EP 213: Drought to Flood, News of the West

Flash flood warning here until 430. Dangerous life lightning. Do not attempt to travel unless you're fleeing an area subject to flooding under evacuation order. Walmart parking lot. The water is over the tires on the vehicles. Anything to do with Western big game.

Welcome to the Epic Outdoors podcast, powered by Under Armour. Hey everybody, Jason Carter, Adam Bronson, John Peterson coming at you from rainy Southern Utah, Bronson. Can you hear it? Can you hear it? I can hear it. Sounds pretty. It's been every day and we're still thankful for it. It's flooding out people. It's been two years since we've had a drop. Unbelievable. We'll take everyone that comes. Now we've had a week full of it. Yeah, it's been nonstop. People are being flooded out and I feel bad about it for a minute. I don't like to be flooded, but you take it when you can get it. It's been violent. It's not like a violent two hours. Not like, oh, we're going to enjoy a little drizzle, Washington drizzle for 24, 48 hours. Violence is a good word for it. There's no question about it. It's been coming hard. It's been coming fast. And it didn't sound like that.

Hey, speaking of monster, I just wanted to read this text I got from our good buddy. And I don't want to say his name. FYI, this is today, 7 a.m. Just cracked a white one. Who texts you at 7 a.m.? 7-06. Better be a good friend. FYI, I had to go to the ER Friday with a blood pressure crisis. Not enough sleep. Too many monsters. So I just wanted to tell everybody out there. That's true torture. That would be some call. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. So anyway, I'm just saying. I'm just saying out there. I'm just saying. Oh. And I happen to say. So here was my. Oh, here's my reply. Sleep more. Should fix it.

And then I'm like, no, seriously. You okay? I'm feeling okay. But, you know, it's spooky. Anyway, it turns out I've got a little bit of a history of blood pressure. But I'm just saying, don't drink them, kids. They're not good for you. But anyway. All right. Let's move on to something happier.

We want to thank Under Armour. By the way, they did come out with their clothes. It looks like they're. Starting to load. A little bit of a soft launch, right? UA.com. A piece at a time. It's starting to load pieces. So people are being sent items. They're buying items. John. We've seen some of the new stuff. And. We've worn it. Yeah. Pretty awesome. Yeah, we've worn it. And pretty awesome. Some of the stuff we've been asking for for two years. Like the heat zips. They buy zips. Heat zips. They're lighter than light. Well, what's funny. They're not showing that many quantities online. I'm hoping they're loading more and more. You know. Wyatt's been on there. And he's been watching things. And getting some things ordered for the guys here in the office. So. Anyway. Go to UA.com. Go check it out. Type in Ridge or something. Some kind of hunting keyword. And it'll take you to the product.

One more shout out to another one of our sponsors. Red Rock Precision. I think Archibald's out shooting his guns. He shot every gun in his gun case over the weekend. He's getting flooded if he is. Yeah. He was. He was going nuts. Which. I wish I was in that boat. Because usually we're in the last minute. He's got muzzle loaders with open sights and scopes. Both. And then rifles. And he's. He was out there. He said he owned the range by himself. So it's. Probably a good time to be. All right. I got to tell a story. Did he tell you the story? So he sends a text. He says. What story? Shot every rifle and muzzy I have this morning. Ready to roll. Yeah. Took forever. I mean that's Archibald. Not going to shoot one or two of them. Like. I shot every one of them. Like you said. You got rifles of two or three models. And an open sight. And a scoped muzzle loader.

His shoulder is probably black and blue. And all day Sunday. I cleaned them all. Every one of them. He called me on Saturday. And he's like. Dude. You know how something weird happens every time I go. To the range. He's like. I was setting up. Had my muzzle loader out. This BMW or something. Pulls up. Like just a car. Car. To the range. And the dude takes a pee. And Archie shoots his muzzle loader. The guy comes over. Right. Right by him. And he goes. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Dragon boy. Dragon boy. Dragon boy. And takes off. What does that mean? No idea. Because he's blowing smoke. Probably saw the flames coming out of the end of the muzzle loader. And blowing smoke. He's just like. It was the weirdest thing. And the range is in the middle of nowhere. He didn't even shoot. He just came to go to the bathroom. Make fun of him. This is hilarious. Because Arch Paul.

He's one of the only people I know that have had people ticked off that he's in their hunting spot. Got him through the crosshairs. Threatening him to shoot. And he's one of the few guys that has a bunker somewhere in the Four Corners area. Oh yeah. With a lot of provisions. Saying that he's going to make it there when the end of the world comes. It's his Red Dawn. Red Dawn retreat. So funny. But anyway. He did have a scouting trip. We might even cold call him. We might. But back to the rifle. Redrockprecision.com. Great rifles. If you're in the market looking to upgrade or add to your arsenal. Give Kurt and the guys there a call. Or visit them on the website. Redrockprecision.com. We all have one of their rifles. Oh they're awesome. They shoot awesome. They kill stuff. And they can customize the scope. Customize the caliber. The barrel. Whether you want steel. Whether you want composite.

Whether you want bigger stock. Slimmer stock. Sheep gun. All around. Whatever. They can do it. Give them a call. Or visit Redrockprecision.com. Super good products. Alright everybody. Well where are we. There's a lot. I guess it just feels. This is going to be one of those. Convert. Throwing spaghetti at the chalkboard kind of thing. It's also. We're gone a lot from each other in the summer. So when we get back. It's like.

