Dry Side Dispatch • August 28th • Rhett Overman

[00:00:01] Speaker A: Hello, everyone. Welcome back to Dry side Dispatch, brought to you by HSI Water. We're here today with Rhett Oberman with Final Descent Guide Service. Rhett, you've been in the guy in the guiding game for a while. You were one of the, one of the O.G. oh, geez. [00:00:19] Speaker B: I guess still is O.G. [00:00:21] Speaker A: still is an O.G. he's one of the best. But Rhett, tell everybody a little bit about how you got, how you got Final Descent started and you kind of give a biography on that. [00:00:30] Speaker C: Sure. Just like anybody. I mean, you take a passion of what you're doing and, you know, you have an opportunity to. You think you're good at it and then you go and you start a business and learn. You're not. But, you know, you learn from your failure. And we were just fortunate enough to grow this thing and I was working in the ag industry and. And so was around a lot of growers out here and got to. To make some unique relationships. [00:00:58] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:00:58] Speaker C: You know that. So we, we figured out, well, we could, we could work with these guys and get some land. [00:01:05] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:01:05] Speaker C: But we need to find some people that actually know how to be a guide. [00:01:08] Speaker B: Right. [00:01:09] Speaker C: So that's, yeah. Kind of the, you know, the premise of do what you're good at, let others do what they're good at. [00:01:16] Speaker B: Right. [00:01:17] Speaker C: We've got what we think is an excellent group of guys. [00:01:19] Speaker B: It doesn't bother you not getting up at 4 o' clock and sitting sandhill? You still do it or yet? Well, you know, the hard part is rounding up the land. [00:01:26] Speaker A: That's the hard part. [00:01:27] Speaker C: Watching birds. [00:01:28] Speaker B: Yeah, doing that and keeping the people that you're hunting on happy, you know. [00:01:33] Speaker C: Absolutely. [00:01:33] Speaker B: I mean, that's constant. That's why I think just from a, you know, from me looking outside in and being a landowner in Terry county, where you're main at, you know, I mean, like, you know, just your reputation in the county as far as being honest and paying growers or, you know, people landowners and stuff. It's, it's, it's, you know, I mean, it's, it's high caliber. And so that trust, you know, it takes a while to build up and once you get it. [00:01:56] Speaker C: That's right. Yep. Doing what you say you're gonna do. And ultimately, you know, I'm glad you bring that up. Kind of what, what are. If you, if there was a mission statement in the early days was do whatever we can to help these growers be successful. [00:02:12] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:02:13] Speaker C: And if we do that correctly or supplement income, then surely we can't Fail. Right. You know, so whatever that is, go help. [00:02:20] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:02:21] Speaker C: You know, and now we're. We're blessed enough that we've got pretty good volume, around 2200 guns in those 90 days of waterfowl. [00:02:29] Speaker B: Wow. [00:02:30] Speaker C: So it means something. [00:02:31] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:02:32] Speaker C: These guys, they can actually. [00:02:33] Speaker B: Well, I interrupted you. But just so you. Let's go back to when you. You were working in the ag industry. You got out and did. Then you started up your business and got some guides. But. But you. How did you, like, what was the deal? Like, hey, I can get out of what I'm doing and I can make a living doing this. Were you doing it on the side to start with a little bit and supplementing your income and then you like, hey, I can. I can. This can be full time. [00:02:57] Speaker C: Sure. And I've got some partners in the. In the company, but it. It grew quickly enough that all of us had day jobs and this. And. And one of us had to get out and focus. [00:03:10] Speaker B: Right, right. [00:03:12] Speaker C: And the other two. One of them had just started a, you know, commercial plumbing and H vac business and. [00:03:18] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:03:19] Speaker C: Another one in the oil field. So it made sense y. That I could come over and. [00:03:23] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:03:25] Speaker C: So that was really five years ago for me. [00:03:27] Speaker B: So I've been just five. Wow. [00:03:30] Speaker C: This will be season 11 or 12. [00:03:32] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:03:34] Speaker C: Parts of it seems like yesterday. [00:03:36] Speaker B: That's crazy, man. You have really. I mean, you have been on like an upward trajectory, like super fast, because I know. Haven't they even have people come out and do, like, some taping and stuff with you guys for YouTube and stuff and. [00:03:48] Speaker C: Which isn't all. What it's made up. [00:03:49] Speaker B: I know, I know. Yeah. Yeah. [00:03:57] Speaker A: Well, that's the thing about it. When you tell me they always say, don't meet your heroes, you know, and there's like, man, there's some guys that are really cool that I just think I want to enjoy them on, you know, on YouTube. [00:04:07] Speaker C: Oh, yeah. [00:04:08] Speaker A: On the radio. [00:04:09] Speaker C: There's some of them that's done some excellent videos. And yeah, at the time, maybe it was a little annoying, but it's. [00:04:15] Speaker B: Yes. [00:04:15] Speaker C: And of course, having young kids at home, they like to watch them. [00:04:18] Speaker B: Right, right. [00:04:19] Speaker C: So do y'. All. [00:04:21] Speaker B: Do y' all do. So like to get your name. I mean, obviously you said you had 22. I make 100 guns last year. [00:04:28] Speaker C: Yeah, between 2000, 20, 400. [00:04:30] Speaker B: Do you go to, like, safari club stuff or anything like that or any kind of boo stuff or shot shows? [00:04:37] Speaker C: 99 of ours is word of mouth, little bit of social media, and we're we're blessed with. [00:04:43] Speaker B: That is amazing. [00:04:45] Speaker C: I mean retention. These guys. [00:04:48] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:04:48] Speaker C: Now book when they leave. [00:04:50] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:04:51] Speaker C: And so when we do open counter, I think we've had 93 plus retention every year, so. [00:04:57] Speaker A: Oh, wow. [00:04:58] Speaker C: There's only 7% of that 2200 available. [00:05:00] Speaker B: And dang. And so the waterfowl that you're mainly after, the birds. I guess you have Canadian geese and sandhill crane. Or is that pretty much the focus of the. [00:05:11] Speaker C: Of it. [00:05:11] Speaker B: Or do you do. [00:05:12] Speaker C: Or do you docks. We love to. [00:05:15] Speaker B: I know, I know. That's what I was saying. Ducks like I saw last night, there's a bunch of them that are moving. Move last night. I can't remember how many of them they said move last night, but yeah, we just don't have enough. [00:05:23] Speaker A: I drove past the tank on 168 and I was like, hey, those are ducks out there. Like, it's got. They got cattle water and a cattle in it. Built a sock tank out there and you can see it. And like, man, you know, of course, most of the ducks I've ever seen in my life been at the, you know, at the ponds in town. [00:05:40] Speaker B: They've been tame. Yeah. [00:05:43] Speaker C: But also duff, so. [00:05:46] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. Next week. [00:05:48] Speaker A: Yeah, Tuesday. [00:05:49] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:05:51] Speaker C: We've been scrambling, running wide open right now, making sure that we've got. [00:05:54] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:05:55] Speaker C: Good fields. [00:05:55] Speaker B: Do you do most of it off the cap rock or are you doing a lot of. There's some Milo fields out this year. John Mark's got some right down from me. [00:06:02] Speaker C: And it. That's funny you say that. We just talked about it. [00:06:05] Speaker B: Okay. [00:06:06] Speaker A: Yeah, there's birds there. [00:06:09] Speaker B: That's my farm right across the road. [00:06:10] Speaker A: Starting to see them stack up on the Highland. Of course, I go up and down. I live in Lombok Farm in Brownfield, so I go up and down. 168 all the time. And I just noticed this morning how many of them were stacked up on. Of course, the Parks and Wildlife, I think last week just released their. Their spring counts and it's the. We got that. See what is there? 36.7 million. [00:06:32] Speaker B: It's a lot Warning Dove. [00:06:35] Speaker A: It's the second highest number. 37.5 million was the highest number. That was in 2016. But it's the highest number. There's 13. 