Ep. 3 - Nick Lichenstein: Ducks Unlimited Board | Wildlife Conservation

Miracles in Meat Podcast | Ep. 3 – Nick Lichenstein: Hunting, Conservation & the Oil Industry

From the African Wilderness to Oil & Gas: A Story of Passion & Legacy

In this episode of Miracles in Meat, Shane Thibodaux sits down with Nick Lichenstein to explore the intersections of conservation, hunting, and business. Nick’s journey is deeply rooted in the lessons passed down from his grandfather, Ron Bartels, shaping his passion for wildlife preservation and leadership in the oil and gas industry.

From his work with Ducks Unlimited to thrilling experiences hunting bears with Jim Shockey and navigating the African wilderness, Nick shares the stories that have defined his life’s purpose. Beyond the hunt, he also provides insights into Eagle Energy Services, reflecting on the challenges and rewards of running a business in a volatile industry while prioritizing strong leadership and employee empowerment.

Inside This Episode:

🦆 The importance of conservation and Nick’s role in Ducks Unlimited
🐻 Bear hunting with Jim Shockey & adventures in the African wilderness
⚡ The story behind Eagle Energy Services and the oil and gas industry
💡 Leadership lessons from Nick’s grandfather, Ron Bartels

Why You Should Listen:

This episode is for hunters, conservationists, business owners, and anyone who values heritage, leadership, and outdoor adventure. Join us as we dive into generations of wisdom, thrilling expeditions, and the realities of running a business in today’s world.

💥 Exclusive Offer

🛒 Use code: MIMPODCAST for 10% off your cart at checkout!

🔗 Connect with Us:

🌐 Website: www.bourgeoismeatmarket.com
📍 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bourgeoismeatmarket
📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bourgeoismeatmarket/
📩 Email: Shane@bourgeoismm@gmail.com

 

Transcript

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Music.

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You're listening to the Miracles in Meat Podcast. I'm Shane Thibodeau,

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a fourth-generation butcher at one of the oldest meat markets in the world.

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My great-grandfather started this business by slaughtering one cow or pig at

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a time and selling the cuts door-to-door on horse and buggy.

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Today, our products are enjoyed across the globe.

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I'll attempt to give you some insight as to how we got here and explore the

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challenges we've had along the way. At Bourgeois, our mission is to preserve

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our heritage generation after generation through legendary Cajun flavors and

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the development of relationships, not customers.

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Since 1891, Bourgeois has maintained age-old culinary traditions that fuel the

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South Louisiana lifestyle.

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Over the past 133 years, our Cajun products have gained global recognition,

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and for tens of thousands of

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folks around the world, the Bourgeois Cajun Lady logo is a symbol of home.

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Today, the fourth generation butchers sit at the nine foot maple block with

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loyal customers to discuss the adventures, skills and passions that guide each of their legacies.

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These conversations will become priceless resources for future generations of any industry.

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This is our way of maintaining the spirit, purpose and traditions of our lost

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arts in the world of change.

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133 years, four generations. We're just getting started.

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Music.

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All right here we go this is episode three of

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the miracles of me podcast i'm shane thibodeau sitting down today with beau

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and our good buddy nick lichtenstein nick is the owner of eagle energy services

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in gray and he also holds a seat at the du that's ducks unlimited national board of directors.

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Nick was born into this very interesting lifestyle slash legacy of wildlife conservation.

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And he's,

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you know, started at the bottom, following along, going to the banquets and

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stuff with his, with his grandfather and has worked his way up in the leadership positions within DU.

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And now he's got a seat at the big table and he's, you know,

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he's making some impacts and, and spreading the word and making this,

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this hunting thing, something that our future generations can,

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can enjoy as much as we do.

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These stories are incredible, man. He's got, he's got hundreds of them and I've

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heard bits and crumbles of them throughout the years,

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but I've never really got to sit down and dig into him and really understand

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why he does this and how he balances it all.

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You know, those of you who don't truly understand what wildlife conservation

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is and how this all works, you know, people hear the term trophy hunting and

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that gets a bad rap, absolutely.

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But it really takes guys like this. It takes guys like Nick to sit down and

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explain what is really happening behind the scenes and how these hunts are structured

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and where the money goes and who is benefited.

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I think a lot of people would be very surprised to hear this.

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This is something I'm passionate about as well. I'm just not as educated as

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Nick on, and I don't have the experience, you know, to really get my thoughts

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out there to share with other people, but Nick is great at it.

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And, you know, he's allowed me to really understand more, more about this.

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And I think everyone should, this is something that, you know,

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I want to pass hunting and fishing on to my kids and my grandkids and my great grandkids.

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And it takes people like this that really understand how it works and are willing

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to put the time and energy into,

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you know, building these resources and organizations so that we can actually

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see that through so here we go we got some great stories to tell and i hope you guys have fun.

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First, Nick, we're going to ask everyone the same question. What's your earliest

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memories of the meat market?

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Man, I can remember my grandfather bringing me there on Saturday mornings vividly.

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It'd make the same trip. So my grandfather was a shriner, and he had one of

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those cool dune buggy cars, right?

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And on Saturday mornings, I'd walk up to his house. He'd put me in a dune buggy,

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and we'd make two stops. One, we'd circle around the bayou and go all the way

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to the Schriever Bourgeois and get some smoked sausage for a gumbo later that day.

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And then right before we turned into Clara Street, which is down the street

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from where he lives, Rob's Donuts was right there at the top of the road,

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right there on the bayou side.

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They got an ice machine right there now. But that's where the original Rob's

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Donuts was. Man, I don't like that.

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So we'd come in with five pounds of smoked sausage and five pounds of donuts.

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Nuts so that i man i must have been this must have been 1992 91 somewhere like

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that so it was pretty early on but another memory i'd like to share with you

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guys from from bourgeois is,

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and and we'll get into some of the hunting stuff later on

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but every single sephora that my grandfather

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ever brought me on every single one of them we'd bring

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at least 15 pounds of beef jerky with

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us seriously for y'all yeah or to share no hell no or to sell or to sell so

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like obviously my grandfather pretty picky eater he didn't know i i usually

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enjoyed eating with the tribal people and stuff like that just kind of try some

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of the african foods like the satsa and stuff like that,

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but as a backup plan we would bring beef jerky and i'm telling you we'd bring 15 pounds of it.

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So I remember vividly eating. I associate beef jerky with South Africa or Zimbabwe

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to be specific because we would eat that every afternoon when we'd come in from

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hunting. What did they think about it up there?

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They thought it was really good. I was always pretty stingy with it.

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So I let the PA try it. If he put us on a really good animal,

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I was like, here, here's a couple pieces. Here's your tip. But I'd keep it.

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Here, you can have all the other stuff, but you ain't having the beef jerky.

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So that's some really good memories of the beef jerky.

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So thank y'all for making that because it probably put me through a couple of

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those long hikes chasing out the animals.

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I got a question for you, Nick. Go ahead. What is mayonnaise bread?

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Mayonnaise bread is the reason that my health insurance rates are so high at Eagle Energy Services.

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So every morning, every single morning, we pan fry smoked sausage.

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Every single morning. Like there's not a morning that we miss.

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And what we do is we pan fry that smoked sausage and we take a piece of mayonnaise

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bread, take a piece of bread, put some mayonnaise on it and fold it over and

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put a piece of smoked sausage in it.

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The problem is you end up eating, I try not to do this anymore,

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more but you end up eating six pieces of bread because you

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can't let the sausage go to waste right so evangelist

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made absolutely old-fashioned yeah yeah old-fashioned

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fashion or you get the regular size

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i think it's i think it just says old-fashioned i just started dabbling in the

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different varieties well maybe you got to learn me something yeah yeah maybe

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i need the small old-fashioned with my cholesterol yeah i don't have an opinion

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yet but i'm i just started i'm 40 42 as of Saturday, so two more days.

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I've made more appointments with CIS in the last three years than I have in my whole life.

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And Dr. Patel, I love that dude, but he's like, no more man-ass bread.

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I like how he knows about it. Yeah, how he knows about it.

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And what's funny is every single time I go visit him, he'll read to a narrator

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and he'll be like, ex-tennis player, doesn't play tennis anymore,

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eats a lot of man-ass bread.

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Bread so where

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isn't it where is man is bread exactly on the food pyramid

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it's got to be in the heart right that's where all mine went obviously yeah

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my cholesterol never says so but it's one of those things that makes you happy

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right hmm it's it's what is it one of those things you're gonna pass on to your

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kids so they've trust me they've eaten their fair share of man Man-ass bread.

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The Paxton is all about it. My daughter doesn't really care for it too much

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because she's not a big man-ass person.

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But the boys, I mean, carnivores, baby. It's not about the man-ass.

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You need to explain that to her.

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That's right. It's about tradition, right? Yeah.

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You need to have high blood pressure and cholesterol just like your dad did.

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It's not about liking what you eat. Just like your grandfather did. Right, right.

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You think they liked it, you know? Yeah. No, it's all they had.

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Let's go with that so anyway man has

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bread is a staple at ego energy services so if

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you ever come by ego energy at uh about 8 20 in

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the morning you can bet your butt there's gonna be a

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loaf of bread and a and a pound and a half of smoked sausage sitting on the

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under stove so you're taking smoked sausage you're cutting it long ways absolutely

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you're opening it up opening it up butterflying it yeah but we like to separate

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it then you get more pieces of bread out of it right okay so you So,

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yeah, you're splitting it.

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So we split it in half and then throw it on a fold over.

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Absolutely. That's all. I mean, there's no other way to do it,

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right? You do water and cover it or you just like sear it?

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Man, we put a little water in it mostly because it's usually early in the morning

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and phones are ringing and we're trying to catch up on emails and stuff like that.

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So you can cheat it a little bit by putting a little water in it and let it cook down.

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Well, I approve. It gets the case in more tentative.

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I agree. You ever save your grease? No. Oh, sort of. and Bo can attest to this.

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We got a... They only use bacon grease at the camp.

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So we got a... Obviously, after Ida, it kind of went away, but we had a stove,

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that... Are you familiar with, like, how bourbons made with the sour mash? So they...

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For bourbon, they take the sour mash, and part of the next batch of sour mash

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includes the previous batch of sour mash.

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So, in essence, the barrel that they make now has the same mash in it that the

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first barrel was made with. We did that with bacon grease.

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So, we could say, like, hey, we have bacon grease in this container on top of

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the stove from, like, the 80s. So, you got, like, a mother.

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Yeah. You got a bacon mother. Yeah. It's like the mothership of bacon, right?

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Yeah. And that stove and that bacon grease is probably personally responsible

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for about 35 heart attacks.

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But I guarantee you it's one of the best breakfasts you ever ate.

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Oh, you better believe it, especially with the Bloody Mary.

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Absolutely. What you cooking at home? What's your staples to cook at home,

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whatever, breakfast, dinner?

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Man, I'll be honest with you. I cook about 3% of the time. My wife,

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Courtney, she is a fantastic cook.

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When we were watching SportsCenter, she's watching Food Network.

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And to be honest with you, she, her mom is a really good cook,

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but she comes up with these cool recipes because you have young kids, you have young kids.

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A lot of the time you got to get these kids to try different things and you

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got to be creative with it.

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And you're always in a hurry. Yeah, 100%. Baseball, football, gym, everything.

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But we eat a lot of red meat. We eat a lot of steak.

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We eat a lot of venison.

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I'd say we eat venison probably three times a week in the form of tacos, chili.

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I haven't bought ground meat in a long time because we shoot a deer and bring

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it here and eat venison for as much as we can.

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So same thing with bison. Before we got into deer hunting more,

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it was like the bison stuff that I brought you guys. We eat a lot of that.

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So we're pretty good about eating organic, eating stuff that we kill and going from there.

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There so as for you ask for breakfast specifically

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dr patel told me it'd be a good idea

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to not eat between 7 and 11 here's your

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diet just don't eat yeah if you're gonna do fold over mayonnaise bread it's

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better you just not eat at all so roni ron my little one he'll eat he'll eat

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everything in the refrigerator for a little but we're not big breakfast people

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unless we do breakfast for

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supper for example tonight we're having breakfast for supper we do

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that a lot yeah and look shout out uncle brett rome's bacon right it's awesome

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yeah he does a good job with it so we've been doing a lot of eggs and bacon

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getting home late you know after sports or whatever if it's if you're getting

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home at seven i don't want to be doing anything else other than eating and.

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Starting to hit the sack i agree tell me

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more about your family i have before we

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move from cooking styles i need to know about camp food and

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specifically duck stuff okay so at

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that same camp we referenced the uh the sour mash bacon

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grease we we usually cook duck about three different ways we have a duck camp

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bo has been able to join us several times to get in some really good hunts and

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fellowship but our staple there on saturday nights is we we pan fry some ducks

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and then we We cook them down in some onions,

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kind of like smother them, and serve them over rice.

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And we just call it duck stuff. It's kind of like a mix between a stew and a gumbo, not as watery.

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But it's basically smothered down ducks. And look, you can say,

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I love the way teal tastes, but you can bet your butt, if we put 10 teal in

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a pot and 10 pounds of smoked sausages left, there'll be one teal and no smoked sausage left.

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So we throw some smoked sausage in there with the teal, smother them down with

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some onions let them cook all day long and then eat that over rice and usually,

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Usually, that's 90% of the time we eat it like that. We've been known to cook some fajitas.

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We've been known to cut them up and cook like a jambalaya with them, like a duck jambalaya.

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But me personally, and I'm sure Bo will agree, that duck stuff is something terrific.

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It's really good. And one time, or a few times, I thought, y'all don't put sweet

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potatoes in it? Oh, yeah.

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We'll stick some sweet potatoes inside the cavity of the teal.

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I don't know. Look, it's really good, but I don't know if it's a combination

212
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of it just being really good in general.

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00:14:47,858 --> 00:14:50,818
It's a Saturday night at the camp, too. You're at the camp.

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The mood is right. You got a couple cocktails in. You haven't eaten since you've

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eaten the bacon grease at about 10 o'clock.

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And you either went and baited alligator hooks or you went try to catch redfish

217
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or you went work on a blind or you went move your decoys.

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So if you spent the last six or seven hours working your butt off,

219
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and then you come in, take a shower, fix you a whiskey drink,

220
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and you sit down to that food, man, it's hard to beat.

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I'll be honest with you. Duck camp dinners, it's got to be, I'd say,

222
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Momoa's Thanksgiving, 1A, duck camp dinners, 1B. Something about it, right?

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00:15:27,098 --> 00:15:31,998
Absolutely. It's hard to reproduce, too. Sometimes you have a bomb night at

224
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the camp, and the next weekend you want to show off to your boys,

225
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and you invite some people over, and you try to recreate it,

226
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and sometimes you just can't because you're not at camp.

227
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There's a joke that says when you leave that gate, it just doesn't taste the same.

228
00:15:45,438 --> 00:15:48,878
Yeah. When you pass through that gate. No, it's true. Just some magic.

229
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Shane's cooked some amazing things at the deer camp before, and it's just random.

230
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Them you like it's packages out of the freezer that aren't labeled and throw

231
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it in a pot and it's the best meal you ever had and you can't do it again yeah

232
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ever same you got the same stuff yeah.

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Who's in the kitchen at the camp? Do you like that part of it,

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or do you just like to reap the rewards?

235
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Man, I'm more of the guy fixing the old-fashioned to the whiskey drinks.

236
00:16:15,192 --> 00:16:16,452
Okay. I'll be honest with you.

237
00:16:16,812 --> 00:16:22,992
Look, if I'm there and there's nobody else in there, I'll step up and cook it.

238
00:16:23,392 --> 00:16:28,092
And that's kind of the cool thing. We use the same pot. The pot's been used a billion times.

239
00:16:28,392 --> 00:16:31,872
You can't burn anything in it because it's so well-seasoned, right?

240
00:16:32,432 --> 00:16:35,952
But there's kind of a hierarchy. You know who's better than others at it.

241
00:16:35,952 --> 00:16:40,212
I'm about third or fourth on that list, but if my cousin Beaver,

242
00:16:40,312 --> 00:16:43,532
he's the man. He's good with a spoon?

243
00:16:43,872 --> 00:16:47,312
Beaver knows his way around a pot, buddy. Look, there's a combination,

244
00:16:47,612 --> 00:16:50,252
Beaver, and that beard shows a little.

245
00:16:51,352 --> 00:16:55,952
I don't know. If Emeril grew a beard like Beaver, he wouldn't be able to be

246
00:16:55,952 --> 00:16:58,092
stopped. It does look cooler when someone cooks with a beard.

247
00:16:58,232 --> 00:16:59,912
Absolutely. And you know it's going to taste better.

248
00:17:00,872 --> 00:17:04,032
Plus, this isn't a shot at Beaver because we're all shaped the same way,

249
00:17:04,092 --> 00:17:06,972
but we've all got the look, right? You know we can cook.

250
00:17:07,552 --> 00:17:10,052
There's no skinny guys in the kitchen. You know what I mean?

251
00:17:10,152 --> 00:17:15,512
So I bet you Dr. Patel couldn't cook like that. There's no way. Challenge accepted.

252
00:17:17,172 --> 00:17:22,712
So it's duck camp dinners. I know there's a show called Duck Camp Dinners,

253
00:17:22,772 --> 00:17:23,852
but I'll be honest with you.

254
00:17:23,892 --> 00:17:27,152
It's duck camp, deer camp dinners, just camp dinners in general.

255
00:17:27,632 --> 00:17:29,252
It's hard to beat those. Yep.

256
00:17:29,792 --> 00:17:33,172
You just can't break some of those traditions, too. No matter if it starts to

257
00:17:33,172 --> 00:17:36,912
taste bad or what, you just need to hold on to it. Yeah, absolutely.

258
00:17:38,412 --> 00:17:41,132
So you're doing the hunting and

259
00:17:41,132 --> 00:17:45,232
fish, you, you, you mentioned redfish and alligators and all this stuff.

260
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Do you have, are you actually attached to the, to the getting your own meat side of things?

261
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Or is that kind of just a, you know, a by-product of it?

262
00:17:54,792 --> 00:18:01,332
I'll be honest with you. It's always been a big part of my personal beliefs

263
00:18:01,332 --> 00:18:07,332
in hunting. I've always taken pride in eating everything that we shoot.

264
00:18:09,088 --> 00:18:11,288
You don't want to, if we're not going to eat it, we're not going to catch it.

265
00:18:11,348 --> 00:18:13,408
If we're not going to eat it, we're not going to shoot it type of deal.

266
00:18:14,028 --> 00:18:17,728
And look, that can be difficult when you travel abroad, right?

267
00:18:17,968 --> 00:18:23,048
Because you go to Argentina and it's hard to eat doves that you shoot because

268
00:18:23,048 --> 00:18:26,568
you're shooting a lot of them or it's hard to eat when you go to Africa.

269
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But even when we've gone in the past, I've asked specifically,

270
00:18:31,368 --> 00:18:33,068
hey, chef, can you cook this?

271
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Me and Paxton want to try it or me and so-and-so want to try it.

272
00:18:37,228 --> 00:18:41,868
So to me personally, if it's, I'm real big on, Hey, if you're going to hunt

273
00:18:41,868 --> 00:18:44,428
it, you're going to, you're going to harvest it.

274
00:18:44,848 --> 00:18:48,088
We need to try to eat it. How do you feel about that? Same.

275
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And I, I'm getting, I guess I'm building my attachment for it over, over the past few years.

276
00:18:55,388 --> 00:18:59,948
And it seems like, I don't know, for me, I've continued to like make hunting

277
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and fishing harder and harder.

278
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And I know you do the same. You, you're shooting a bow.

279
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You know that's that's one element deeper that

280
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you can make that connection to the to the meal you

281
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know and maybe some people don't get it they don't

282
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care about it but if that's what you're after it's it's

283
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there for you like the opportunity is there so do it if

284
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that's what you want you know if you know if

285
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you went walk 50 miles in a

286
00:19:26,188 --> 00:19:29,448
week to get this elk or to get this whatever you

287
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shot and it was with a bow and you

288
00:19:32,308 --> 00:19:34,948
had to pack it out it i promise when you

289
00:19:34,948 --> 00:19:37,768
sit down and you you watch your kids bite it you're gonna

290
00:19:37,768 --> 00:19:40,588
feel something right you get to tell the story of it

291
00:19:40,588 --> 00:19:44,748
it's not you know it's a lot different than than buying packaged you

292
00:19:44,748 --> 00:19:49,468
know packaged beef which we're in a funny relationship with that because we

293
00:19:49,468 --> 00:19:53,888
love you know we grew up loving both we love this as a business but we also

294
00:19:53,888 --> 00:19:58,988
spread sportsmanship and and hunting you know we want everyone to to to understand

295
00:19:58,988 --> 00:20:02,608
that they can do that. You know, you don't have to go,

296
00:20:03,570 --> 00:20:09,190
You don't have to go get a pack of frozen patties. You can go hunt the animal,

297
00:20:09,330 --> 00:20:12,230
bring it to a butcher, and see the whole process done.

298
00:20:13,610 --> 00:20:16,650
So, man, we got tons of customers that do the same thing.

299
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They're bringing us stuff year-round, whether they're going on public land or

300
00:20:21,810 --> 00:20:27,470
they're doing the one-time duck camp hunt a year, and they're bringing us a

301
00:20:27,470 --> 00:20:29,670
bag of duck, and they want some summer sausage made.

302
00:20:29,670 --> 00:20:32,530
They feel differently when they bite into that than

303
00:20:32,530 --> 00:20:35,310
they do you know if if they hadn't worked hard

304
00:20:35,310 --> 00:20:41,970
for it 100 look full circle one of the coolest things that i've witnessed and

305
00:20:41,970 --> 00:20:47,570
like you said i grew up where we ate this stuff but my seven-year-old ron he's

306
00:20:47,570 --> 00:20:52,470
now eight but he shot his first deer when he was seven right and to see we shoot

307
00:20:52,470 --> 00:20:54,110
a deer we bring it to you y'all process

308
00:20:54,210 --> 00:20:59,610
it for us and that night we sit down i think courtney cooked tacos with the first time.

309
00:21:00,210 --> 00:21:03,350
We sit down on the table and i said ron guess what he's like

310
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yes sir he goes i said this deer this is the deer that you shot like we're eating

311
00:21:08,670 --> 00:21:12,170
the deer you shot we didn't have to go buy this you supplied our family with

312
00:21:12,170 --> 00:21:16,990
this food because of of hunting and he you could kind of see a light bulb go

313
00:21:16,990 --> 00:21:22,510
off and it says like man that's super cool like i i provided for my family by hunting

314
00:21:22,590 --> 00:21:25,870
and hunting was a good thing right same thing

315
00:21:25,870 --> 00:21:30,790
with my daughter she was reluctant to hunt she look she understood all right

316
00:21:30,790 --> 00:21:34,610
she loves hunting she loves being around animals but she was reluctant to be

317
00:21:34,610 --> 00:21:39,730
the one to pull the trigger like she always wanted to be there but i guess she

318
00:21:39,730 --> 00:21:43,090
was reluctant to pull the trigger and i just kind of explained to her like look.

319
00:21:44,230 --> 00:21:48,490
We're gonna need meat we're gonna need food we're gonna need we're gonna her

320
00:21:48,490 --> 00:21:51,910
favorite food is spaghetti i said do you know how many spaghettis mom's gonna

321
00:21:51,910 --> 00:21:52,830
be able to cook with this deer

322
00:21:53,250 --> 00:21:57,570
and she she absolutely absolutely took joy

323
00:21:57,570 --> 00:22:00,330
and pride in being able to provide our family with

324
00:22:00,330 --> 00:22:03,590
spaghetti her favorite food so again i

325
00:22:03,590 --> 00:22:08,770
think it's very important to tie that together i know a lot of people i have

326
00:22:08,770 --> 00:22:13,770
friends that say man i'm not trying to put that much work into hunting animal

327
00:22:13,770 --> 00:22:17,390
i just want to go out there shoot an animal at 500 yards and i get to eat it

328
00:22:17,390 --> 00:22:20,710
just like you do I think there is another step to,

329
00:22:20,750 --> 00:22:24,050
hey, being there close and personal with the animal and shooting it with your bow.

330
00:22:24,410 --> 00:22:28,070
And that's kind of where I stop. There's guys that look at me and like, man, you're a wuss.

331
00:22:28,590 --> 00:22:32,650
Get you a long bow. Right. I'll get you a recurve. It's always a next step.

332
00:22:32,810 --> 00:22:36,430
Right. Hey, y'all need to chill out with that chain because I never thought

333
00:22:36,430 --> 00:22:39,190
about it that way that you're trying to make your life harder, but you are.

334
00:22:40,128 --> 00:22:43,568
You know, you got tired of shooting deer. So you picked up a bow,

335
00:22:43,688 --> 00:22:46,168
you got tired of catching fish that got too easy.

336
00:22:46,228 --> 00:22:51,548
So you decided to jump in the water with a spear and try to do it that way.

337
00:22:51,788 --> 00:22:54,568
It's that's what you thought was the best thing to do.

338
00:22:54,888 --> 00:23:01,408
Like we were talking about the other day, anxiety, like chasing an anxiety rush,

339
00:23:01,548 --> 00:23:04,728
you know, that, that is a part of it.

340
00:23:04,748 --> 00:23:09,608
And hopefully you can, you know, hopefully you can check that box and also pick

341
00:23:09,608 --> 00:23:13,008
up some other boxes along the way, you know, things that, that make it important to you.

342
00:23:13,068 --> 00:23:18,068
But like you're talking about, you can also tell Roan and your daughter that

343
00:23:18,068 --> 00:23:20,368
like, they're not just providing for y'all family.

344
00:23:20,428 --> 00:23:23,068
Like think about what happens when they bring that deer to us,

345
00:23:23,088 --> 00:23:27,528
you know, providing for us and then all of our employees, like we're paying

346
00:23:27,528 --> 00:23:28,748
our employees with that.

347
00:23:28,888 --> 00:23:33,488
We're buying, you know, local meat from other local meat vendors.

348
00:23:33,568 --> 00:23:38,428
We're buying casings that the sausage is going to go into where we're buying

349
00:23:38,428 --> 00:23:43,028
parts, Parts for the grinder, that all comes from, you know,

350
00:23:43,028 --> 00:23:45,528
they play a part in that and people don't realize that.

351
00:23:45,628 --> 00:23:50,768
But that's one more thing if you're looking for it, it's one more thing you

352
00:23:50,768 --> 00:23:53,088
can feel good about. Absolutely. Absolutely.

353
00:23:53,868 --> 00:24:00,128
So, and jumping in the water, shooting fish with a spear, I'm not there yet.

354
00:24:00,688 --> 00:24:04,088
And I see your videos and you look like the coolest person in the history of the world.

355
00:24:04,528 --> 00:24:06,968
I'm just trying to look like the other cool people, man. Like,

356
00:24:07,088 --> 00:24:10,648
Bear Grylls looks like the Dollar General version of Shane Thibodeau.