You were scouting. Where did you go Brunson? And what did you see? Not much. Not much to talk about. Not much. Brunson's giving back tags. Figuring out what the point guarding in 14 states. I'm not. But it's just. Man. I'm the same way. You get excited. And then. You get excited until you're not. The reality of the drought. For me personally. The reality of the drought is setting in. I'm a desert guy. I'm down here in southern Utah, northern Arizona, Nevada. Why? It's like I told my buddy Clint. He's out scouting in the desert where he's at. And at some point you realize you can't make it happen. You can't. Force. You can't force it. Force. You know. Antler growth or whatever. I'd like to have half the money back I've spent in gas. In the last 30 days. And tires. Huh? Yeah. Tires too. Thanks, Brunson. Here's a story. Thanks, Brunson.

So how many years ago was the first incident with you in this rock on a specific two track? Let's call it three years ago. So three years ago we heard the gnashing of teeth as you came back with a blown sidewall on an F-150. Well, it's one of those rocks you can't see. It's behind the brush. It's like a big rabbit brush type, you know. Anyway. And it's hidden. Caught you. On a two track and you don't see it. You do not see it. Blew out. It's bubbled out the sidewall. Okay. Fast forward. 2021. 2021. Three years, but that's about 12 or 13 trucks since the first one. For you. 20 sets of tires. Now you're in a new truck. Same road though. Same road. SRDD, right? Same road, different day.

Okay. Yeah. Okay. Public led. SFY. What happened? I hit the rock. The same rock? Did the same rock? Bubbled out. Same identical thing. Blew the sidewall. Yeah, blew the sidewall. It's sitting there blowing air out. You're driving home with your hands at about eight and two. Yeah, they were at nine and three. And now it's about eight and two with your plowing your tires down the front highway. Yeah, that's true. And I just, Ashley's with me. And she's like, oh, geez. And it hit so hard. It hit. I'm surprised. You know, I have your A-arms. I'm surprised they weren't bent. It hit so hard. Anyway. You knew immediately. But immediately when you hit it, you knew. Immediately. I got out and I'm like, and I said a few things. And then I lowered down the tire, got all the stuff. And you know, in a truck. Golly gee. We used to have handymans in the back.

And that was good enough on the great big steel bumpers. How long does it take you to just find the jack and the thing that lowers your tire? I had to get out the owner's manual. I couldn't find the jack. Yeah. Yeah. And you wouldn't believe it. Anyway. Behind the rear seat. Oh, yeah. Behind the rear seat. You pull it down and there's a foam case cover covering it. Like you wouldn't even. It's totally hidden. Anyway, got out this little chintzy freaking bottle jack. And it's in the sand. And it's sinking. It just sinks like straight down. So I have to get out my post hole pounder, which is rounded. Right? It's rounded. And I stick it in there. And then I put the jack on it. And then I jack up the truck. All the while, I'm telling Ashley, stay away because the truck's probably going to fall. I mean, dude. If this falls on me, just tell mom and the boys, I love y'all. Just leave me here.

The red ant's going to have me. She just got bit by a red ant. So anyway. Well, think about. I mean, you're invaluable. That girl hanging out with you. She's going to know how to bail and wire anything together on a truck. I don't talk a lot because I wasn't talked to when I was a kid. We just did lots of windshield time. But I try to be a little better.

So anyway, we get driving along and I'm like, hey, Ash, do you want to marry a hunter? Because we're talking the marriage talks. And of course, I've got boys that are. Keeping in mind, she's like 12 or 13. She's 14. Okay. She's got a job. She's not. She's not like going to college. 14 year olds can have jobs now with Biden bucks because there's nobody willing to work. So anyway, it's kind of been good for her. And anyway, work ethic and all these good things that are happening. So I'm like, hey, Ash, you know, you want to marry a hunter? You know? Oh, yeah. She knows the right answer. Right. And I'm like, well, do you know how you do you know how you marry a hunter? What? What? You choose one. And I'm like, no, no, you date them. So, you know, it's all in who you date. You end up marrying who you date. That was the big lesson that I taught her. Wow.

Because Adam, Adam, Adam, Adam, for nothing. Well, I was expecting. Hey. I mean, that's good. Hey. But let's like it. Well, I guess what I'm saying is when you spend all this time out there with your children, friends, family, whatever, and they're learning the things she's learning. If she marries a gamer, I'm going to be pissed. Well, I am. I'm going to be pissed. She's going to know how to change tires. She's going to know how to put chains on. She's killing stuff left and right. She's killed more deer than a brother or two of hers. I mean, legit. And if she marries a gamer, I'm going to be ticked. How do you prevent that? When the time comes, we'll put out the word, have, you know, people of the right age of our clients apply. Just a good job. Photocopy of your driver's license. You know, we give away hunts. Maybe we give away a date. You can do background checks. I'm just saying.

As a dad, some of you guys out there have been through it. I'm having a hard time putting. I mean, she's going to be the most amazing huntress there ever was. All right, fellas. So moving on. I went through a tire at Bronson. It seemed like you might have hit a great big giant tree this past weekend. What did you do? Luckily, my hands are at nine and three still. I'm flying. And my tire didn't blow. I did have to take you down. My tire didn't blow. But it rocked me. What did you need today? What did you need today? I flew into the steering wheel. Didn't you get an alignment today? No. It was just an oil change. It was just oil change and tire rotation. It didn't seem like it pulled. But no. Airbag didn't go off? No. But it could have. Seriously. It could have. It was just. Should have? One of those grass that's like three and a half feet tall along a two track.