12.9 million. White Wing Dove, which is the highest number ever they've ever recorded in Texas. [00:06:48] Speaker C: And it rained in South Texas this year, so a lot of them are hung up down there. [00:06:51] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. You know, we. We didn't start dusty And I've been hunting right over there by whit place. We were just talking about where the milo field was since we were. Well, since I've hunted it for 50 years, at least. We never saw a white wing until, like, six, seven years ago. And then every once in a while, you got to be careful because you're shooting. You'll pick it up because you can only have two. Is that right? [00:07:12] Speaker A: No, not anymore. Okay. [00:07:14] Speaker C: All right. Yeah, they're fun, too. I mean, it's. This year. We're not seeing them up here yet. You'll see pockets of them. [00:07:21] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:07:21] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:07:21] Speaker C: You know, a couple hundred, but not your typical 5, 10,000 feeds. And. Yeah, we're anxiously waiting on that. Yeah, but we'll go back old school and shoot morning dove. Like we. [00:07:33] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, absolutely. Yeah. [00:07:35] Speaker B: So you had. So we're in a unique area where you have, like, the cap rock where we. Where we are, which is just a flat part, and then you have off the cap rock, which you have. Well, a lot of those ponds are dry, though, I guess. But do you hunt both places, or. [00:07:48] Speaker C: We really very seldom shoot water. Yeah, Just with the volume, we'll have around 1200 guns in September, and oftentimes, there'll be 100 or more in a day. And, yeah, if you've got 100 people coming in in West Texas at September 1st, it's going to rain sometime. [00:08:07] Speaker B: 100% is going to. [00:08:10] Speaker C: You better be good at telling jokes. [00:08:12] Speaker B: Yeah, that's right. [00:08:13] Speaker C: So we focus grain. Two years ago, I think it was two years. It was, like, 63 degrees and raining. [00:08:20] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:08:21] Speaker C: And we shot them in the rain. [00:08:22] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:08:23] Speaker C: Because they got to eat. [00:08:24] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:08:25] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:08:25] Speaker C: So we focus on feeds. And every once, you know, down that brown field at our place. That little water hole. [00:08:33] Speaker B: Yes. [00:08:33] Speaker C: Great. [00:08:34] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:08:35] Speaker C: Kind of takes you back to your childhood. [00:08:36] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:08:37] Speaker C: Water hole. But, yeah, this year's unique. It's so hot, it's. You can look at a milo field that just got cut and have five or 10 birds and then drive by a cotton field that's got wheat stubble from last year in the middles, and it'd be loaded. [00:08:52] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. [00:08:53] Speaker C: And, you know, if you can change your way of thinking, that partially decomposed wheat seed that's been sitting out there all year Is probably easier to digest. [00:09:02] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:09:03] Speaker A: I mean. [00:09:03] Speaker C: And so they're choosing that. [00:09:05] Speaker B: Yeah, they love. They love wheat. You can go drill wheat, you know, and you catch them. You know, for our end, we drill it for erosion control on the edges and stuff like that, and we bury it Two inches deep, but they still go. [00:09:19] Speaker C: You know, we were talking on the phone the other day, and you know what growers can do to make their place more appealing for themselves and kids, for birds, or, you know, for supplemental income. And the cheapest and probably most effective way is. Is to start thinking about your dove right now and. And leave your wheat. [00:09:40] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:09:41] Speaker C: Corners or even 40, 50 acres close to town. [00:09:44] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:09:44] Speaker C: Can produce a lot of birds and a lot of volume. You can make, you know, four or five thousand bucks on 40 acres. [00:09:54] Speaker B: Yeah. That's very possible. Yeah. [00:09:56] Speaker A: On a second. Basically a secondary crop. [00:09:58] Speaker C: Well, and you're not having to sit there. You know, we've got 10 acres of drip at the barn that we would farm. Milo. Or sunflowers. [00:10:04] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:10:05] Speaker C: And you sit there and pump all that money in it and pump it all summer and. [00:10:09] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:10:09] Speaker C: And it's just as good as putting wheat in there and letting it go. [00:10:12] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. [00:10:13] Speaker A: That's the thing, you know, you get a lot of different. I mean, you can apply benefits from that too. I mean, this. Just letting your fat land rest for a year is a big deal, but. And then, you know, with as narrow as our water is right now, that's. I mean, that's not a bad. A lot of people are letting it fallow, but they're clean fallowing it. You know, they're. They're clean tilling it instead of. You know, I always. I've said this for the last couple years that, you know, the. The more I look into, you know, my big thing is, is quail. I love Bob White quail. And that's, you know, what I kind of grew up hunting on. [00:10:40] Speaker B: And there it is. This first mentioned a quail. [00:10:42] Speaker A: That's right. We're gonna do. We're gonna do a shot game now. I'll tell you. I'll have you know I didn't mention quail once when I was. Thought we were talking, but I wasn't here. [00:10:52] Speaker B: I was gone the last two weeks. [00:10:53] Speaker A: Well, that's not my fault. That's not my fault. [00:10:55] Speaker B: You know, I was catching crab this time. And I don't mean the kind you get at college. We were catching crabs up by Canada with the buddy of mine last week. Cleaned it up, man. [00:11:07] Speaker C: Awesome. [00:11:08] Speaker B: It's so different than here. We'll talk about that later. We'll get. [00:11:11] Speaker A: We'll get the coffee shop. Will circle back to that here in a second. But what I was getting at was, you know, farming dirty has gotten to be. It's. It's a bad word. You Know everybody. And it's for legitimate reasons. You know? Everybody. Everybody. You can complain about whatever you want to GMOs or anything like that, but the fact of the matter is that if the farmer's renting the land and he doesn't keep it clean and the landowner goes past it, and the landowner made me a guy that lives on a golf course and has never said, never touched on the farm, and he's like, well, that just looks terrible, you know, Then wham. That guy gets to lose the place, you know, and that lands, you know, it's. It's got. It's pretty. It's still a pretty competitive market in it. In maintaining your land, but, you know, just having a quarter sec. A quarter that you, you know, planted some fat. Some weed on, left it. Left it fallow, you know, and then just. Just leave it. [00:12:00] Speaker C: Sure. Or, I mean, your. Your furrows, like where you're punching cotton into a wheat. [00:12:05] Speaker A: Yep. [00:12:05] Speaker C: Yeah, you can. I know that you really don't want it to go to a head and you're losing a lot of moisture and this and that, but a dove getting in an irrigated cotton crop, you know that. That's an 82 degree canopy. Yeah. It's an air conditioner and a buffet. [00:12:19] Speaker B: Yeah. They love. We turn the water on in the vineyard where it drips in little nasty. Put, you know, little brown puddles of water, and they. They'll be all. The problem is you got to climb over, you know, or go under. Yeah. You gotta go shut that thing four rows over. But I'm not sure, you know. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. [00:12:37] Speaker A: Yeah, that's what I was like. I was talking to a buddy of mine. He's like, where you gonna be hunting Tuesday? And I thought, well, I will in the morning, because I'll be out there anyway checking water. And when I take the walk that I take my dog on, I'll probably have my shotgun, which means I'll probably get a limit before I make the half mile round around where I get. Just because there's so many dove that. Because they nest in the. In the vineyards that will raise, you know, multiple crops of dove. [00:13:01] Speaker B: They're gone by the time we harvest it, though. [00:13:04] Speaker A: Well, there was one time that we actually were harvesting and the guy running the harvester, actually, I think it was Andy, stopped the harvester, got down carefully, moved a dove nest to the row I'd already harvested and then went through it and then went back and moved it back, moved it back where it [00:13:18] Speaker C: was, saved the dove yeah, we appreciate you doing that. [00:13:22] Speaker B: Hey, man, I love that animals just as much as anybody else, man. [00:13:25] Speaker A: But that, you know, that. That concept of, you know. And it wasn't that we. That farmers back in the 50s and 60s farmed ugly because or dirty because they wanted to. They formed it because that was what technology allowed. [00:13:37] Speaker C: That's right. [00:13:38] Speaker A: And you know, so you have. You had more fence rows, you had wind breaks. You had things like that that were. [00:13:42] Speaker B: Well, and it was also