357
00:24:10,828 --> 00:24:13,408
I just want to let you know that. Like, it's the coolest videos ever.

358
00:24:13,648 --> 00:24:16,628
Man, there's some really cool guys around here that no one knows about.

359
00:24:16,808 --> 00:24:22,028
And that's kind of what, you know, that's kind of what this is going to do,

360
00:24:22,068 --> 00:24:25,308
going to be able to do for us, is kind of highlight some of our customers that

361
00:24:25,308 --> 00:24:29,488
they're not on TV all the time. They're not being talked about all the time,

362
00:24:29,508 --> 00:24:30,728
but they should be, you know.

363
00:24:32,467 --> 00:24:36,087
Like yourself, like I, that's, that's how I look at you. And I've always been

364
00:24:36,087 --> 00:24:39,127
impressed since the first time I met you with, you know, through Bo,

365
00:24:39,267 --> 00:24:42,527
it was probably at a Ducks Unlimited event, I would assume.

366
00:24:43,487 --> 00:24:47,627
But I, I, you know, I knew you were involved in it. I didn't really know how

367
00:24:47,627 --> 00:24:49,287
you were involved, which we'll get into.

368
00:24:49,427 --> 00:24:53,487
Cause I guess I still don't, but I just, I watched you coordinate those events

369
00:24:53,487 --> 00:24:57,887
and I, I paid attention to just how much shit you had on your plate and how

370
00:24:57,887 --> 00:24:59,127
much, how many different things.

371
00:24:59,247 --> 00:25:02,447
And I just, I put myself in your shoes because I've ran smaller

372
00:25:02,447 --> 00:25:06,567
events before then and it brings

373
00:25:06,567 --> 00:25:09,307
it back to like that's an anxiety that's a

374
00:25:09,307 --> 00:25:12,407
rush like to see all the work come

375
00:25:12,407 --> 00:25:15,207
to fruition and to see the event you know what you

376
00:25:15,207 --> 00:25:17,967
the videos you played in your mind on

377
00:25:17,967 --> 00:25:21,087
how you wanted everything to go and you're able to to do it

378
00:25:21,087 --> 00:25:23,867
like you're able to land it and when you can do that with

379
00:25:23,867 --> 00:25:27,107
a room with 500 people like it's it's

380
00:25:27,107 --> 00:25:30,567
something like it it means a lot more than writing a

381
00:25:30,567 --> 00:25:33,587
check to ducks unlimited you know it's it's a just a

382
00:25:33,587 --> 00:25:39,287
much deeper connection you have to what you're doing and yeah i've i've been

383
00:25:39,287 --> 00:25:42,747
impressed with you since the day i met you and i i wanted to know more i want

384
00:25:42,747 --> 00:25:49,507
to know how you balance all this stuff and and why you do it so what is what

385
00:25:49,507 --> 00:25:51,727
is how did you get into the ducks unlimited stuff

386
00:25:51,927 --> 00:25:57,927
so ducks unlimited man i'll be honest with you it was a unwritten rule in our family so.

387
00:25:58,607 --> 00:26:03,587
The place that we were talking about earlier river rest i want to say we got

388
00:26:03,587 --> 00:26:07,127
that place when i was about eight or nine years old that would have been 91

389
00:26:07,127 --> 00:26:13,307
90 91 and it was the hunting was fantastic i mean every single person that went

390
00:26:13,307 --> 00:26:18,547
you just there was so many ducks and i i vividly remember,

391
00:26:18,667 --> 00:26:22,527
it was about the time I started being able to shoot on my own.

392
00:26:22,627 --> 00:26:26,667
I was 12 or 13. I had a 20-gauge pump that I wanted at a DU event.

393
00:26:27,147 --> 00:26:32,167
And I vividly remember my grandfather not allowing me to load that gun.

394
00:26:32,547 --> 00:26:34,327
And we're sitting in the dug blind.

395
00:26:34,727 --> 00:26:40,287
The sun's just coming up. It's shooting time. And there are 20 grays sitting

396
00:26:40,287 --> 00:26:45,547
in the pond in the decoys as a flock of teal buzz in the decoys.

397
00:26:45,547 --> 00:26:48,927
And I vividly remember my grandfather said, don't load your gun yet.

398
00:26:49,986 --> 00:26:52,906
He said, I want you to just watch for about five minutes.

399
00:26:53,606 --> 00:26:57,226
So we watched all the birds go by the decoys. And I mean, they're everywhere.

400
00:26:57,326 --> 00:27:01,706
And you're a 12 year old with your own gun and you just started shooting. This is torture, right?

401
00:27:02,466 --> 00:27:06,806
But he wanted me to see. And he told me, he said, I want you to see these ducks

402
00:27:06,806 --> 00:27:09,686
and I want you to look at them. And I want you to appreciate them.

403
00:27:10,066 --> 00:27:13,746
And I want you to know that there's ducks in our decoys because of Ducks Unlimited.

404
00:27:14,166 --> 00:27:18,806
He said, that's a fact. He said, this doesn't just happen on its own. him.

405
00:27:19,266 --> 00:27:22,426
He said, it's a lot of work that DU does.

406
00:27:22,586 --> 00:27:26,126
And it's a lot of work that conservationists all over the country do in order

407
00:27:26,126 --> 00:27:29,366
for us to have this resource in our blind. And I want you to remember that.

408
00:27:29,906 --> 00:27:34,046
Now, 15 minutes went by and it didn't really mean much at the time,

409
00:27:34,066 --> 00:27:38,386
but 20 years later, it's like, man, how powerful was that for him to be able

410
00:27:38,386 --> 00:27:41,106
to have the hindsight to be able to teach me that.

411
00:27:41,506 --> 00:27:45,366
And look, you didn't have to be in Ducks Unlimited in our family.

412
00:27:45,506 --> 00:27:48,006
If you were a member of our family, you did not have to be in Ducks Unlimited,

413
00:27:48,446 --> 00:27:50,566
but you wasn't going hunting, right?

414
00:27:51,346 --> 00:27:55,266
Right? So you could, if you want to duck hunt, you better be in Ducks Unlimited.

415
00:27:55,446 --> 00:27:57,446
And it was your responsibility, not his.

416
00:27:57,686 --> 00:28:02,446
So you needed to go to a banquet and fill out a membership card and send it in, not him.

417
00:28:02,786 --> 00:28:08,546
And he expected it. So very, very early on, it was, there was a tie between

418
00:28:08,546 --> 00:28:11,246
duck hunting and Ducks Unlimited.

419
00:28:12,066 --> 00:28:15,086
And he did that. And he did it for everyone in our family.

420
00:28:16,286 --> 00:28:22,126
I remember being eight, nine years old and seeing him in the,

421
00:28:22,126 --> 00:28:25,346
in the role that you were talking about earlier, running that banquet.

422
00:28:25,426 --> 00:28:28,546
And I would just be in charge of selling some raffle tickets at the door because

423
00:28:28,546 --> 00:28:29,726
I couldn't tell a kid no, right?

424
00:28:30,346 --> 00:28:35,106
And selling $300 worth of raffle tickets and being proud of that.

425
00:28:35,446 --> 00:28:39,706
And him making a big deal out of it, right? You sold $300 worth of raffle tickets

426
00:28:39,706 --> 00:28:44,166
and that money's going to the breeding grounds in Canada to help create more

427
00:28:44,166 --> 00:28:48,286
ducks to be in our decoys. So it was really tied together.

428
00:28:49,725 --> 00:28:52,685
The hunting aspect, yeah, it's fun to hunt, super cool to hunt.

429
00:28:53,085 --> 00:28:56,585
But if you don't give back to the resource, it won't be there forever.

430
00:28:57,005 --> 00:29:00,665
And one day I want your kids to be able to hunt just like we're hunting now.

431
00:29:01,045 --> 00:29:03,465
And Ducks Unlimited is a big part of the reason that happens.

432
00:29:04,385 --> 00:29:07,185
So I don't even remember the question you originally asked me,

433
00:29:07,205 --> 00:29:10,345
but that is kind of the start that I got with Ducks Unlimited.

434
00:29:11,665 --> 00:29:15,225
He really tied it together for me to be able to see visually.

435
00:29:15,945 --> 00:29:20,245
It's easy to tell somebody, right? Right. But when you visually see it and you

436
00:29:20,245 --> 00:29:24,905
see it and it makes it mean something to you, then you kind of you fall in love with it.

437
00:29:24,945 --> 00:29:28,865
And you try to do you try to do like your dad or your grandfather did.

438
00:29:29,025 --> 00:29:31,725
And that's kind of how I got to be a part of Ducks Unlimited.

439
00:29:32,625 --> 00:29:37,445
Yeah. And ducks are such a unique animal. You know, I guess you don't really

440
00:29:37,445 --> 00:29:43,485
because they pass through three countries and all these states and there's all these flyways.

441
00:29:43,485 --> 00:29:47,345
They need so much more management than

442
00:29:47,345 --> 00:29:50,205
like say a deer you know you can have uh

443
00:29:50,205 --> 00:29:53,145
500 acres or 100 acres or whatever and manage a

444
00:29:53,145 --> 00:29:56,045
little deer population right that's why every state has

445
00:29:56,045 --> 00:30:00,785
different rules for their their deer you know there's there's states that are

446
00:30:00,785 --> 00:30:04,965
overrun with deer that you know cars are hitting them left and right and then

447
00:30:04,965 --> 00:30:09,325
there's states where they're doing their best to to get more so ducks are a

448
00:30:09,325 --> 00:30:13,185
little different because of the the just the territory that they

449
00:30:13,245 --> 00:30:17,185
pass over and how many times they get shot at between Canada and Louisiana.

450
00:30:17,745 --> 00:30:20,965
So yeah, it's super important that we manage them.

451
00:30:21,980 --> 00:30:26,580
And look, to that point, that is part of what makes a duck special is the ties

452
00:30:26,580 --> 00:30:29,580
that they have to another country, right? It's a continental thing.

453
00:30:30,560 --> 00:30:37,020
You've got to rely on somebody in Canada to not mow their field or cut their

454
00:30:37,020 --> 00:30:41,120
field down and keep the wetlands and not drain them in order for you to have

455
00:30:41,120 --> 00:30:44,280
ducks in Thibodeau, Louisiana or Bellechase, Louisiana.

456
00:30:44,880 --> 00:30:49,700
So it really ties us together. Same thing with the guys in Mexico.

457
00:30:49,700 --> 00:30:53,480
I mean, the amount of teal, blue-winged teal that we get in Louisiana,

458
00:30:53,780 --> 00:30:56,580
many of those ducks are going down to Mexico.

459
00:30:57,020 --> 00:31:00,880
And look, they need a place to winter, just like the ducks that are coming from

460
00:31:00,880 --> 00:31:04,500
up north need a place to winter. And it ties us together, whether we like it or not.

461
00:31:04,800 --> 00:31:10,940
And it really is what makes ducks unique because of the continental ties.

462
00:31:11,260 --> 00:31:18,380
So there's been some discussions about how Louisiana.

463
00:31:18,380 --> 00:31:21,840
So every, a lot of people don't know this, but every year when you buy a duck

464
00:31:21,840 --> 00:31:25,620
stamp in Louisiana, what they do is they take that pool of money,

465
00:31:25,700 --> 00:31:31,740
it goes in front of the commissioners, and they decide what we're going to do with that money.

466
00:31:31,740 --> 00:31:36,880
And over the course of the last 25 years, a majority of it, a big majority of

467
00:31:36,880 --> 00:31:38,600
it has gone to Ducks Unlimited.

468
00:31:38,700 --> 00:31:43,980
And it goes straight into the breeding grounds in Saskatchewan and the boreal

469
00:31:43,980 --> 00:31:47,620
forest and all that stuff, which is where a majority of our ducks,

470
00:31:47,760 --> 00:31:51,160
our local ducks here that are harvested come from.

471
00:31:51,520 --> 00:31:55,500
And a couple of years back, I remember a guy asked me, he's like,

472
00:31:55,580 --> 00:31:58,880
why is Louisiana's money going to Canada?

473
00:31:59,120 --> 00:32:02,140
That's silly. That's stupid. Why wouldn't we use that money here?

474
00:32:02,320 --> 00:32:05,200
It sounds silly if you don't know much. That's exactly right.

475
00:32:05,360 --> 00:32:10,640
The reason is that mallet that you brought to Jeff W. to get mounted.

476
00:32:11,020 --> 00:32:14,840
It got hatched in. It was hatched in Saskatchewan. So if you wouldn't have put

477
00:32:14,840 --> 00:32:16,580
the work up there, you wouldn't have had the duck here.

478
00:32:18,380 --> 00:32:24,900
And so a couple of years ago, you were, I'm guessing you were nominated for

479
00:32:24,900 --> 00:32:27,880
the Ducks Unlimited National Board of Directors.

480
00:32:28,100 --> 00:32:34,180
Correct. What's that mean? so DU has a board that is ran by volunteers I am

481
00:32:34,180 --> 00:32:36,180
100% volunteer so if I travel to,

482
00:32:37,000 --> 00:32:41,000
Washington DC for a meeting or I travel to Mississippi for a meeting or west

483
00:32:41,000 --> 00:32:45,740
coast wherever it's on my dime that's really what makes DU special but it means

484
00:32:45,740 --> 00:32:51,460
that these these board of directors are the ones that meet twice a year discuss

485
00:32:51,460 --> 00:32:55,960
the the status of the organization organization where the money should be spent?

486
00:32:56,160 --> 00:32:58,180
What are we focusing on?

487
00:32:58,600 --> 00:33:03,480
All the way down to staff members or how many staff we feel we need in a certain

488
00:33:03,480 --> 00:33:05,720
area. It's pretty much running the organization.

489
00:33:07,060 --> 00:33:11,220
And my grandfather was on the board several years back.

490
00:33:12,646 --> 00:33:16,966
I tell this story a lot, but my grandfather's only told me when he's proud of

491
00:33:16,966 --> 00:33:19,726
me twice in my whole life. I know he's proud of me.

492
00:33:20,726 --> 00:33:23,986
I know he's proud of me, but he's only told me twice in my life.

493
00:33:24,306 --> 00:33:29,646
The first time, granted, I have an undergrad, a graduate. I got married. I had three kids.

494
00:33:29,886 --> 00:33:32,446
None of those got an attaboy. Big deal. Yeah.

495
00:33:32,906 --> 00:33:34,546
Everybody does that, right? Everybody does that.

496
00:33:35,966 --> 00:33:39,026
First time was whenever I got nominated for state chairman in Louisiana.

497
00:33:39,386 --> 00:33:42,446
When was that? that that was i got nominated in 2017

498
00:33:42,446 --> 00:33:45,526
which at the time i was the youngest nominated state

499
00:33:45,526 --> 00:33:48,526
chairman of all time i served in 2019

500
00:33:48,526 --> 00:33:51,786
and y'all were a part of that at the house that year but i

501
00:33:51,786 --> 00:33:56,646
was actually six weeks older than the young the youngest state chairman who

502
00:33:56,646 --> 00:34:01,466
served in 1982 which was the year i was born a guy named eric byer anyway he

503
00:34:01,466 --> 00:34:04,606
told me he's proud of me that day the day i got nominated i'll never forget

504
00:34:04,606 --> 00:34:08,246
it and then the day that i got a phone call saying that I was nominated to the

505
00:34:08,246 --> 00:34:10,126
national board. He told me he was proud of me.

506
00:34:10,326 --> 00:34:13,246
So I got two attaboys from Ducks Unlimited, but nothing else.

507
00:34:13,486 --> 00:34:16,706
So it kind of shows you how important it is to him and our family.

508
00:34:17,106 --> 00:34:18,966
Have you served on the board yet?

509
00:34:19,486 --> 00:34:24,026
So yeah, that's coming. No, no. I've been on the board in two different positions now.

510
00:34:24,626 --> 00:34:29,306
I've served as an at-large director for three years because of COVID.

511
00:34:29,726 --> 00:34:32,806
And then I got nominated as a regional vice president for two years.

512
00:34:32,886 --> 00:34:37,026
And then I just got re-nominated about three weeks ago so now i'm a regional

513
00:34:37,026 --> 00:34:38,326
vice president for ducks on lemonade,

514
00:34:38,926 --> 00:34:44,126
which means i'm in charge of a flyway they call it region four i'm in charge

515
00:34:44,126 --> 00:34:49,726
of louisiana mississippi and alabama nice so basically i communicate with the

516
00:34:49,726 --> 00:34:55,226
state chairman and volunteers in those regions in order to try to promote fundraising

517
00:34:55,226 --> 00:34:57,546
and volunteers and so on and so forth.

518
00:34:59,097 --> 00:35:04,997
And look, it's a cool gig. You get to fly and meet and have meetings with similar-minded

519
00:35:04,997 --> 00:35:06,417
people that care about conservation.

520
00:35:08,017 --> 00:35:12,477
But I'll be honest with you, I'm a little unique in my age. I'm a lot younger

521
00:35:12,477 --> 00:35:13,797
than the average board member.

522
00:35:14,297 --> 00:35:18,057
But what else is cool is I still hold my local positions. Normally,

523
00:35:18,217 --> 00:35:24,057
the life cycle of a DU member is member, volunteer, area chairman,

524
00:35:24,297 --> 00:35:26,837
district chairman, state chairman, board of directors.

525
00:35:26,837 --> 00:35:29,797
And you never really hold those positions at the same time

526
00:35:29,797 --> 00:35:32,937
right now i'm a board of director i'm the

527
00:35:32,937 --> 00:35:36,457
state treasurer for louisiana du i'm an

528
00:35:36,457 --> 00:35:39,837
area chairman for thibodeau so i still hold basically

529
00:35:39,837 --> 00:35:45,357
the top and the bottom positions and to be honest with you i feel i feel strongly

530
00:35:45,357 --> 00:35:50,777
about the area chairman position and the difference that we're making on a local

531
00:35:50,777 --> 00:35:59,257
level look thibodeau is at a national event whenever Thibodeau,

532
00:35:59,277 --> 00:36:01,737
Louisiana is in the top 50 events in the country.

533
00:36:01,977 --> 00:36:05,217
When you're talking about a town of 15,000 competing against Chicago, Illinois.

534
00:36:05,637 --> 00:36:08,517
And that's because of, A, the people

535
00:36:08,517 --> 00:36:12,217
that care in Thibodeau and the great community that we have around us.

536
00:36:13,057 --> 00:36:15,057
So that part is pretty special to me.

537
00:36:16,637 --> 00:36:21,957
And not to go too far on a tangent, but now it's kind of coming full circle, right?

538
00:36:22,197 --> 00:36:26,597
My oldest son, Paxton, he's going to be a freshman at Edie White.

539
00:36:27,077 --> 00:36:30,617
He came with me to the last national event. He turns to me in the middle of

540
00:36:30,617 --> 00:36:31,657
the event. I'll never forget it.

541
00:36:31,997 --> 00:36:37,897
And he said, Dan, I want to start an ED white chapter of ducks and lemon. And I said, yeah,

542
00:36:38,617 --> 00:36:41,657
boy, I'm proud of you. Got something in both my eyes. And that was the first

543
00:36:41,657 --> 00:36:43,357
time. That was the first time he told me.

544
00:36:44,037 --> 00:36:47,777
It didn't mean anything that you made the soccer team or that you made 4.0,

545
00:36:47,817 --> 00:36:51,217
but boy, I'm proud of you, that you want to do that on your own.

546
00:36:51,637 --> 00:36:59,617
Excellent. Do you have a specific maybe end goal for your actions with DU?

547
00:36:59,797 --> 00:37:05,017
Is there a specific, maybe a niche thing that maybe you're concerned with that other people aren't?

548
00:37:05,697 --> 00:37:10,137
Man, I don't want to, look, at the end of the day, I'm kind of in it for the brand.

549
00:37:10,717 --> 00:37:13,977
Whatever DU kind of needs me to do, I'm willing to do.

550
00:37:14,577 --> 00:37:18,237
It's a privilege and an honor to be on the board, right?

551
00:37:18,697 --> 00:37:23,397
And if I serve these two terms and they decide that they have someone that can

552
00:37:23,397 --> 00:37:25,617
do the job better than me, I'm fine with that.

553
00:37:26,337 --> 00:37:30,197
Obviously, I have a connection, being a little younger than the average board

554
00:37:30,197 --> 00:37:33,417
member, I have a connection with the Green Wings, which is our youth members.

555
00:37:34,277 --> 00:37:37,277
We put on that Kids Conservation Fest, which I'm sure we'll get into,

556
00:37:37,397 --> 00:37:39,937
but it really, I really have a tie to that.

557
00:37:40,077 --> 00:37:44,757
And there's a position called senior of youth and education that kind of oversees

558
00:37:44,757 --> 00:37:49,877
all of the youth and education, youth events and high school events and college

559
00:37:49,877 --> 00:37:51,797
events for the entire organization.

560
00:37:52,157 --> 00:37:55,717
And I would love to serve at that position if it would come up,

561
00:37:55,797 --> 00:38:00,717
but it's not something I'm gonna, it's not something that you actively campaign

562
00:38:00,717 --> 00:38:04,337
for per se, but it's kind of like, hey, if there's.

563
00:38:06,101 --> 00:38:09,221
If I think that I can step up and make a difference in it and the organization

564
00:38:09,221 --> 00:38:12,281
does also, then let's do it.

565
00:38:12,581 --> 00:38:15,421
But if I feel like if somebody else can do a better job than me,

566
00:38:15,441 --> 00:38:16,801
then that's also fine with me.

567
00:38:17,041 --> 00:38:20,661
Again, I'm kind of in it for the brand. I want what's best for the organization.

568
00:38:21,401 --> 00:38:26,541
And it's a commitment. Look, you've been in charge of QDMA in our local area.

569
00:38:28,061 --> 00:38:33,821
I tell people the local bank takes about 40 hours of work of planning and putting things in together.

570
00:38:33,821 --> 00:38:39,581
Other to be on the board it's about 400 hours of work so it's it's a going down

571
00:38:39,581 --> 00:38:42,161
the road instead of calling your buddy to see where you want to go fishing this

572
00:38:42,161 --> 00:38:45,421
weekend it's hey let me call the state chairman in alabama and see what he's

573
00:38:45,421 --> 00:38:47,321
got going on if he has any problems kind of deal.

574
00:38:48,601 --> 00:38:52,601
So going back to one of your first thoughts was or one of your first questions

575
00:38:52,601 --> 00:38:55,761
was how do you do it how do you have the time how do you have the resources

576
00:38:55,761 --> 00:39:00,801
and to be honest with you it's it's same reason that you you guys are successful

577
00:39:00,801 --> 00:39:05,601
in business it's the team around you right my wife sometimes has to take a kid

578
00:39:05,601 --> 00:39:08,041
to practice that she normally wouldn't have or my committee,

579
00:39:08,601 --> 00:39:12,221
has to have a meeting without me because of here or there again

580
00:39:12,221 --> 00:39:15,701
it's it's really the people around you that make it able for you to be able

581
00:39:15,701 --> 00:39:19,901
to do it yes i'm the face of the tibeto chapter but you guys know especially

582
00:39:19,901 --> 00:39:24,561
you boo you know how many guys show up and and putting together tricycles or

583
00:39:24,561 --> 00:39:28,321
or putting out silent auction bid sheets and stuff like that.

584
00:39:28,381 --> 00:39:30,661
It's really the guys around you that make it happen.

585
00:39:31,181 --> 00:39:34,961
Yeah, well, and that might be true for the grunt work, but, man,

586
00:39:35,001 --> 00:39:39,921
the hardest part of those organizations and keeping them alive is keeping those

587
00:39:39,921 --> 00:39:41,841
volunteers, well, finding volunteers,

588
00:39:42,141 --> 00:39:47,721
then keeping them interested over, dude, you've been the Thibodeau chairman

589
00:39:47,721 --> 00:39:54,381
for I don't know how many years now, And you still have a great group of guys that are still gung-ho.

590
00:39:54,501 --> 00:39:57,461
And, yeah, I don't know how you do that.

591
00:39:58,612 --> 00:40:01,812
I think it's the beer. I think it's the beer at the event.

592
00:40:02,232 --> 00:40:09,572
Quantity or quality? Look, we've kind of gone, we've grown through the years. We've lost some guys.

593
00:40:09,892 --> 00:40:14,352
It's a commitment, right? But it's really, the cool thing about it is it's the

594
00:40:14,352 --> 00:40:17,152
guys that, A, they have to believe in the mission.

595
00:40:18,452 --> 00:40:21,972
So I've been a chairman for Thibodeau for about 13 years now.

596
00:40:22,672 --> 00:40:26,512
Originally, it's all your friends. So you step into the role and your friends

597
00:40:26,512 --> 00:40:28,832
step up and like, man, I want to help Nick out. He's my boy.

598
00:40:29,412 --> 00:40:32,592
But then it becomes deeper than that. Those guys kind of erode away.

599
00:40:32,792 --> 00:40:36,692
And you got to find guys that believe in the mission and that believe in the

600
00:40:36,692 --> 00:40:39,012
work, right? Because at the end of the day, it is work.

601
00:40:39,852 --> 00:40:43,952
But like you said, at the end of that banquet night, when you're sitting there

602
00:40:43,952 --> 00:40:49,492
and you're just seeing the dollars that we raise, it's an adrenaline rush. It absolutely is.

603
00:40:50,312 --> 00:40:54,372
And there's nothing more. Or, like I said, when you go to a national level and

604
00:40:54,372 --> 00:41:01,852
you see, man, Thibodeau was 50th out of 4,500 chapters, it's a big deal. And it makes you proud.

605
00:41:02,292 --> 00:41:06,892
And then we share that with the chapter. And those guys absolutely love being

606
00:41:06,892 --> 00:41:11,112
part of it because at the end of the day, they know they're making a difference.

607
00:41:11,532 --> 00:41:15,772
You know what I mean? You guys have been great to Ducks Unlimited for probably

608
00:41:15,772 --> 00:41:20,032
all 13 years now. Now, a lot of times you guys have your own lives going on

609
00:41:20,032 --> 00:41:22,252
and you're not there to make every committed meeting.

610
00:41:22,412 --> 00:41:26,472
I see your faces every now and then. But when it comes down to it,

611
00:41:26,572 --> 00:41:31,492
you guys have given Thibodeau Chapter of Ducks Unlimited more support than just about anybody.

612
00:41:32,072 --> 00:41:37,512
I mean, in terms of hamburgers for Kids Conservation Fest or tomahawk ribeyes

613
00:41:37,512 --> 00:41:39,312
for our event that are always popular.

614
00:41:39,632 --> 00:41:43,912
I don't think you guys have ever told me no. And I try not to ask too much because

615
00:41:43,912 --> 00:41:46,212
I know how much you guys do, but

616
00:41:46,212 --> 00:41:50,032
it's the guys like you that are making a difference. I mean, it really is.

617
00:41:50,632 --> 00:41:54,452
Again, I can take the credit because I have the face, but I won't because it's

618
00:41:54,452 --> 00:41:55,812
really the guys that are...