Even in the middle of the two track, it's two feet high. So it's like not getting used a lot. And I'm just crushing. Probably only 15, 20. But there's a quakey. Probably. How big is that? 18. Yeah. 20 inches around. That had been sought out. But you can't see. It's in there. And the grass around it. My front tire caught that. And just. You know. And brought you to a stop. I mean. I probably hit it by what? Two inches? Three inches? It wasn't popping over anything. That's how you take sidewalls out. Bend the side of the rim. Anyway. But. Speaking of trucks. We're on. John. You've been chopping. So yeah. My boy had a. Call it a fender bender. What do you mean? He came to a complete stop going 45. When the truck is totaled. Into the vehicle in front of him. I don't know how fast it was. But he was going. Bronson. It's a 40 mile an hour road. Anybody does less than 40. It's abnormal. Well.

It was. Supposedly. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. That's what you were told. The truck is. It was more stopping than going. And there was no skid marks. That's what I find interesting too. He didn't try to stop. Okay. Keep going. And he was. He was shook up. So. I won't rub it in anymore. That happened on a Monday night. Okay. Then fast forward to the next. Two weeks ago. Yeah. Something like that. Fast forward to the next day at lunch. And I want to tee this up real quick. You guys have heard my brother's podcast. He went a year before he found a truck. I think he fasted four or five times for that purpose alone. Okay. Wyatt's been doing the same process for how long? I don't know. But Wyatt. Three to five months. How long? I don't see any end in sight. Okay. He's not going to find the vehicle he's on. It's got to be perfect.

It's got to be, you know, this. It's got to be. Yeah. And granted, it is not a. Want to pay in pesos. It is also within 23 miles of Cedar City. If you can't be somebody there with greenbacks, it ain't happening. That's right. That's right. So you better be close enough to win the perimeter like John. John finds one last night. Yesterday. I think during church. I don't know why you were refreshing your call during church. But you refreshed and it said boom, boom. Zero minutes in the same city. Yeah. In our town. And you had cash to him in 33 minutes. I had it bought before church was over. Yeah. Hey, well. And he had 30 people on the line. Yeah, 30 people. The Lord blesses people. Just crazy. After I get there, he's like, I think I listed it for too low. And I'm like, yeah, you did. I've been looking for six months. A deal's a deal, boss. So anyway, Carter and I, same thing.

It's a bad environment, especially if you're buying a Toyota. John, you found a little SUV. I'm looking for another Toyota. A good kid. Run around for me or my son or whatever. Well, Carter and I. You're looking for one for about 13 hours. After the wreck. Actually, I wasn't. Yeah, because that happened like 10, 30, 11 at night. So I went home and went to bed. On a Saturday night. I don't know what it was. Monday night. Sunday came. It was Monday night. Monday night. Okay. All right. So it's Tuesday morning. We're going to lunch. We're literally driving down Main Street in our own town. Yeah. The same town Wyatt lives in.

The same way. And Wyatt's looking for it. He's looking. You know, he's turning over every rock. You're driving. Out of the corner of your eye, you say, oh, look at that tundra. That's what Wyatt's looking for. And I said, look at that tundra. Dude, flip around. We flip around. We go back there. Look at it. I'm like, dude, I think I know whose truck this was. They must have just traded in. Boom. Walk in. Here's the truck. What is it? Such and such. Yeah. 2006. Such and such. Such and such. Yeah. We'll drive it. Okay. We'll take it. Let's go to lunch, Carter. We'll come back. And I'm like, uh. And Carter acts like now that that was a bad idea. He had warning flags. It was a bad idea. You buy it now. But we literally drove. I'm punching the button. Buy now. Buy now. We drove three minutes up the street. Ate a 27-minute lunch, probably. F-A. And we're back within 30. Okay.

In that 30 minutes, somebody else had already been there, seen it, and was at the bank trying to get money for it. And I'm trying to like, hey, I'll bring you cash. All right. You check now. Whatever. He goes, I can't really do that. I mean, the guy's at the bank. And I'm like, what? He says, well, let us go drive it. So we went and drove it. And I'm like, freak. You're not going to. It's going to be gone. It's a full four-door. It's like the big four-door. It's not the access cab. It's like a big four-door. It's the last year of the smaller. Of the old body. Old body style. So it's. The VA. It's awesome. I just said, well, all right. If a guy can't do it, give me a call. 45 minutes later, I bought a truck. You couldn't get credit. I mean, I'm like, oh, wow. So I bought it. And I came back and told Wyatt that I bought a truck while I was at lunch break. And he wouldn't believe it.

Now, on the subject of teaching kids lessons, my kid ruins the first truck. And I buy him a nicer truck. But what did I do? But what did I do? You guys know what I did. I went two weeks until I couldn't handle it anymore. It had been a full two weeks. And he had already. After the first seven days, he's in remorse. He's just laying low. I'm just glad to be borrowing my dad's truck to drive to work. John and I, John, remember when we were getting the mail and we watched Ty in the power wagon, the brand new power wagon drive by? Yeah. He might have been owning that. He was in his. Take top. He'd been at pouring concrete. Take top. Muscles blew. I mean, jacked up truck. So anyway. After. You know Bronson. 10 to 14 days. He's starting to. He's looking at KSL on ads again. Like he's. He's like, dad, when are we going to talk about? School's coming up. I need something to drive.

And you got two trucks and you use them both during the onslaught. It got on. It was onslaughting. He would hit me with five or six trucks every day. Classified. And I had already had one bought. And I hadn't told him. I hadn't told him. So finally one night I said, hey, I got to go wash my truck. Let's come with me. And he's he took that a sec. Is everything OK, dad? Like he thinks I'm going to have a talk. And, you know, when you're going to wash the truck. We already talked about the birds and bees. What, dad? So anyway. I had my seatbelt on. And I show him. I show him the truck. And I says, yeah, that's the truck. And he's like, what do you mean? I says, yeah. The day after you got wrecked. I just saw it. Great deal. Great buy. I know. When you've looked at enough and you see one and you know what it's priced at. Got it scheduled for a light bar. Got it scheduled for wheels.