mandatory set aside mandatory rotation, which, you know, was great. I mean, you had a plant, you know, a third of it or whatever, 25% of it. And Milo or, you know, that's. We talk a lot about. We wish that people could make more money off of. Of milo or grain sorghum, whatever. I'm gonna get in trouble if I call it Milo grain sorghum just because of the benefits it does for the wildlife. I mean, man, it's. [00:14:08] Speaker A: It's grateful when. [00:14:10] Speaker C: When they're hard on it too, though. [00:14:12] Speaker B: Yeah, they are. Oh, that. But yeah, they're very hard on it. Especially. I don't know if there's. Over there. There's this guy over north. It'd be northwest of the Friendship football field about two years ago where the farmer's market is. [00:14:26] Speaker C: I know he planted. [00:14:27] Speaker B: Somebody planted some milo on that thing and they tore it up. [00:14:31] Speaker C: We're trying to help him. You did. [00:14:33] Speaker B: Wait, there's highlights that run right across the middle of it. [00:14:37] Speaker C: Landlords over there didn't want any hunting, but we tried. Yeah, we've got a lodge right close to that too. [00:14:42] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:14:42] Speaker A: I'm telling you what there's. That's like a. You talk about something that'll let you. The two things it'll attract dove is a grain sorghum and a highline. Highline rod right through the middle of it. [00:14:52] Speaker C: We joke about we need to put some fake ones up, you know? [00:14:55] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [00:14:56] Speaker C: There's people that do it in the Southeast. [00:14:58] Speaker A: They do. [00:14:58] Speaker B: Oh, really? [00:14:59] Speaker A: Every year. Yeah, that's what I was fixing to say. I watched a YouTube video last year, and this guy, I'm like going, what the heck's he doing, Jennifer? He's putting up a fake high and dang, if it didn't work, he had him coming in. [00:15:11] Speaker B: Well, we. We shot enough in our little draw that my. My son was shooting at one that was passing across it. And that. That wire that runs that Well's got like 10 wires in it. Well, he hit the neck to the last one and it had one wire holding that thing. I Mean we've just shot, you know, they don't, we don't shoot them off the lines. But that goes across it. It just can't help it. You're gonna hit them and because, you know, I've seen people try to do it and they miss every time. That's what you get. [00:15:45] Speaker A: That's what exactly. But it's, you know, when, you know, dove are an animal, are a bird that, that they need free water. And so when you have a dry year like this, they concentrate around pivots and things like that and then they'll forage for food. But you know, that's what we always, you know, I used to always say that, you know, doesn't matter how dry the year is if you just wait till September 1st. And that's what he was talking about earlier about them scattering because you get, you get them concentrated on water and you get rainfall and every puddle is now a dove pond. [00:16:13] Speaker C: That's right. [00:16:14] Speaker B: And they'd much rather drink that nasty brown water with tadpoles and stuff in it than they would a nice clear tank. They don't, they love that natural stuff. [00:16:23] Speaker A: It is weird. They're, they're the most bizarre animal that, I mean that I guess bird that I've seen, you know, as far as what they can do and I don't know what it is that has contributed to the increase in their population. But if you look at like in town, the number of dove that you see in town, of course you've got your Asian collared dove, there's now at least four, maybe five. There's at least four species of them that I know of. There's what's the fourth Inca dove. [00:16:49] Speaker B: Okay. [00:16:50] Speaker A: Little bitty tiny things. [00:16:51] Speaker C: Some people call them Mexican dove. [00:16:53] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:16:53] Speaker B: Okay. [00:16:53] Speaker C: You see them a lot down south? [00:16:54] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. You don't see them. [00:16:56] Speaker B: I would just call them babies. I thought they were just young. Yeah. I'll be danged. [00:17:02] Speaker A: There are some babies learn something new every day. They nest throughout the year. So there's all ages of them in a season. But yeah, the Inca does. But you've got your Asian collared dove that you know that they're pretty aggressive but they're feral. [00:17:15] Speaker B: Right. You can shoot all you want. [00:17:17] Speaker A: They're, they're whatever you. [00:17:18] Speaker B: Feral but non native. [00:17:20] Speaker A: I guess they're. What the heck do you call that? I'm trying to blank on it, but anyway. But they're, they came over invasive. Yeah. [00:17:28] Speaker B: There's not a limit on them. [00:17:29] Speaker A: I don't think there's no season, no no limit. They don't count towards your bag limit. But one thing, that's your nickname. [00:17:34] Speaker C: Bonus bird. [00:17:37] Speaker B: There's like a cross between a pigeon and a dove kinda. [00:17:39] Speaker A: I mean it seems like the closer you get to civilization or to town, the more you have white. The more white wings there are. And the further you get out, the more mourning dove you are. It's the roost, is it the roost? [00:17:52] Speaker C: Big neighborhood trees. [00:17:54] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:17:54] Speaker C: And that's the ticket. The closer you are to a big town or a lot of trees, the better chance you have a big white wing feed. [00:18:02] Speaker B: Yeah, that makes. Yeah, that makes around brownfield. Good because it's not a big town but it's got a lot of trees in it and then lots of places to shoot and mostly agreeable people. You know, you can get out, you know, quarter section pretty quick where you don't have to worry about landlords or somebody that owns. Well, you. There's always somebody messing you up. I think that I take that back. There's always some party pooper that'll go. And the bad thing too is that the game warden lives in town. And so like the closer he just, he just, I think he just steps up out the morning and hears the shot. First shot he hears, that's where he [00:18:38] Speaker C: goes or text you. Where you going to be today? [00:18:40] Speaker B: Oh yeah, we started doing that. We started preemptively just telling him we're, hey, we're here at the office, you know, a mile or half a mile south of town. [00:18:49] Speaker C: Ultimately they're protecting the resource that's making us a living. So yeah, we try to work real close with them. Yeah, there's excellent warden's all out here. [00:18:57] Speaker A: But it's wild how this, this country's changed though. Because I mean I, you know, I remember hunting dove every year, you know, and hunting them over, you know, depending on whether we had milo or whether it rained and we had a ply laker and was kind of dry and stuff like that. I mean, you know, I remember that, but I don't ever remember the numbers of dove that I'm seeing now that we're seeing now. You know, this Parks and wildlife numbers support that. I don't know what's driven the increase in the dove population, but holy cow. [00:19:25] Speaker C: Yeah, it. You're, I mean you're right back 10, 12 years ago you could shoot two white wings. [00:19:33] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:19:33] Speaker C: You know, and when you were guiding back then, you really kind of had to be on your game, right. To help them understand. Hey, you know, collared dove, right? [00:19:43] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:19:45] Speaker C: So that's hats off to Texas Parks and Wildlife. [00:19:48] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:19:48] Speaker C: For the conservation efforts. [00:19:50] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:19:50] Speaker C: Because it really is a game changer. [00:19:52] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:19:53] Speaker A: This is also the first year ever that the dove season opens on the same date from one into Texas to the other. [00:19:59] Speaker C: That's correct. [00:20:00] Speaker A: It is it. We've always had at least two zones, if not three zones. [00:20:04] Speaker B: Yes. Because. [00:20:04] Speaker A: Different start. [00:20:05] Speaker B: Yeah. Because in the 80s I went to school in south Texas around Uvalde and there was two seasons and they were all white wings down there. [00:20:11] Speaker A: Well. And those boys are in for a [00:20:13] Speaker C: great year and they're due. Yeah, it's been bad down there for. Yeah. [00:20:18] Speaker B: Well, they got what, 10, 12 inches or something in a day. I think my brother in law that lives in Fredericksburg said they had three inches. The next day had they had 10 inches. It then, then it's been two months. They hadn't had much but I mean it filled the ponds up. [00:20:31] Speaker A: It's. That's, that's one thing that I wish, I kind of wish we'd have is another a big rain. I mean I, I want dove season to go exhibit, you know, go on like gangbusters. But I sure would like to have rain. [00:20:41] Speaker C: What was