619
00:41:56,839 --> 00:41:59,879
Making look i can't sell tomahawk ribeyes without tomahawk

620
00:41:59,879 --> 00:42:02,839
ribeyes and those things make 12 1500 bucks

621
00:42:02,839 --> 00:42:05,579
every event for the ducks and that's coming

622
00:42:05,579 --> 00:42:08,619
straight from you guys and then look there's probably 20

623
00:42:08,619 --> 00:42:12,939
people like you guys that help us out every year and that's that's really what

624
00:42:12,939 --> 00:42:17,219
makes tibeto special right because we are such a small town but we just figure

625
00:42:17,219 --> 00:42:22,999
out how to get it done we're not selling a f-250 at our event for 25 000 and

626
00:42:22,999 --> 00:42:27,339
and that's it we're selling 40 items at $2,500.

627
00:42:28,199 --> 00:42:31,639
So, yeah. We were actually talking about something earlier.

628
00:42:31,759 --> 00:42:38,119
I think we got a pretty cool deal for you at maybe a future event. Maybe the EDY chapter?

629
00:42:38,999 --> 00:42:44,819
No, bigger. All right. This has to be really big. State. State. National level. Okay.

630
00:42:45,979 --> 00:42:49,539
All right, Bo, you tell them. You want to say it right now? We'll just say it

631
00:42:49,539 --> 00:42:52,859
right now. That way it puts the pressure on us to come through with it. Perfect.

632
00:42:53,399 --> 00:43:00,639
Okay. Okay, so we're going to, we have toyed with the idea of hosting like a

633
00:43:00,639 --> 00:43:05,859
restaurant style meal here, but just one table and just one group of people.

634
00:43:06,539 --> 00:43:09,799
Shane and I are going to cook and there's not going to be a menu.

635
00:43:09,879 --> 00:43:10,859
It's going to be whatever we cook.

636
00:43:11,399 --> 00:43:14,379
And you get a tour of the building. You get to see everything.

637
00:43:14,779 --> 00:43:18,259
And you're going to eat on that butcher table standing up. I love it.

638
00:43:18,279 --> 00:43:19,259
This could be some good food.

639
00:43:19,539 --> 00:43:23,639
It's a next level guy's night. How many people are we talking about?

640
00:43:24,019 --> 00:43:26,019
I'm thinking a dozen tops. Yeah.

641
00:43:26,639 --> 00:43:30,819
All I know is whoever buys it, I'm going to be one of the 12. Yeah.

642
00:43:31,559 --> 00:43:33,519
Let's see. No, that's sick, dude. I'm going to be one of the 12.

643
00:43:33,519 --> 00:43:36,139
I love it. I love the idea. We've been thinking about it for a while,

644
00:43:36,179 --> 00:43:39,439
and I think it's something we can make pretty special. No, that's awesome. Yeah.

645
00:43:39,779 --> 00:43:42,739
It's a unique, one-of-a-kind. Can't find it anywhere else. Right.

646
00:43:44,439 --> 00:43:48,499
And I'll go out on a limb and say, I got $1,000 on it, starting bid.

647
00:43:48,879 --> 00:43:52,079
So you got to beat that. I'm pretty sure we can go up to like five.

648
00:43:52,179 --> 00:43:54,599
Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. I'll put $1,000 on it.

649
00:43:55,259 --> 00:43:57,279
I'll put $1,000 on it so my wife don't kill me.

650
00:43:58,139 --> 00:44:02,059
But, hey, if it starts something cool, then it does. No, I think it's a great

651
00:44:02,059 --> 00:44:05,519
idea. I love it. Well, there it's said. That way, now we have to do it.

652
00:44:06,039 --> 00:44:09,039
The Ducks appreciate it, and so do I. Y'all know that. You know it's coming

653
00:44:09,039 --> 00:44:10,059
up in November, right, Shane?

654
00:44:11,593 --> 00:44:16,393
We'll start next year. Nope. Podcast is going to be out before then.

655
00:44:16,833 --> 00:44:20,933
But you mentioned Kids Conservation Fest. So, I don't know, five,

656
00:44:21,193 --> 00:44:25,893
six, seven years ago now, Nick came up with kind of a brilliant idea.

657
00:44:26,073 --> 00:44:32,533
So, there's a number of conservation groups in the area, for example,

658
00:44:32,633 --> 00:44:36,613
Ducks Unlimited, but also CCA, Delta Waterfowl, and all these others.

659
00:44:36,613 --> 00:44:41,333
And a lot of times there's, I don't want to call it bad blood between the two,

660
00:44:41,433 --> 00:44:42,933
but more like a competition.

661
00:44:43,473 --> 00:44:48,413
And Nick came up with the brilliant idea of teaming everybody up and throwing

662
00:44:48,413 --> 00:44:52,793
a huge event at the children's museum every year.

663
00:44:52,913 --> 00:44:56,133
So remind me, Nick, it's DU, it's CCA.

664
00:44:56,473 --> 00:45:00,193
It's kind of changed throughout the years, depending on how strong the local chapters are.

665
00:45:00,353 --> 00:45:04,953
We had some battles with COVID and we lost a chapter here, lost a chapter there. Then it came back.

666
00:45:05,313 --> 00:45:09,173
But over the years, the people that have been involved is Ducks Unlimited,

667
00:45:09,773 --> 00:45:13,973
CCA, Coastal Conservation Association, Quality Deer Management Association,

668
00:45:14,253 --> 00:45:18,653
which I think is now just NDA, Delta Waterfowl.

669
00:45:18,773 --> 00:45:22,333
And then we've kind of had some smaller groups get together.

670
00:45:22,473 --> 00:45:26,473
NoNet Outdoors was there earlier, which was trying to get kids off of internet

671
00:45:26,473 --> 00:45:27,833
and bring them outdoors.

672
00:45:28,993 --> 00:45:36,493
413 Outdoors, which is a Christian disabled hunter-style organization that comes and be a part of it.

673
00:45:36,713 --> 00:45:41,013
And then this year we've had Blue Boot Rodeo come be a part of it,

674
00:45:41,033 --> 00:45:42,153
which was an absolute blessing.

675
00:45:42,593 --> 00:45:47,333
So over the year, long story short, man, it's been anywhere between six and

676
00:45:47,333 --> 00:45:52,013
eight different organizations locally, with the big groups being CCA,

677
00:45:52,053 --> 00:45:53,873
Ducks Unlimited, and Delta Waterfowl.

678
00:45:55,093 --> 00:46:02,633
And i can't take credit for the event entirety our local cca chairman mr lance trotty he and i were,

679
00:46:03,273 --> 00:46:06,433
hanging out one day and trying to brainstorm

680
00:46:06,433 --> 00:46:11,673
how we can get a kids event bigger in our area home of ducks unlimited had the

681
00:46:11,673 --> 00:46:15,813
longest standing green wing event in the state the youth event in the state

682
00:46:15,813 --> 00:46:21,113
and it just kind of became stagnant a little bit it was like 30 30 years running

683
00:46:21,113 --> 00:46:23,973
and And they would bring the kids to the rifle range, let them shoot .22s and

684
00:46:23,973 --> 00:46:25,033
shotguns and stuff like that.

685
00:46:25,333 --> 00:46:27,753
And every year it was kind of less and less and less and less.

686
00:46:28,153 --> 00:46:31,873
And we saw an opportunity to try to team up with Something Fun,

687
00:46:32,113 --> 00:46:35,973
the Children's Museum, and try to get the kids out there and just get them outdoors.

688
00:46:36,813 --> 00:46:41,553
I don't know if you went over it, but basically the idea of the event was to

689
00:46:41,553 --> 00:46:47,253
get kids off of phones, cell phones, iPads, TVs, and teach them something about

690
00:46:47,253 --> 00:46:49,273
the outdoors where hopefully it would get hooked.

691
00:46:50,053 --> 00:46:55,533
But man, over the years, I think, don't quote me on this, but I think we've had seven of them.

692
00:46:57,010 --> 00:47:00,590
Over the years, we've averaged about 300 kids at an event.

693
00:47:00,830 --> 00:47:05,470
You do simple math, it's over 2,000 kids that we've been able to let shoot a

694
00:47:05,470 --> 00:47:10,370
BB gun or teach a blow a duck call or teach them what a speckle trout look like.

695
00:47:10,630 --> 00:47:14,730
Yeah, so the volunteers from all these organizations set up these booths.

696
00:47:14,730 --> 00:47:17,590
So it might be like an archery booth where you get to shoot a bow and arrow.

697
00:47:18,070 --> 00:47:22,250
They'll have some guys come out and do like a dog, like a retriever demonstration

698
00:47:22,250 --> 00:47:25,150
and a ton of fun for the kids.

699
00:47:25,150 --> 00:47:27,950
Kids it look going back to

700
00:47:27,950 --> 00:47:30,730
ducks unlimited real quick i wear a lot of different hats as

701
00:47:30,730 --> 00:47:34,150
y'all heard but this event is truly the

702
00:47:34,150 --> 00:47:38,910
coolest event that we put on and see i'm pretty sure cca delta would tell you

703
00:47:38,910 --> 00:47:43,930
the same thing and again this little event in tibet louisiana has been the number

704
00:47:43,930 --> 00:47:49,210
one kids event for ducks unlimited for like the last six years right and i would

705
00:47:49,210 --> 00:47:53,350
guess it's It's also the biggest for the other ones too. Biggest for CCA, biggest for Delta.

706
00:47:53,930 --> 00:47:58,110
And the way it works is basically we go out, we allow these kids to come,

707
00:47:58,230 --> 00:48:02,290
we teach them about outdoors, and then we give them a membership to each participating organization.

708
00:48:03,050 --> 00:48:06,110
So the kids will come, they'll have a DU membership, a Delta membership,

709
00:48:06,250 --> 00:48:08,190
and a CCA membership that came this year.

710
00:48:08,190 --> 00:48:12,050
And then all year long they receive magazines or

711
00:48:12,050 --> 00:48:15,530
stickers and stuff like that just continues to promote not only

712
00:48:15,530 --> 00:48:19,750
outdoors but specifically conservation and the way it ties to outdoors and the

713
00:48:19,750 --> 00:48:25,410
way we need to give back in order to keep the resource i would be remiss if

714
00:48:25,410 --> 00:48:30,770
i don't say that after our third year originally it was called kids conservation

715
00:48:30,770 --> 00:48:33,570
fest yeah super cool name You said Jackie Bartels.

716
00:48:33,650 --> 00:48:40,510
Yeah. Well, after the third year, my grandmother passed away about three weeks before our event.

717
00:48:40,650 --> 00:48:45,490
And we jumped through hoops, but we got it changed in time. And we renamed it

718
00:48:45,490 --> 00:48:48,270
the Jackie Bartels Kids Conservation Fest, which is my grandmother.

719
00:48:48,630 --> 00:48:53,010
And she was the biggest proponent of kids and outdoors and conservation being all tied together.

720
00:48:53,190 --> 00:48:57,230
So really cool way to honor her. and i

721
00:48:57,230 --> 00:49:00,030
think i well i know that she would

722
00:49:00,030 --> 00:49:03,290
be proud of the work that us three individuals in

723
00:49:03,290 --> 00:49:06,330
this room have been able to accomplish with getting kids

724
00:49:06,330 --> 00:49:09,470
in front of outdoors and teaching them about conservation and we could spend

725
00:49:09,470 --> 00:49:14,070
an entire podcast just talking about your grandfather and grandmother but your

726
00:49:14,070 --> 00:49:19,190
grandma was a hell of a hunter in her own right that she would go on these hunting

727
00:49:19,190 --> 00:49:23,770
trips with your grandpa right and it's sometimes by herself sometimes he would

728
00:49:23,770 --> 00:49:25,710
be busy with work and And she says, okay, I'm going.

729
00:49:26,190 --> 00:49:28,830
I'm not waiting on you. That's amazing. And...

730
00:49:29,904 --> 00:49:34,224
Tell me how this goes. She's right-handed, went blind in her right eye,

731
00:49:34,304 --> 00:49:37,064
so taught herself how to shoot left-handed. That is correct.

732
00:49:37,184 --> 00:49:39,424
She can shoot a lot better than me left-handed.

733
00:49:40,444 --> 00:49:46,384
Well, I don't know about that, but she had macular degeneration in her eyes,

734
00:49:46,844 --> 00:49:50,584
and she had to teach herself to switch sides about, I don't know,

735
00:49:50,684 --> 00:49:53,384
about seven or eight years before her death.

736
00:49:53,804 --> 00:49:57,824
And she taught herself how to shoot opposite hand and opposite eye in order

737
00:49:57,824 --> 00:50:01,884
to keep hunting. And something really cool came out of that.

738
00:50:01,984 --> 00:50:04,544
We didn't really talk about it. I don't talk about it a lot.

739
00:50:04,624 --> 00:50:07,544
But she saw an opportunity,

740
00:50:07,604 --> 00:50:15,784
again, to have children come that have been blind since birth to the trophy

741
00:50:15,784 --> 00:50:20,544
room where all the animals and stuff are and visit the animals and feel the

742
00:50:20,544 --> 00:50:22,364
animals. And she called it Sensory Safari.

743
00:50:23,004 --> 00:50:26,204
So basically, the opportunity is the kids come.

744
00:50:26,484 --> 00:50:32,804
They come to the house. They feel the lion's mane. They feel iguana or feel a bear.

745
00:50:34,084 --> 00:50:38,624
And 90% of them have been blind since birth, and they get to see with their

746
00:50:38,624 --> 00:50:40,644
hands. And they called it Sensory Sephora.

747
00:50:40,864 --> 00:50:45,844
So that came about because of the macular degeneration. So same thing with my

748
00:50:45,844 --> 00:50:48,384
grandfather teaching us about conservation.

749
00:50:48,544 --> 00:50:51,744
She was able to use a bad thing and turn it into a great thing, right?

750
00:50:52,184 --> 00:50:56,224
And it was super cool the way she was able to tie that with her...

751
00:50:57,704 --> 00:51:05,504
Going blind in her right eye. Dang. Man, I'm so curious as to how they got started with this, you know?

752
00:51:06,064 --> 00:51:10,824
I'll be honest, which is she, my grandfather hunted. I asked this question several

753
00:51:10,824 --> 00:51:12,004
times. Like, why Ducks Unlimited?

754
00:51:12,164 --> 00:51:15,184
Why, why Sephora hunting?

755
00:51:15,324 --> 00:51:20,684
Why CCA? And my, and my grandfather has been a part of every single conservation

756
00:51:20,684 --> 00:51:21,744
organization in the world.

757
00:51:21,824 --> 00:51:25,904
Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation to National Wild Turkey Foundation. foundation.

758
00:51:25,964 --> 00:51:28,544
Anything to do with conservation and hunting, I promise you he's part of it.

759
00:51:28,604 --> 00:51:29,944
And he made us a part of it.

760
00:51:30,284 --> 00:51:35,004
But I asked him one day, I said, why, where did you get to love the hunting?

761
00:51:35,124 --> 00:51:36,824
He said, Nick, I grew up hunting.

762
00:51:36,964 --> 00:51:40,184
I grew up in a small town in Iowa and that's all we really had.

763
00:51:40,344 --> 00:51:45,364
He said, ever since a young, very young age, we didn't, we didn't really play sports.

764
00:51:45,464 --> 00:51:49,744
We didn't really, when it was finished time to finish working on the farm,

765
00:51:49,864 --> 00:51:51,544
we went out and went hunting.

766
00:51:51,544 --> 00:51:54,344
It i would ride my bike 10 miles to go to the

767
00:51:54,344 --> 00:51:57,204
nearest bayou and and hunt

768
00:51:57,204 --> 00:52:00,584
something i don't know if there's bayous in iowa but i guess

769
00:52:00,584 --> 00:52:04,784
it would be a river but he he always had a love affair with hunting and then

770
00:52:04,784 --> 00:52:10,404
she kind of fell in love with it and what what really makes my grandfather special

771
00:52:10,404 --> 00:52:15,864
and my grandparent my grandparents special excuse me is they always attached

772
00:52:15,864 --> 00:52:17,684
it they always saw the other side of,

773
00:52:17,764 --> 00:52:21,144
hey, let's tie it to conservation. Let's realize we need to give back.

774
00:52:21,504 --> 00:52:24,404
So it wasn't all about just taking, it was all about giving back.

775
00:52:25,524 --> 00:52:27,764
And lots and lots and lots of folks hunt, right?

776
00:52:28,834 --> 00:52:36,214
I think with them being able to be big conservationists is what really made it special.

777
00:52:36,374 --> 00:52:40,674
And it really, it kind of tied it to them wanting to do more.

778
00:52:40,974 --> 00:52:46,134
Like, hey, if we go over here, their portal organization is called Sephora Club International.

779
00:52:46,694 --> 00:52:53,234
So they took part in this thing called Blue Bag Project, not to go off on a

780
00:52:53,234 --> 00:52:55,214
tangent, but Blue Bag Project.

781
00:52:55,214 --> 00:52:58,114
Project, all these people were going to foreign countries, Zimbabwe,

782
00:52:58,194 --> 00:53:01,714
Tanzania, South Africa, there's three that we've gone to and we've done it.

783
00:53:01,994 --> 00:53:05,854
But it was like, man, you're going to South Africa. Why not take this blue duffel

784
00:53:05,854 --> 00:53:09,694
bag, fill it up with all kinds of cool stuff that the people need over there

785
00:53:09,694 --> 00:53:11,314
and just check it as another bag.

786
00:53:11,494 --> 00:53:14,534
It's going to cost you 55 bucks on United and bring it with you.

787
00:53:14,854 --> 00:53:19,174
So we did that. Again, the most recently when Paxton was nine,

788
00:53:19,254 --> 00:53:22,114
so five years years ago we went to South Africa where we

789
00:53:22,114 --> 00:53:24,814
filled the blue bag with some of it is

790
00:53:24,814 --> 00:53:27,814
school books and band-aids and neosporin but

791
00:53:27,814 --> 00:53:32,274
some of it's cool stuff like soccer balls or sunglasses and stuff like that

792
00:53:32,274 --> 00:53:37,814
and it and I got to see my nine-year-old hand out supplies to these guys in

793
00:53:37,814 --> 00:53:42,974
Africa went to orphanage and the kids loved it and Paxton realized very quickly

794
00:53:42,974 --> 00:53:47,774
that kids in South Africa are really good at soccer right that's not it's not E.D.

795
00:53:47,794 --> 00:53:52,154
White's not the best soccer team in the world his kids play soccer 10 hours

796
00:53:52,154 --> 00:53:56,574
a day but it was cool to be able to see him interact and look that came from

797
00:53:56,574 --> 00:53:59,694
a different organization that we haven't talked about safari club international.

798
00:54:00,274 --> 00:54:05,314
So it was as they grew in the organizations and as the it kind of went hand

799
00:54:05,314 --> 00:54:10,614
in hand like man you know if we go hunt here we can do this and tie it to this

800
00:54:10,614 --> 00:54:15,974
also let's do it so it kind of just turned into a snowball per se like man let's

801
00:54:15,974 --> 00:54:19,034
go out and try to do some more other stuff yeah and And he'll never forget that.

802
00:54:19,234 --> 00:54:22,814
No, absolutely not. It was super rewarding.

803
00:54:23,134 --> 00:54:26,634
It was kind of the first time in his life, he's nine at the time,

804
00:54:26,734 --> 00:54:29,814
where we walk in this orphanage and he sees their beds.

805
00:54:30,014 --> 00:54:33,554
And their pillows have basically no feathers in the pillow. It's basically a

806
00:54:33,554 --> 00:54:35,174
pillowcase that they're sleeping on.

807
00:54:35,614 --> 00:54:39,014
And he turns and looks at me. He's like, Dad, is that where they sleep? I was like, absolutely.

808
00:54:39,754 --> 00:54:42,494
He's like, man, I couldn't imagine sleeping like that.

809
00:54:42,634 --> 00:54:46,814
And it just, look, that's another benefit of going hunting. and you get to see

810
00:54:46,814 --> 00:54:48,894
and impact people around the world.

811
00:54:49,334 --> 00:54:53,714
And it's not just about hunting. And it made a difference. I guarantee you it

812
00:54:53,714 --> 00:54:57,234
made a difference in his life. He came home a different kid after that trip.

813
00:54:58,703 --> 00:55:03,463
So, again, I think hunting, how did they get into hunting?

814
00:55:03,583 --> 00:55:06,823
They got into hunting because they saw the good that came out of it.

815
00:55:07,463 --> 00:55:09,803
Another aspect you can look at, and you talked about earlier,

816
00:55:10,163 --> 00:55:13,043
how they harvest an animal and how many different people it impacts.

817
00:55:13,523 --> 00:55:17,743
Same thing with hunting over there. I mean, not only do you impact the people

818
00:55:17,743 --> 00:55:22,963
that the PH hires, the chefs, the trackers, the skinners, the camp people,

819
00:55:23,123 --> 00:55:26,583
the people that make your beds every day, but you also impact the animals.

820
00:55:26,583 --> 00:55:31,983
Because a lot of the money that is spent in that area on that trophy fee goes

821
00:55:31,983 --> 00:55:33,683
into the conservation of those animals.

822
00:55:34,263 --> 00:55:39,083
Why is it so hard for people to understand that? What's everyone missing or

823
00:55:39,083 --> 00:55:42,063
what do they need to hear? Because it doesn't matter what you say.

824
00:55:42,523 --> 00:55:49,483
You know, you're going to find the people that they just can't get past the you did this mentality.

825
00:55:49,723 --> 00:55:54,443
So I don't know. Talk a little bit more about that. Maybe some questions that

826
00:55:54,443 --> 00:55:55,923
people ask you on the road. voter.

827
00:55:56,003 --> 00:55:59,743
I'm sure you have been the blunt of a lot of the questions, right?

828
00:56:00,243 --> 00:56:03,383
Yeah. Look, if I knew the answer to that, I'd probably be president.

829
00:56:03,683 --> 00:56:08,143
I don't know the answer to that. I don't, some people, and you come across all

830
00:56:08,143 --> 00:56:09,643
different paths of lives, right?

831
00:56:09,963 --> 00:56:13,563
And people have opinions. That's what makes everybody, that's what makes it fun.

832
00:56:13,903 --> 00:56:19,203
But at the same time, some people are deeper thinkers. Some people just take stuff on the surface.

833
00:56:20,303 --> 00:56:25,503
Man, if you give me, it's funny because I don't remember where we were.

834
00:56:25,603 --> 00:56:26,363
I think it was in Arkansas.

835
00:56:26,863 --> 00:56:29,903
And I think it was the year I was state chairman. And there was a group that

836
00:56:29,903 --> 00:56:32,423
came up called Flyway Federation.

837
00:56:32,923 --> 00:56:38,683
And it talked about the flooding of the cornfields and the ducks and stuff like that.

838
00:56:39,223 --> 00:56:45,143
And again, not to get into that, but basically I spent five minutes telling,

839
00:56:45,323 --> 00:56:48,623
explaining the conservation aspect to this guy.

840
00:56:48,823 --> 00:56:52,283
Like, this is why we do what we do. This is the science behind it.

841
00:56:52,423 --> 00:56:54,323
This is what our research church tells us.

842
00:56:54,603 --> 00:56:57,383
And I remember walking away and the guy I was with, he goes,

843
00:56:57,483 --> 00:57:01,363
man, you sound like a Baptist preacher at a revival for those five minutes.

844
00:57:02,083 --> 00:57:06,863
So it's not a secret. I try to preach it everywhere I go. But a lot of it is

845
00:57:06,863 --> 00:57:09,383
just being able to connect with somebody and explain it.

846
00:57:09,743 --> 00:57:14,783
Because look, just like in politics, you hear something on Fox News or CNN,

847
00:57:15,023 --> 00:57:17,023
and you can only take it for surface value.

848
00:57:17,263 --> 00:57:20,223
There's some people that, man, I don't know if I truly believe that.

849
00:57:20,223 --> 00:57:21,563
Let me do a little research on it.

850
00:57:21,643 --> 00:57:24,763
And then there's people that say, man, I saw on Fox News that this is going

851
00:57:24,763 --> 00:57:27,423
to happen and the world's over. You know what I mean?

852
00:57:27,743 --> 00:57:33,163
So it's the same thing with this. It's there is so much the biggest,

853
00:57:33,183 --> 00:57:35,783
coolest quote I'm going to say all day.

854
00:57:35,863 --> 00:57:39,203
The biggest conservationists in the world are hunters. Yes.

855
00:57:39,916 --> 00:57:43,976
That's a fact. There's no debate in that because hunters do so much for the

856
00:57:43,976 --> 00:57:48,656
wildlife, for the habitat, for everything.

857
00:57:48,936 --> 00:57:52,736
So the biggest conservationists in the world are hunters. That's good.

858
00:57:52,876 --> 00:57:56,676
And yeah, there almost needs to be no other argument, right?

859
00:57:57,076 --> 00:57:59,976
I agree with you. The next time somebody says something like that,

860
00:57:59,996 --> 00:58:04,016
I'm going to say, well, how much have you given to help the animals?

861
00:58:04,176 --> 00:58:06,616
Because I at least bought a duck stamp this year.

862
00:58:06,816 --> 00:58:12,236
That's right. Right. The year that I was state chairman, Ducks Unlimited had a big, big push.

863
00:58:12,676 --> 00:58:16,056
We put signs up at all the boat launches.

864
00:58:16,536 --> 00:58:21,836
And it was a big deal about us not having ducks and all that kind of thing.

865
00:58:21,956 --> 00:58:24,296
But the sign was simple and it was powerful.

866
00:58:24,736 --> 00:58:30,536
Had a DU logo right in the middle. And at the top it said, before you complain, what have you done?

867
00:58:31,076 --> 00:58:35,136
And it basically said, man, you can complain about not shooting ducks,

868
00:58:35,136 --> 00:58:37,176
But what have you done in order to fix the resource?

869
00:58:37,656 --> 00:58:41,856
So and it kind of it kind of inspired people to like man, I need to do something

870
00:58:41,856 --> 00:58:45,956
It doesn't matter what you do whether you believe what Delta does believe what

871
00:58:45,956 --> 00:58:48,976
CCA does I believe what do you does do something?

872
00:58:49,176 --> 00:58:52,236
You have to do something in order to continue the resource.

873
00:58:52,756 --> 00:58:56,616
What's in your opinion? What is the enemy against their resources?

874
00:58:56,816 --> 00:58:58,556
Like what would it what's the you?

875
00:58:59,276 --> 00:59:00,896
What's what's the use rival?

876
00:59:02,287 --> 00:59:07,707
Dee's rival, I think it would be more geography-based.

877
00:59:07,887 --> 00:59:11,687
Very simple answer in Louisiana, and I'm sure y'all know it, it's erosion.

878
00:59:12,607 --> 00:59:16,087
I mean, we're losing so much land in Louisiana, and it's a nonstop battle.