I got some other things. So my point in all of this is for Aaron, Wyatt, all this. You can buy a truck in 60 minutes. You can buy one. You can. You don't need 365 days or six months. Okay. 100%. That's all. John. But the good thing about, I want to finish it up. This isn't for Ty. This is your truck. You're letting him use it. That's right. He's going to go probably do a, you know, a mission for the church or whatever. Yeah. This is your truck. It'll be a scouting vehicle. Just like the other one. That's right. Just like the other truck. That's right. But it's like, hey, this is another truck. And to follow up one more thing. Insurance company insures you for about nine, ten grand what the other one was worth. What did they offer you for this hunk of shiz now? It's a total. It's a total. So, yeah, he was not. Dadgum $18,000. 18 grand. It's amazing. For a wore out truck. All right.

Moving on. That's what the. So, we're living in some crazy times. With me, I'm doing well. That's right. Come on, Bronson.

Buy dirt. I mean, we are. We're living in crazy times. And speaking of buying dirt. Chris. Chris. Chris gets married. Has 14 children already. Two. Two. No, but I didn't even. This is how I look. Since the wedding. What's that been? Feels like a month. A month. Yeah. Yeah, somewhere in there. But I didn't know he was even looking. It makes complete sense. Because where you are now is. It's kind of. It's been the bachelor pad for about ten years. Let's call it the starter home that's 14 levels. I don't know. Three. Four. Basement. Middle. Upper. But each level has room for two different bachelors. And it has pretty much been that way. And he's rented it out. Devin. Wyatt. I mean. Family. Friends. Enemies. Everybody stayed there. I mean, it's been lots. My parents have been there for a year and a half. Yeah. So now you found what? You wore out the carpet and decided to move.

New carpet's coming next week. But you did find a home with some acreage. Yeah. A place for the ponies. Yeah. It's just kind of like you. You're driving down the road. You see a good deal. And you buy it. You did it. No kidding. Was it that fast? Or how long have you been working on it? Really? No way. We saw it. Went and looked at it that day. And submitted an offer that night. No kidding. And today, they said bingo. So now there's nothing going to be. You're a man. Hey, there's a house for so-and-so. That's the end of it. If you're smart, I heard college housing in this town is really at a premium. It is. You could rent that out to freaking 12 or 15. Yeah. You sure you even want to sell it? Yeah. I'll let somebody else do that. That could be a sorority house. It could be a frat house. That's right. It would be a hell of a frat house. It would be. Yeah.

You can't tell me that wouldn't be. It would be. There's a couple of rooms you could get floor bunk beds in. The problem is the driving that takes place before and after the party. It's 10 minutes out of town. That's a long ways for a sitter. Yeah. Anyway. Well, so, yeah. You know, Jana's grandpa, he always told us right there toward the end of his life. We were sitting down talking. He was a good, good guy. And he had a bunch of property up there in Star Valley. And he says, you know, the only thing that matters in this life is your name and dirt. It's the only thing that matters. Buy dirt. Hey, think about it. Your name and dirt. We've gotten a lot, you know, gotten quite far in things that we've done just with the name. You know, people know you and know that you're trustworthy and whatnot. But anyway, there you have it. Chris is buying dirt. Got a great name.

Well, Chris, you got the world by the tail, boss. I guess so. As far as he's awesome. Awesome. Happy for you. All right. Well. Got the Brumbies in the backyard now. Yeah. Good. All right. Well, we are in crazy times to continue with that. Bronson, there's been a lot of stuff going on with, like Oregon. Oregon's talking about maybe ending hunting and fishing and trapping. There's an initiative out there. And it's kind of crazy. It's an anti-hunting, anti-agricultural ballot effort that will make harvesting any fish or game a crime. And what's agricultural? I don't know. You can't milk a cow because that's abusive? I don't know. It goes on to say it will ban the harvest of any animal by hunting or fishing or trapping and will only allow self-defense exception.

And it will also criminalize common animal husbandry practices, slaughter for food and common breeding practices, such as artificial insemination. Wow. And the way they word things is to make it sound like you're sexually abusing an animal to do breeding stuff. Oh, my gosh. So proponents of the initiative have until July 8, 2022 to collect 112,000 valid signatures. They'll have those in three weeks, I bet, in that state. Portland? So somebody growing up in Portland that doesn't know any better. Portland alone. I don't want animals sexually abused. Do you like to sexually abuse animals? Exactly. No, we'll sign this. Exactly. So anyway, they have until July 8, 2022, and then it'll be eligible for the November 2022 ballot. I'm just reading this off the internet. I'm not saying this is... You can't milk a cow. Well, I don't know. Maybe you can milk one.

No, you said animal husbandry practices. Yeah. You gotta milk a cow? Well, I mean, it's her body, her choice, and you're over there trying to milk it. Yeah. I know. I don't know. It's crazy what the times we're living in. I'm just saying nothing is off the table. Nothing is off the table. Well, they were put here for the use of man. Yeah. Anybody that's read the Bible knows that. That's right. And yes, you gotta have wisdom and respect and all those things. 100%. Come on. What are we up against nowadays? Even, Bronson, we were talking about the Wyoming initiative and changing things going on there. Yeah, there's a task force on that. I mean, it's obviously resident-driven, and we've been very, I guess, over and over, very careful. Every state has issues that come out in their own state. We're residents of Utah.