it, 11 maybe? [00:20:43] Speaker B: Yes. [00:20:44] Speaker C: It was raiding like nine inches. [00:20:46] Speaker B: Yeah, we're right there. Yeah. [00:20:49] Speaker C: Almost in like 24 hours. [00:20:51] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:20:52] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:20:52] Speaker C: That was some awesome duck hunting. [00:20:54] Speaker B: Yeah, I bet it was. Yeah. [00:20:56] Speaker A: That's one of, that's one of the weird things is that I've hunted just about everything that you can hunt in the state close to. I mean that's, that's native. Okay, I'll preface that because you've been hunting warthogs. Yeah, like 8, 000 different, you know, non native species that I have not hunted. [00:21:13] Speaker B: No, I know I joke but monkeys. [00:21:16] Speaker A: Yeah, no kidding. But migrat like waterfowl. That geese I hunted for the first time this last year. Never hunted geese before. I grew up in sandhill crane hunt country and I will just say that there were people that the only shot they ever took at sandhill cranes growing up was with the 243. Don't know who that would be. No, never shot anything. He was a bad shot. [00:21:43] Speaker B: But I'm sitting right here. [00:21:48] Speaker A: Oh, that's, that's, that's great. He thought he was. I was talking about him. But anyway, that's, you know, where we grew up doing that. Nobody hunted sandal cranes. [00:21:55] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:21:56] Speaker A: Surely the statute of limitations is run off on a missed shot. But you know, I remember, you know, when peanuts first came in the sandal cranes really went bonkers in. In this part of the state. It seemed like the numbers were down this last year. [00:22:11] Speaker B: What do you think what happened? [00:22:13] Speaker C: Rich Lake and Mountain Lake were dry. So we had birds come in early. Terry county specifically. Yeah, birds came in early. It was hot. People were trying to get some wheat in, take advantage of that. And running like crazy. [00:22:28] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:22:28] Speaker C: To get it watered up. And if there's pivots running in early [00:22:33] Speaker B: November, it'll dry it dry. It goes dry. [00:22:36] Speaker C: So they left those birds left. Hung up in Dawson county for a little bit. Ended up being around like not Stanton Big Springs. [00:22:46] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:22:46] Speaker C: And there was a really, really big, nice population of birds because it's our early birds. [00:22:51] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:22:51] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:22:52] Speaker C: A big feed in Terry county last year for us. Maybe 200 birds, man. And that was brutal. Because that, you know, we're. We're down there. We've got lodges down there. [00:23:04] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. You've invested a lot of money in Terry County. [00:23:06] Speaker C: So you just travel more. [00:23:07] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:23:08] Speaker C: Your fuel bill costs a lot. [00:23:10] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. [00:23:12] Speaker C: Last year was rough. The. The last day of season for San Hill cranes is when that cold front came that you were talking about that got you in January. [00:23:19] Speaker A: Yep. [00:23:20] Speaker C: And then we were covered up in birds. We finally got a push. [00:23:24] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:23:24] Speaker C: Everybody quit watering. Legs came back up. [00:23:27] Speaker B: So talk about that for people that don't know about sandhill cranes and why they like areas like around. Describe Rich Lake and Mount Lake. What they. Because a lot of people, if you drive by, you don't even know they're there. [00:23:37] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:23:37] Speaker C: They're. They're big salt lakes that aren't very deep. [00:23:39] Speaker B: And they use that. Why do they. Why do cranes like that? It's protection for predators on the roost. Okay. [00:23:46] Speaker C: You know, coyotes not gonna swim out there. Go freezing cold water. Yeah. [00:23:49] Speaker B: Right. [00:23:50] Speaker C: They don't drink it. So that's another thing. When you and I were talking about what can these growers do. [00:23:55] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:23:56] Speaker C: To create opportunities and they have to [00:23:59] Speaker B: have fresh water and they will not go to town. Like a goose. Like a goose will. Like they will not go to town. [00:24:06] Speaker C: So sometimes sheet water, like where you turn a well on for a couple a day or two. [00:24:11] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:24:11] Speaker C: Just on a little. [00:24:12] Speaker B: Yeah. You push a little puddle or whatever. [00:24:15] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:24:16] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:24:17] Speaker C: They've got to come get it. [00:24:19] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:24:19] Speaker C: And then keeping that fresh water open during a big freeze is almost guaranteed that they're gonna find it and come get it. So that's a. A pretty. That's an inexpensive way. [00:24:29] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:24:30] Speaker A: That's a cheap way to do it. [00:24:31] Speaker C: And if you, you know, if you do it and you like it, then go ahead and push your little pond there. [00:24:36] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:24:37] Speaker C: Pivot head or something corner. And I mean you can grow habitat in there. So you can go put some Japanese millet and stuff in there that. Yeah, if it ever did rain and flood it, it'll still grow. [00:24:46] Speaker A: Right. Well, if you water every, every low spot around here is going to have Pennsylvania smartweed. And they love ducks. Really? Yeah, but that's that. You know, we had. We've working with the or we have had Tavin Dotson from Ducks Unlimited on here and he's doing some work on ply restoration in particular. Specifically. The Granny's working with is for Terry and Gaines county. And the playas in Terry and Gaines are different than the ones up north. You know, very much you had the [00:25:19] Speaker B: ones up north, the whole seemed like they have get water and they'll stay. It'll be watering them a lot. But you know, those guys used to row water and that would. They'd have tailwater pits up north and they have this more. They have more water than we do. [00:25:31] Speaker A: And a lot of ours have, you know, we farmed them so much that we've still. They've silted in and so nothing works. The whole ecosystem doesn't work like it used to. And. But they're going in and cleaning out the silt and I'm getting it back to the clay, the original clay that was in it and then doing some planting around it and stuff. We were looking at one of his that they'd worked on and it was the one I'd seen that was still holding water. It was holding water as of Monday and But the sheer volume of Pennsylvania smartweed in that, he's like, I didn't plant any. And he said when I was here last year, I didn't. Didn't see any. But they got it. They got it fixed. They got it holding water and the birds brought that seed in with them and loves a playlite. [00:26:12] Speaker B: Well, you know, the fear mongers on YouTube and Twitter, you know, it was. We had the strongest el Nino in 186 years. And now they're saying it's the strongest one in 2000 years. I don't know who they talked to to say it was strong in 2000 years ago. [00:26:26] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:26:27] Speaker B: But you know, I don't know man. It maybe that's what it takes for us to get a rain here. I don't they're calling for us to be wet. But I believe it when I see it. [00:26:35] Speaker A: Well, I don't know. I know everybody that's listening to this thing is having me say this at least one time, that with El Nino, it's drier than normal, and with La Nina it's a drought. So. So I'm like, the first time they get it right, the next time they get it right will be the first time they get it right. But, yeah, I'm, I'll have, you know, watching everything and looking at everything I can to just try to see, you know, I'm hoping, I'm hoping against hope that they're right, because everything I'm seeing is showing us to be of above average rainfall and below average temperatures, which would be fantastic for everything. I've got, you know, the grapes and would be great for them. It would be great for everything. The only thing that one that I wonder about that stuff they're calling for the, the north, like in that. The. Just south of the Canadian border in the, in the north, the southern part of Canada, northern part of the US to be warmer than normal. And I wonder if that's. If the birds are going to get pushed down, if it's. If the. [00:27:31] Speaker B: Will they cross the rock? Do they cross the Rockies? [00:27:35] Speaker A: Not usually. I think there's a. I think there's a. [00:27:36] Speaker B: Two different flyways. [00:27:37] Speaker A: I think there's a Pacific flyway and then a central flow