879
00:59:16,887 --> 00:59:22,067
Louisiana's special to Ducks Unlimited, and we spend probably five times more

880
00:59:22,067 --> 00:59:26,127
than what we raise in Louisiana because the biologists realize,

881
00:59:26,447 --> 00:59:28,927
man, we're losing so much habitat for these ducks.

882
00:59:29,067 --> 00:59:31,907
We need to put more money into terraces, for example.

883
00:59:32,287 --> 00:59:38,187
Terraces are a huge thing in south louisiana because it reduces wave action it reduces the

884
00:59:38,507 --> 00:59:41,407
banks eroding explain what that is

885
00:59:41,407 --> 00:59:44,807
a terrace yeah so terraces guys go

886
00:59:44,807 --> 00:59:47,687
out there with a big swamp backhoe they dig

887
00:59:47,687 --> 00:59:50,507
up the dirt in the bottom of the the water and they

888
00:59:50,507 --> 00:59:53,547
build basically jagged levees inside

889
00:59:53,547 --> 00:59:57,307
big bodies of water and the idea is if

890
00:59:57,307 --> 01:00:00,307
winds blowing non-stop and these waves are getting bigger and

891
01:00:00,307 --> 01:00:03,267
bigger and bigger and by the time they hit the the the beach

892
01:00:03,267 --> 01:00:06,927
or the the bank it's eroding

893
01:00:06,927 --> 01:00:10,567
more and more so if you can reduce that wave action by building

894
01:00:10,567 --> 01:00:13,627
little levees inside of it and keeping that wave action down

895
01:00:13,627 --> 01:00:16,767
you'll slow the erosion on

896
01:00:16,767 --> 01:00:19,367
the bank itself and it's it's been proven to be

897
01:00:19,367 --> 01:00:23,107
very very very very successful

898
01:00:23,107 --> 01:00:25,927
they go in there they build

899
01:00:25,927 --> 01:00:29,107
these levels levees and then they plan them and that instead

900
01:00:29,107 --> 01:00:34,287
of having a one wave going across 600 feet of water and then hitting the bank

901
01:00:34,287 --> 01:00:40,867
super hard you go 50 feet and it crashes so when I go to the the Wellness Center

902
01:00:40,867 --> 01:00:48,047
at a Civic Center and at the Thibodeaux banquet and I bid 6,000 on the butchers night that money.

903
01:00:50,017 --> 01:00:53,777
I can believe that that money is going to be going to a project such as that.

904
01:00:53,917 --> 01:00:58,897
It'll be going to something that is going to benefit possibly my kids if they know how to duck on it.

905
01:00:58,977 --> 01:01:04,817
A hundred percent. I can show you right now, Louisiana probably has about 12

906
01:01:04,817 --> 01:01:07,257
different projects going on in South Louisiana.

907
01:01:09,277 --> 01:01:13,857
And about two weeks ago, the guy that's the biologist that's in charge of projects

908
01:01:13,857 --> 01:01:19,677
in Louisiana, he listed out about 40 that are coming up. So that's money in our backyard.

909
01:01:20,017 --> 01:01:22,177
I mean, a lot of them in Terrebonne and Lafourche Parish.

910
01:01:22,657 --> 01:01:27,177
I get asked a lot of times, man, what does Ducks Unlimited do for us in our local area?

911
01:01:27,677 --> 01:01:31,437
Well, obviously, my first, I point to the Grand Bayou Project right there in Pontchart.

912
01:01:32,537 --> 01:01:36,257
You can go over there and catch a speckled trout, and then the next cast,

913
01:01:36,357 --> 01:01:39,957
catch a bass, and then go out there and shoot a limit of ducks.

914
01:01:40,277 --> 01:01:42,617
Well, that whole project was done by Ducks Unlimited.

915
01:01:43,837 --> 01:01:48,417
They levied it off. They created freshwater systems with water control structures

916
01:01:48,417 --> 01:01:50,817
and allowed public to hunt it.

917
01:01:50,897 --> 01:01:53,557
I mean, you can go out there any day during duck season and hunt that.

918
01:01:53,917 --> 01:01:56,837
And it's open to every single person that has a duck stamp and a license.

919
01:01:58,137 --> 01:02:04,217
So two things. First, well, I have my own opinions on how to – we're in a losing

920
01:02:04,217 --> 01:02:05,177
battle against erosion.

921
01:02:05,757 --> 01:02:11,577
I think the only thing that's going to fix it is allowing more freshwater and

922
01:02:11,577 --> 01:02:12,837
flooding, unfortunately, which

923
01:02:12,837 --> 01:02:18,097
is maybe not doable, but that's beside the point. My question for you is.

924
01:02:19,823 --> 01:02:23,403
What it, when, when Shane asked you, what do you biggest enemy is?

925
01:02:23,483 --> 01:02:25,563
I'm thinking like, what are the ducks biggest enemy?

926
01:02:25,903 --> 01:02:28,883
Is it habitat loss? Is it hunters?

927
01:02:29,183 --> 01:02:34,023
Is it, what is it? Why, why are there fewer ducks? Habitat loss and,

928
01:02:34,083 --> 01:02:36,703
and, and increasing of population.

929
01:02:37,143 --> 01:02:41,963
So we definitely have habitat loss happening down here. Is that happening throughout all the flyways?

930
01:02:42,123 --> 01:02:46,383
And it's yes, but it's in different aspects. So down here, obviously it's erosion,

931
01:02:46,623 --> 01:02:51,943
but not only erosion, but like, Like, say, let's go to Saskatchewan where the breeding grounds are.

932
01:02:52,063 --> 01:02:57,103
These farmers are flooding and preparing land for forming.

933
01:02:57,803 --> 01:03:05,503
So you have a huge pond, three acre pond that hosts ducks to mate and make little

934
01:03:05,503 --> 01:03:06,483
ducks every single year.

935
01:03:06,603 --> 01:03:09,083
They use that pond during the summer.

936
01:03:09,323 --> 01:03:11,523
As soon as it starts getting cold, they fly down south.

937
01:03:11,963 --> 01:03:15,903
Farmer says, man, I need to put I want more money in my pocket or I need to

938
01:03:15,903 --> 01:03:19,303
make more money off of my crops. How do I do it? it. I add more land.

939
01:03:19,843 --> 01:03:24,403
Well, man, you can have a piece of a pond that's sitting there doing nothing,

940
01:03:25,363 --> 01:03:30,663
or you fill it in, you turtle back in and then you plant whatever in it, wheat in it.

941
01:03:30,763 --> 01:03:33,823
And all of a sudden you increase your revenue. So we battle that a lot.

942
01:03:35,223 --> 01:03:39,883
The way we battle it is we put easements on things. So basically we go out and

943
01:03:39,883 --> 01:03:42,903
we find a piece of property that is a wetland.

944
01:03:42,903 --> 01:03:45,763
We buy it we put an easement

945
01:03:45,763 --> 01:03:49,063
on saying hey we you cannot fill this

946
01:03:49,063 --> 01:03:51,783
pond in for 30 years and then we sell it back

947
01:03:51,783 --> 01:03:54,643
to people so that du doesn't have to hold the property

948
01:03:54,643 --> 01:03:57,623
itself but we're we're selling it back to folks

949
01:03:57,623 --> 01:04:00,543
same thing you can look in tibetan

950
01:04:00,543 --> 01:04:03,263
louisiana i'll use an example not to take a shot and

951
01:04:03,263 --> 01:04:07,303
i don't know who owns the property but i lived on the west side of town for

952
01:04:07,303 --> 01:04:11,383
a long time and there was that sugar mill right there and there would be tons

953
01:04:11,383 --> 01:04:16,423
and tons and tons of ducks between the sugar mill in my house that would hang

954
01:04:16,423 --> 01:04:20,623
out in the pond and the ditches the overflow ditches and a lot of times you'd

955
01:04:20,623 --> 01:04:22,363
see them drinking out of those big water wells.

956
01:04:23,677 --> 01:04:28,697
Guess what's there now? That new neighborhood right there behind the gas station right there.

957
01:04:29,217 --> 01:04:33,277
Now there's, where there used to be a lot of ducks, there's 300 homes.

958
01:04:34,377 --> 01:04:38,157
Now, I'm not saying that ducks are more important than humans,

959
01:04:38,397 --> 01:04:42,477
but what I'm saying is it's a constant battle.

960
01:04:42,517 --> 01:04:45,017
It's a constant struggle in order to make both of them work.

961
01:04:45,197 --> 01:04:48,617
And without organizations like DU, it would be, I mean, think about how much

962
01:04:48,617 --> 01:04:49,897
worse it would be. Exactly.

963
01:04:50,317 --> 01:04:53,677
Another thing people don't take into account is, I don't know if you want to

964
01:04:53,677 --> 01:04:59,177
call it climate change or whatever, but we had that big drought last year, that's last summer.

965
01:05:00,177 --> 01:05:03,957
That's terrible for ducks, obviously. Weather is a big part of it,

966
01:05:03,977 --> 01:05:05,177
especially in the breeding grounds.

967
01:05:05,477 --> 01:05:10,377
Some of the things that the big hunters that are associated with our organization,

968
01:05:10,577 --> 01:05:13,317
they want to know what's the weather like in the breeding grounds.

969
01:05:13,397 --> 01:05:16,177
They ask all the DU Canada guys that, what's the weather like?

970
01:05:16,197 --> 01:05:19,277
What's the weather like? Because they know, look, if we don't have water, we don't have ducks.

971
01:05:20,337 --> 01:05:25,097
That is a constant battle. Those are some of the things that we can't control.

972
01:05:25,277 --> 01:05:26,977
Obviously, DU can't control weather.

973
01:05:27,977 --> 01:05:35,017
But what we can control is, so what's kind of changed in the last year or two

974
01:05:35,017 --> 01:05:40,537
in Ducks Unlimited is we've been able to positively affect water in general.

975
01:05:41,317 --> 01:05:44,277
And we talked about the human aspect versus the ducks.

976
01:05:45,477 --> 01:05:49,237
DU's, what's starting to happen is these government agencies are starting to

977
01:05:49,237 --> 01:05:52,237
realize, man, when DU does a project for wetlands in this area,

978
01:05:52,437 --> 01:05:58,097
all of a sudden the water quality in towns south of that area has increased.

979
01:05:58,397 --> 01:06:01,737
The water quality has become better because of the wetlands.

980
01:06:01,857 --> 01:06:04,737
You know it. They say a wetland acts like a filter, right?

981
01:06:05,057 --> 01:06:10,517
So there's been research about us doing a project and everything downstream

982
01:06:10,517 --> 01:06:13,197
of that, the water quality absolutely increases.

983
01:06:13,297 --> 01:06:15,497
And that's where these towns are getting their water from.

984
01:06:15,777 --> 01:06:19,937
So in turn, what's happened now is organizations that

985
01:06:19,937 --> 01:06:23,397
are just concerned with water they don't care about a duck at all they've

986
01:06:23,397 --> 01:06:26,177
hired us and said look we want you to do

987
01:06:26,177 --> 01:06:29,257
a project in this area and increase our water and it's

988
01:06:29,257 --> 01:06:33,557
kind of been a different aspect the ducks and lemon we've always okay we we

989
01:06:33,557 --> 01:06:37,157
love the water and we want great water for everybody we've always focused on

990
01:06:37,157 --> 01:06:40,757
ducks but that's kind of a byproduct of what we've been doing that's so cool

991
01:06:40,757 --> 01:06:44,617
and especially if they'll put up a few dollars i mean well that's That's the

992
01:06:44,617 --> 01:06:46,737
trade-off, like, hey, government municipality

993
01:06:47,097 --> 01:06:50,557
has a lot of dollars and all of a sudden we can affect more wetlands.

994
01:06:51,317 --> 01:06:53,717
Just to put it, just to kind of see what's happening.

995
01:06:54,969 --> 01:07:00,429
I think four years ago, we had 300,000 acres that we've influenced in a calendar year.

996
01:07:00,589 --> 01:07:04,249
300,000 acres in one year, which is a huge number, right?

997
01:07:04,709 --> 01:07:08,809
At the national convention about four weeks ago in San Diego,

998
01:07:08,889 --> 01:07:14,489
for the first time ever, Ducks Unlimited can serve a million acres in a single calendar year.

999
01:07:14,749 --> 01:07:18,369
And the big reason why is because now these different organizations are giving

1000
01:07:18,369 --> 01:07:21,709
us money because they know that we know how to take care of it.

1001
01:07:21,769 --> 01:07:26,469
We know how to do the work. our science tells us this is really this is doing

1002
01:07:26,469 --> 01:07:30,729
great things for not only ducks and hundreds of different type of birds but

1003
01:07:30,729 --> 01:07:36,089
also now humans so now you're getting into the aspect of man if we can if we

1004
01:07:36,089 --> 01:07:39,669
can we can put up a million dollars increase our water quality.

1005
01:07:40,289 --> 01:07:43,189
Absolutely we want to do that here ducks unlimited please go

1006
01:07:43,189 --> 01:07:46,009
out and do projects in our area and they trust us to do

1007
01:07:46,009 --> 01:07:49,369
it so it's just kind of a byproduct of

1008
01:07:49,369 --> 01:07:52,669
the work that ducks unlimited does us ducks are

1009
01:07:52,669 --> 01:07:55,329
regulated federally yes when you buy a

1010
01:07:55,329 --> 01:07:58,249
duck stamp what's that money doing for you

1011
01:07:58,249 --> 01:08:01,349
so ducks same thing with so there's

1012
01:08:01,349 --> 01:08:04,689
a grant called naca north american wetland conservation

1013
01:08:04,689 --> 01:08:08,029
act and basically it's a match so for

1014
01:08:08,029 --> 01:08:11,189
every dollar that ducks unlimited gets from louisiana duck

1015
01:08:11,189 --> 01:08:14,009
stamps it's matched three to one and that

1016
01:08:14,009 --> 01:08:16,669
money can be used at the discretion of ducks unlimited limited

1017
01:08:16,669 --> 01:08:19,929
same thing on a national level when when

1018
01:08:19,929 --> 01:08:22,689
money like that's given to ducks unlimited we try to go out and match

1019
01:08:22,689 --> 01:08:26,329
it no matter if it's chances are they're going to take the six thousand dollars

1020
01:08:26,329 --> 01:08:30,469
that you guys put up at this butcher block dinner they're going to turn around

1021
01:08:30,469 --> 01:08:34,609
use that money to match and then do a project and so your six thousand dollars

1022
01:08:34,609 --> 01:08:40,289
now becomes eighteen thousand dollars so really powerful tools because the government

1023
01:08:40,289 --> 01:08:42,249
knows man these guys know what they're They're doing,

1024
01:08:42,309 --> 01:08:45,709
we trust them with our money and we know they're going to do the right thing with it.

1025
01:08:46,049 --> 01:08:49,669
So this, that, that leads me into a, an interesting question,

1026
01:08:49,769 --> 01:08:53,509
in my opinion, what's, where's the trade-off or where's like the,

1027
01:08:53,549 --> 01:08:59,929
the balance between, you know, before you hit like an, an oversaturation of hunters, right?

1028
01:08:59,989 --> 01:09:03,769
You want more hunters and you want, you want to preach the word and you want

1029
01:09:03,769 --> 01:09:07,749
everyone to be a Ducks Unlimited member and you want to buy a bunch of duck

1030
01:09:07,749 --> 01:09:09,709
stamps to, to do better for the ducks.

1031
01:09:09,789 --> 01:09:11,969
But what happens? Do you want everyone to duck hunt?

1032
01:09:12,649 --> 01:09:17,429
I mean, no. Obviously, the science tells you, man, this is how many ducks we can harvest.

1033
01:09:17,929 --> 01:09:22,549
So there's a bunch of guys way smarter than me. What their tool is to set the

1034
01:09:22,549 --> 01:09:25,869
limits for Louisiana. So Louisiana sets their limits.

1035
01:09:26,609 --> 01:09:31,109
60 days and six ducks is what it's been for like the last five, six, seven years.

1036
01:09:32,275 --> 01:09:36,195
But one of those variables in that equation is hunters, numbers of hunters.

1037
01:09:36,655 --> 01:09:40,435
So you've got a pool of ducks. This is how many ducks we want to harvest per

1038
01:09:40,435 --> 01:09:43,155
day. This is how many days. This is how many hunters.

1039
01:09:43,595 --> 01:09:47,255
So one of those variables is hunters. Obviously, if we get, say,

1040
01:09:47,315 --> 01:09:50,215
everybody in the mountain goes get a duck stamp, and all of a sudden you've

1041
01:09:50,215 --> 01:09:53,715
got five times the amount of duck hunters in Louisiana, obviously the science

1042
01:09:53,715 --> 01:09:57,495
tells us, man, we need a limited number of ducks that each hunter can shoot.

1043
01:09:58,775 --> 01:10:01,595
And we try to let science dictate that, right? Right.

1044
01:10:01,915 --> 01:10:06,215
We, we let the science tell us what it is. And, and just to be clear,

1045
01:10:06,295 --> 01:10:09,575
DU doesn't set the, it's not DU that's setting these limits. Right.

1046
01:10:09,695 --> 01:10:13,675
It's the wildlife commission and guys like Larry Reynolds that are flying over

1047
01:10:13,675 --> 01:10:17,815
the wetlands and doing duck surveys and duck counts and stuff like that in order

1048
01:10:17,815 --> 01:10:19,635
to tell us how many ducks that we can harvest.

1049
01:10:19,975 --> 01:10:24,295
So, so you understand that if you get everyone involved in duck hunting,

1050
01:10:24,455 --> 01:10:26,075
then the limits might go down.

1051
01:10:26,315 --> 01:10:29,535
It's yeah. Yeah. Is that what you're okay with that? Or do you want,

1052
01:10:29,595 --> 01:10:33,835
do you want to save it? You know, do you want to save it for the crew?

1053
01:10:34,195 --> 01:10:35,335
I'll be honest with you.

1054
01:10:35,855 --> 01:10:39,435
If you, if you give me three ducks per person, we can make a mean duck stuff

1055
01:10:39,435 --> 01:10:43,395
at River Red. You know what I mean? Yeah. Give me three, two every day of the week.

1056
01:10:43,835 --> 01:10:47,495
You know what I mean? Like, look, it's kind of the speckle trial.

1057
01:10:47,515 --> 01:10:50,655
So yeah, if you double the number of hunters and half the limit,

1058
01:10:50,735 --> 01:10:54,115
I mean, that's a lot more money coming in for conservation too.

1059
01:10:54,375 --> 01:10:57,455
Absolutely. So it could have a net positive effect.

1060
01:10:58,535 --> 01:11:01,795
I mean, there's folks that go out there and just, they want to get their limit.

1061
01:11:01,895 --> 01:11:05,255
And I get it. It's a sense of pride. It's a sense of accomplishment.

1062
01:11:05,895 --> 01:11:08,675
Especially the paid hunters and the paid fishermen. Absolutely.

1063
01:11:08,955 --> 01:11:12,835
Like they're coming, they just changed the speckle trout limits.

1064
01:11:13,175 --> 01:11:17,675
Yep. To 15. And guess what? I'm sure those charter captains are loving it. Right?

1065
01:11:18,295 --> 01:11:21,375
They're going to have more successful trips. trips do

1066
01:11:21,375 --> 01:11:24,355
you feel like if i go out there and only caught 15 trout

1067
01:11:24,355 --> 01:11:27,675
instead of 25 trout that was man that was a waste of a day i

1068
01:11:27,675 --> 01:11:30,515
mean i don't think anybody feels like that same thing with

1069
01:11:30,515 --> 01:11:34,735
ducks you go out there and you you see that sunrise there's been many a day

1070
01:11:34,735 --> 01:11:38,135
that i've hunted and didn't fire a shot in fact bo's probably been with me on

1071
01:11:38,135 --> 01:11:43,315
a couple of those hopefully not too many but too many buddy but he will everybody

1072
01:11:43,315 --> 01:11:46,915
that's out there and he'll agree with me watching Watching that sunrise come

1073
01:11:46,915 --> 01:11:48,935
up, talking to your friends.

1074
01:11:49,015 --> 01:11:51,315
That's what it's about. Hanging out with your dog.

1075
01:11:51,495 --> 01:11:53,835
I mean, that's what it's about. It's not about shooting the ducks.

1076
01:11:54,115 --> 01:11:57,935
What's it like watching someone shoot their first duck when you put them on

1077
01:11:57,935 --> 01:12:00,135
it? I mean, it's the coolest thing ever. And it's...

1078
01:12:02,351 --> 01:12:05,251
There's more joy in that than you shooting yourself. And I know everybody would

1079
01:12:05,251 --> 01:12:09,851
say that, but it's, it's not only more, it's probably 10 times more, right?

1080
01:12:10,171 --> 01:12:13,971
It's funny how when people get really good at things and they do something for

1081
01:12:13,971 --> 01:12:15,851
long enough, it always leads to that.

1082
01:12:15,911 --> 01:12:20,591
It always leads to your happiness is from someone else's happiness.

1083
01:12:20,691 --> 01:12:24,631
You know, watching them shoot the first duck, you know, what's going to happen

1084
01:12:24,631 --> 01:12:27,751
the first morning that Paxton wakes up and,

1085
01:12:27,831 --> 01:12:30,711
and he's cooking the, he's got the bacon grease going, one

1086
01:12:30,711 --> 01:12:34,651
you know that's gonna that's gonna feel some type of way absolutely absolutely

1087
01:12:34,651 --> 01:12:39,191
i want you to teach me how to shoot my first fish sure on your boat i can only

1088
01:12:39,191 --> 01:12:44,351
i can only hold my breath like 45 seconds i still owe you a trip yeah you do

1089
01:12:44,351 --> 01:12:50,931
i didn't forget shane did buy a boat yeah and uh part of the deal was one snapper

1090
01:12:50,931 --> 01:12:54,231
trip every year with the boys yeah that's true i think we're like

1091
01:12:54,271 --> 01:13:00,191
what three behind now and i'm pretty it's only been a year has it yeah oh i

1092
01:13:00,191 --> 01:13:04,111
cried myself to sleep for like the last first 30 nights you've been busy also

1093
01:13:04,111 --> 01:13:06,951
you know where it's at you can come get it anytime you want i appreciate that

1094
01:13:06,951 --> 01:13:10,831
i'm just glad somebody's getting use of it hey a lot of use.

1095
01:13:11,391 --> 01:13:14,171
A lot of use i'm pretty sure in this last year you use

1096
01:13:14,171 --> 01:13:17,551
it more than i did in the last seven 100 yeah

1097
01:13:17,551 --> 01:13:20,371
but here's the real question how many fish has that

1098
01:13:20,371 --> 01:13:23,351
boat caught since you've had it it's been a bloody boat

1099
01:13:23,351 --> 01:13:26,151
no no you misunderstand me oh

1100
01:13:26,151 --> 01:13:28,911
no caught still the boat still not in the

1101
01:13:28,911 --> 01:13:34,771
water we we've caught a lot i get about during the peak season like some middle

1102
01:13:34,771 --> 01:13:38,471
of summertime i'll get about 10 phone calls a week man i just saw you going

1103
01:13:38,471 --> 01:13:45,671
down canal boulevard where you going fishing when'd you buy it why are you why

1104
01:13:45,671 --> 01:13:48,731
are you driving on the median why'd you buy a dodge,

1105
01:13:50,211 --> 01:13:55,351
so so i don't know i kind of want to hear some maybe some hunting stories.

1106
01:13:56,941 --> 01:14:00,921
I want to hear a cool hunting story. I want to hear a story about something I don't know about.

1107
01:14:01,041 --> 01:14:05,421
Again, we're going to have to have Nick on two more times because maybe three,

1108
01:14:06,041 --> 01:14:10,201
because I want one with just hunting stories because he's got thousands, I'm sure.

1109
01:14:10,621 --> 01:14:13,501
And the other is we haven't even gotten into his family business yet.

1110
01:14:14,481 --> 01:14:17,941
Actually, that's good. Let's go there first. But we're on hunting.

1111
01:14:18,301 --> 01:14:22,401
Yeah, but it would be funner. But I've been one to ask Nick this question.

1112
01:14:22,401 --> 01:14:29,081
Okay, your grandfather has hunted every animal that I can name and most of them

1113
01:14:29,081 --> 01:14:34,041
that I can't, and he's got more world records than I can name animals,

1114
01:14:34,221 --> 01:14:39,741
and the question is the same for you, but why ducks? ducks.

1115
01:14:39,941 --> 01:14:44,241
Obviously he loves hunting just about anything, but, and maybe I'm wrong.

1116
01:14:44,341 --> 01:14:47,741
Maybe you'll be like, oh no, he likes hunting elephants more. I don't know.

1117
01:14:47,981 --> 01:14:53,401
But to me, I feel like he loves ducks more than any other animal. True or false?

1118
01:14:54,001 --> 01:14:59,001
So shockingly for him, it's false. He loves, he loves sheep hunting.

1119
01:14:59,181 --> 01:15:01,361
He's a, he's a huge sheep hunter. Okay.

1120
01:15:02,001 --> 01:15:05,041
For me, it's absolutely positive. and if you've

1121
01:15:05,041 --> 01:15:07,701
been listening this long you know why because we can

1122
01:15:07,701 --> 01:15:11,961
talk while we're duck hunting right and i don't shut up look

1123
01:15:11,961 --> 01:15:15,641
for me i'll start with me personally duck

1124
01:15:15,641 --> 01:15:19,001
hunting is my favorite because of the fellowship because of

1125
01:15:19,001 --> 01:15:24,201
a we can do what we're doing right now on a duck blind i tell you i tell this

1126
01:15:24,201 --> 01:15:27,821
to everybody you find out everything about a man in 10 minutes on duck blind

1127
01:15:27,821 --> 01:15:32,881
you tell how genuine that man is where's his heart at how's he feel about certain

1128
01:15:32,881 --> 01:15:35,841
things and what type of person he is.

1129
01:15:36,361 --> 01:15:42,561
And I truly believe that duck hunting to me is, it's less about hunting, more about fellowship.

1130
01:15:44,221 --> 01:15:47,961
My grandfather, he took a liking to sheep hunting.

1131
01:15:48,321 --> 01:15:53,281
I don't know what it is. He's not a very nimble guy.

1132
01:15:53,581 --> 01:15:58,401
I mean, he's been a 6'4", 285 guy for 40 years. When you said he didn't play

1133
01:15:58,401 --> 01:16:02,921
sports, I figured he missed his calling for the University of Iowa football.

1134
01:16:03,341 --> 01:16:07,481
Well, he ended up going to, when he was in farming or whatever,

1135
01:16:07,581 --> 01:16:10,021
he ended up moving to Canton, Mississippi.

1136
01:16:10,401 --> 01:16:13,301
And he played four sports. So he went from no sports to four.