We obviously talk about, write about, research about, and hunt a lot of the western states. But we've not tried to say, hey, our opinion's what we think's the best in every state. We say that in every case because we're not. We don't even get incredibly vocal in Utah even. Just, we're almost, we adapt more to what happens and changes from, you know, technology or different things like that, or hunting dates or whatever. But yeah, Idaho is, already went through. I think they addressed the big four or whatever you want to call them. I guess there's four. Be bison. Bison. Moose sheep goat. Moose sheep goat. The current splits up there, you know, moving them down to a 90-10. 90% go to resident, 10% non-resident. And that will cut them roughly in half or more. Significantly cut tags. And it's hard with the, you know, saying what's common. A lot of the states, that's common. That's right.

So the fact that they're 20 to 25 on some species. Yeah. It feels maybe generous. The problem is, after buying into a point system for so long now and remembering that it takes four tags in one of those sheep remissionists to even give one in the random draw. That's right. So the first 75%, first three out of the four tags go to the preference point draw. 25% on a random draw. There are going to be like no random tags drawn on any of them. And the points only pertain to the max point holders. That's right. It doesn't give you an extra name in the hat for the random draw. So why would you ever buy points and why would you even apply if you are five to ten years from max? Unless you're the very top echelon tier. You're not. And now this is going to be brought forward through the deer, elk, and antelope ranks, which has very similar ramifications.

I mean, there's a lot more tags for them statewide than there is the sheep, moose, goat, bison. But just talking about big changes. This is not something we're hearing. This is something that would take effect to 2023 if it were fully ratified by legislature and everything. Crazy. They have big financial ramifications. And I'm sure they're weighing a lot of those things out. And maybe they'll adjust it where the points are good for the random draw or whatever. And, you know, most states at least give a random tag. No more name in the hat. Yeah. They should at least have something where the first tag goes randomly or something. Because there's only like five or six total random moose tags in the whole state for non-residents right now. That's right. And that would probably go to zero. So, anyway. It's just crazy. The crazy times that we're living in and we're just dealing.

It seems like it's called the Biden effects. In fact, it's all throughout all the different states and different things that we're involved in our lives, livelihoods, whatnot. So, anyway, we'll keep you posted. As we know specifics, we'll print them off and read them. Kind of the news of the West on what's going on and whatnot. So, what else, Bronson? In the spirit of buying dirt, since we talked about that a couple of times today. If you're looking to buy or sell western ranch or hunting, fishing property, recreational properties, give Blaine St. James and his guys a call at St. James Sporting Properties. Blaine and his crew are hunters. They can understand either valuation or can help as you talk with them about what you're looking for. If you're looking for recreational property, they can think a little bit more like you than

all, every, you know, every single real estate agent that's out there that just lists property. They're big hunters themselves. So, they're licensed in Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, and Wyoming. Again, give them a call, 877-354-7247 and buy or sell. I guess you're not supposed to sell dirt. Sell high. Buy low, sell high. And it's high. Well, you might sell dirt and buy different dirt. Swap dirt. Swap. 1031. Change the lyrics to that song. Swap dirt.

I don't know what to say, but you're going to have to play that song. Swap dirt. All right. So, anyway, dirt's a good investment. They're not making any more of it. And it's just kind of crazy. I don't know.

What else? Let's see. You know, we haven't talked about Canada. They've opened. They're opened. Basically, for U.S., tourists can go up there. Non-essential travel starting like August 9th. Yep. That is if you have a what? COVID. If you have been vaccinated, you have to be fully vaccinated. Number one and number two. So, if you want to go up there or potentially want to go up there, go get your shots. A lot of guys and gals don't necessarily want to get the shots. But, hey, if you're going to hunt in Canada, maybe even Mexico, who knows? As things progress and whatnot, you're probably going to need to be vaccinated. And who knows next year if they still get that infect. Who knows? Last year, would any of you bet that we'd still be talking about this a year from now? No. So, what's a year from now? Who knows? So, it's disrupted a lot of plans the last two years in Canada.

A couple of things now. It's initially like, oh, great. It's open. We're going. And I would have thought these outfitters would be inundated. Jumping. They've got two years of people backed up. We're actually seeing what? Yeah. Openings. Yeah. Openings. Because now it's like some of them weeks ahead of time. I've got to be there in weeks. I can't do it. I didn't get my vaccine. Or I wasn't planning on it. Now I can't go. Or the outfitters are saying, you know, I haven't drew a 10 or 12 people. And they went and got jobs. I told them to. I told them to get jobs because I don't know if we're going to have a season again this year. So, they're not prepared to take a full gamut. Most of them aren't. They're not prepared for a full schedule. That's right. So, notwithstanding that, we do have some openings. I mean, we had a stone sheep opening come up. I think got filled.

Got a Canadian moose opening right now. It just came up. And there's other things coming down the pipe. They will be. There's a lot of adjusting because you've got last year's hunters and this year's hunters. Bulls to try to fill. And a lot of calling. A lot of back and forth with outfitters and hunters over the last two years. But if you're looking for something up there in Canada and you can go and you can go on more of a short notice, reach out to us. Maybe shoot Devin an email. Devin at epicoutdoors.com. Let us know the species that you're interested in. And not just say, hey, let me know anything. Species. Kind of be a little bit specific about what you're looking for. But it is going to flow again. Most outfitters aren't going to run 100% of their hunters because, again, mostly it's manpower related. But if you can go last minute, give us a holler. You never know.

Something may come up. And, again, some guys here in the office, I mean, slightly concerned, like, okay, so they're running on half a crew or what they can drum up. You know, a lot of times there's some apprehension about is this their A crew and whatnot. I mean, so it's hard to know. Guys are trying to put on great hunts and whatnot, and they will put on great hunts, but at the same time with not maybe their regular crew. So, anyway, it's a little bit tough dealing with, you know, last minute stuff. They've been shut down for a year and a half. So, anyway, that's about it. It's good. Overall, it's good news. It's just it would have been better news two or three months ago when they have a lot more time to, hey, cut your job off July 15th. I need you from then on for three or four months, but that's not going to happen.

