitting halfway in apple trees and all kinds of stuff. it was a very uncomfortable set, uncomfortable with the way the hill was there. we had good coverage. a lot of times if you can't get comfortable, it's hard to sit still. But regardless, we got there plenty early. I know we got in there and I, I'm confident we didn't bump any birds getting in there. And it was crickets. It was beautiful that morning. it was a bluebird morning, sun was shining, the sun come up. Everything was great. And it was crickets. We didn't hear a single Turkey. I couldn't believe it. And we could see both corn fields. I mean, we had good visual, and I'm like, man, how? How is it possible that there was like 15 birds in these fields yesterday and on a beautiful morning, you don't see or hear a single one. you'll have that from time to time. you feel like you know what you're doing and they humble you real quick. So we started the morning there and it was an absolute dud. Like I was in disbelief that it was a dud, but it was so All right, back to the truck. Let's go get a biscuit. let's improve our spirits and we'll start making our rounds trying to locate another burn. And we drove all over the place that morning. I remember we went down to the power plant area, and we went to one of your, goose hunting spots that was near the river, and we went all over the place that morning. That was a tough morning. They just. Didn't wanna respond, but inevitably, toward the end of the day, we have to head back toward, the area that we're staying at, where you live and where I'm staying at. And we drive back by the cornfield that we started the morning at, and we see birds circling the edge of the cornfield. And I'm like, you gotta be kidding me. we Were just here and there wasn't a peep. So I remember we stopped and we glassed and. There was one long beard in the blanc, I think it was five birds, and they're literally walking the perimeter of this cornfield and it's like a semicircle, so we can see them walking toward the right, and I'm like, Chad, if we hustle, We can get down there, get into a good position and cut 'em off before they make their way all the way around the edge of this cornfield. And that's what we did. I don't know how we managed to pull that off, but we somehow made it down this hill without them seeing us. It popped up over the little berm there that is on the edge of the cornfield, and it was a very similar spot that we were the morning prior, but we ended up moving down to the corner kind of closer to where we set up that morning in that head. And sure enough, by the time we get set up. They're coming, like they're within 50 yards by the time we settle where we are at. And what did you call that? Buckhorn? Is that what that bush is? Yeah. Yeah. We have a lot of, invasive buckthorn is up here. Yeah. And it's thick. It's real thick. It's thick. I can kind of relate it to like. Mountain Laurel. Yes. it's like a low bushy tree, but we're tucked under one of these buck thorns with again, all the cover in the world. There's no way we'd get spotted. So I sit back deep into the buckthorn with the camera set up and you're sitting on the edge there and these birds move by us one by one and they're within range, but out of luck. The Jakes were right in the way of your shot to this long beard at like 25 yards. They were like herded up, like right there. I mean, they walked right by us. Perfect. I mean, the plan worked perfectly. Had it not been for these Jakes, you would've shot a long beard that morning, but You just didn't have a clear shot and eventually they cut the corner of that field instead of continuing to move on the edge where you probably would've been able to try to get a shot. They cut the corner and start walking away, and you end up taking a shot when you can. I think it was further than you expected. It's kind of deceiving depending on how you set. Of course, the way the fields roll up here, they're not, you know, like flat like you guys are used to. So when we paced it off, it was, you know, what, seven yards. So it was a little bit further than, yeah, should have been taken. what was really interesting about that too is you take a shot and the birds scatter, but the long beard flew closer to us. Yeah, he flew closer to us. I remember when I was editing the video, if you look, and it's probably hard to see in real time, but you shoot, they scatter. You rack to get a second shot, and right as you go to squeeze your second shot off, he takes flight. And I believe that if he would've stayed put for another half a second, you would've shot him. Yeah. So he takes off. we're definitely dejected at this point because, it's been a rough morning. We had an opportunity, just the way it worked out. we did not get a clear shot. And I know you're an ethical hunter, that you wouldn't try to do something