1137
01:16:13,301 --> 01:16:16,341
Played football baseball basketball and track

1138
01:16:16,341 --> 01:16:19,401
and then he ended up playing football for mississippi state

1139
01:16:19,401 --> 01:16:22,161
well shit see so he he's one

1140
01:16:22,161 --> 01:16:25,141
of those corn-fed boys that just were good on the offensive line

1141
01:16:25,141 --> 01:16:27,881
but he loved sheep hunting and i

1142
01:16:27,881 --> 01:16:31,341
think the reason he loved it because it was huge challenge for

1143
01:16:31,341 --> 01:16:34,161
him so hard yeah from what i understand that's that's the

1144
01:16:34,161 --> 01:16:37,081
pinnacle that's that's the hardest animal to kill it's

1145
01:16:37,081 --> 01:16:40,061
it's tough and it's it's not tough because of

1146
01:16:40,061 --> 01:16:42,961
love their eyesight or their smell and

1147
01:16:42,961 --> 01:16:45,981
stuff like that it's tough because of where they live right i think

1148
01:16:45,981 --> 01:16:49,181
i don't think you would love sheep hunting as much as my grandfather did

1149
01:16:49,181 --> 01:16:52,001
because you're you're very athletic and

1150
01:16:52,001 --> 01:16:57,201
nimble and and can climb those rocks like it wasn't anything where him he had

1151
01:16:57,201 --> 01:17:01,361
to work his butt off to get up there i mean he's a 300 pound man at six four

1152
01:17:01,361 --> 01:17:07,141
trying to hide from sheep on a on an incline at 10 000 feet up in the air so

1153
01:17:07,141 --> 01:17:09,921
for him it was a challenge and most people people,

1154
01:17:09,941 --> 01:17:13,921
once they spot it, if they spot it, they will probably say,

1155
01:17:14,101 --> 01:17:16,621
well, there's no way I can get it after, so I'm not shooting it.

1156
01:17:16,661 --> 01:17:20,321
But I'm assuming he's the type of person to say, well, we'll worry about that

1157
01:17:20,321 --> 01:17:22,861
after the shot. Hold my beer and watch this.

1158
01:17:23,941 --> 01:17:28,641
No, he, he, he prided himself on being able to take some longer shots.

1159
01:17:28,941 --> 01:17:32,661
That was kind of his deal where mine's more of bow. I want to get up close and personal.

1160
01:17:33,061 --> 01:17:37,261
If I can get 10, 10 yards away, I want to try to get seven type of deal where

1161
01:17:37,261 --> 01:17:40,401
he was, hey, you get me inside of 600 and I got it.

1162
01:17:41,215 --> 01:17:46,055
And not only that, but, hey, I'm going to be able to maneuver myself around these mountains.

1163
01:17:46,475 --> 01:17:49,575
So his favorite was actually sheep hunting, and he did a lot of it.

1164
01:17:49,775 --> 01:17:55,795
And what's cool, I guess cool isn't the word, but what's unique is I hate sheep hunting.

1165
01:17:56,715 --> 01:18:00,975
Like, I'll do it, but— For the same reason that he likes it, because it's hard?

1166
01:18:01,155 --> 01:18:05,355
No. I mean, I love a challenge. That's kind of why I love elk hunting with a bow.

1167
01:18:05,795 --> 01:18:10,035
It's a challenge, but some of it is, I'll be honest with you,

1168
01:18:10,115 --> 01:18:10,935
they don't taste very good.

1169
01:18:11,335 --> 01:18:14,935
And it goes back to our first conversation about eating everything we hunt.

1170
01:18:15,215 --> 01:18:19,235
They're not just, you can eat them, and I've done it, but they're not great.

1171
01:18:19,355 --> 01:18:23,495
You put an elk versus a bighorn sheep, I mean, there's going to be no comparison.

1172
01:18:23,855 --> 01:18:26,895
But did you try to cook it like duck stuff? No, I didn't.

1173
01:18:27,515 --> 01:18:32,055
Maybe we need to try that. Let's go shoot a sheep and cook it down in some onions

1174
01:18:32,055 --> 01:18:35,835
and stuff it with a sweeper tape. I got to shoot it.

1175
01:18:37,015 --> 01:18:40,235
I'll let you shoot it since you like the rifle thing, and then we'll cook it

1176
01:18:40,235 --> 01:18:42,615
together. How about that? You don't want to get seven yards away?

1177
01:18:43,655 --> 01:18:46,815
And then shoot it with a rifle. That would be really tough. I'll shoot it with

1178
01:18:46,815 --> 01:18:50,355
a rifle first so you can get close. I like that. That's a good idea.

1179
01:18:51,055 --> 01:18:55,135
Teamwork, baby. Makes the dream work. Nick says he likes to get close to animals to shoot.

1180
01:18:55,255 --> 01:19:02,095
And that reminds me, I watched Nick on TV get way too damn close to a bear before he shot it.

1181
01:19:02,315 --> 01:19:05,955
Man, that was a cool hunt. That was with Jim Shockey.

1182
01:19:06,575 --> 01:19:10,815
And that bear, I think he was doing it for TV. And I was super nervous.

1183
01:19:10,815 --> 01:19:16,035
I was shooting a Thompson Center rifle, and he's making all these funny,

1184
01:19:16,075 --> 01:19:19,435
weird noises, like breathing real hard. The bear or Jim? Jim.

1185
01:19:20,455 --> 01:19:26,035
I had the same question. So Jim's laying on the ground next to me. Let's hear one.

1186
01:19:28,115 --> 01:19:30,415
He was doing like a predator call.

1187
01:19:32,755 --> 01:19:36,635
I'm like, I don't know if that sounds like a bear, but apparently,

1188
01:19:36,875 --> 01:19:38,435
and he's whispering to me.

1189
01:19:38,435 --> 01:19:41,315
He's like he's not turning around he's not running away so that

1190
01:19:41,315 --> 01:19:44,155
means he's a big one because he's not scared of us and

1191
01:19:44,155 --> 01:19:47,115
i'm like yeah that's not what we want no shit no

1192
01:19:47,115 --> 01:19:54,195
shit but the bears the bear starts off about 50 yards away and just i mean bowed

1193
01:19:54,195 --> 01:19:57,615
up just walking towards us and you can see it plays on outdoor channel every

1194
01:19:57,615 --> 01:20:00,775
now and then the same people they call me and tell me my boat's going down canal

1195
01:20:00,775 --> 01:20:05,255
boulevard tell me what the show's on but anyway he's walking up and he's He's

1196
01:20:05,255 --> 01:20:06,675
just, he's kind of, he's unsure.

1197
01:20:06,915 --> 01:20:09,235
The bear's unsure. And Jim's making all these.

1198
01:20:10,795 --> 01:20:13,955
I'm like, what the hell have I gotten myself into?

1199
01:20:14,615 --> 01:20:22,115
And the bear comes to about 14 or 13 yards away, figures out we're not quite a bear.

1200
01:20:23,515 --> 01:20:29,515
But in that whole time he's walking, why are you like, I can shoot him way farther away.

1201
01:20:29,795 --> 01:20:33,095
You wanted him to be closer, to be clear. So we watched a video.

1202
01:20:33,235 --> 01:20:34,495
No, Nick, personally, no.

1203
01:20:35,295 --> 01:20:39,815
Absolutely not. But if you watch the video, I can point out times in the video where I'm like,

1204
01:20:40,801 --> 01:20:45,121
Jim, I need to cock my gun. Like, I only got one. You do realize I only got

1205
01:20:45,121 --> 01:20:48,361
one shot, right? This is it. I shoot, and I shoot him in the leg.

1206
01:20:48,981 --> 01:20:52,021
He's going to eat you because I'm going to run way faster than you can.

1207
01:20:52,181 --> 01:20:55,941
And you've been making all the dead people noises. He's making these noises.

1208
01:20:56,641 --> 01:21:00,481
And, in fact, it gets to a point where I take things into my own hands.

1209
01:21:00,661 --> 01:21:04,361
Like, the bear is still coming towards us, and I'm laying on the ground flat

1210
01:21:04,361 --> 01:21:05,901
on my stomach, and he's next to me.

1211
01:21:06,281 --> 01:21:09,761
And I'm about seven mayonnaise breads in that day.

1212
01:21:13,521 --> 01:21:16,241
Right so my cholesterol is not gonna allow me to get

1213
01:21:16,241 --> 01:21:19,041
up and start sprinting like i want to and plus if you do shit

1214
01:21:19,041 --> 01:21:21,981
yourself right right it's a lot of man-ass

1215
01:21:21,981 --> 01:21:24,681
bread so i lean over and i take things in

1216
01:21:24,681 --> 01:21:29,941
my own hand i said i'm gonna cock the gun jim meaning i'm

1217
01:21:29,941 --> 01:21:32,701
gonna work right right there's no there's no

1218
01:21:32,701 --> 01:21:36,241
more stuff for this television show that you're trying to make cool so i

1219
01:21:36,241 --> 01:21:39,261
i cocked the the gun and he turns about it

1220
01:21:39,261 --> 01:21:42,441
he hears me cock it the bear hears me cock it so he's still point

1221
01:21:42,441 --> 01:21:45,741
blank he hears me cut the gun and the bear

1222
01:21:45,741 --> 01:21:48,501
stops and kind of turns sideways and then that's when i shoot

1223
01:21:48,501 --> 01:21:51,521
the bear and he runs away and i stand up

1224
01:21:51,521 --> 01:21:56,941
and i'm like holy smokes what is happening right now the cameraman's probably

1225
01:21:56,941 --> 01:22:00,201
you don't realize it but the cameraman is like 200 yards behind because he's

1226
01:22:00,201 --> 01:22:04,701
smart right and you don't realize it until he zooms out which my wife gives

1227
01:22:04,701 --> 01:22:09,301
me hell because my draws are all the way up my butt because my butt's trying

1228
01:22:09,301 --> 01:22:11,121
to hang on for dear life, I'm pretty sure.

1229
01:22:11,621 --> 01:22:14,981
But then the bear runs away. But, no, that was him trying.

1230
01:22:15,441 --> 01:22:20,281
He's a really cool guy. And Jim is a huge conservationist and a huge –.

1231
01:22:21,671 --> 01:22:24,571
Champion for the hunting industry and what you see

1232
01:22:24,571 --> 01:22:27,951
is what you get he's not a hollywood hunter is what i call him he

1233
01:22:27,951 --> 01:22:30,871
look he he works his butt off to get those animals and

1234
01:22:30,871 --> 01:22:34,091
he's really good at it and he he he does

1235
01:22:34,091 --> 01:22:37,391
he doesn't have to wear a red handkerchief with the black cowboy hat in order

1236
01:22:37,391 --> 01:22:41,891
to shoot animals but he does because it looks cool but he really is he really

1237
01:22:41,891 --> 01:22:46,611
is a great hunter and then and i'm sure he's a good hunter but he put a lot

1238
01:22:46,611 --> 01:22:51,291
of faith in you he didn't he He didn't know me at all,

1239
01:22:51,411 --> 01:22:53,991
but he did know I was from Lafourche Parish.

1240
01:22:54,011 --> 01:22:56,151
So I guess he assumed that I could shoot a shotgun.

1241
01:22:56,291 --> 01:22:59,891
I mean, a rifle, but he, he was really cool about it.

1242
01:22:59,951 --> 01:23:05,011
And he, I asked him after I seen him about two years ago and I asked him,

1243
01:23:05,011 --> 01:23:10,131
I said, Hey, on our hunt, did you like, why you, why you wouldn't let me shoot it?

1244
01:23:10,311 --> 01:23:13,211
Was it bad for me to shoot it? Like from the front.

1245
01:23:13,751 --> 01:23:16,771
And he said, and he confirmed what I thought. He goes, no, man,

1246
01:23:16,811 --> 01:23:19,811
it made for way better TV for that thing to come 15 yards away.

1247
01:23:21,311 --> 01:23:25,231
I'm like, cool. Can you call Dr. Patel and tell him Porter Reason to have high

1248
01:23:25,231 --> 01:23:26,931
blood pressure just because of stuff like that?

1249
01:23:27,171 --> 01:23:32,631
So one of the thousands of cool stories. But, man, and that was because of my

1250
01:23:32,631 --> 01:23:34,931
grandfather. My grandfather was real big in Sephora Club.

1251
01:23:35,411 --> 01:23:38,171
He happened to know Jim, and Jim invited us up there to go hunt.

1252
01:23:38,491 --> 01:23:41,791
And he actually invited my grandfather. He said, hey, Ron, I want you to come

1253
01:23:41,791 --> 01:23:44,571
up there and shoot a black bear with me. and my grandfather said,

1254
01:23:44,771 --> 01:23:47,331
Jim, man, I appreciate that. I'll take your offer.

1255
01:23:47,771 --> 01:23:51,811
He said, but I've shot a black bear. Do you mind if my grandson shoots it?

1256
01:23:52,331 --> 01:23:55,011
So this was in 2010.

1257
01:23:56,671 --> 01:24:01,611
It was actually in April. I'll tell you today, it was April 26, 2010.

1258
01:24:02,151 --> 01:24:05,271
And the reason I know that is because Paxton was 10 years, 10 days old.

1259
01:24:05,811 --> 01:24:12,511
So I told Courtney, shout out Courtney. I said, Hey, hey, I can't miss this opportunity.

1260
01:24:13,131 --> 01:24:15,531
Like this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. I'm sure she understood,

1261
01:24:15,891 --> 01:24:19,611
for sure. It's your first kid. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity.

1262
01:24:19,831 --> 01:24:23,111
I have to take this. Nowhere else can I go hunting with Jim Choggy.

1263
01:24:24,660 --> 01:24:28,900
And she reluctantly agreed. Y'all are still married. Yeah.

1264
01:24:29,500 --> 01:24:35,020
Since then, and you can ask her, there's probably been about 25 once-in-a-lifetime opportunities.

1265
01:24:35,540 --> 01:24:38,180
And she gives me crap about it every single time. But they are.

1266
01:24:38,420 --> 01:24:40,960
But look, Jim knew that I had just had a newborn.

1267
01:24:41,260 --> 01:24:45,820
And after the show, about two weeks after the show, I get home and I got a package

1268
01:24:45,820 --> 01:24:48,680
in the mail. And it was Jim's hat. And he had signed it to Paxton.

1269
01:24:48,840 --> 01:24:50,880
Oh, man. And it's the hat that he wore on the show.

1270
01:24:51,700 --> 01:24:55,380
So just a stand-up guy. Yeah, just a cool guy. Piece of shit.

1271
01:24:57,520 --> 01:25:00,020
Courtney didn't like the hat, but Paxton absolutely loved it.

1272
01:25:00,060 --> 01:25:01,180
He wanted to throw it away.

1273
01:25:01,860 --> 01:25:04,900
Oh, thanks. A reminder that you weren't here.

1274
01:25:05,180 --> 01:25:12,000
Well, Nick, I've been in, I've actually been in the, do you have a special name for the room?

1275
01:25:12,180 --> 01:25:17,180
We call it the trophy room. I call it the trophy room, too. And I actually been in it on Isla Cuba.

1276
01:25:17,620 --> 01:25:20,560
I've been inside that room, and I remember walking in.

1277
01:25:22,160 --> 01:25:26,660
You went there young, right? Yeah, I was probably 8 to 10. Because you knew

1278
01:25:26,660 --> 01:25:29,860
Beaver? Yeah. Beaver got you in. Yeah.

1279
01:25:30,760 --> 01:25:36,440
I stayed, you know, I did summers at a babysitter's house, like right next door. Okay.

1280
01:25:36,700 --> 01:25:41,060
And Beaver would come over with us, and I knew young Beaver,

1281
01:25:41,060 --> 01:25:43,660
and I knew Glenn and Mitchell. Okay.

1282
01:25:44,060 --> 01:25:47,640
And, yeah, I remember. So what's your thoughts on it? I remember.

1283
01:25:47,800 --> 01:25:50,420
What was the first thing you thought when you walked in? Ace Ventura.

1284
01:25:51,340 --> 01:25:55,020
What a lovely room of death. Yeah. I get that a lot. that's what that's what

1285
01:25:55,020 --> 01:25:59,380
i remember seeing i'm like wow this is this is incredible i mean 360,

1286
01:26:00,340 --> 01:26:05,120
everything you've never seen yeah right yeah you can't describe it right like

1287
01:26:05,120 --> 01:26:11,380
the i remember so the first time i saw it it was also in isla cuba and i'm like

1288
01:26:11,380 --> 01:26:16,280
what in the hell is all of this doing in shriever right is it with chucky probably

1289
01:26:16,280 --> 01:26:19,840
yeah okay but i couldn't believe it i'm like why Why?

1290
01:26:19,980 --> 01:26:23,820
So you would never guess that this is in this house.

1291
01:26:24,200 --> 01:26:27,740
It's unbelievable, it belongs in a museum. When we say trophy room,

1292
01:26:27,880 --> 01:26:31,760
we're not talking about going to the camp and there's six whitetail,

1293
01:26:31,760 --> 01:26:33,980
you know, five points on the wall.

1294
01:26:34,740 --> 01:26:40,140
What, Nick, talk about some of the species that are in there and maybe if they hold any records or?

1295
01:26:40,660 --> 01:26:46,180
The story of the trophy room is it really, it was a sense of pride for me, right?

1296
01:26:47,364 --> 01:26:53,184
I get to display these animals in my home that have come from generations of hunters in our family.

1297
01:26:53,404 --> 01:26:57,244
And it has a lot of similarities to your guy's market, right?

1298
01:26:57,484 --> 01:27:04,304
It's something that a previous person in your family started and that you hold with a sense of pride.

1299
01:27:04,544 --> 01:27:09,244
I mean, it's probably one of the most important things to you guys is the market.

1300
01:27:09,444 --> 01:27:14,224
One of the most prized possessions I have in my life is these group of trophies.

1301
01:27:15,064 --> 01:27:18,164
And not only the trophies but the stories that come with the trophies,

1302
01:27:18,884 --> 01:27:21,944
that's the coolest part is you can walk into

1303
01:27:21,944 --> 01:27:27,624
this room and you're surrounded by the how many you have a best guess i'm gonna

1304
01:27:27,624 --> 01:27:34,364
say 325 so 325 different species amazing different species so probably more

1305
01:27:34,364 --> 01:27:41,324
mounts but you can point at any one and if mr ron's there or if nick's the one that Even if Mr.

1306
01:27:41,384 --> 01:27:44,144
Ron's the one that killed it, Nick probably knows the story.

1307
01:27:44,224 --> 01:27:49,444
You can point to anyone, and they will go off on the coolest story. Yeah.

1308
01:27:49,924 --> 01:27:51,724
Point to anyone, and it's that cool.

1309
01:27:52,504 --> 01:27:57,384
It really is. And about three years ago, as my grandfather was getting older,

1310
01:27:57,524 --> 01:27:58,644
I got him in there one time.

1311
01:27:58,664 --> 01:28:01,264
And I put on a headset similar to this one. Oh, nice.

1312
01:28:01,484 --> 01:28:05,824
And I said, I took pictures of every wall, and I numbered every single animal.

1313
01:28:05,944 --> 01:28:08,524
Yes. Tell me something about this animal, and just let him talk.

1314
01:28:08,704 --> 01:28:12,144
Wow. Like we're talking now. wow, wow. And then we're going to compile it into

1315
01:28:12,144 --> 01:28:15,424
a book that'll hopefully stay with the animals for the rest of their lives.

1316
01:28:15,564 --> 01:28:17,624
That'll be amazing. That is how.

1317
01:28:18,809 --> 01:28:23,589
Legacies. Yeah, 100%. Roan doesn't know a lot of the stories yet because he's

1318
01:28:23,589 --> 01:28:31,069
only eight, but I'll be able to let him hear the story in my grandfather's voice. Man. Super cool.

1319
01:28:31,929 --> 01:28:37,749
So just for everyone that can't picture it, picture a coffee table made out of an elephant ear.

1320
01:28:39,449 --> 01:28:46,829
Picture 12-foot grizzly towering over you, which has its own story about getting

1321
01:28:46,829 --> 01:28:48,249
confiscated by the president.

1322
01:28:48,809 --> 01:28:52,229
And all it is. And a polar bear. Polar bear. What did I say?

1323
01:28:52,289 --> 01:28:54,989
Grizzly. There's both. I think there's both.

1324
01:28:55,549 --> 01:29:01,129
Oh, yeah. But the polar bear is the cool one, which either came from Greenland

1325
01:29:01,129 --> 01:29:03,829
or was shot in Greenland. Look, I'm going to let Nick tell the story.

1326
01:29:04,329 --> 01:29:09,029
Picture a crocodile, tail up in the air, head down like it's underwater swimming,

1327
01:29:09,309 --> 01:29:13,889
chasing after some exotic piranha species or something.

1328
01:29:14,969 --> 01:29:17,909
Picture. your dude you have to

1329
01:29:17,909 --> 01:29:21,109
see it to believe it it's it's unbelievable i mean

1330
01:29:21,109 --> 01:29:24,369
tell us the story of the polar bear dude okay so polar

1331
01:29:24,369 --> 01:29:31,049
bear my grandfather wanted to shoot a polar bear and it was it was fairly expensive

1332
01:29:31,049 --> 01:29:35,449
but the money that was used to shoot the polar bear i want to start off with

1333
01:29:35,449 --> 01:29:40,889
telling you this that money was used in the native land for habitat for polar

1334
01:29:40,889 --> 01:29:42,769
bears which is not Not unusual. No.

1335
01:29:43,009 --> 01:29:46,649
That's how all of these. That's how a lot of it works. You sell the permit to

1336
01:29:46,649 --> 01:29:51,469
shoot the polar bear and the money goes to basically prolong polar bear lives

1337
01:29:51,469 --> 01:29:53,849
by use of habitat up there.

1338
01:29:54,389 --> 01:29:57,149
Anyway, long story short, my grandfather goes to the Arctic Circle.

1339
01:29:57,709 --> 01:30:01,789
He hunts on a snowmobile for 10 days. He sleeps on ice every night with Inuits.

1340
01:30:02,609 --> 01:30:07,389
How old was he? When did this happen? Best guess, I'm going to say 25 years ago.

1341
01:30:07,469 --> 01:30:10,889
So he would have been somewhere in his late 50s, early 60s. Okay.

1342
01:30:11,549 --> 01:30:14,829
That's already impressive six four guy hanging

1343
01:30:14,829 --> 01:30:17,749
out with a bunch of guys that are four eleven five two

1344
01:30:17,749 --> 01:30:21,449
so it's really funny and they had to build igloos which

1345
01:30:21,449 --> 01:30:24,329
i'm sure they weren't happy about having to build an igloo big enough

1346
01:30:24,329 --> 01:30:27,889
for a sky at six four he spends

1347
01:30:27,889 --> 01:30:30,749
he spends a day on the ice he spends 10 days on

1348
01:30:30,749 --> 01:30:33,469
ice he i did on the 10th day i

1349
01:30:33,469 --> 01:30:37,389
believe he shoots the polar bear with a muzzleloader at the time that he shoots

1350
01:30:37,389 --> 01:30:40,629
the polar bear it's the largest polar bear ever harvested with a muzzleloader

1351
01:30:40,629 --> 01:30:46,909
in history gets to the polar bear and the polar bear is tagged from greenland

1352
01:30:46,909 --> 01:30:52,929
and this was where again this is an arctic circle so like north canada you there was.

1353
01:30:54,207 --> 01:30:58,127
There was some regulations put in place by a guy named John Kerry.

1354
01:30:58,387 --> 01:31:00,927
He was a guy that ran for president. He was a senator.

1355
01:31:01,487 --> 01:31:06,567
And he basically banned Greenland polar bears for coming into the country.

1356
01:31:06,827 --> 01:31:11,247
And his idea was he was trying to keep guys from going over there and shoot

1357
01:31:11,247 --> 01:31:12,947
them, and it would protect the polar bears.

1358
01:31:13,347 --> 01:31:17,567
In reality, guys going over there to shoot polar bears helps the polar bears

1359
01:31:17,567 --> 01:31:18,887
by giving back to the habitat.

1360
01:31:19,127 --> 01:31:22,407
We won't get into that anymore. more but but to be clear for anyone

1361
01:31:22,407 --> 01:31:25,927
that's not super good at geography also

1362
01:31:25,927 --> 01:31:28,647
like me but if you look at a map greenland's not

1363
01:31:28,647 --> 01:31:31,507
super close to canada it's it's a pretty good swim

1364
01:31:31,507 --> 01:31:34,567
for that polar bear yeah that's unbelievable yeah so he

1365
01:31:34,567 --> 01:31:37,247
gets to the polar bear it's tagged from greenland he tries to

1366
01:31:37,247 --> 01:31:39,967
get it back in the united states the united states says no you can't bring it

1367
01:31:39,967 --> 01:31:43,167
back in a u.s fish and wildlife sees it sees it

1368
01:31:43,167 --> 01:31:46,907
put it in a u.s fish and wildlife freezer and

1369
01:31:46,907 --> 01:31:49,847
14 years goes was by he never

1370
01:31:49,847 --> 01:31:53,127
got his polar bear 14 years so he had it tanned they

1371
01:31:53,127 --> 01:31:56,407
allowed him to tan it and then they confiscated it sat

1372
01:31:56,407 --> 01:31:59,267
in the freezer for 14 years and over that

1373
01:31:59,267 --> 01:32:01,927
time i want to say 12 13 guys same thing happened to

1374
01:32:01,927 --> 01:32:04,747
them they did everything legally they got all the permits got all the licenses

1375
01:32:04,747 --> 01:32:08,047
they did everything they hunted in the right areas but when

1376
01:32:08,047 --> 01:32:11,147
they got to the polar bears the polar bears had swam over from greenland and

1377
01:32:11,147 --> 01:32:15,727
they got the impressive part to me is none of of these guys thought to remove

1378
01:32:15,727 --> 01:32:21,807
the tag i think i mean it's not how your grandfather's built right so they all

1379
01:32:21,807 --> 01:32:25,227
all the polar bears are confiscated they sit in u.s fishing wildlife freezers.

1380
01:32:25,767 --> 01:32:32,067
As the story goes my grandfather gets a phone call one day and is notified that

1381
01:32:32,067 --> 01:32:37,167
on his last day of presidency george bush portering all the bears that had been

1382
01:32:37,167 --> 01:32:41,827
seized because one of his neighbors happened to have a bear in the freezer can

1383
01:32:41,827 --> 01:32:44,527
you believe this dude i don't believe this That's so wild.

1384
01:32:45,227 --> 01:32:48,167
So my grandfather's bear was pardoned after 14 years. I like to think that George

1385
01:32:48,167 --> 01:32:50,347
Bush is the one that called everyone personally.

1386
01:32:50,667 --> 01:32:54,287
He was 14 people, dude. He could have did it. I can confirm he did not call

1387
01:32:54,287 --> 01:32:57,207
my grandfather, but that would have been super cool. I think he tagged the bears.

1388
01:32:58,207 --> 01:33:02,627
Hey, this is George. Yeah. This is George. Some people call me president.