I guess we take what we get, but stuff is going to start flowing again. That's nice.

Let's see. Anything else? I think it's worth mentioning, like, we're talking about COVID. If you're in the market for a new rifle, a new bow, new optics, you've got to plan ahead. A lot of these, there's waiting lists, and, you know, you just don't call and order something like you would. But I think we've done, John, and you said it earlier today, we've done a good job of keeping a lot of stuff that we're selling personally here at Epic Outdoors in stock. Yeah, optics-wise. It took us a couple months last summer, a few months, for us to realize this is not working. We're putting orders in, and we're not getting the product, and we're just getting further down a waiting list of backlogs. So we got real aggressive on stuff, and stuff's now starting to come in big time, and we're getting calls every day, people. Do you have, I know you probably don't have, but do you have these?

We're like, oh, yeah. What? I'll buy one. Yeah. And it's just because we were real aggressive on our quantities when we had to learn by experience. You know, we haven't lived through this. It doesn't matter, like you said, whether it be optics, whether it be guns, whether it be side-by-side. And most places and companies that are, you know, that have the product and it's hard to get product, they're getting full market value. We're still doing the member pricing. It's a steal. Yeah, John, when you have 30 guys that called the guy right after you on your Toyota, you don't have any negotiating power to knock off a couple hundred bucks. You're like paying them full price. Yeah, because I could turn around and sell it for double. Yeah. Did you guys hear that thunder? Crazy. I can't hear the antlers growing, though, Bronson. Why? Because it's too late, Jason. Right. Right? Yeah, they're done.

Elk are done. Now we're not talking about Arizona. Like, central Arizona deer and coos deer down there, I think it's going to be unbelievable. It's going to be unbelievable. I don't know. Some of these storms in Arizona have looked mammoth-sized. It's just the whole state's green, red, and yellow. And it's nice. We haven't had the monsoon. For out west, if you listen to us, what are they talking about? We get our monsoon moisture pump up from Mexico in the summer. That's when we get most of our rain, other than the middle of winter. And we've had nothing the last two winters. So it's been nice. Farmer's Almanac said that we're going to have violent monsoons. And, hey, we got them. Yeah. Maybe we should renew our subscription to that. I don't know. I think he has black market stuff. He's going to Google it. Do you? Yeah, I did. Chris, you might subscribe to that. I don't. Oh, don't you?

But I think they also said it was going to be a big winter. It is. I heard that. This year, too? It is. Oh, yeah. We need to Google that. Okay, let's talk about this real fast. Google it.

It says wife. Let me put her on. What are you doing? I'm driving home. Did you get my picture? No. What is it? Oh, my gosh. You should look. Okay, you're on the podcast. Are you really podcasting? Yes. You're on right now. Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh. Walmart parking lot. The water is over the tires on the vehicles. Whoa. It's unbelievable. Look at that. That's here. Wow. Where did it come from? Oh, my gosh. Look at that. Off the hill? That's three feet of water. Oh. Jason. What? We didn't go. We didn't shop. I was like, I'm not walking through that water. But we came home on the freeway, and there's literally like a 15-foot, three-foot deep river running down the side of the freeway. It's unbelievable. Wow. Look at that picture. You need to post this on the podcast. That's live, Jana. KSL and Salt Lake doesn't get stuff as fast as you. That's the way we review stuff. You're our news source.

We're going to call you from here on out. Everybody call Jana at 435-59. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Jason.

All right. Well, thanks for the update. Hey, put her in four-wheel drive. Put her in four-wheel drive. All right. All right. All right. Bye. That's why you buy your girl a four-wheel drive right there, Chris. That's right. That's right. That's right. Every girl should have a four-wheel drive. Yeah. Two-wheel drive, the water's running through the doors and out the other side. Seriously. It's true. I've never seen that. It's crazy out here. All right. We might have to end this podcast and go save people. Look at that. Oh, yeah. All right. All right. Life-threatening situations. Holy cow. Flash flood warning here until 430. Dangerous life-threatening. Do not attempt to travel unless you're fleeing an area subject to flooding under evacuation order. That's unbelievable. Wow. Everybody should have just got that. That's like an Amber Alert. I got that a few days ago, but nothing happened. Wow.

Well, and it's hard to imagine if you don't live in the West or in a desert of how we go for almost two years with almost no moisture whatsoever. And then all of a sudden. It's unbelievable. You know, we're getting six inches in a day. And it's just, I mean. Yeah. Dude, this is emergency coming over my phone. I'm hooked in. This podcast is temporarily being hijacked by the United States government. Well, I'm looking up this. U.S. Weather Service. Right. Wow. Anyway, so back to what I'm going to give a shout out to one of our sponsors. Back to the theme of not being able to get stuff in stock. Hoyt, we brought them on. They're a great partner of ours. It's obviously a well-established, well-known, well-trusted, well-used brand. And a couple of their new lines of their bows, the Venom and the RX-5 are just spitting, arrow spitting, son of a guns. They're awesome. I love mine.

And Jason, I know, John, you guys both got them. Probably, if you don't have your hands on one now, the bow hunts within a few weeks, you might have your work cut out for you. But if you don't and you're wanting to get upgraded for next year, check everything out at Hoyt.com. Awesome lineup. They never rest on what they've already created. Hoyt have always been known for that. They're great innovators and making good, better, and best. So, anyway, appreciate their product and support of us. They're awesome. We appreciate it. My bow shoots unbelievable. You couldn't wrench it out of my cold, dead hands. All right. So, anyway, I looked up the Farmer's Almanac, and it's the cold and snowy side. Farmer's Almanac, which has been predicting weather using carefully guarded formula for 204 years.