that. You would believe would injure a bird. We spent a good amount of time looking to make sure that we didn't injure that bird, and we stumbled across a bunch of morale mushrooms. So then it quickly turned into a mushroom hunt. Yep., Legal time ended and we scoured that area for some mushrooms, and we ended up with a handful of them too. So that was good. and that was, I think that was the best weather day that we had. It was beautiful that day. that was a beautiful spring day. Yeah. We ended up fishing again. Yeah. So day four comes, This is the last hunt day. I think this was like a Thursday, if I remember correctly. we had planned to leave Friday morning, so Thursday is our last day. We didn't roos birds Wednesday night. I don't remember where we started the morning. but it was close. We didn't, we didn't like drive all over creation. The last morning we stuck to some areas that were close. This was the day that we saw that, that long beard strutting with a couple hands right off the road, right over the, rock wall, which by the way, rock wall's, Always watching hunting videos from the Northeast and seeing these rock walls that are everywhere. I'm like, man, what an advantageous thing to have these rock walls everywhere. Like, what a great thing. And they actually helped us this day. But it's true for anybody who hasn't been there. There's rock walls everywhere in the Northeast. There's gotta be some sort of history behind it, right? So in this area, Before the advent, I guess you could say, of cows. Everybody raised sheep because sheep were fairly inexpensive to feed. They ate anything. You can use their hides and you can use their wool, and it was a big wool. company in this area. Matter of fact, just up the road from where you, shot your first bird there, there's a wool Johnson Wool comes from Johnson, Vermont. And so the settlers in this area at that time didn't have iPhones and games to play on, so they. Took all their kids out and I guess they built rock walls, stone walls to keep their sheep in And in this area now they still, when they survey land, a lot of times your edges of your property line are the stone walls. Yeah. And at the time in the 18 hundreds, they were a lot taller. Now they've, you know, the debris and the trees have grown in. But, if you look at some of the rock. In Scotland and Ireland and all that. they're a lot taller. Yeah. And that's what they were in this area. Inside of those rock stone walls was all pasture. if you look at the history of Vermont back in the 18 hundreds, they chopped just about every tree down in this area and was all pasture pretty much like England and and whatnot. So all of these trees that were hunting in are right around a hundred years old. They're not real old growth forests. You guys don't have hardwoods up in that area either. I thought that was also interesting when I came up there the first time, it's like, Hey man, where are your oaks? You're like, we don't have oaks. we're right on the edge of the oak line and our area here, if you go a couple miles south, you start picking up oak trees. If you go north, you start getting into the hemlocks and The spruces and whatnot. The evergreen forest. Yeah. So, plenty of maple trees. But that doesn't really help turkeys out too much. Yeah. You guys do have a ton of maple. I remember hearing years ago, 'cause we definitely have some rock walls in some areas around here and I remember somebody telling me years ago that, they were built like after the Civil War, a lot of these farmers would allow. soldiers from the Civil War to live on their land and part of their payment was to help out on the farm and build these rock walls. the main reason for the Stonewall was property lines and to keep cattle, basically. Cattle in. So, we stayed kind of local and I remember we're driving around trying to find birds and literally we spot some birds just over one of these rock walls that we're speaking of in the edge of this fallow pasture. It's just high grass and there's a strutter at like 30 yards from our truck, and he's got like, three hens with him and I'm like, Chad, let's, there's a bird right there, I don't remember if that land was posted or if you just knew the gun and he didn't like guys on his property. But either way, it was a no go as far as where these birds were. We drove by this little group of birds a couple times trying to figure out strategy. How can we get to them? Can we get to the backside? What can we do? And you suggested, you're like, well, you could flush 'em. Yeah. I'm like, what do you mean? He's like, just get out and run at 'em. Flush 'em. See if we can flush 'em onto a property that we can hunt them. And I'm like, well, yeah. You know, it's there again, the look on your face, you know? Yep. This is amazing. So I'm like, all right. You know, I'm not above