1389
01:33:02,667 --> 01:33:03,787
I just wanted to let you know.

1390
01:33:04,547 --> 01:33:08,567
But I guarantee you my grandfather hearing the news that he was finally going

1391
01:33:08,567 --> 01:33:10,707
to get his bear was just as good as hearing from the president.

1392
01:33:10,707 --> 01:33:13,407
It because he thought in his mind and you talked to him

1393
01:33:13,407 --> 01:33:16,327
all those years he thought he would never get it yeah it's like man 14

1394
01:33:16,327 --> 01:33:19,027
years yeah it's gone it's it's you're never gonna

1395
01:33:19,027 --> 01:33:22,327
get that and look that's a that's a tough hunt right and it

1396
01:33:22,327 --> 01:33:25,527
was a world record muzzleloader at the time i think

1397
01:33:25,527 --> 01:33:28,967
since then it's been knocked off by about two or three spots so it's still top

1398
01:33:28,967 --> 01:33:34,627
five in the world but just really cool story about how he got his bear after

1399
01:33:34,627 --> 01:33:38,167
all that time and this is this is what but people won't believe as unbelievable

1400
01:33:38,167 --> 01:33:43,307
as this story is every animal in there has almost as cool of a story.

1401
01:33:43,547 --> 01:33:45,367
There's some, there's some really cool stories.

1402
01:33:45,927 --> 01:33:48,947
Some of the ones special to me are the ones that I was able to accomplish.

1403
01:33:50,020 --> 01:33:55,480
Do with him or be accompanying him with the animal, especially as a young child.

1404
01:33:55,680 --> 01:33:58,420
So my first trip to Africa was the elephant trip.

1405
01:33:58,900 --> 01:34:03,320
I'm nine years old. My grandfather had a rule in his family.

1406
01:34:03,440 --> 01:34:07,700
He said, if you were at least nine years old and you made a 4.0 in school,

1407
01:34:07,960 --> 01:34:10,380
you got to go with him wherever they went that summer.

1408
01:34:10,580 --> 01:34:13,560
And when they went on, when they hunted, they didn't fly to Africa and hunt

1409
01:34:13,560 --> 01:34:14,760
for six days and then fly home.

1410
01:34:14,900 --> 01:34:18,260
It was, hey, you're flying to Africa and you're You're spending a month of June

1411
01:34:18,260 --> 01:34:19,660
there, and then you fly home.

1412
01:34:19,760 --> 01:34:24,000
So we were there for 25 to 30 days at a time. So it was a big deal.

1413
01:34:25,200 --> 01:34:28,740
So all the kids in our family, it would help them study and make them study

1414
01:34:28,740 --> 01:34:30,240
more because they wanted to go on Sephora.

1415
01:34:30,780 --> 01:34:33,280
So anyway, I qualified my first year. I was nine.

1416
01:34:34,100 --> 01:34:37,700
I go with him to Africa. And I don't know if I ever told you all this story.

1417
01:34:37,920 --> 01:34:39,660
It's a little bit of a sad story.

1418
01:34:40,240 --> 01:34:43,700
We get there, and we start hunting elephants. And the way you hunt elephants is you walk.

1419
01:34:43,960 --> 01:34:48,160
And I was nine. you walk about 20 miles a day hunting elephants.

1420
01:34:48,360 --> 01:34:52,980
And it's basically, in essence, you're just scouting and you're looking for

1421
01:34:52,980 --> 01:34:54,460
prints and you're looking for big prints.

1422
01:34:54,700 --> 01:35:00,500
It's flat? No, no, no, no. It's pretty hilly. It's probably comparable to like Wyoming.

1423
01:35:02,201 --> 01:35:07,801
It's dry, though. It's more like West Texas climate and a hilly type atmosphere.

1424
01:35:08,721 --> 01:35:14,461
So we walk 20 miles a day. First day, second day, third day, fourth day, fifth day.

1425
01:35:14,761 --> 01:35:18,501
So I'm five days deep, 20 miles a day. And we saw some elephants,

1426
01:35:18,661 --> 01:35:20,321
but not any really good bulls.

1427
01:35:20,661 --> 01:35:25,641
And a couple of days, we got chased up the hillside by a troop of elephants

1428
01:35:25,641 --> 01:35:27,121
coming through. I don't know if it's called a troop.

1429
01:35:27,481 --> 01:35:31,041
You got to check me on that. But a group of elephants coming through.

1430
01:35:31,741 --> 01:35:35,681
Sixth day, we got close. We found a bull that we really liked.

1431
01:35:36,221 --> 01:35:39,221
He was several miles away from us. We tried to get close to him.

1432
01:35:39,241 --> 01:35:41,281
We couldn't walk 20 miles that day.

1433
01:35:41,481 --> 01:35:44,821
So the sixth day, I come home, and I'm nine. I'm dead tired.

1434
01:35:45,781 --> 01:35:49,881
Seventh day, I wake up. My grandma goes, Nick, you look really tired today.

1435
01:35:50,241 --> 01:35:54,181
She said, maybe you should spend a day at the camp with me, and then you can take a one-day break.

1436
01:35:54,541 --> 01:35:58,381
And then tomorrow, you'll go back, and you'll go hunting with my grandfather. What if?

1437
01:35:58,841 --> 01:36:03,321
And I said, I don't know, Ma. I said, I'd hate to, I put in all this work with

1438
01:36:03,321 --> 01:36:06,421
Paul. I'd hate to miss it. And she's like, I'll play rummy with you.

1439
01:36:07,361 --> 01:36:10,081
I love, I love numbers and I love court games.

1440
01:36:12,061 --> 01:36:15,821
That's one thing, but that rummy with my grandma. It wasn't super hard to talk

1441
01:36:15,821 --> 01:36:19,161
him into it. Yeah. I guarantee I was tired. After 120 miles of walking. Right.

1442
01:36:19,661 --> 01:36:24,161
So I'll never forget it. I'm sitting in camp that day and my grandfather walks

1443
01:36:24,161 --> 01:36:25,941
in with that elephant tail. Yeah.

1444
01:36:26,901 --> 01:36:31,101
And I, I cry. He tells me the story all the time, especially whenever it's in

1445
01:36:31,101 --> 01:36:32,481
front of a bunch of people and make me feel embarrassed.

1446
01:36:33,061 --> 01:36:36,041
But he walked in with that tail and he said, I ran up to him and I grabbed his

1447
01:36:36,041 --> 01:36:37,461
leg and I was bawling crying.

1448
01:36:37,741 --> 01:36:41,061
I said, Papa, you're not supposed to shoot the elephant when I'm not there.

1449
01:36:41,561 --> 01:36:46,821
He said, son, you gotta be there every single day. He said, he said, that's part of it.

1450
01:36:46,881 --> 01:36:50,601
But the story of the elephant is they got within the distance that he needed

1451
01:36:50,601 --> 01:36:53,461
with this bull and he had two other bulls with him.

1452
01:36:54,423 --> 01:36:57,823
And every day you're hunting, you're hunting with a game warden that carried an AK-47.

1453
01:36:58,543 --> 01:37:02,223
And it's basically like a game warden you have here. Yeah. Was that for the

1454
01:37:02,223 --> 01:37:04,343
hunter or for the elephant?

1455
01:37:04,783 --> 01:37:08,523
I don't know. I think it was for the elephants. I think it was just for protection.

1456
01:37:08,723 --> 01:37:12,723
That was the gun that they carried. Gotcha. But he shot the bull. It went down.

1457
01:37:13,323 --> 01:37:17,303
And the two bulls that were with him kind of went around the bull,

1458
01:37:17,443 --> 01:37:19,503
circled the bull four or five times.

1459
01:37:19,983 --> 01:37:23,303
And then turned and started charging towards my grandfather. and the

1460
01:37:23,303 --> 01:37:26,423
ph there was a couple trackers and then the game warden

1461
01:37:26,423 --> 01:37:29,483
and about that time the game warden steps up and

1462
01:37:29,483 --> 01:37:32,583
starts shooting bullets over the heads of the elephants just

1463
01:37:32,583 --> 01:37:37,563
to try to deter them and my grandfather said it got real real quick they came

1464
01:37:37,563 --> 01:37:41,903
within about 25 yards before they decided to turn around but the bulls actually

1465
01:37:41,903 --> 01:37:47,883
charged my grandfather after he shot it but after the bull went down he cut

1466
01:37:47,883 --> 01:37:52,483
the tail off comes back to camp they let it sit overnight night and it was a festival.

1467
01:37:52,603 --> 01:37:55,763
It was a big deal. I got a lot of people hear the story and say,

1468
01:37:55,803 --> 01:37:56,643
man, he shot an elephant.

1469
01:37:57,443 --> 01:38:04,903
Well, the next day we go out there and that night, all the people in the surrounding

1470
01:38:04,903 --> 01:38:07,283
villages were notified. Hey, we had an elephant kill.

1471
01:38:07,623 --> 01:38:09,883
And these are people, these are not people living in houses.

1472
01:38:09,883 --> 01:38:14,423
These people living in huts, mud huts with thatched roofs made out of straw.

1473
01:38:15,003 --> 01:38:19,043
And we show up to the elephant the next day at like nine o'clock in of the morning

1474
01:38:19,043 --> 01:38:21,663
and there's 300 people standing there. Damn.

1475
01:38:21,803 --> 01:38:26,223
And most of them women with baskets on their heads to get some ready to get meat.

1476
01:38:26,323 --> 01:38:29,343
So we clean the elephant, clean the elephant.

1477
01:38:29,383 --> 01:38:33,623
And these people are coming by with baskets and getting big chunks of meat to

1478
01:38:33,623 --> 01:38:36,243
take back to their, their place to eat.

1479
01:38:36,943 --> 01:38:40,043
And I'll never forget it. It was my grandfather, my grandmother,

1480
01:38:40,063 --> 01:38:41,763
and then me standing in a line.

1481
01:38:41,983 --> 01:38:45,423
And the pH asked us to stand there because these people wanted to thank you.

1482
01:38:45,903 --> 01:38:48,643
So I'm standing there with my grandmother and my grandfather,

1483
01:38:48,703 --> 01:38:51,823
and these people were coming by with chunks of elephant meat in their baskets.

1484
01:38:51,963 --> 01:38:55,443
And most of them just kind of said thank you and kind of nodded a little bit.

1485
01:38:55,643 --> 01:38:56,823
Some of them would shake a hand.

1486
01:38:57,363 --> 01:39:01,643
But I remember, I'm nine, 50% of the women were topless.

1487
01:39:02,561 --> 01:39:07,121
So every time one of these topless women would come by, my grandmother would hide my eyes.

1488
01:39:08,321 --> 01:39:11,061
So you didn't get to see none of it. I was nine, right?

1489
01:39:11,341 --> 01:39:16,501
But obviously I remember that, but I also remember how happy these people were.

1490
01:39:16,801 --> 01:39:19,641
And the PH would tell us like, man, these guys don't eat meat.

1491
01:39:19,961 --> 01:39:22,781
Kind of like the first episode with your dad.

1492
01:39:23,321 --> 01:39:26,001
These people don't eat, we didn't eat a lot of meat back then.

1493
01:39:26,001 --> 01:39:30,141
It wasn't common, it was expensive. So, man, you think about giving protein

1494
01:39:30,141 --> 01:39:35,161
to people that don't have a lot, enough to feed them for 50 days in a row or whatever.

1495
01:39:35,381 --> 01:39:38,901
Yeah, and even more than that, you didn't have refrigeration. No. Yeah.

1496
01:39:39,141 --> 01:39:42,241
So they did a lot of salting and burying with the meat.

1497
01:39:43,141 --> 01:39:49,381
But anyway, so I vividly remember making a difference and those guys being super thankful.

1498
01:39:49,901 --> 01:39:54,801
And then I also remember going back to camp and eating elephant about every

1499
01:39:54,801 --> 01:39:56,501
single kind of different way you could think.

1500
01:39:56,501 --> 01:40:00,541
Elephant steak elephant jerky elephant hamburgers

1501
01:40:00,541 --> 01:40:03,341
that they put in the ground meat and i wanted to

1502
01:40:03,341 --> 01:40:06,201
try it every kind of different way it was it was pretty

1503
01:40:06,201 --> 01:40:08,901
it was pretty good i mean but none of

1504
01:40:08,901 --> 01:40:11,681
that elephant went to waste none of it the skins were used.

1505
01:40:11,681 --> 01:40:14,681
For stuff the meat was used everywhere the

1506
01:40:14,681 --> 01:40:17,421
ivory we pulled back and we buried a skull in order

1507
01:40:17,421 --> 01:40:20,281
to get tusk out so that's that's a point i definitely want

1508
01:40:20,281 --> 01:40:23,121
to make none of this elephant went to waste yeah it was

1509
01:40:23,121 --> 01:40:26,581
all used so y'all got the ear obviously for

1510
01:40:26,581 --> 01:40:30,141
the that's the one for the table correct what what

1511
01:40:30,141 --> 01:40:33,261
else did y'all take home so the ear was

1512
01:40:33,261 --> 01:40:36,241
you so a lot of people don't know this but the african elephant's

1513
01:40:36,241 --> 01:40:38,921
ear is the shape of africa where the elephants you see in

1514
01:40:38,921 --> 01:40:42,101
the circuits and stuff like that are smaller and they're indian

1515
01:40:42,101 --> 01:40:45,481
elephants the african elephant's ear is much bigger because

1516
01:40:45,481 --> 01:40:48,501
that's what they use to cool their bodies down they they swipe those

1517
01:40:48,501 --> 01:40:51,581
ears back and forth in order to provide a cooling of

1518
01:40:51,581 --> 01:40:54,541
their body but anyway we took that ear we enclosed in

1519
01:40:54,541 --> 01:40:58,081
a glass case and then we had an artist paint the picture of us on with

1520
01:40:58,081 --> 01:41:01,161
the elephant we also took the tusk we also took

1521
01:41:01,161 --> 01:41:04,301
he had some stools made out of the feet which

1522
01:41:04,301 --> 01:41:07,941
was kind of cool that's awesome yeah i want to see that it was kind of cool

1523
01:41:07,941 --> 01:41:13,241
but the majority of it was those items and i'm telling you about the tail oh

1524
01:41:13,241 --> 01:41:17,641
i'm sorry i did forget about tail so elephant's hair i'm only asking because

1525
01:41:17,641 --> 01:41:21,021
you know the answer no i'm asking Because you said y'all took the tail home.

1526
01:41:21,121 --> 01:41:21,941
Apparently that's something.

1527
01:41:22,221 --> 01:41:25,921
So the tail is super cool. And I can show y'all this. But they made bracelets

1528
01:41:25,921 --> 01:41:27,521
out of the hair of the tail.

1529
01:41:28,061 --> 01:41:32,741
And it's like a real, it's almost like wire. And they weave it together.

1530
01:41:33,061 --> 01:41:37,181
And then they build it into a bracelet. And we have four or five of them from

1531
01:41:37,181 --> 01:41:39,421
the tail of the elephant that they made.

1532
01:41:39,561 --> 01:41:42,961
But it's a super cool item that comes from the elephant.

1533
01:41:43,141 --> 01:41:45,881
But they make bracelets out of them. Super cool.

1534
01:41:46,801 --> 01:41:49,921
So, man, just really cool room to be in.

1535
01:41:51,129 --> 01:41:55,529
Absolutely. What do you think about when you walk in it? Man, how often do you go in it?

1536
01:41:56,209 --> 01:41:59,869
I like to take conference calls on it, in it, especially Zoom calls,

1537
01:42:00,109 --> 01:42:02,009
because I like to see people's faces. Yeah.

1538
01:42:02,469 --> 01:42:04,509
I don't, you get caught up in

1539
01:42:04,509 --> 01:42:07,949
everyday life of baseball and soccer and gymnastics and stuff like that.

1540
01:42:08,029 --> 01:42:11,149
And I don't go in it as much as I'd love to. I'd love to tell you that I go

1541
01:42:11,149 --> 01:42:13,469
in there every single day, spend a few minutes in there.

1542
01:42:13,549 --> 01:42:18,049
I do occasionally enjoy a whiskey drink in there and just kind of look around,

1543
01:42:18,269 --> 01:42:20,849
especially the more and more of my grandfather ages.

1544
01:42:21,689 --> 01:42:24,309
I'd like to try to find some of the stuff that i don't know

1545
01:42:24,309 --> 01:42:27,289
about like you were talking earlier i just from hearing the stories over

1546
01:42:27,289 --> 01:42:30,429
the years i can recite 90 of the

1547
01:42:30,429 --> 01:42:34,509
animals where they came from the name of it how far he was when he shot it who

1548
01:42:34,509 --> 01:42:39,509
he shot it with yeah but there is 10 percent that i don't recall and i try to

1549
01:42:39,509 --> 01:42:43,589
try to figure out which ones those are so next time i see him because he's he's

1550
01:42:43,589 --> 01:42:47,289
again he's getting older he's not in the best of health but when i go i like

1551
01:42:47,369 --> 01:42:50,269
to bring up those stories because it makes him it makes he remembers it

1552
01:42:50,269 --> 01:42:53,169
yeah he doesn't remember a lot of things these days but he can recall

1553
01:42:53,169 --> 01:42:56,229
those hunts because it's memories for him right here's

1554
01:42:56,229 --> 01:43:00,029
what you do nick you get that project going and

1555
01:43:00,029 --> 01:43:03,069
done and you get it done like make that a priority yeah

1556
01:43:03,069 --> 01:43:06,189
we wish you had done that with you compile those videos you

1557
01:43:06,189 --> 01:43:09,409
could throw them up on youtube video would be best throw

1558
01:43:09,409 --> 01:43:12,189
them on youtube get the qr code put the

1559
01:43:12,189 --> 01:43:15,009
qr code right in front of every animal so the boys can

1560
01:43:15,009 --> 01:43:17,909
go with their phone and scan it and then they got papa telling the

1561
01:43:17,909 --> 01:43:21,549
story man that'd be cool it'd be so awesome yeah it's a

1562
01:43:21,549 --> 01:43:27,189
good idea i do have some video of him talking but it's majority of it is just

1563
01:43:27,189 --> 01:43:33,669
on audio then wait i got one more question about africa because so i met nick

1564
01:43:33,669 --> 01:43:39,009
i graduated with nick's younger brother chucky and chucky told me a story,

1565
01:43:39,109 --> 01:43:40,529
I'm guessing you were there, I don't know.

1566
01:43:41,249 --> 01:43:46,889
But apparently Chucky almost got bit by a cobra. Yeah. So tell me about that.

1567
01:43:47,249 --> 01:43:52,969
All right, so me and Chucky, so at the evening times after we finished hunting.

1568
01:43:53,849 --> 01:43:56,649
They would serve us dinner as a group, grandfather, grandmother,

1569
01:43:56,929 --> 01:43:58,949
PA. How old is everybody in this story?

1570
01:43:59,329 --> 01:44:03,089
I'm probably, Chucky's nine, I'm probably 13.

1571
01:44:04,704 --> 01:44:11,384
Both made 4.0 that year shout out mom from teaching us how to learn uh shout out yeah,

1572
01:44:12,384 --> 01:44:15,144
and so we'd eat dinner together and then

1573
01:44:15,144 --> 01:44:18,344
chucky and i both we always enjoyed eating

1574
01:44:18,344 --> 01:44:21,204
some of the other stuff that was cooked mostly by the

1575
01:44:21,204 --> 01:44:24,084
the locals yeah so south africa

1576
01:44:24,084 --> 01:44:27,024
is known for the stuff called satsa are you familiar with it no

1577
01:44:27,024 --> 01:44:30,404
it's basically a cornmeal that they make thick enough for

1578
01:44:30,404 --> 01:44:33,204
you to how you would take a piece of bread like

1579
01:44:33,204 --> 01:44:36,144
a dinner roll and you'd use it to dip in

1580
01:44:36,144 --> 01:44:39,304
the sauce and then eat it they would do that with cornmeal and

1581
01:44:39,304 --> 01:44:42,564
they call it sudsa like a corn bread yes softer

1582
01:44:42,564 --> 01:44:45,264
yeah softer a little more wet but they would

1583
01:44:45,264 --> 01:44:48,084
use that and dip it in the gravy and then eat meat with it

1584
01:44:48,084 --> 01:44:51,024
at the same time i mean that sounds amazing it's kind of sounds like

1585
01:44:51,024 --> 01:44:54,064
a man has bread it's it's not quite on

1586
01:44:54,064 --> 01:44:57,104
that level but damn close but i would enjoy

1587
01:44:57,104 --> 01:45:00,024
eating the kills that day like that

1588
01:45:00,024 --> 01:45:03,064
with those guys and i'd also like to interact with

1589
01:45:03,064 --> 01:45:06,124
them and i i don't know i was i was a kid and i enjoyed trying

1590
01:45:06,124 --> 01:45:10,404
to learn swahili and africans and stuff like that it kind of piqued my interest

1591
01:45:10,404 --> 01:45:14,504
but it really piqued my interest was those gravies and the protein and the satsa

1592
01:45:14,504 --> 01:45:18,864
so chucky and i would always go out on our we'd eat dinner with our with our

1593
01:45:18,864 --> 01:45:22,504
group and then we would kind of go out on our own and explore and be a kid be

1594
01:45:22,504 --> 01:45:25,724
a nine-year-old so y'all They were in like a little village kind of deal.

1595
01:45:25,804 --> 01:45:31,024
So it was all dirt floors and mostly tents and thatched roof huts.

1596
01:45:32,524 --> 01:45:37,484
And there was an area for the kitchen. And they always protected the kitchen

1597
01:45:37,484 --> 01:45:41,484
as best as possible because the animals would smell the food and try to get

1598
01:45:41,484 --> 01:45:45,204
in there and break into it and eat it. By animals, he means lions. Yeah.

1599
01:45:46,044 --> 01:45:48,584
Lions, hyenas, so on and so forth, leopards.

1600
01:45:49,524 --> 01:45:53,904
But Chucky decided one night that he was still hungry. So he goes in the kitchen.

1601
01:45:54,004 --> 01:45:57,724
I'm in the tent getting ready for bed. It's probably nine o'clock at night.

1602
01:45:58,284 --> 01:46:03,184
Our tent was probably 40 yards from my grandparents' tent. And it was 20 yards

1603
01:46:03,184 --> 01:46:06,064
from the kitchen tent. Smart. Right.

1604
01:46:06,464 --> 01:46:12,184
And I hear Chucky scream, Papa, Papa, Cobra.

1605
01:46:12,684 --> 01:46:17,784
And I hear him. I'm like, holy cow. My grandfather says, Chucky, where are you?

1606
01:46:18,204 --> 01:46:23,844
No, he goes, Chucky, where is the snake? and chucky goes in the cook tent and

1607
01:46:23,844 --> 01:46:27,424
my grandfather says where are you in the cook tent,

1608
01:46:29,304 --> 01:46:32,664
so back up a little bit this was my second

1609
01:46:32,664 --> 01:46:38,584
trip with to africa my first with chucky the first trip i caught malaria nice

1610
01:46:38,584 --> 01:46:44,004
i caught you got the full experience right i caught malaria i was in two-lane

1611
01:46:44,004 --> 01:46:47,704
hospital for two weeks fighting malaria and of course it was it was during hurricane

1612
01:46:47,704 --> 01:46:49,484
Hurricane Andrew, that'll tell you timeline.

1613
01:46:50,084 --> 01:46:52,744
I'm in the, it's during the hurricane, I'm fighting malaria,

1614
01:46:53,004 --> 01:46:57,844
I'm in Tulane. And I remember waking up several days and looking over and seeing my grandfather crying.

1615
01:46:58,943 --> 01:47:01,683
I was really really sick but they think i caught it

1616
01:47:01,683 --> 01:47:04,643
because i was sitting about a campfire and not sleeping under nets

1617
01:47:04,643 --> 01:47:07,563
hanging out and eating and just getting

1618
01:47:07,563 --> 01:47:10,943
bit by mosquitoes and having a great time right yeah so my

1619
01:47:10,943 --> 01:47:13,703
my grandfather i remember my grandfather being pretty

1620
01:47:13,703 --> 01:47:16,703
nervous about it but i also remember my parents and especially my

1621
01:47:16,703 --> 01:47:19,623
mom being like man i don't know if i'm gonna let the my son

1622
01:47:19,623 --> 01:47:22,443
go back he almost lost a son so fast

1623
01:47:22,443 --> 01:47:25,103
forward three years later when they finally and let me go

1624
01:47:25,103 --> 01:47:29,643
back chucky's in the tent with a cobra and like

1625
01:47:29,643 --> 01:47:32,983
if you hear my grandfather tell a story he says man if

1626
01:47:32,983 --> 01:47:35,683
this kid gets bit by a cobra i'm never gonna be able to go back

1627
01:47:35,683 --> 01:47:39,883
into the united states ever again i almost killed nick with malaria now chucky's

1628
01:47:39,883 --> 01:47:46,103
gonna die from a snake bite but long story short our our ph our professional

1629
01:47:46,103 --> 01:47:50,703
hunter he runs in there like a crazy person and kicks the cobra with his foot

1630
01:47:50,703 --> 01:47:54,383
and pulls chucky out of the tent so just Just this guy,

1631
01:47:54,503 --> 01:47:58,003
keep in mind, this guy only had a half a finger on his index finger because

1632
01:47:58,003 --> 01:48:00,823
he tried to catch a puff at her and it bit his finger and he cut his finger

1633
01:48:00,823 --> 01:48:02,243
off before it got into his blood.

1634
01:48:03,043 --> 01:48:07,403
Dude, that's the fun. This guy was nuts. Yeah. So I gave this guy a high four

1635
01:48:07,403 --> 01:48:11,163
instead of high fives. But this guy was nuts.

1636
01:48:11,243 --> 01:48:14,463
Anyway, he saved the day and got Chucky out of the cook tent with the cobra.

1637
01:48:14,683 --> 01:48:21,083
That's how Chucky told me the story. The native guy came in there and saved

1638
01:48:21,083 --> 01:48:23,063
his life from certain demise.

1639
01:48:23,523 --> 01:48:28,183
I don't know. I think he kicked it. He might have like pimp slapped it out of the way or something.

1640
01:48:29,403 --> 01:48:34,203
Another five years, I'm sure he's going to bite it.

1641
01:48:34,703 --> 01:48:38,443
You know how the stories go. They grow. But yeah, super cool story,

1642
01:48:38,683 --> 01:48:41,543
I guess. I don't know if my mom's ever heard that story.

1643
01:48:41,903 --> 01:48:43,923
Oh, God. Don't let her listen to the podcast.

1644
01:48:45,563 --> 01:48:49,123
Your grandsons will definitely never go to Africa. According to her grandsons.

1645
01:48:49,723 --> 01:48:55,563
Man, that's some awesome stories. And there's hundreds of them, thousands of them.

1646
01:48:56,963 --> 01:49:01,983
300 mounts in that room. Plus species. Yeah, there's three. Some of them are

1647
01:49:01,983 --> 01:49:04,183
double. There's more than one of some species.