Anyway, it goes on to say, snow will be abundant and possibly above normal amounts for parts of the western Dakotas, portions of Colorado, northern portions of Colorado, and Utah, as well as Wyoming, which is great news for skiers. The dry side, areas across the desert southwest, Arizona, southern California, winter is predicted to be mild but dry. Not good news considering signs that drought and conditions were beginning to ramp up in these regions at the close of winter 2020. Crazy in between the New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana.

Occasional shots of cold, wintry precipitation. So, these folks will have to stay on their toes to keep up with the changing weather. The wild card would be Tennessee, Ohio. So, anyway, being, I don't know. Maybe it won't be in some of this country. I don't know. It's hard to tell, Bronson. Well, all I know is what's happening right now. There's people out there that we, dude, I'm worried about. I have a basement. I'm not sure I'm a fan of basements. Seriously. Not right now. Slab on grade. All right. Well, do we have anything else, guys? I mean, we're talking about tags. We've been out scouting. Things are looking really rough in places. You know, Nevada's still got a few good bucks, but it's not next level. Yeah, and they're getting the rain right now. So, they look terrible. The bucks look terrible. Their country looked the same as it did last year, 365 days ago.

And, fortunately, that's changing. And we hope that it does. But, overall, the hunts are coming quick. We're going to probably try to do a few podcasts here in the next little bit about it gets us amped up to, you know, archery season is going to be coming up here in about two, three weeks here in Nevada. What, the 10th? And then Utah is right after that, the 21st. So, it's coming fast.

Things are coming fast. We've been scouting a lot. Everybody else should be scouting a lot. We did sell. A guy called in and did 40 trail cameras, if you can believe it. So, anyway, and he's from Arizona, which outlawed him starting in 2022. I think he's probably prepping, you know, for the next couple of years to see what's out there on the landscape. So, anyway, everybody hit it hard. We do have all these things in stock. If you need cameras, whatever, let us know. Also want to give a little shout out. Can you believe that, Thunder? That's amazing. To Phonescope. P-H-O-N-E-S-K-O-P-E. For those who don't know how to spell, S-K-O-P-E. I love it. Chesten's awesome. Only he could come up with a name like that. So, anyway, www.phonescope.com. You can video everything you're seeing out in the field. If you didn't video it, it didn't happen. Take pictures. Send them to us.

We want to see the trophies. Jason at epicoutdoors.com. I had a guy say, we ought to charge people $15 to $20 per photo to field judge animals. Really? And I'm thinking if you leave your locations on, I'll happily do it. I might even do a $10 discount for locations. So, anyway, if anybody doesn't know what the locations feature is, turn it off unless you want the world to see your game. All right. What else? Do we need to talk about anything else other than, Bronson, we did give away our hunt for the dull sheep? We do a couple membership drives a year here at Epic Outdoors. One in the winter and one in the summer. And a year ago, we drew a winner for a 2020. So, we drew it in June of 2020 for a dull sheep hunt in 2021, which is a month away from now. Well, that winner. Pretty much August 18th. What's today, Bronson? 19th? July 19th. So, within 30 days. That's right.

We got a very sombering email over the weekend from that winner that has had a medical issue arise to the point that he's tried to work through it. He's going to have surgery on his leg. And is not going to be able to go on that hunt. Or the other two hunts he's got scheduled. Yeah. It's a severe injury. And nothing that can be done. It's not like you can put it off a week. I mean, he's tried to fight through it. He's put it off to almost the bitter end. Finally had to let us know and the outfitter know. Unfortunately, yeah, there's not much we can do. These are not hunts that are transferable. Those are in our official rules. We do draw an alternate. And I believe this may have been the first time we've ever had to turn to an alternate. First time. And we seal it up. We seal it up. Put it in the epic safe, which is amazing safe. And we went and dug it out today. And cut the seal.

It has a signed seal on it. And we cut the seal. And we picked up whoever that alternate was going to be. And we're going to give him a call. We're going to give him a call and let him know that 29 days from now. We're adding another hunt to his schedule. 29 days from now. He's got to go in Alaska. All right. So let's give him a call.

Hello? Is it raining where you're at?

Not raining in Cleveland. No, huh? Sounds like you're trying to work. Or are you just watching people work? No, I'm working. I've got a broken hand. You've got a broken hand? Oh, I've got a ligament changed in my wrist. Oh. I'm overused. So I've been having a cast on for two months. But it gets off Wednesday, thank goodness. Wow. So, Ty, it's Jason Carter, Adam Bronson, of course, John Peterson. And you're never going to guess why we're calling today.

I want a million bucks. We don't do that kind of drive. Did you ever apply for a million dollars?

Yeah. Well, we had an interesting email over the weekend. We had a hunt winner from a year ago, June of 2020, email us. And he's kind of like you, but he has a major leg injury. He's apt to have surgery on it. And he's out not only for this hunt that he won from us, but a couple of others. Okay. And, you know, it's a terrible email to get. And he finally, you know, put it off to somewhat the bitter end and told us about it. And like we always do, we always draw alternates from our hunts. And we put them in an envelope and we seal them. We don't even look at them as a crew. We never tell anybody. We never, it's just a sealed envelope. And they get locked in our safe. Well, today for the first time ever, we had to go pull out a envelope from the June 2020 membership drive. And see who the alternate was for a specific hunt.

So as you can guess, you were that alternate, but I haven't told you what hunt it is. It might be a peri dog hunt. I don't know. In the rut. Yeah. I haven't told you, but you were the winner of that, of the alternate. Holy cow. You're that. So crazy. So you won a 2021 Alaska doll sheep hunt with Jonah. Jonah's Alaska outfitters. August 18th. I'm not sure what you're doing August 18th. You've got to be there in 28 days. Seems like you've got a deer touch. Probably ought to be archery hunting deer. I just won a doll sheep hunt. You'll figure it out.