in the, the eastern, the east coast flyway, I think, has really gone down. [00:27:45] Speaker C: Yeah, that's a whole nother can of worms. [00:27:47] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:27:48] Speaker C: There's all kinds of speculation. [00:27:49] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:27:51] Speaker C: There may be some truth to it. I don't know. But all the southern boys are talking about heated ponds up north and it's killed the migration. [00:27:59] Speaker B: Heated ponds keep them there. [00:28:02] Speaker C: That's right. And, you know, some of them are speculating and saying Ducks Unlimited is the problem. And. [00:28:08] Speaker A: Yeah, [00:28:11] Speaker C: you never know. You know, farming practices changing, too, in the Southeast. [00:28:15] Speaker A: That's right. [00:28:15] Speaker C: And so there's a lot of variables. I don't, you know, they just choose which one to jump on. [00:28:20] Speaker B: Arkansas still pretty much in Louisiana. Still the prime, isn't it? Or is it. Is that some of the best duck hunt in the United States or not? [00:28:27] Speaker C: Well, growing up, for sure. [00:28:29] Speaker B: Yeah. But maybe not so much now. [00:28:31] Speaker C: And that's. There's a big controversy over it, man. [00:28:35] Speaker A: So there when they talk about you, there's a whole argument on flooded corn standing. Pardon me. Where growers, where people were planting corn crops, leaving them standing and then flooding the corn. [00:28:48] Speaker B: Right. [00:28:49] Speaker A: And not harvesting the corn and just leaving it there. And it's gotten so bad. I think the u. S. Fish and wildlife service is looking, you know, there was a big enough uproar over it that. Yes. I don't know what. I don't know whatever became of it, because not being a duck hunter, I was kind of like, well, that's bizarre. And then, you know, start looking into it as, you know, as they go in and somebody like ducks and limited goes in and improves habitat. And that's one thing that, like, I think a lot of people, particularly out here, don't realize is ducks unlimited, quail forever, pheasants forever and stuff, those organizations. I mean, quail forever is obviously more into the south. I mean, that. That's. This is quail country is basically south of Iowa. Although the quail numbers in Iowa this year, I hear are spectacular and better than they've been in a long time. But a lot of that area where they're really, really popular are the I states up in through there. And they're doing. That's where most of a lot of landowners up there, where they're doing a lot of work on. And it's not necessarily because ducks and Linda wants it to be in this one particular place. It's the landowners that they can work with that are the most aggressive about working with them and improving their habitat are there. And if you've got really good habitat that somebody that some landowner has spent, you know, in conjunction with ducks and has spent a lot of money on, then that's where it is. I mean, you know, there's a reason that the ducks and the pheasant forever annual meeting is never held south of Kansas City because their number, their core membership is in that northern upper midwest area. That's where they are. And even. And the only reason they made it down to Kansas City was because they were trying to push the quail forever real hard. And that's the only reason it was down there. Other than that, I think prior to Kansas City, I think the furthest it had been south was Omaha. It's a lot since, you know, in Minnesota quite a bit. And so, you know, you hang up that. That migratory game bird, that migratory game birds, and you fix the COVID form, you fix the habitat, you make it where they've got everything they want. They're not going to go further south just. Just because that's. [00:30:58] Speaker C: That's the whole hoorah that everybody's, you know, arguing over and that they don't, you know, we get a lot of clients come out southeast, shoot geese and cranes with us and Whale in Turkey. [00:31:07] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:31:09] Speaker C: And there's guys that talk about almost non existent, you know, nothing like when they're a kid. [00:31:15] Speaker B: Yeah, that's what some guys from, you know, when the peanuts came out here in 2000, early 2000s, most of the people that were in the business were from Georgia or somewhere and you know, grew up on plantations and stuff. And they said that the fire ants killed a bunch of their quail. [00:31:31] Speaker C: Oh yeah, that's still big known. [00:31:33] Speaker B: And so they, and they. So they were shooting birds but they were pin raised birds. So to find like free range quail they had to come out to west or east. Opposed. They buy a ranch or something. [00:31:43] Speaker A: They drive. [00:31:44] Speaker B: They'd fly out and have their, their hired help bring the dogs. [00:31:49] Speaker A: They would, they would. I remember one guy had a semi that was a converted and he would bring his horses in his wagon and, and his dogs. Like a whole kennel full of dogs out. Not just like a dog or two, I'm talking like 15. And they would, you know, who's that [00:32:05] Speaker B: guy that did all the haul in Southern. Southern ag. Had all the trucks that hauled everything and stuff. And he was a big quail hunter. [00:32:12] Speaker A: Yeah, he owns a plantation in Georgia. But also they would. I think they rented a 10 or 15,000 acre ranch off the cap. Just dunk. Well yeah, but I mean you know there's a lot of things that go into the southeast. It's changed so much because you know that used to be a. More of a savannah type region and now it's pine forest. And quail don't do well in pine forest. They do very well in a savannah situation. It's the same thing that you run into in the hill country like Mason county that. Well even, even Fisher county which is not even. It's in the rolling plains. You know, you look at the quail numbers there down and a lot of it has to do with in you know, this. The eastern red cedars moved in which is great for robins. You got to have some of them but not what they got. I would suggest, I would expect that there's a potential that with that big 47,000 acre fire in Palopinto and Jack county, you know they're. They could be setting the stage to have a couple of pretty good quail years. A good quail year or four in the next two or three years. [00:33:08] Speaker C: We've been blessed up here for sure. I mean it's unbelievable the amount of quail. [00:33:12] Speaker A: Yeah, I saw chicks that had. They couldn't have been more than five days old. Yesterday. [00:33:17] Speaker C: Yeah, I'm. I know we've had three hatches off the cap and I don't know if that was number three up here or [00:33:24] Speaker B: I don't or he would know. He walks with them every day. [00:33:26] Speaker A: I tell you what, once they go on nest, I've only got 110 acres that I can control that I can say grace on. I got some other stuff I can hunt, but I don't go into where the nesting habitat is once they start, once they fully break up. And I'm starting to see singles. But so I go on the edge of it. And the last. Every day for the last two weeks, I have seen a very bare minimum. And this is not going into cover. This is just the edge of it. Right. That's the road runs alongside my vineyard. I've seen at least four cubbies a day. [00:33:55] Speaker B: Well, and there's, you know, if you drive down 168 easter brownfield, there's been more five strand barbed wire fence put up in the last two years than there has been in the other 40 years that I've been around the cattle. Cattle grazing is really becoming a thing in Terry. And I don't know if that helped. Being having more pasture land probably has to help for nesting. [00:34:17] Speaker A: I saw some of that pasture that James put in maybe five years ago or so. And I was looking at it, driving past it today, looking at the catclaw that was coming in out. Then that's when you start really making hay, is when you start getting a little bit of COVID for them. Dale Rollins calls them quail condos. Give them a little bit of protection from avian predators and give them places that. But I mean you still gotta have. But it's doing well. I mean it's not uncommon for me to see coveys of quail going up down 168. I've seen them in weird places. I mean, you know, you just see the number of quail that I'm seeing. And it's. Something has to do with some of the organic fields that are going in where people are trying to grow organic peanuts. And it's just then they rotate off organic peanuts and they put Milo into it and it's just this gigantic weedy mess. And you're just like, oh dear. But then here's come to cubby equipment like, okay, well I'm glad he's got that weedy mess. [00:35:12] Speaker C: And some of that may be insects, you know. [00:35:14] Speaker B: Yeah, that's what I was thinking was the bugs. [00:35:16] Speaker A: Yeah, that's what I think. That's what helped us the most of the rain that we got in June. [00:35:19] Speaker C: Yep. [00:35:20] Speaker A: Because that was right when they were coming off. They were. [00:35:22] Speaker C: That was pretty timely down there, for sure. [00:35:24] Speaker A: Down