1648
01:49:04,483 --> 01:49:09,783
Don't quote me on it, but I think there's 327 rings of bell, different species.

1649
01:49:10,123 --> 01:49:14,263
Now, there's some duplicates. Right. There's probably 25 whitetails.

1650
01:49:14,403 --> 01:49:17,663
And several full body. Oh, yeah. Probably.

1651
01:49:18,283 --> 01:49:21,283
Is the majority of them full body mounts? No. The majority of them is on the

1652
01:49:21,283 --> 01:49:25,403
wall, but I'd say there's 20% full mounts. Right. Yeah. There's a lot.

1653
01:49:26,455 --> 01:49:29,275
And they're so cool and unique. You're right. They're intricate.

1654
01:49:29,295 --> 01:49:34,195
A lot of them are not just standard. It's whole setups. It's whole presentations.

1655
01:49:34,675 --> 01:49:37,955
Yeah. So the way we did it, we did it by continent. So one wall,

1656
01:49:38,235 --> 01:49:43,975
I think it's 40 foot wide by 20 foot tall, and the entire wall is Africa.

1657
01:49:44,335 --> 01:49:47,715
And then you kind of turn to where the door is when you walk in,

1658
01:49:47,795 --> 01:49:49,535
and that wall is North America.

1659
01:49:49,815 --> 01:49:53,975
And then you turn to that three-quarter wall, and it's New Zealand, Australia.

1660
01:49:54,695 --> 01:49:58,155
And then you turn and look at the fireplace and it's all the whitetails.

1661
01:49:58,435 --> 01:50:00,775
And then to the right of whitetails is all the sheep.

1662
01:50:01,175 --> 01:50:04,355
And then to the right of the sheep is the ducks.

1663
01:50:04,915 --> 01:50:07,715
So each kind of done my section.

1664
01:50:08,015 --> 01:50:10,975
And look, it's kind of off subject and you may not find it interesting,

1665
01:50:11,155 --> 01:50:15,155
but we put 95% of those animals up in one day.

1666
01:50:15,795 --> 01:50:21,075
And the reason I tell you the story, I think we had 32 people help out that day.

1667
01:50:21,195 --> 01:50:23,915
We started at six o'clock in the morning and we hung the

1668
01:50:23,915 --> 01:50:26,815
last animal at 10 o'clock at night and we hung 300 plus animals

1669
01:50:26,815 --> 01:50:29,975
that day did you have to get on like autocad or

1670
01:50:29,975 --> 01:50:32,895
something first and plan it out no i kind

1671
01:50:32,895 --> 01:50:35,675
of thought about it for a couple weeks but i

1672
01:50:35,675 --> 01:50:39,815
really didn't have anything spaced out and drawn or anything and i started out

1673
01:50:39,815 --> 01:50:44,275
we had two lifts and i started off in the lift trying to think and then i realized

1674
01:50:44,275 --> 01:50:49,135
soon that i had to be on the floor being able to conduct traffic like all right

1675
01:50:49,135 --> 01:50:53,835
lumpo you go up with this one to the left nail it all right up left nail it

1676
01:50:53,835 --> 01:50:55,035
and we kind of went from there.

1677
01:50:56,355 --> 01:50:59,755
But i'm not just saying it just to say this but i vividly remember.

1678
01:51:01,482 --> 01:51:04,302
We started that morning off at 6 o'clock in the morning, and Courtney cooked

1679
01:51:04,302 --> 01:51:05,522
everybody boudin burritos.

1680
01:51:06,462 --> 01:51:10,482
I swear on my boss. I'm not just saying that because you got to hear it,

1681
01:51:10,522 --> 01:51:12,482
but we cooked boudin burritos that morning for everybody.

1682
01:51:13,142 --> 01:51:17,222
32 different people helped out that day. And at some point, we had like a backlog,

1683
01:51:17,422 --> 01:51:19,802
and we had been in the house for two weeks.

1684
01:51:20,422 --> 01:51:25,322
So at one point, there's a black bear in the driveway or a hyena in the driveway

1685
01:51:25,322 --> 01:51:28,262
with a zebra leg in his mouth or so on and so forth.

1686
01:51:28,262 --> 01:51:30,962
And i remember i remember it was

1687
01:51:30,962 --> 01:51:34,742
the first day that our ups driver pulled up oh yeah

1688
01:51:34,742 --> 01:51:37,922
that's awesome and he pulls up and

1689
01:51:37,922 --> 01:51:40,622
and he goes hey how you doing my name is such

1690
01:51:40,622 --> 01:51:43,322
and such nice to meet you you live here and i'm like yeah and

1691
01:51:43,322 --> 01:51:46,042
he's kind of looking at the driveway because i got all these animals in there

1692
01:51:46,042 --> 01:51:50,522
he's like is that hyena i'm like

1693
01:51:50,522 --> 01:51:53,422
yeah man i said uh my grandfather shot

1694
01:51:53,422 --> 01:51:56,442
an African eagles you white people are crazy

1695
01:51:56,442 --> 01:52:04,542
it's actually a pretty pretty reasonable thing to say so good man so he and

1696
01:52:04,542 --> 01:52:07,762
I became pretty good friends but it was pretty funny the first day he comes

1697
01:52:07,762 --> 01:52:11,282
to our house we got 45 animals in the driveway waiting to be put on the wall

1698
01:52:11,282 --> 01:52:14,742
thanks papa yeah so well Well,

1699
01:52:14,842 --> 01:52:18,222
tell me about Eagle Energy Services, Nick.

1700
01:52:18,722 --> 01:52:27,222
Man, Eagle, okay. Eagle is a oil field gas and oil company that my grandfather started in 1983.

1701
01:52:29,402 --> 01:52:34,902
He started with a business partner. They started off as a two-man show.

1702
01:52:35,222 --> 01:52:40,262
He did a lot of gauging and stuff for his clients.

1703
01:52:40,662 --> 01:52:42,902
And it kind of just grew and grew and grew.

1704
01:52:43,822 --> 01:52:47,422
And i've always kind of been part of it i i've worked

1705
01:52:47,422 --> 01:52:50,202
where i've shoveled out gun barrel tanks in the

1706
01:52:50,202 --> 01:52:53,422
middle of summer for him trying to teach me a lesson about going to school and

1707
01:52:53,422 --> 01:52:56,102
he he he allowed me to work in

1708
01:52:56,102 --> 01:52:58,842
the business and a lot like y'all kind of

1709
01:52:58,842 --> 01:53:01,762
started especially mr donald where you started in the family business

1710
01:53:01,762 --> 01:53:04,642
and you basically work for free i did

1711
01:53:04,642 --> 01:53:07,882
a lot of i did a a lot of work with that freelancer yeah

1712
01:53:07,882 --> 01:53:11,782
yeah internship so per

1713
01:53:11,782 --> 01:53:14,482
se but anyway he allowed me to work in the company and he

1714
01:53:14,482 --> 01:53:17,602
kind of taught me the ins and outs of the business but to

1715
01:53:17,602 --> 01:53:20,502
be honest with you being a consulting business you really

1716
01:53:20,502 --> 01:53:24,342
have to know you really have to have the experience the hands-on experience

1717
01:53:24,342 --> 01:53:28,922
and that's one thing that always lacked i never really i've been offshore several

1718
01:53:28,922 --> 01:53:33,402
times and i've got to to witness and do it but i really never got the opportunity

1719
01:53:33,402 --> 01:53:39,782
to work as an operator offshore and really get into the oil and gas production part of it.

1720
01:53:39,862 --> 01:53:44,062
I've always kind of been from the outside of the business, running the business per se.

1721
01:53:46,008 --> 01:53:50,848
So in 2013, my grandfather and his business partner split, and he figured out,

1722
01:53:50,888 --> 01:53:55,028
man, it's probably a good time for you to be involved in the ownership of the business.

1723
01:53:55,588 --> 01:54:00,928
And me and a couple of guys became owners of Eagle Energy. And over time,

1724
01:54:01,028 --> 01:54:02,308
those guys have kind of retired.

1725
01:54:02,888 --> 01:54:08,968
But I tell the story a lot. I have a business partner named Toby Trostclair. So Toby and I own Eagle.

1726
01:54:09,888 --> 01:54:15,108
And everyone asked me, like, hey, why do you have another owner in Eagle?

1727
01:54:15,108 --> 01:54:18,188
Eagle, why don't you just own it? Your grandfather owned it. You took it over.

1728
01:54:18,628 --> 01:54:21,208
And this is a feather for Toby.

1729
01:54:21,928 --> 01:54:26,228
Man, Eagle would not be what it is without Toby. Toby is kind of,

1730
01:54:26,268 --> 01:54:29,188
he's one of the guys that, Toby's a great success story.

1731
01:54:29,448 --> 01:54:34,788
He started off offshore as a roustabout and then worked his way up to compliance

1732
01:54:34,788 --> 01:54:38,568
and then worked his way up as an operator and then moved into the office.

1733
01:54:38,788 --> 01:54:43,448
And he kind of grew himself from the ground up to being an owner of Eagle Energy.

1734
01:54:43,588 --> 01:54:47,268
And I say that with a sense of pride. I, Toby, Toby and I are like brothers.

1735
01:54:47,488 --> 01:54:50,888
I love Toby. I trust Toby, which is really important in business.

1736
01:54:51,028 --> 01:54:55,748
But I also know that Eagle's operating side is in good hands because of Toby.

1737
01:54:56,148 --> 01:55:00,628
I trust, just like Toby trusts me on the business side, I trust Toby on the operating side.

1738
01:55:00,908 --> 01:55:05,628
So from Ron, it's kind of evolved to just Toby and I owning it now.

1739
01:55:06,248 --> 01:55:11,948
And the cool, the cool part about it is the team, the people around you, just like here.

1740
01:55:12,528 --> 01:55:17,228
It's, yeah you can you can own something and you can run it but without the

1741
01:55:17,228 --> 01:55:21,048
people around you and our guys are great we have some some really key guys.

1742
01:55:22,593 --> 01:55:25,313
Make this thing successful, but it's the people that are around you that really

1743
01:55:25,313 --> 01:55:29,113
make the company. And that's kind of how my grandfather's always treated Eagle.

1744
01:55:29,393 --> 01:55:35,953
I remember, not to get too far into it, but early in age, I asked my grandfather

1745
01:55:35,953 --> 01:55:37,893
how to do a project for Nichols.

1746
01:55:38,353 --> 01:55:44,453
And I asked him, I said, what was your biggest lesson that business taught you?

1747
01:55:44,593 --> 01:55:48,913
Like, what is something that the business has taught you about being an owner?

1748
01:55:49,433 --> 01:55:50,653
And I'll never forget it. He

1749
01:55:50,653 --> 01:55:56,313
said, man, I was always scared to hire people that were smarter than me.

1750
01:55:56,773 --> 01:56:02,153
And I really didn't know what it meant. But what he meant by it was because

1751
01:56:02,153 --> 01:56:06,273
of the client relationships, he would thought that if he hired someone smarter

1752
01:56:06,273 --> 01:56:09,353
than him, they'd figure out a way to go around him and on the business.

1753
01:56:09,913 --> 01:56:13,013
And he said, man, that was always a fear of mine. And he said,

1754
01:56:13,093 --> 01:56:17,213
the longer I did it, the more I realized the smarter the guys that you hire

1755
01:56:17,213 --> 01:56:19,153
around you, the easier your job is. this.

1756
01:56:19,553 --> 01:56:22,613
He said, I was always scared about hiring those guys.

1757
01:56:22,773 --> 01:56:27,913
But then in reality, the smarter those guys are, the easier my job was because

1758
01:56:27,913 --> 01:56:30,193
those guys make good decisions on a daily basis.

1759
01:56:30,273 --> 01:56:33,873
And I didn't have to come back and clean things up. So that's kind of a lesson he taught me.

1760
01:56:34,413 --> 01:56:40,573
Not only that, but also the guys that you, it's an investment in your people, right?

1761
01:56:40,673 --> 01:56:43,633
The more you invest in your folks, the more that, the more you return.

1762
01:56:44,033 --> 01:56:48,573
And I truly believe that we, Eagle over the years, we've had We've had 30-year

1763
01:56:48,573 --> 01:56:53,153
guys, we've had 40-year guys, we have long-tenured guys because we try,

1764
01:56:53,193 --> 01:56:57,753
A, we try to create an atmosphere that's good for everyone and successful for

1765
01:56:57,753 --> 01:56:58,613
them and their families,

1766
01:56:59,293 --> 01:57:01,893
but B is we trust those guys and we.

1767
01:57:03,112 --> 01:57:08,792
Empower those guys to be able to make decisions that they are actively contributing to your company.

1768
01:57:09,132 --> 01:57:13,892
Kind of like, I mean, to relate it to you guys, I know you guys are both third

1769
01:57:13,892 --> 01:57:15,332
or fourth generation guys.

1770
01:57:16,352 --> 01:57:22,092
You probably worked your way up all the way through, but it's also empowering

1771
01:57:22,092 --> 01:57:25,992
guys like Brett, Brett with the bacon. Perfect example.

1772
01:57:26,272 --> 01:57:31,372
You allowed Brett to go out and say, man, if you think you can make this a hit, let's do it.

1773
01:57:31,572 --> 01:57:36,512
Same way when Mr. Donald tells a story about making a beef jerky for the salesman, right?

1774
01:57:37,032 --> 01:57:43,552
He kind of did it behind Pawpaw's back, but him being able to do that,

1775
01:57:43,592 --> 01:57:44,812
look what it's done for the company.

1776
01:57:45,052 --> 01:57:50,032
So he took a risk on his own. He was empowered by allowing him to be able to make it.

1777
01:57:50,152 --> 01:57:53,092
And in return, he made the business that much more successful.

1778
01:57:53,932 --> 01:57:56,912
Same thing with Bo in this building here that we're sitting in.

1779
01:57:56,912 --> 01:58:01,992
I mean, Bo, I know Bo did it once he had kind of taken over,

1780
01:58:02,112 --> 01:58:05,472
but at the same time, his dad entrusted him to be able to make decisions in

1781
01:58:05,472 --> 01:58:06,472
order to make the company grow.

1782
01:58:06,992 --> 01:58:11,512
Same thing with our company. We've been successful by relying on the people

1783
01:58:11,512 --> 01:58:15,812
that we trust and empowering those guys in order to make decisions to make the company successful.

1784
01:58:15,812 --> 01:58:20,752
It sounds like you might, you may have, you may have come through your business

1785
01:58:20,752 --> 01:58:22,332
maybe without having that struggle.

1786
01:58:22,472 --> 01:58:25,152
It's kind of, it sounds like you already understood that maybe from,

1787
01:58:25,232 --> 01:58:29,192
from some advice from your grandfather, but what do you struggle with?

1788
01:58:29,212 --> 01:58:31,732
What's hard? What, what stresses you out?

1789
01:58:32,072 --> 01:58:39,192
You know? What stresses me out? What stresses me out is a, it's such a volatile industry. Yeah.

1790
01:58:39,806 --> 01:58:43,446
Oil and gas is a great industry, but man, it's volatile and it's very,

1791
01:58:43,546 --> 01:58:48,726
you hear the term, ride the highs and make it for the lows.

1792
01:58:48,966 --> 01:58:52,806
It's, you have to, all the field goes up and down. Everyone knows that.

1793
01:58:52,886 --> 01:58:56,426
And I don't, I'm not sure that this business is going to be here for the rest of my life.

1794
01:58:56,886 --> 01:59:00,686
Who knows what the oil industry in South Louisiana is. It's been a great industry

1795
01:59:00,686 --> 01:59:03,906
for many decades now, but I think we all can agree.

1796
01:59:04,026 --> 01:59:06,866
Like, do you think the oil field is going to be here in 50 years?

1797
01:59:07,766 --> 01:59:10,626
Scary me. That's a tough question to answer.

1798
01:59:10,786 --> 01:59:12,906
And look, it affects everyone. And what's it going to look like?

1799
01:59:12,966 --> 01:59:16,426
Right. You guys are very dependent upon the oil industry.

1800
01:59:16,586 --> 01:59:19,466
Everybody in South Louisiana is. I know. Yeah. Bo, talk about that.

1801
01:59:19,566 --> 01:59:25,226
Talk about kind of our oil field dependency. Maybe people don't realize how strongly we're pushed.

1802
01:59:25,526 --> 01:59:28,946
People, look, everyone has their own opinions on oil and gas.

1803
01:59:29,126 --> 01:59:33,026
But whether you like it or not, if you live in South Louisiana,

1804
01:59:33,326 --> 01:59:36,046
oil and gas is going to be a big part of everything. thing.

1805
01:59:36,246 --> 01:59:42,526
So even if obviously you can't get farther from oil and gas than a meat market, right?

1806
01:59:42,586 --> 01:59:47,686
You would think, but every single person that walks in these doors either works

1807
01:59:47,686 --> 01:59:53,346
directly for oil and gas or benefits some type of way indirectly from, from that,

1808
01:59:53,506 --> 01:59:57,786
you know, whether it be, whether it be their customers or oil and gas or their

1809
01:59:57,786 --> 02:00:02,986
dad is a, you know, makes tools that get sold to oil and gas.

1810
02:00:03,746 --> 02:00:07,166
So it's definitely intertwined in our economy.

1811
02:00:07,846 --> 02:00:11,886
It's something that I've thought long and hard about, and especially...

1812
02:00:13,942 --> 02:00:19,982
When I took over from dad, a big, a big motivation for this expansion was longevity, right?

1813
02:00:20,362 --> 02:00:24,582
I thought with one, with one building, it was risky. If, you know,

1814
02:00:24,582 --> 02:00:28,562
if the place burned down or like whatever we needed a second location,

1815
02:00:28,762 --> 02:00:31,662
the old location was just, it was old.

1816
02:00:31,762 --> 02:00:35,382
But the point is, yeah, I, I've,

1817
02:00:35,502 --> 02:00:39,442
I've, I guess through all that process, I thought about what if,

1818
02:00:39,442 --> 02:00:42,742
what if to really succeed seed for another 130

1819
02:00:42,742 --> 02:00:45,562
years it can't be here right what

1820
02:00:45,562 --> 02:00:48,942
if it needs to be in new orleans or baton rouge so anyway

1821
02:00:48,942 --> 02:00:51,802
that'll be teddy's problem but good luck

1822
02:00:51,802 --> 02:00:57,002
teddy yeah i have i have some more specific kind of questions so first of all

1823
02:00:57,002 --> 02:01:03,942
when was eagle energy founded and and pardon me if i'm asking no no it was questions

1824
02:01:03,942 --> 02:01:11,302
1983 ron bartels and mike johnson started eagle eagle consulting 83? 83. Okay.

1825
02:01:11,862 --> 02:01:18,282
Ron was in charge of the production side, and Mike was in charge of the drilling side.

1826
02:01:18,582 --> 02:01:21,862
So kind of like now when Toby's in charge of the operations,

1827
02:01:21,982 --> 02:01:27,282
I'm in charge of the finance and business operations side. He had a partner.

1828
02:01:28,382 --> 02:01:34,442
And they kind of operated as one company, but in two totally different regimes per se.

1829
02:01:34,582 --> 02:01:37,802
My grandfather was in charge of everything on this side, and Mike was in charge

1830
02:01:37,802 --> 02:01:41,002
of everything on that side. and they really didn't mess with each other's stuff.

1831
02:01:42,183 --> 02:01:45,263
One point the operator side had my grandfather's

1832
02:01:45,263 --> 02:01:48,523
side had probably 250 employees where the

1833
02:01:48,523 --> 02:01:51,443
drilling side was mostly consultants and drilling guys

1834
02:01:51,443 --> 02:01:54,343
and stuff like that and what was cool about it the

1835
02:01:54,343 --> 02:01:57,183
oil field over the years the reason they were

1836
02:01:57,183 --> 02:02:00,723
able to sustain and be successful was a lot

1837
02:02:00,723 --> 02:02:03,703
of times when the production side would drop the drilling side would increase

1838
02:02:03,703 --> 02:02:06,963
and vice versa when drilling slowed down the production

1839
02:02:06,963 --> 02:02:09,863
side these guys would say man we can't afford drilling more wells

1840
02:02:09,863 --> 02:02:12,743
let's just operate the stuff that we have so they'd go out

1841
02:02:12,743 --> 02:02:15,983
and start operating these wells and it really was a great counterbalance of

1842
02:02:15,983 --> 02:02:18,843
the both sides and it as all these

1843
02:02:18,843 --> 02:02:22,343
other companies would close my grandfather was able to sustain it because of

1844
02:02:22,343 --> 02:02:28,103
his partner and because of the other division when when the time came that they

1845
02:02:28,103 --> 02:02:32,843
realized man this it was mr mike's daughter jennifer was taking over the drilling

1846
02:02:32,843 --> 02:02:37,403
side and then it was kind of time for me to come into the the company, they realized,

1847
02:02:37,543 --> 02:02:40,543
man, it'd probably be a lot better if we separate sides.

1848
02:02:40,743 --> 02:02:43,063
So Eagle Consulting is still in business.

1849
02:02:43,563 --> 02:02:48,023
They still do drilling and stuff like that. And we renamed our company Eagle Energy Services.

1850
02:02:48,643 --> 02:02:52,743
And then that's when we had a couple of different partners come in and then Toby came in with me.

1851
02:02:53,243 --> 02:03:00,103
And from there, obviously, we've been in business now for 11 years.

1852
02:03:00,883 --> 02:03:05,843
That's when you, when did you take over? 11 years ago. And how many employees do you have now?

1853
02:03:06,103 --> 02:03:11,963
Right now, we balance back and forth between 25 and 45, depending on the oil field.

1854
02:03:12,063 --> 02:03:15,163
A lot of those guys are operators. We do a lot of consulting work.

1855
02:03:15,483 --> 02:03:21,243
The 1099 guys are not classified as employees, but we probably have 10 or 15 of those guys.

1856
02:03:21,783 --> 02:03:26,243
And it's just, like I said before, it's really high caliber guys that are very

1857
02:03:26,243 --> 02:03:30,163
intelligent and very production savvy guys.

1858
02:03:30,383 --> 02:03:34,043
They really make our job easy by having that knowledge.

1859
02:03:34,603 --> 02:03:38,883
And then this is my next question, which may not be easy to answer,

1860
02:03:38,983 --> 02:03:41,063
but what does your company do?

1861
02:03:41,603 --> 02:03:43,843
Our company provides oil and gas products.

1862
02:03:45,226 --> 02:03:48,486
And gas expertise to smaller independent oil companies.

1863
02:03:48,906 --> 02:03:55,126
So what the, the gist of our company is we provide operators that,

1864
02:03:55,126 --> 02:03:58,446
that stay on the platforms and produce the wells on a daily basis.

1865
02:03:58,526 --> 02:04:02,506
That's probably accumulate our counts for 50% of our revenues.

1866
02:04:02,806 --> 02:04:09,246
The other 50% of our revenues are gauging guys and guys that oversee construction

1867
02:04:09,246 --> 02:04:11,706
of production and stuff like that. and in management.

1868
02:04:13,206 --> 02:04:18,626
Long story short, we don't work for the guys like Chevron or Exxon or BP.

1869
02:04:18,846 --> 02:04:23,206
We work for guys that you've never heard of that are smaller independent companies

1870
02:04:23,206 --> 02:04:26,526
that say you have $20 million and you say, you know what, Nick,

1871
02:04:26,606 --> 02:04:30,186
I want to be in the oil and gas industry, but I have no idea what to do.

1872
02:04:30,666 --> 02:04:33,966
You would call us up and we would take care of that for you.

1873
02:04:34,026 --> 02:04:36,906
We would be the operating arm of your company.

1874
02:04:37,266 --> 02:04:40,186
You put up the money, you buy the well, we go in

1875
02:04:40,186 --> 02:04:43,006
and build a facility once it's drilled we don't

1876
02:04:43,006 --> 02:04:46,226
do any drilling but once it's drilled we come in set up the

1877
02:04:46,226 --> 02:04:49,126
production equipment hook it all up and start

1878
02:04:49,126 --> 02:04:52,046
producing the well sell the well for you and so on so forth give

1879
02:04:52,046 --> 02:04:54,926
you advice on how you should treat the well because

1880
02:04:54,926 --> 02:05:01,106
so how much of this is onshore versus offshore so the word onshore versus onshore

1881
02:05:01,106 --> 02:05:04,366
do you mean over i don't know what i'm state waters to be clear i don't know

1882
02:05:04,366 --> 02:05:10,206
what i mean okay so louisiana classifies yeah is it Is it on the water or is

1883
02:05:10,206 --> 02:05:12,426
it on the land, I guess? I'd say about half and half.

1884
02:05:13,406 --> 02:05:19,266
Louisiana classifies anything inside of three miles as state waters. Or excuse me.

1885
02:05:20,227 --> 02:05:23,627
There's been some argument on that. Some say three leagues for sake of Redfish,

1886
02:05:23,767 --> 02:05:25,647
Red Snapper. You know I'm talking about Shane.

1887
02:05:25,827 --> 02:05:28,807
But some say three leagues, which would be closer to nine miles.

1888
02:05:29,347 --> 02:05:31,247
Some say three miles of state waters.

1889
02:05:31,907 --> 02:05:34,947
But basically anything that's still on the shelf.

1890
02:05:35,407 --> 02:05:38,247
So we don't go to deep water. We don't have platforms where you're catching

1891
02:05:38,247 --> 02:05:39,087
tuna and stuff like that.

1892
02:05:39,167 --> 02:05:43,887
We have more stuff on land and older facilities that some of these bigger companies

1893
02:05:43,887 --> 02:05:48,847
have abandoned and said, we'll sell it to you for pennies on the dollar.

1894
02:05:48,847 --> 02:05:51,947
You take but it still has some oil left yes

1895
02:05:51,947 --> 02:05:54,627
absolutely yeah just not something big enough for those

1896
02:05:54,627 --> 02:05:57,287
guys to have to deal with which a lot of

1897
02:05:57,287 --> 02:06:00,087
money has been made by guys picking up these wells and producing them

1898
02:06:00,087 --> 02:06:02,747
and selling the oil from it yeah and that's where we kind of come

1899
02:06:02,747 --> 02:06:05,927
in and we're more of like a hand holder

1900
02:06:05,927 --> 02:06:09,047
for some of these smaller guys and help give

1901
02:06:09,047 --> 02:06:12,507
advice to these guys in order for them to be successful

1902
02:06:12,507 --> 02:06:15,767
in all business so where do your employees come

1903
02:06:15,767 --> 02:06:19,207
from like how have they developed this expertise

1904
02:06:19,207 --> 02:06:22,887
is it from your company or are they from a

1905
02:06:22,887 --> 02:06:25,747
little of both we've we've had some long time guys that

1906
02:06:25,747 --> 02:06:28,507
started as a as a roustabout so we

1907
02:06:28,507 --> 02:06:32,127
for example he started out at the bottom and kind of learned over the years

1908
02:06:32,127 --> 02:06:36,547
by having hands-on training from other guys that have come and gone we have

1909
02:06:36,547 --> 02:06:39,647
a guy in our office i'll give him a shout out his name is mike luke he worked

1910
02:06:39,647 --> 02:06:43,787
for my grandfather for a long time kind of went off and did his own thing and

1911
02:06:43,787 --> 02:06:46,467
then came He came back to us and he is a...