Yeah. I'll definitely make time for that. Oh, yeah. Well, it's been fully paid for. And Jonah's ready to take whoever the alternate was. And we had conversations. I called him on Saturday. And he had received the same email from the original hunter. And I just said, we will follow our official rules. We'll go to our alternate. And we'll call. I have no idea who it is. And we didn't tell this morning. And you're it. So I'll share with you his information. And I know it's going to be a world. It sounds like get that wrist strong and trigger finger working again or something. I don't know. Save a few bucks for an airline ticket and a tip. So that's all you're going to have to do. So anyway, congrats, man. Yeah, that's awesome, man. I appreciate it. Brookrange and Jonah Stewart. He's awesome. He's shuffling planes up there now and getting ready to start scouting. He was busy over the weekend.

So congrats. Yeah, I actually met him one time. So yeah, that's awesome. Did you? Down at one of the shows? Yeah, he's a good dude. Hard hunter. No, I met him down in Colorado. Oh, yeah. He's very aggressive. Yeah, he kills big deer in Colorado. Yeah, that's right. He's a good hunter. Well, I guess I can actually win something from you. There you go. What kind of comment's that? What kind of comment's that? Why don't you say thanks?

You had a year delay. It was a year late, but we finally called you.

Awesome, man. We'll send you the details. We'll send you the details right now. You're going to want to call him today, and I'll send probably an email to you, an email to him together, and you just start making plans, okay? All right. I appreciate it. All right, buddy. All right. Congratulations. Yeah. All right. Okay, bye. All right. Well, no worries. He's going to go. He's fired up. And he's in business for himself. Yeah, he's a cabinet shop or whatever. And he's in, knowing him, he's in good enough shape. I was glad he didn't say he was in a boot or something. Yeah, a wrist. We worked with him in our prior life. We've known him, and he's a very aggressive hunter. He's in a tights. He plays a lot of draws. He does. You know, I guess. And so we've just, yeah, he's basically been a client for 15 or 20 years. So anyway, congratulations to Ty Jensen.

By the way, everybody, it's never over until the hunts occur. Until the hunts occur. This is the first time in, I don't know, five years we've been doing these? I don't know, roughly. We don't screw around. We keep everything in very, very organized files and safes here at Epic Outdoors. All right. So he's a lucky sucker. He's lucky. Yeah. There's nobody luckier than Ty. But he's ready, and he's fortunately a guy that stays in pretty good shape, and he's ready to go. He's been on sheep punts before. So overall, he'll be ready to go. Let's do a giveaway. Do we want to give something else away? What do we have to give away? Chris, John? Don't we have a pack wheel? Yeah, we've got a pack wheel to give away. Nice one, too. Motorized, electric. I've had guys hitting me up from Wyoming up there in region GH country wanting to, the use of a pack wheel. Pack stuff in.

You're a long ways into some of that country. We've had guys using them on the trails that they're legal on, and they don't even use a, they take a second battery, but don't even need it. Chris, you've probably used ours the most as you've gone out and getting some of the photo shoots. What do you, what do you find? What are you impressed by? They're super impressive. When you look at them, you're thinking, oh, I don't know, I don't know if that'll work. It's a unicycle. Yeah, it's a unicycle, and it's never going to go up anything steep. Well, I took that one out, and I was hitting banks that were vertical, and it would go right up them. It's unbelievable. And it's surprising how well they balance. Once you get them packed down, they are a little. Not teetery and like fighting it all the time. Once you have them packed down, they're maybe a little bit tougher, but still like a thousand

times easier than packing something. It makes it so you could literally throw your entire deer on it and pack out by yourself. And your camp. It's just amazing. So let's give one of these suckers away. For anybody that wants to check them out, just to see what we are giving away, go to packwheel.com, P-A-C-K-W-H-E-E-L.com, and you can call them, 801-935-4764. You can email them, info at packwheel.com. Chris, how are we going to give it away? So there will be a post on our Instagram about the packwheel giveaway. It will be a photo of a packwheel in use. This will be on our epic underscore hunts Instagram. And so to enter, you're going to make sure you're following the epic underscore hunts page as well as the packwheel page. And then you're going to go on that post with the packwheel. And what are we going to have them comment? Epic will. You've got to make it easy. Okay, that's epic.

E-P-I-C-P-A-C-K-W-H-E-E-L. Epic packwheel. I like it. Combine them. It's a hybrid. We like hybrids. That'll get you entered to win. Except for deer. We don't win. And then we're going to give it five days. Straight genetics. Five? Five days from the post. Yeah. And that will be listed on the post when the deadline is exactly. Let's call it a day, fellas. We need to get out there and scout some more. Everybody, we're closed on Fridays because we've been out scouting. We're hitting it really hard. I hope you are too. Keep that in mind. Yeah, once in a while somebody's here. But it's just a summer schedule. A lot of our ladies that work here as well have families, kids out of school. Takes a little bit of weekend, day to the weekend for everybody. And we're busy scouting, like I said. If you need products, hit us Monday through Thursday. Somebody will be here to help you out.

Sometimes, Bronson, we're known to go in the middle of the week, too. I don't know. Who knows? Well, even if we do, somebody's here. We don't all leave. We don't all leave. If you take a day off, I do here. That's right. That's right. Josh or John or Chris or something. Somebody will be here Monday through Thursday. Thursday. Monday through Thursday. All right, everybody. Okay. Find a giant. Find a giant.

What are you doing?