there. [00:35:27] Speaker B: So you. You were talking about. You had to go down towards, like, not in areas and stuff like that for. For the crane. What. So geese are totally different type of hunting. I mean, like, you were. You have to spend a lot of time finding out where they're going and where they're feeding and stuff. And, like, is that. Do you have people that do that? You do that mostly trying to figure out, like, where they are and, like, you got it. And then two, like, you don't ever know where they're going. So when you talk about landlord relationships or owner, like, you need to have 20, 30,000 acres that you got permission on because you don't. You don't know where they're gonna be. Right. [00:36:05] Speaker C: And. And that's something that took us while to get a concept of, you know, the footprint from where I was working and the relationships and how far we were going, you know, say Lockney, for example, or. [00:36:17] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:36:18] Speaker C: All the way up into Hereford and. [00:36:19] Speaker B: Oh, wow. [00:36:20] Speaker C: So you would want to. You'd have those relationships. Well, early on. Yeah. You can have the hunting and then when you're shooting them in the backyard. And so we really had to pull back and tell those guys, you know, we. We may need it early November, but we don't want to camp on birds. [00:36:34] Speaker B: Right. [00:36:34] Speaker C: You know, we want you to. To get somebody else in here. We'll tell you. Look, thanks, but we've got them closer. And that was difficult. You know, that was one of those failure, lesson learned things is thinking you had to go lock up all the land. Right. You're right. That's the play is, you know, you may go three or four years where you're shooting them in Terry County. [00:36:56] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:36:57] Speaker C: And then there's nothing. And you've got to go out, you know, and make sure you still have those relationships far. [00:37:05] Speaker B: Yeah. Because some years you don't get. You may not get hunted on. And then some years, I've had as much as three hunts in a year on a piece of land, you know, [00:37:13] Speaker C: and that's the hard part is just staying in front of those guys. [00:37:16] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:37:17] Speaker C: And you. Now there's. There's so many people doing it, you know, outfitters. And somebody will have seen them or talked to them right before you. [00:37:25] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:37:26] Speaker C: And. And likely promise the world. And. Yeah, luckily we've got some veteran growers that have worked with us long Enough to know, okay, they've got volume and big. [00:37:37] Speaker B: And big landowners, too. They own big chunks. [00:37:41] Speaker C: But that's the whole challenge, and that's what keeps me up at night. And you know what you worry about. But to answer your question, you can pay attention. Weather patterns in the spring and in summer, and you'll know where those pockets of birds are going to be. [00:37:55] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. [00:37:56] Speaker C: I mean, how many times does a big storm come through early? And you can put that. [00:38:00] Speaker B: You just put a pin on it. [00:38:03] Speaker C: We're talking about Welch. [00:38:04] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:38:04] Speaker C: Right. [00:38:04] Speaker A: Yep. [00:38:05] Speaker C: Got that big storm early and now. [00:38:06] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:38:06] Speaker C: Every storm is going there. [00:38:08] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:38:09] Speaker C: Pull away from us. And so they just follow. [00:38:11] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:38:12] Speaker A: And you get that wet. You get that air where they got moisture that the weeds, the grass, you know, the wheat can grow. [00:38:18] Speaker C: There's a lot to that. So it's not a seasonal thing. You have to be thinking about it all the time and. And staying in front of those guys and. [00:38:26] Speaker B: Yeah. And I mean, I guess. I guess on a year where it rains everywhere, then it makes it even kind of harder, doesn't it? Because it. [00:38:32] Speaker C: I like it that way because everybody's not on top of each other fighting. [00:38:35] Speaker B: Oh, that's true. Yeah. [00:38:36] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:38:37] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:38:37] Speaker C: You don't have to have 10,000 birds to be successful. [00:38:39] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:38:40] Speaker C: 500. That. [00:38:41] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:38:42] Speaker C: Come at the right time. [00:38:43] Speaker B: You know, it's crazy, too, on the geese. Like, I feel like 15 years ago, there was like every year you'd see like five geese over by the hospital here, you know, by Saint. Old Saint Mary's in the Maxi park, whatever that is. And then like. Like you look up and now they. I mean, even in our little neighborhood out in Preston Manor, that lake there's. They can't. You can fit another duck on that. I mean, a goose on that lake. I mean, they just. It's crazy how they. So they just. I'm asking dumb question. Like, if you get a flock of 25 come in and then they go up and nest and they have a couple more. They have a couple of, you know, they have a year where they. They have offspring. Then did those offspring go back, follow them down to where they nested? Is that how we got this population built here? [00:39:32] Speaker C: Or some of it, maybe Narcissist is. [00:39:36] Speaker B: Well, they shifted some, though, for us to have patterns. [00:39:39] Speaker C: It's a. It's a calm climate for a goose. [00:39:42] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah, it really is. [00:39:46] Speaker C: So weather pattern has a lot to do with it. But, you know, banded birds that they do the research or even GPS stuff now, they'll show that they'll. They'll pretty well travel the same flight paths most their life. [00:39:58] Speaker B: Cranes, too. [00:39:59] Speaker C: Cranes is the most interesting to me. You know, some of those birds are 30, 40 years old. [00:40:03] Speaker B: I did not know that. [00:40:04] Speaker C: And so it's, you know, we've seen harvested, you know, cranes that are banded in Russia. [00:40:11] Speaker B: What? [00:40:12] Speaker A: No kidding, right? Holy cow. [00:40:15] Speaker C: And you don't shoot a lot of crane bands by any means? [00:40:19] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:40:20] Speaker A: But probably not quite as rare as a dove band, but pretty close. [00:40:23] Speaker C: Dove bands are becoming more and more prevalent, but tech's doing a lot of that too. [00:40:26] Speaker A: Are they? [00:40:27] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:40:27] Speaker A: So I need to hunt closer to tech, I guess. [00:40:29] Speaker B: Yeah. Oh, yeah, [00:40:33] Speaker C: we'll see. I don't know, 15 or 20 Dubb bands a year, Pretty easy. But they're starting to bend a lot more lesser geese now, too. Used to. It was primarily great graders. Yeah, we're starting to see a lot [00:40:44] Speaker B: more, you know, and I've started seeing out southwest of Lubbock about 1585. There's a pond out there. Last year, that thing was covered up with snow geese. [00:40:53] Speaker C: Oh, yeah. [00:40:55] Speaker B: We ever get them coming in here. Katie, bar the door. [00:40:57] Speaker C: We get them, you know, quite often. We'll see them. [00:41:00] Speaker B: The whole thing was covered. How long they stayed. [00:41:03] Speaker C: They get shot so much, you know, coming and going. [00:41:09] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:41:12] Speaker C: They're really educated. [00:41:13] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:41:14] Speaker C: And when you've got a lot of dark geese that are really regular and those snow show up, they can ruin your hunt in a hurry. Really pick you apart, you know, and flare and not want to sit down. [00:41:22] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:41:23] Speaker C: Yes. They're fun to shoot, but they can also eat your. [00:41:28] Speaker A: Now, now, lessers are not the same thing as speckled geese. Specs, Right. [00:41:32] Speaker C: No, just that's would be a less. [00:41:34] Speaker A: It's a smaller Canada ge. [00:41:36] Speaker B: It looks just like it. They're just. And you don't realize I got into them up in. Around Alist, I guess, about 10 years ago, guys took me up there hunting two, three years in a row around. What's that? Granite lake or something? If there's. There's a. Anyway, it's got a lake and water ship. Yeah. And it's the water ship for that. And then, you know, there's little creeks and stuff running and lots of wheat. And I didn't realize a difference in them until you lay them side by side. And their graders are lot bigger than lessers. [00:42:02] Speaker C: We primarily shooting lessers out here. What you're talking about in those ponds is primarily lessers. [00:42:06] Speaker B: Okay. [00:42:07] Speaker C: There's some. There's graders