it. So. I get out no gun in hand. I'm not doing some crazy neanderthal crap, but, I remember like getting the plan down pat. I'm like, so you're telling me just run at these birds? He's like, yeah, try to flush 'em in the direction we can hunt, but, just try to flush 'em. So. I do, he drops me off about 20, 30 yards up from him. I run through the woods and just flush 'em, and they took off in the direction that we wanted them to take off. I remember that. But they flew the road and they glided for a long, long way, and I'm like, okay. So he comes back by, I jump in the truck, he's like, oh, which way did they go? I'm like, they went that way, but it looked like they flew to the other county. So I don't know how well our plan worked. You were a little discouraged by that A little bit. Yeah. But it was fun though, obviously It didn't, it didn't bother me. 'cause I knew that they were somewhere right there close by. Yeah. But it was so weird, man. I'm, I'm running up. I mean, I got within probably 15 yards of this long beard before you took flight. And that's one of the things here in the Northeast Kingdom, you can do that and run up and you could have shot that long beard, but you know, is it really, then you have to look at the ethical part of it. Or is it, you know, really worth it or, yeah, that's how much fun that actually is, you know, and there's nothing wrong with it and it's legal and all of that, but you know. We're looking for that enjoyment of, calling those birds in. We want the chase. So that was never an option. It was never an option to sneak up on these birds and shoot 'em, but the idea was let's flush 'em into an area where we can. Try to hunt 'em, set up and try to call 'em and all that. Especially 'cause you're breaking up the flock. It's almost like fall hunting, you know, you're breaking up the flock and trying to call 'em back in. So, but either way, these birds coasted for a long, long way. And I was like, ugh. So Chad's like, well, let's make a loop. Let's see if we can find any other birds and we'll come back and see if we can locate these ones that you just flush. We start driving around and we see a strutter in another little cornfield. you're like,, let's just go talk to the guy. it's not really like when I say cornfield, we're not talking a huge cornfield with a big farm and all this stuff. It's this little patch of cornfield that's On the edge of the road. It's not very big and it's not a farm, it's just a guy. It's a guy in a little rambler style house and he's got, you know, maybe a hundred acres of corn. I, that's probably exaggerating. It's probably only like 50 or 60 acres of corn. yeah, I think they had, mostly sweet corn there is what they did. So, you know, it was just a, small 2025 acre patch. of, sweet corn that they sell in the fall. Yeah. So we go up and Chad hops out and knocks on the guy's door and guy's like yeah. Have at it. Again, this is a situation where we're trying to engage these birds. We're trying to hunt these birds. we've located them now let's try to get 'em to engage. And so we make a big loop, we park on the road, we make a big loop. we make up the distance by traveling in a wood line that's on the edge of this cornfield. And what's really advantageous is this cornfield has like a step to it. So we walk down this. Wood line, and set up right on the wood line of that cornfield and it's like a smaller field of corn right in front of us. And then on the edge of that cornfield, which is probably only like 40 yards wide, is a little hill with a rock wall on it. and then on the other side of that little hill in Rockwall is the main cornfield where the birds were at. So we sit back. And the idea is let's try to call these birds down into the lower cornfield by us. So we set up and we make some calls and I remember him gobbling a couple times at that point. We can't see these birds, but we know they're out there, in this upper higher level cornfield, and they're probably a hundred and some odd yards away, but we call, they respond. We sit there for about, I don't know, 30, 40 minutes and I'm like let's make our way to that hedgerow, that little rock wall that kind of separates our field from the field they're in. So we make our way up there and like I said, perfect cover. They can't see us, we can't see them, but it enables us to get to their level. So we make our way across the short corn field. We come up to that rock wall and we peek over. And when we first spotted these birds, they were close to this rock wall in this field. By the time we get there they're all the way by the road at this point. They're 120, 150 yards away from us at the edge of this field right next to the road. We got one strutter and five other birds. So we set up on that rock wall. we're watching them. And at this point I'm calling, I'm trying to encourage