1912
02:06:47,666 --> 02:06:50,686
Book of knowledge i mean this this is a 40 or 50 year

1913
02:06:50,686 --> 02:06:53,986
old 50 year oil field guy that just

1914
02:06:53,986 --> 02:06:57,186
knows everything and anything about the oil field and it's

1915
02:06:57,186 --> 02:07:00,086
just from him being in the platforms and being on and going

1916
02:07:00,086 --> 02:07:03,186
through it and i mean it's invaluable to have

1917
02:07:03,186 --> 02:07:06,106
that guy in your office right because he knows the answer

1918
02:07:06,106 --> 02:07:09,226
it's crazy to me because a client

1919
02:07:09,226 --> 02:07:12,306
will call with hey we're having this such a problem this is

1920
02:07:12,306 --> 02:07:15,366
what's happening this is what's happening and mike can fire off

1921
02:07:15,366 --> 02:07:18,466
an answer in a split second like oh it's just chokes

1922
02:07:18,466 --> 02:07:21,346
something's going on with the choke or you got

1923
02:07:21,346 --> 02:07:25,326
a dump valve that's hung up or you got a uh separator

1924
02:07:25,326 --> 02:07:28,406
that is plugged or something just he'll know like

1925
02:07:28,406 --> 02:07:32,986
like instantly like oh i don't remember that and and he has a his memory is

1926
02:07:32,986 --> 02:07:38,326
insane like oh yeah i remember in 1999 i went on platform i was walking down

1927
02:07:38,326 --> 02:07:41,646
the second jacket on the left and there was a separator and the same thing happened

1928
02:07:41,646 --> 02:07:46,046
this is what you need to do it's It's those are the type of guys my grandfather was talking about,

1929
02:07:46,106 --> 02:07:50,326
like having guys that are super smart around you that just help with the company.

1930
02:07:50,386 --> 02:07:55,726
And it truly is a blessing to have those guys in that office to be able to not

1931
02:07:55,726 --> 02:08:01,586
only learn from or not only have handling your day-to-day business,

1932
02:08:01,766 --> 02:08:03,446
but also learning from those guys.

1933
02:08:04,046 --> 02:08:05,766
Absolutely. So.

1934
02:08:06,586 --> 02:08:12,066
What's next? What's next for Eagle? equal. Man, we, I'd be honest with you.

1935
02:08:13,026 --> 02:08:16,126
The oil field has been pretty decent the last couple of years.

1936
02:08:16,226 --> 02:08:18,766
We've been, we've been kind of chugging along.

1937
02:08:18,926 --> 02:08:22,226
We're not, we're not trying to be the biggest and the best, but we're trying

1938
02:08:22,226 --> 02:08:26,286
to just be able to manage the clients that we have and give them a decent product

1939
02:08:26,286 --> 02:08:29,266
and kind of, and kind of stay in that niche.

1940
02:08:30,246 --> 02:08:34,386
So my grandfather, my grandfather father has a saying a long time ago,

1941
02:08:34,446 --> 02:08:39,766
we had an opportunity to be huge, really, really big company.

1942
02:08:39,986 --> 02:08:46,086
And my grandfather turned it down and I was probably 13, 14 years old.

1943
02:08:46,146 --> 02:08:47,246
And I didn't understand that.

1944
02:08:47,546 --> 02:08:50,626
And I asked him one day, I said, why would you turn that?

1945
02:08:50,866 --> 02:08:55,806
Why would you turn that contract down? Like that could have quadrupled the size of our company.

1946
02:08:56,346 --> 02:09:01,146
Why did you turn it down? And he And he said, son, first of all,

1947
02:09:01,826 --> 02:09:04,806
for us to be able to go and hunt for a month at a time.

1948
02:09:06,120 --> 02:09:09,500
Don't want all the headaches left behind. You can't just leave your guys to

1949
02:09:09,500 --> 02:09:13,080
have to deal with that while you're going hunting. So I enjoyed hunting and he knew that.

1950
02:09:13,320 --> 02:09:18,900
But the most important point was, he said, you know, if I got five buckets of

1951
02:09:18,900 --> 02:09:23,600
money and we're able to make a decent living off of this company with the stress

1952
02:09:23,600 --> 02:09:25,320
that we have at this low level,

1953
02:09:25,600 --> 02:09:30,140
why would I want to make 10 buckets of money with 10 tons of stress?

1954
02:09:30,500 --> 02:09:35,300
He said, I'll never be able to spend this money that I already have made with

1955
02:09:35,300 --> 02:09:38,180
no stress, why would I need 10 buckets?

1956
02:09:38,500 --> 02:09:41,360
There's no point in me trying to increase the size of this company.

1957
02:09:41,540 --> 02:09:45,800
If we're happy with the way, the point of the story is he was happy with where he was.

1958
02:09:46,240 --> 02:09:50,380
He didn't have to get bigger and have all the headaches, which,

1959
02:09:50,440 --> 02:09:51,320
Bo, you're shaking your head.

1960
02:09:51,380 --> 02:09:57,560
No, I'm nodding because that's the same thing I've heard from dad and my grandpa for all these years.

1961
02:09:57,640 --> 02:10:00,940
So I 100% understand it. my

1962
02:10:00,940 --> 02:10:04,120
my next question though becomes how do

1963
02:10:04,120 --> 02:10:07,100
you make sure you pass this on paxton or ron

1964
02:10:07,100 --> 02:10:12,120
or or even jolie or whoever whoever's next i'll be honest with you i don't know

1965
02:10:12,120 --> 02:10:16,320
that how does it make it to the next generation i don't know if i want to i

1966
02:10:16,320 --> 02:10:20,460
mean obviously we all want better for our kids and what we have and we want

1967
02:10:20,460 --> 02:10:26,200
to give we want to leave a legacy we want to leave them with something as specifically for work.

1968
02:10:26,400 --> 02:10:31,340
I vividly remember I was in my senior year of my undergraduate at Nichols.

1969
02:10:31,800 --> 02:10:36,260
And at this point, it was kind of a foregone conclusion in my head that I was

1970
02:10:36,260 --> 02:10:37,220
going to work for my grandfather.

1971
02:10:37,500 --> 02:10:41,760
I'd been there every day. And the guys that used to pick on me a little bit

1972
02:10:41,760 --> 02:10:44,520
say I never really did anything except just show up and collect a check.

1973
02:10:44,820 --> 02:10:49,140
But I started working in the company and I went to my grandfather's office one

1974
02:10:49,140 --> 02:10:52,960
day and I was thinking about going I want to get the graduate degree at Nichols,

1975
02:10:52,960 --> 02:10:54,520
that executive master's.

1976
02:10:55,180 --> 02:10:59,080
And I asked him, I said, Paul, do you think I should go get my master's?

1977
02:10:59,080 --> 02:11:02,380
Do you think that I'm going to be able to use that in this company?

1978
02:11:03,600 --> 02:11:06,320
What do you think I should do? And he said, Nick, I'll be honest with you.

1979
02:11:06,340 --> 02:11:10,040
I don't know if I want you to be in this company. And it came as a shock to me, like, what?

1980
02:11:10,460 --> 02:11:12,980
Like, what are you talking about? I've been working here for five years,

1981
02:11:13,100 --> 02:11:15,740
like you grooming me in order to be here.

1982
02:11:16,280 --> 02:11:19,360
And he said, because I don't know if this is going to be here long enough for

1983
02:11:19,360 --> 02:11:21,140
you to be able to do it for the rest of your life.

1984
02:11:21,580 --> 02:11:25,440
And he said, look, I hope it is, but I don't know for sure.

1985
02:11:26,060 --> 02:11:29,620
And it was powerful because i understood

1986
02:11:29,620 --> 02:11:32,480
at that point like man he wants me to take over

1987
02:11:32,480 --> 02:11:35,680
but he's unsure if i'm going to be able to

1988
02:11:35,680 --> 02:11:38,820
be successful with it for the rest of my life because of the state of oil field

1989
02:11:38,820 --> 02:11:43,120
yeah he didn't want to give you a sinking ship right obviously man obviously

1990
02:11:43,120 --> 02:11:46,880
we've been able to make a decent living in it for the last 11 years since i've

1991
02:11:46,880 --> 02:11:50,940
taken over but you've already seen the ups and downs absolutely i can understand

1992
02:11:50,940 --> 02:11:53,860
why look i remember sitting on my couch for covid

1993
02:11:54,240 --> 02:11:58,080
it with my hands in my head when oil went to negative $22 a barrel,

1994
02:11:58,160 --> 02:12:00,740
I'm thinking, oh, crap, what the hell am I going to do?

1995
02:12:01,200 --> 02:12:04,400
You know what I mean? I'm going to call Bo and see if he needs a butcher. Oh, yeah, absolutely.

1996
02:12:04,780 --> 02:12:09,880
I think you did. I probably did. I think you did. I mean, think about that.

1997
02:12:09,920 --> 02:12:11,180
It's super scary, right?

1998
02:12:12,340 --> 02:12:15,160
And those are the trials that my grandfather was talking about.

1999
02:12:15,740 --> 02:12:19,340
Minus $22 a barrel of oil is not a very good high price. Well,

2000
02:12:19,400 --> 02:12:23,160
83, I'm trying to think, when did oil shit the bed in the 80s?

2001
02:12:23,860 --> 02:12:27,000
It was not too long after that, yeah.

2002
02:12:27,260 --> 02:12:31,140
And they made it through that. They made it through. And I asked him about that,

2003
02:12:31,200 --> 02:12:33,140
and that was mostly because he was very lean.

2004
02:12:33,800 --> 02:12:39,880
It was him and four other guys. Yeah. So he was so lean that he was able to make it through that.

2005
02:12:40,160 --> 02:12:43,920
Now, granted, the next 10 years after that was the all boom in the Gulf where

2006
02:12:43,920 --> 02:12:48,380
they were drilling platforms every other week, and he timed it perfect.

2007
02:12:48,560 --> 02:12:51,260
But he had to weather that first storm in order to get there.

2008
02:12:51,500 --> 02:12:53,560
So it's something I think about a lot.

2009
02:12:55,192 --> 02:12:59,212
Maxon wants to be a cardiologist. Hopefully he is a cardiologist because I'll

2010
02:12:59,212 --> 02:13:02,072
be able to fire Dr. Patel and he can tell me to stop eating mayonnaise bread.

2011
02:13:03,492 --> 02:13:06,912
But I'm going to encourage them, kind of like the stance of my grandfather.

2012
02:13:07,152 --> 02:13:08,332
I'm going to encourage them.

2013
02:13:08,672 --> 02:13:12,492
And if they absolutely fight me on it and want to be part of our business,

2014
02:13:12,612 --> 02:13:13,792
obviously we're going to show it.

2015
02:13:14,252 --> 02:13:18,092
And same thing with Toby's kids. But I'm going to try to encourage them to go

2016
02:13:18,092 --> 02:13:20,312
out and do what they want to do.

2017
02:13:20,392 --> 02:13:23,392
I don't want them to feel like they have to do what I did. but

2018
02:13:23,392 --> 02:13:26,392
if they want to then i'm 100 and

2019
02:13:26,392 --> 02:13:29,172
trying to try to give them what they need in

2020
02:13:29,172 --> 02:13:32,012
order to take it over yeah all you can do is

2021
02:13:32,012 --> 02:13:37,032
is pass on the skills man and you get to use all the resources that you have

2022
02:13:37,032 --> 02:13:42,712
to pass those skills and i believe you know for me same with you is i'm gonna

2023
02:13:42,712 --> 02:13:46,652
use hunting and fishing like i'm gonna use this this lifestyle that we have

2024
02:13:46,652 --> 02:13:51,592
here in south louisiana and i'm I'm going to take it to my full benefit.

2025
02:13:51,772 --> 02:13:56,432
You know, I'm going to use every resource that I have and start them early and

2026
02:13:56,432 --> 02:13:57,712
treat them like an adult.

2027
02:13:57,832 --> 02:14:05,092
You know, it's the one place in life that we're okay treating a seven-year-old like an adult.

2028
02:14:05,352 --> 02:14:09,312
For me, that's in the woods or that's on the water. It's, hey,

2029
02:14:09,432 --> 02:14:11,312
you know, here's your chance. Prove it.

2030
02:14:11,612 --> 02:14:14,912
Prove you can pay attention. Prove you can be safe. That's true.

2031
02:14:14,912 --> 02:14:19,652
That was all of my first experiences feeling like a big boy or a grown-up.

2032
02:14:19,852 --> 02:14:22,532
It was always on the boat or in the woods.

2033
02:14:22,812 --> 02:14:26,512
Driving a four-wheeler. I mean, I remember six years old driving a four-wheeler

2034
02:14:26,512 --> 02:14:28,052
thinking I was the baddest dude on the planet.

2035
02:14:29,192 --> 02:14:32,212
Or shooting a shotgun for the first time. Yeah.

2036
02:14:32,832 --> 02:14:36,372
As soon as you get home, you're treated like an eight-year-old again.

2037
02:14:36,492 --> 02:14:39,272
But when you're out there, you're one of the guys.

2038
02:14:39,372 --> 02:14:42,072
All the uncles and cousins or whatever treating you. And look,

2039
02:14:42,172 --> 02:14:45,752
and think about the confidence that instilled as a young man.

2040
02:14:45,872 --> 02:14:49,152
Oh, 100%. I mean, a lot of people don't associate that with it.

2041
02:14:49,252 --> 02:14:53,852
You take a kid hunting, watch the confidence in that kid grow exponentially.

2042
02:14:54,072 --> 02:14:55,192
I mean, it just...

2043
02:14:56,363 --> 02:15:01,063
Said it teaches you how to be an adult it teaches you responsibility it teaches you,

2044
02:15:01,783 --> 02:15:04,883
several life skills that you don't get anywhere else

2045
02:15:04,883 --> 02:15:08,143
except for hunting yeah that's the only place or fishing

2046
02:15:08,143 --> 02:15:10,963
so and man it starts with

2047
02:15:10,963 --> 02:15:13,803
keeping all those things special you know keeping

2048
02:15:13,803 --> 02:15:20,523
telling the hunting stories you know before and after a trip and always giving

2049
02:15:20,523 --> 02:15:23,623
them something to look forward to and you can't do what you know we were talking

2050
02:15:23,623 --> 02:15:28,563
about earlier like the speckled limits like if you don't catch your limit you

2051
02:15:28,563 --> 02:15:31,863
can't show any kind of negative you know.

2052
02:15:32,623 --> 02:15:35,643
Feedback to a kid right it all has

2053
02:15:35,643 --> 02:15:38,883
to just still be the the best trip ever the secret

2054
02:15:38,883 --> 02:15:42,203
spot the secret bait the secret color the

2055
02:15:42,203 --> 02:15:44,943
the special technique papa taught me to

2056
02:15:44,943 --> 02:15:47,823
call in the bears like that's oh

2057
02:15:47,823 --> 02:15:51,023
uncle jim showed me that secret yeah

2058
02:15:51,023 --> 02:15:54,623
those are the things hyperventilate this bearing right we

2059
02:15:54,623 --> 02:15:57,483
we don't realize that though how important those things are

2060
02:15:57,483 --> 02:16:00,643
you know to a kid and to their buy-in to

2061
02:16:00,643 --> 02:16:04,343
this to the sport and and whatever it leads to conservation

2062
02:16:04,343 --> 02:16:08,943
and it leads to more good and more good and look we're just to touch on that

2063
02:16:08,943 --> 02:16:12,803
for a second i had a buddy and it's he i talked to him about his son hunting

2064
02:16:12,803 --> 02:16:16,363
he's like man my son don't like to hunt i don't know what it is i was like well

2065
02:16:16,363 --> 02:16:23,463
tell me tell me about the experience he's like well we woke up we got to the ladder stand,

2066
02:16:24,123 --> 02:16:30,163
the kid's six got to the ladder stand he sat in the ladder stand it was about 28 degrees outside.

2067
02:16:32,263 --> 02:16:36,163
And he kept moving I was like he's sick,

2068
02:16:37,423 --> 02:16:40,323
and I kept fussing him because he's moving because we wasn't going to see anything

2069
02:16:40,323 --> 02:16:43,503
and I wanted him to be still so we could see something so it would make it fun

2070
02:16:43,503 --> 02:16:46,363
I like first of all he probably,

2071
02:16:47,083 --> 02:16:50,003
was freezing to death he's probably shivering you don't put

2072
02:16:50,003 --> 02:16:52,723
a six-year-old in a ladder stand you know what

2073
02:16:52,723 --> 02:16:56,223
i mean you got to try to make it fun for him right ron loves

2074
02:16:56,223 --> 02:16:59,223
to pee by the stand and it drives me absolutely

2075
02:16:59,223 --> 02:17:01,963
nuts but the first time he did he shot a deer

2076
02:17:01,963 --> 02:17:06,343
so guess what every time we go to that stand boy you better pee on that stand

2077
02:17:06,343 --> 02:17:10,383
right dude that think about really runners are so superstitious but really think

2078
02:17:10,383 --> 02:17:14,643
about that think about how special that is like it's it's more special than

2079
02:17:14,643 --> 02:17:18,683
you realize it just Just something as small as that is having a tradition and

2080
02:17:18,683 --> 02:17:21,543
having a thing and a memory. Absolutely.

2081
02:17:21,963 --> 02:17:23,863
It's important. Absolutely.

2082
02:17:25,170 --> 02:17:29,410
Man, I have no doubt in my mind that you're going to pass on some good habits

2083
02:17:29,410 --> 02:17:33,030
and some good – you're going to raise some good leaders.

2084
02:17:34,270 --> 02:17:39,050
And I look forward to seeing those boys grow up and see what they can do,

2085
02:17:39,130 --> 02:17:41,310
see if they start that ED White.

2086
02:17:41,670 --> 02:17:44,770
DU chapter? You're going to look at that. We're going to be looking for the

2087
02:17:44,770 --> 02:17:47,370
guys right out at Boudoir. Or ski shooting team or whatever they do,

2088
02:17:47,410 --> 02:17:50,350
man. Listen, Nick's doing something right.

2089
02:17:50,470 --> 02:17:54,990
So two years ago, like for Halloween, and I don't know Paxton that well, dude.

2090
02:17:55,170 --> 02:18:00,150
Like, of course, Nick and I are friends and he knows me, but it's Halloween

2091
02:18:00,150 --> 02:18:04,170
and he's in our neighborhood because our neighborhood's a big trick or treat.

2092
02:18:04,730 --> 02:18:08,010
And I didn't even see him. He saw me first because, you know,

2093
02:18:08,030 --> 02:18:10,570
he's in a costume and he walks right up to me.

2094
02:18:11,090 --> 02:18:15,150
Hey, Mr. Bo, how you doing? And shakes my hand. Firm grip, looks me straight

2095
02:18:15,150 --> 02:18:18,070
in the eyes. I'm like, Pax, where's your dad?

2096
02:18:18,150 --> 02:18:20,350
He's like, oh, he's not here. Boy, that was me.

2097
02:18:22,590 --> 02:18:25,830
He shook your hand or you did it? He did that to me, and he called me Mr. Bo.

2098
02:18:26,390 --> 02:18:29,170
Oh, really? No, then he also did that to you that night.

2099
02:18:29,470 --> 02:18:33,350
Because I remember. Hey, man. It's the thought that counts. He did the same

2100
02:18:33,350 --> 02:18:34,930
thing to me. But seriously, dude.

2101
02:18:36,330 --> 02:18:39,550
He's raising those type of kids that have that much confidence.

2102
02:18:40,010 --> 02:18:42,210
Man, that makes me feel good. I appreciate you sharing that story.

2103
02:18:42,390 --> 02:18:46,330
I should have told you because it was two years ago. That's funny.

2104
02:18:48,310 --> 02:18:53,410
He's a grown-up, man. He's walking the walk. He's doing well. I'm proud of him.

2105
02:18:54,070 --> 02:18:59,770
We talk a lot about respect. We talk a lot about handshake. We talk a lot about your word.

2106
02:19:00,170 --> 02:19:02,570
Just kind of the things that my grandfather passed on to me.

2107
02:19:02,750 --> 02:19:05,030
And just like you said, it's going to be passed on to him.

2108
02:19:06,050 --> 02:19:13,690
He's engaged, man. He'll walk up into a ring full of 30-year-old men and just

2109
02:19:13,690 --> 02:19:17,490
keep in step with them. It's because he's been at a camp since he was three.

2110
02:19:17,850 --> 02:19:22,250
It's because he's been giving soccer balls to African orphans.

2111
02:19:22,250 --> 02:19:26,570
It's because it's been through because of the life he's lived and the debt and who his dad is,

2112
02:19:27,390 --> 02:19:30,430
well nick i appreciate it man this was awesome yeah man

2113
02:19:30,430 --> 02:19:33,590
i had to do a lot more of this i had a great time i

2114
02:19:33,590 --> 02:19:37,750
you mind if i tell one more story before we go of course this is gonna be a

2115
02:19:37,750 --> 02:19:42,530
good story only if you tell two more and well all right so we go to we're on

2116
02:19:42,530 --> 02:19:48,370
our way to i think we're going to campeche mexico to go turkey hunting and it's

2117
02:19:48,370 --> 02:19:51,570
me and beaver and paul and we Oh, I know this story.

2118
02:19:51,670 --> 02:19:56,210
We bought a, I think we had like, what's the biggest pack of vacuum sealed bee

2119
02:19:56,210 --> 02:19:58,990
jerky y'all sell? Is it a pound? It's half pounds. Half pound.

2120
02:19:59,490 --> 02:20:04,210
Which, a considerable amount of bee jerky, especially 10 years ago, right? Yeah. Yeah.

2121
02:20:05,915 --> 02:20:08,915
Get to customs in mexico and we

2122
02:20:08,915 --> 02:20:11,855
get to and they got 15 pounds keep in mind yeah

2123
02:20:11,855 --> 02:20:14,735
we got like i don't know if it's 15 but i

2124
02:20:14,735 --> 02:20:17,915
guarantee you it was five packs so two

2125
02:20:17,915 --> 02:20:21,435
and a half pounds me ron and beaver we

2126
02:20:21,435 --> 02:20:24,235
go through mexican tsa i don't know what it's called

2127
02:20:24,235 --> 02:20:27,355
and the alarm goes off

2128
02:20:27,355 --> 02:20:30,235
and like man what's going on so they open

2129
02:20:30,235 --> 02:20:33,755
up the bag and it's beef jerky and

2130
02:20:33,755 --> 02:20:37,415
they say you can't you can't bring this in and they

2131
02:20:37,415 --> 02:20:40,395
want to take it and my grandfather grabs the

2132
02:20:40,395 --> 02:20:44,675
beef jerky out his hand he says no in hell you taking this so we

2133
02:20:44,675 --> 02:20:47,395
so we we have to go to our flight we have to get

2134
02:20:47,395 --> 02:20:50,295
through tsa to get to our flight but my grandfather was

2135
02:20:50,295 --> 02:20:54,115
not leaving that beef jerky so he took his hands opened

2136
02:20:54,115 --> 02:20:59,115
up the beef jerky and we ate five packs five

2137
02:20:59,115 --> 02:21:02,555
packs of beef jerky standing in line standing in

2138
02:21:02,555 --> 02:21:05,495
line i got i'll never forget it i and i'm

2139
02:21:05,495 --> 02:21:08,735
probably 27 28 beavers

2140
02:21:08,735 --> 02:21:11,475
probably 23 24 first of all i

2141
02:21:11,475 --> 02:21:16,255
was i was lightheaded because the sodium intake second of all i had a piece

2142
02:21:16,255 --> 02:21:20,515
of beef jerky stuck between every single one of my teeth in my mouth but we

2143
02:21:20,515 --> 02:21:24,355
stood there and ate every single piece of beef jerky because we are not leaving

2144
02:21:24,355 --> 02:21:30,655
it with those people man that's so awesome dude that's That's a great story. Oh, I love it.

2145
02:21:31,275 --> 02:21:33,795
Man, I appreciate you guys having me. I had a good time today.

2146
02:21:34,275 --> 02:21:37,535
Oh, thanks, Nick. Dude, great guy.

2147
02:21:38,075 --> 02:21:44,195
Been a friend for a long time. And, man, just so much more stuff we need to

2148
02:21:44,195 --> 02:21:46,715
talk about next time. I'd love to come back.

2149
02:21:48,555 --> 02:21:52,395
Appreciate it. After we go, we can tell the story after we go shoot a fish.

2150
02:21:52,615 --> 02:21:55,115
Yeah. I'm going to hold my breath for 35 seconds. Hopefully,

2151
02:21:55,255 --> 02:21:57,035
I can get down there. Let's get Paxton underwater.

2152
02:21:57,395 --> 02:21:59,635
Sounds good, brother. All right, y'all. Later.

2153
02:22:02,215 --> 02:22:05,355
All right, that's it for this episode of the Miracles to Meet podcast.

2154
02:22:05,655 --> 02:22:10,215
We ask that you share it with at least one person in your life that you think needs to hear it.

2155
02:22:11,195 --> 02:22:14,275
You know, if you got a little something from it, you got some little goose pimples

2156
02:22:14,275 --> 02:22:19,895
or it just gave you some feel goods, you know, send it to someone else. Let them feel that too.

2157
02:22:20,515 --> 02:22:24,475
And if you loved it, please leave us a five-star review. That'll really help out.

2158
02:22:24,475 --> 02:22:27,435
And if you only loved it like four

2159
02:22:27,435 --> 02:22:30,275
stars or so please do not leave a review same thing

2160
02:22:30,275 --> 02:22:34,835
with the one through three not interested in any of those only five stars um

2161
02:22:34,835 --> 02:22:39,275
if you have any personal questions or comments about the episode shoot them

2162
02:22:39,275 --> 02:22:44,515
over to bourgeois meat market on facebook or instagram and we'll reach back

2163
02:22:44,515 --> 02:22:48,595
out and if you have any ideas for any cool future guests

2164
02:22:48,875 --> 02:22:54,535
please shoot those over too we're all always interested in hearing um who else

2165
02:22:54,535 --> 02:22:58,035
is out there and what kind of cool stories we might be able to bring into this

2166
02:22:58,035 --> 02:23:01,655
place see you next time thanks for listening.

2167
02:23:03,760 --> 02:23:10,359
Music.

 

Butcher / Meat Market / Butchery / Family / Business / Oldest Family Business / Louisiana / Cajun / Thibodaux Louisiana / Schriever / Houma / New Orleans / Baton Rouge / Southern Food / Southern Cooking / Cuisine /Beef Jerky / Boudin / Sausage / Andouille / Pork