that. That we get down here. But not near as many. [00:42:13] Speaker B: Yes. [00:42:14] Speaker C: And typically they're in these kind of like white wings, but they're not going to fly near as far. [00:42:18] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:42:20] Speaker C: And very seldom do we see them out, you know, in the middle of nowhere lakes. [00:42:25] Speaker B: Right. Yeah. I can just tell over my house because they all, they all poop. Right. When they come over my house, you know. [00:42:32] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:42:33] Speaker B: You can look, you're like, man, that's. Those are graters. And then those are lesser. [00:42:38] Speaker C: Yeah. They'll. They'll ruin a hunt in a hurry too. [00:42:43] Speaker B: Are they, Are they pretty spooky? [00:42:45] Speaker C: No, but they're just lazy. [00:42:46] Speaker A: Right. [00:42:47] Speaker C: So you might, you know, have a decoy spread and acting like you're, you know, 100,000 geese and four of them will just go sit over there in a corner. [00:42:56] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:42:57] Speaker C: How good you are. But when you got birds against your decoys, they're going to start bringing friends with them. [00:43:03] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:43:04] Speaker C: It happens more times than not. [00:43:05] Speaker B: Hey, talk a little bit about the evolution of, of decoys in your experience. Sandhill cranes and, and geese about from where you started to where it is today. And like what's, what have you seen in that? Is it changed a lot or not or not a lot. [00:43:21] Speaker C: Yeah. And you're almost seeing it kind of go back to where it was. [00:43:24] Speaker B: Oh, really? [00:43:26] Speaker C: I also think that that's. I gotta be careful how to talk about it because some of the guys that's. Friends of mine. [00:43:32] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. [00:43:33] Speaker C: Company that. And I'll do my best not to talk. [00:43:37] Speaker B: Well, we're just talking. No, yeah. [00:43:38] Speaker C: You know, full bodies. [00:43:41] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:43:42] Speaker C: You know, a lot more footprint in your trailer. [00:43:45] Speaker B: Yeah. A lot more work for the people. [00:43:47] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:43:47] Speaker C: So you'll run into older guys that say, yeah, we used to come up and hunt all the time or this or that. And we just got tired of getting up at 4 and putting out in [00:43:56] Speaker B: and picking them all up. [00:43:57] Speaker C: Full bodies. [00:43:57] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:43:58] Speaker A: 100 dozen full bodies. [00:43:59] Speaker B: No. Yeah. I mean, the 16 foot trailer piled [00:44:02] Speaker C: to the top being closed and, and then they started coming out with silhouettes. And of course we were running them with full bodies back in the day too. But when they started bringing silhouettes and, and people started learning, okay, we can shoot them in 100 silhouette spread very effectively. Well, then they're in bags of five dozen. [00:44:24] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:44:25] Speaker C: And you can, you know, one guy can put five dozen up and. [00:44:28] Speaker B: Right. [00:44:29] Speaker C: Not very much time and. [00:44:30] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:44:31] Speaker C: Down and, and so that was, that was a big deal. [00:44:36] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:44:36] Speaker C: But those decoys were fairly cost effective compared to full bodies. [00:44:42] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:44:43] Speaker C: And because of that, you know, you you take a tech kid hunting and his dad comes with him, and then for Christmas he gets a trailer full of silhouettes and he's an outfitter by January. And we see it happen all the time. [00:44:58] Speaker B: Yeah, that's inside us. [00:45:01] Speaker C: Be careful how. [00:45:02] Speaker B: Yeah, I know. [00:45:02] Speaker C: Silhouette. [00:45:03] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:45:03] Speaker C: Decoys in the change. But I really think, you know, that. And obviously social media and. But it gave a lot of people opportunities to. To, quote, unquote, be an outfitter. [00:45:17] Speaker B: What's the price difference on like, Like, I mean, just on a retail price, you have to say your price, but like on a full body decoy. [00:45:24] Speaker C: Yeah, I don't. I mean, there's so many variables in [00:45:27] Speaker B: brands and stuff, but like 40, 50 bucks a piece. [00:45:30] Speaker C: I mean, hundreds. [00:45:32] Speaker B: How long will they last? 5, 10 years. [00:45:35] Speaker C: Depends on how good your guys take. [00:45:39] Speaker B: Well, you know that everybody's, you know, you're tired after you get through hunting, and so nobody. You, full body, you're, you know, oh, you got to go walk out there, you know, 300 yards to go get it. And you can only bring back like three. [00:45:50] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, or four. [00:45:54] Speaker C: We'll cycle through ours pretty regular. But just mainly because these clients deserve. [00:45:59] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:46:00] Speaker C: New and better. You know, really what happens is they, they ride those trailers and they, they. [00:46:04] Speaker B: That's right. Yeah. Oh, they get shiny because the paint [00:46:08] Speaker C: is wearing off and you don't think about it. But that bird's above there and you know, they're like, well, that's definitely not a goosey shining like a diamond. So. And there's a market for used. [00:46:20] Speaker B: I was going to say you can get rid of the other one. [00:46:21] Speaker C: Can afford them. [00:46:22] Speaker A: And. [00:46:22] Speaker C: Yeah, you certainly couldn't if you weren't running a bunch of clients. I mean, you could, but not everybody. [00:46:26] Speaker B: Right. [00:46:27] Speaker C: We typically don't sell our used decoys within several hundred here. [00:46:32] Speaker B: Yeah. Right. [00:46:34] Speaker C: There's a market for. [00:46:35] Speaker B: Yeah, it makes it. That makes sense. [00:46:37] Speaker A: You ever take a. Like a drone over your spread after the. At the end of the day and just to see what's shining out. [00:46:43] Speaker C: Countless videos just looking at spreads and you know, ironically, like, you know, black clothing, like a hoodie or something sticks out. [00:46:54] Speaker A: No kidding. [00:46:54] Speaker C: And you don't think about it, really. Just there's lots of stuff you can learn by doing that. The cool thing about a silhouette, when we're talking about that. [00:47:03] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:47:04] Speaker C: You know, you've got one facing north, one east, you know, and it may be a foot or two apart. Well, for us, that's eye level with it. You just think it looks like a Big mess out there. Well, as the birds coming in that one, it's facing away from them. [00:47:20] Speaker B: They can't see. [00:47:21] Speaker C: It disappears. [00:47:22] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:47:22] Speaker C: So they swing. So it actually looks like that spreads moving. Oh. And so it makes sense. It's. They're very effective. [00:47:29] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:47:29] Speaker C: You know, you'll get some clients that are welcome. You're just hunting over silhouettes, you know. [00:47:33] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:47:35] Speaker C: Wouldn't you explain the actual science behind. [00:47:37] Speaker A: Yeah, I think. But the. The one time I've been. I'm like, going, just tell them what to do, and I'll just sit in here and, you know, I shot my. I shot my geese and then handed it to the guy that was shooting three and a halfs out of a shotgun that would only hit a three. And after I got through watching him, he'd shoot one time and then pull his gun down and dig it out with his pocket knife. So I finished mine, I handed him my shotgun, said, here, shoot me. [00:48:00] Speaker B: The best thing was when we were hunting up in Oklahoma, you know, you get the. You had to put the. Not only would you have to do the silhouette, put everything out, then you got to put the blinds together in the middle of. In dark. You never done it before. And then the guy looks at it, he's like, oh, that's not enough grass. That's not enough. Hey, go to that turn and grab those tumbleweeds and bring them. I'm like, dude, I don't even have gloves on. Like, I mean, like, how you want me to cut that? So you're dragging them from a quarter mile away. Oh, Johnson grass. And sticking them. But I mean, like, guys that don't hunt, like, they can't keep their heads down. They'll hear those birds. They'll hear those birds. And they're like, you know, and the guides are like, keep your freaking heads down. Like. And they just can't. They can't do it. [00:48:43] Speaker A: I'm paying good money. My head's going to be right down. Yeah. Tucked down low. And I'm going to be hidden. And when the guide says, okay, they're off to the right. Get ready. And then I'm gonna be