these birds to come over again. We're trying to engage them and make it a real Turkey hunt. And every time I call, he puts his head up. And there's two Jakes with him and they put their head up too. And then the hens they're just feeding in this cornfield. They're probably scratching for bugs. But, they hear us. They know that we're there. They have acknowledged that they heard the calling so we're sitting here watching these birds and they're not stopping what they're doing to head toward us, but they start slowly but surely making their way toward us. So me and Chad have all the time in the world to figure out what we're gonna do. Like we're trying to anticipate where these birds are gonna go. What would be the best spot to be in? What is our effective range? This morning you brought your four 10. Correct. And I'm like, that was a backup shooter. Yep. And I was like, okay, we're gonna get these birds in range. And at some point it went from you shooting to me shooting, and I'm not gonna sit there and argue in the moment, but I'm like,, come on Chad. I think we ought to also tell the listeners that, when you hunt with Ian, and he's all cool and collective, but. when he sees a long beard, he turns into a total different person. I really can't explain it. It's like, holy smokes. you know, everything is just go, go, go and just start shaking and just panicking and everything like that. And, you know, I'm not used to that. I'm just used to cool calling and collective while we're doing it. And here's this guy that I brought. From Virginia running around just psychotic trying to get these birds and obviously for us it's, normal type of hunting. But yeah, it's definitely an adventure to watch Ian when he sees a bird that he wants. it's a total different gear, that's for sure. I'm sure it's very different from the guys that hung up there. They're just kind of. all right, we get a bird. All right. we'll set up and if something happens, you know, but I'm an addict man. I want what I want. and the thing is too is it's not even so much that I feel. So adamant about shooting the bird. it's, I love the hunt, you know what I mean? there's an opportunity in front of me and I don't want to squander this opportunity to enjoy the chase, to engage the bird, to play the game. I see it as an opportunity to do what I enjoy and I don't like 'em slipping through my fingers. This whole time that 20 minutes that we're watching this, he's on one tree. Then he is behind the rock and he is behind this tree and he goes down and around behind me. Then he is out back calling and then he is back up and I'm like, whoa, okay, well he really wants this bird. That's what makes, pursuing the animal that you're trying to get a lot more enjoyable. so I guess Chad at some point decides like, wow, Ian really wants this bird, so he's like, I'm just gonna sit back and watch this maniac. But man, this setup you can't ask for a better setup. We're in a little hedge row that that's like, it's kind of like a null, like you have probably like six foot of elevation from the bottom field to the top field. The birds are in the top field, and at the top of this little hedge elevation that we're set up in is a rock wall. You can literally take two steps back from the rock wall and walk back and forth and the birds can't see you. So we're in a great position. Really, it'd be really hard to screw this up, and these birds are slowly but surely making their way toward us the video doesn't do it justice. How long we sat there and watched these birds move across this field, I think I compressed the video to like a total of nine minutes from, all three days and then the final day, which is this hunt that we're speaking of now. But we sat there for a good while, buddy yeah, I, I, we were up against the clock there too. Like every h we decided we were up against the clock. I think by the time you knocked on the guy's door, I think it was only like eight 30. But there was a nor'easter coming through that day, remember? Oh, that's right. Yeah. And it was down pouring afterwards. We weren't against the shutoff time. We were up against a front moving through that was gonna be, and, and at this point, toward the end of May, and they're calling for a nor'easter in Vermont. And I'm thinking, I do not want to be stuck in Vermont when a nor'easter comes through in May. yeah, we weren't really up against the shutoff time, but we were up against a weather front. It was a situation where if we would just exercise patience, I think that we were gonna get an opportunity and it played out. I mean, the, these birds slowly made their way through the field. I think it was three hens, two Jakes, and a long beard. And the long beard's out there strutting his butt off the entire time. The entire time he's out there in full strut. I remember at one point we had a, another bird gobble like way behind us., That was probably the one you flushed. Yeah. Probably. 'cause it was around the corner and like up over a hill. Yep. It would've been the backside of us there. Yeah. These birds make their way across the cornfield. We got a hell of a show at one point, one of the hens broke off and was walking straight toward us. And I was thinking, man, if he notices that she's wandering. he's gonna come right into our lap. but it didn't happen. She ended up turning and went back to the flock. But, it got to a point where it was an ethical shot and we waited and we were patient and, props to Chad, he took the camera over and he said, Hey, just let me film. And he freehanded filmed, that hunt and it was great. You did a great job with the footage. Appreciate it. A lot of fun. Yeah I now know that I have a trusted cameraman with me. Very grateful for the opportunity He put on a hell of a show, good bird. that one was bigger. He didn't weigh more, but he was bigger. I remember his fan being noticeably bigger than the first bird. Yes, different colors too, right? Yep. Different colors. So that first bird, at the, dairy farm, he almost had like white tips to his primaries on his tail van. Yeah. And then this one was more of like a caramel color, but I got 'em both on the wall here and they're beautiful. We enjoy the moment. I made sure my lighter had fuel that time, so we sat there and smoked some cigars and, enjoyed that moment. the first time I came up there in the spring, we worked really hard to try to get along beard. I enjoyed every second of it. And then for the second trip to go up there and have the success that we did, it meant a lot to me. And not to mention it was just me and you for four days and we had a blast doing it tons of good times and it's always fun, man. Yes. It's always good to get out, out in the outdoors and Absolutely. See what's out there. You, you always learn every time you get out there, you see something different. Exactly. And I environments changing and growing and. Yep. I remember Josh reaching out to me like a week or two later, was like, Hey man, like you should really be proud of, what you guys accomplished, because most guys up here wouldn't hunt anywhere near that hard. Yeah, we put in the time. Great trip, man. I absolutely love coming up there in the spring. it's just a blast, to hang out with you guys you and your family. I feel like that's the main thing is, me and you have become buds over the years and it's just an extension of family at this point. You know, you guys are always welcome here. We feel welcome to come up there all the time. that's obviously the point of all this is, having some sort of relationship building that camaraderie. It also makes it easier to hunt in different states Yep. when you have, connections and whatnot. it makes it a little more successful. Even if we don't shoot anything the entire trip, we're hanging out and having a good time. It makes it all worth it. those are the two videos that we got posted up and it was a blast. I don't see us slowing up anytime soon. I feel like this has become an annual thing and here we are a couple weeks from our season and I know you're looking forward to getting out of the tundra that you live in and come down here and chasing Virginia birds. Yes. So it'll be nice to see some green, your leaves out probably down there or, yeah, we're starting to green up. We got certain flowers are starting to bloom already. I was telling Chad before we started recording it was in the eighties last week, and then 12 hours later it snowed. So that's Virginia for you. you guys are just cold and stuck in snow for months. we have this weird fall spring where it'll be really, really warm and then it'll snow. But anyways. I appreciate you coming on, buddy. Not a problem. It's enjoyable. Hope to do it again. I'm sure when you come down here we'll have a blast and it'll be a good time, I'm starting. My stuff loaded up now. Make sure the shotgun's cited in and ready to go. Both me and Chad are switching over to red dots on our shotguns this year. Gonna give it a shot and see what it does, I appreciate you coming on Bud. I'm looking forward to you coming down in a couple weeks and you just gotta survive the tundra a couple more weeks, man. And then you got some warmth in your future. Yeah. Yeah, it's coming. It won't be long. Exactly. All right, buddy. We'll chat later, man. I appreciate it. All right, we'll talk at you later. See you man. Bye. All right. that wraps up this episode appreciate you guys tuning into the YouTube channel and watching the videos that we spoke about today. hopefully you guys get pumped watching 'em and get excited for the spring that's coming. until next time, we'll catch you on the flip side.

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