like, yeah, shoot them. Then I'm coming up. I said, I won't even see him. I won't even see the birds until I'm popping. [00:48:58] Speaker B: Well, it's hard when you. If you got 12 people in a row or whatever. Right. I mean, what's gonna be one guy that can spoil it for everybody, you know, every time? [00:49:07] Speaker C: And typically, they get a tumbleweed put in Their face. Sometimes some of them are quicker learners than others. [00:49:16] Speaker A: I remember. [00:49:16] Speaker C: But they can ruin a hunt and hurry, dude doing that and don't realize it. They're just eager. [00:49:20] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:49:21] Speaker C: That is frustrating. [00:49:22] Speaker B: It is it. I mean especially after you've done all that work. Especially for you guys trying to make a living doing that. I mean it's just, it's. [00:49:29] Speaker A: You know, when growing up, I think my great uncle and one of his friends used to hunt Sando cranes. They're the only people I ever knew hunting Sando cranes growing up until I was probably in my 20s. And so it wasn't that long ago. So just 30 years or so. But I remember him going that they, I think you and dad might have gone hunting with. [00:49:50] Speaker B: We did. [00:49:50] Speaker A: And you went out there and dug a pit. [00:49:52] Speaker B: They, they, they dug a pit that had a bench on it and they would get in the ground five or six foot deep, you know, and then they would take. They had made little wooden sticks with the head of a crane and then they take a sheet and dye it gray and rip it and then they'd drape it over it over milo stalks. And that was the, that was, that was the decoy. [00:50:11] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:50:11] Speaker B: But yeah, it's not fun hitting one of them if they forget to cover it up when you're plowing. [00:50:15] Speaker C: Oh yeah, enough. [00:50:19] Speaker B: That's not fun at all. [00:50:21] Speaker A: Oh, man. No, that was. But I was thinking, I was like, yeah, mini excavator had been a lot handier than that. But they didn't have those back then. But I just. [00:50:28] Speaker B: Oh, by the way, we have a mini excavator you can rent down there if you need one. [00:50:36] Speaker C: The hides everything on that. So if you can get below ground or hidden, that's. [00:50:41] Speaker A: Yeah, but yeah, that, that is the. I mean it was. I just remember them digging a hole and I remember the f. Very first time I ever went santo crane hunting. I'm like, well, do we have to get out there super early and dig? And the guy was like, d, what are we digging for? [00:50:55] Speaker B: Well, that was before the advent of these new blinds that you know, open up on the top. [00:51:00] Speaker A: And I'm like, oh, thank God. But you know, it's funny being a fat guy like me. A lay down blind is a nightmare. Like you lay down, you're like, [00:51:10] Speaker C: you always hear that they're a nightmare or they're too comfortable. [00:51:13] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:51:14] Speaker B: Oh yeah. [00:51:15] Speaker C: Falling asleep. [00:51:16] Speaker A: Yeah, I don't mind falling asleep. [00:51:18] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:51:18] Speaker A: I mean that's an expensive nap. But I don't mind. [00:51:20] Speaker B: Well, you know, and this is the law. This is a little off color, but you're sitting there too, and like you see some birds coming. There's always this one dude that has to go to the bathroom. [00:51:28] Speaker C: Oh yeah, [00:51:37] Speaker A: I was. It's kind of interesting because I was like, you know, it seemed like if a guy's got, you know, his. Got it laced down, he's really want to make sure that everything's in, you know, some round bells out there would be. Would not be amiss. You know, throw out some round bells. And I saw somebody that had made a blind that looked like a round bell. [00:51:57] Speaker C: Oh yeah, there's a bunch of them. Yeah. [00:51:59] Speaker A: It was freaky. I was like, well, now that. But you know, of course my, like I'd be the only round bill out in the field. And used to be like, that wasn't there yesterday. [00:52:06] Speaker B: How. How important has it been to. Once y' all have moved up and your business grew to have a lodge [00:52:16] Speaker C: clientele, does it, you know. [00:52:18] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:52:20] Speaker C: Or it can. [00:52:21] Speaker B: Yeah. So you. You guys are. [00:52:23] Speaker A: You. [00:52:23] Speaker B: You're cooking for them and all that stuff too. That's. [00:52:26] Speaker C: It's. [00:52:26] Speaker B: That gets an all inclusive type deal. [00:52:28] Speaker C: That's right. [00:52:29] Speaker B: There's like us fly in, I guess [00:52:31] Speaker C: a bunch of them. Yeah. And Brownfield's handy because we're a mile from there. [00:52:34] Speaker B: Yeah, you're right there. [00:52:35] Speaker C: Yeah, it's. [00:52:37] Speaker B: That's good clientele after flying into Brownfield. [00:52:40] Speaker A: Yeah, [00:52:42] Speaker B: we got cheap jet A too over there in Brownfield. It's pretty cheap. [00:52:48] Speaker A: Let's take a break real quick. Just a few minutes and. Or maybe a minute or something like that. And we'll be right back with more from the dry side dispatch. All right, we're back with the dry side dispatch box about HSI water again. And I want to talk a little bit. Who's our guest with Red Overman from Final Descent God Service. I appreciate you doing that. [00:53:10] Speaker B: I'm here for specific things and that's [00:53:12] Speaker A: in case you're wondering. We don't know what the heck we're doing. I'm just pretty glad I've only said one cuss word in 20 or so weeks of doing this thing. And it wasn't the bad ones. It wasn't the bad ones. [00:53:23] Speaker B: That's pretty good. [00:53:24] Speaker A: I'm pretty impressed with myself. But I want to talk a little bit about what landowners can do and what landowners should not do when they're looking at trying to get to improve their odds of having geese or sand in their place on their habitat. [00:53:38] Speaker C: Yeah. So we'll. We'll try to address this best we can with time. We have. But things we've learned that or things we've seen that that help growers make more money than others. The biggest is water. You know, earlier, Andy, you mentioned about, you know, why do we see so many. You can't fit another bird in these ponds. [00:54:05] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:54:06] Speaker C: And a lot of that is because out in the country there's not a lot of roosts anymore. [00:54:12] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:54:12] Speaker C: Which we talked about the cranes having to be at Rich Lake and. [00:54:15] Speaker B: Right. And a goose would never do go there, would it? I mean, if it had. [00:54:20] Speaker C: There's not enough water in them for [00:54:21] Speaker B: them to sit, even float. Yeah. [00:54:24] Speaker C: But on these real droughty years, there's very few roosts. There might be one or two in a county. [00:54:30] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:54:32] Speaker C: That's known to hold a lot of birds. Petersburg, you know, used to be a mecca for waterfowl and still would be because of the. The cropping up there. But they haven't had a roost in years before. [00:54:47] Speaker B: And what would you. If you had to give the definition of a roost, what would that. [00:54:51] Speaker C: It's a bedroom, a living room, a house. Right. [00:54:54] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:54:54] Speaker C: That's sacred to them. They're going to go back every time. And I don't know if this is the place to talk about it, but we probably ought to. If anybody listening. You know, there's the sports becoming so popular that. And growers need supplemental income and they'll. They'll lease those roosts for people to hunt. [00:55:14] Speaker B: Really. [00:55:15] Speaker C: And that may be out of ignorance. It may be that they don't care, but it's becoming a really big deal. [00:55:22] Speaker B: So first thing in the morning, somebody's sitting on the roost, they get up off the roost and then they're shot at. [00:55:27] Speaker C: That's right. [00:55:28] Speaker B: They may not come back. [00:55:29] Speaker A: When you talk about roost, you're talking about like the ply lake. [00:55:33] Speaker B: Just like something that one's. [00:55:35] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:55:35] Speaker B: Just like the ones in the city of level. [00:55:37] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:55:37] Speaker C: But you know, obviously we can't hunt those. [00:55:40] Speaker A: Right. Yeah. [00:55:40] Speaker C: And thank goodness, legally can't. [00:55:42] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:55:43] Speaker C: You know. [00:55:43] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:55:44] Speaker C: A sanctuary for them. [00:55:45] Speaker B: Right. [00:55:47] Speaker C: You know, in the. A lot of it could be a kid that's going in there trying to shoot his first duck. [00:55:54] Speaker B: Right. [00:55:54] Speaker C: You know, but there might be 20, 30, 000 birds that are staying there and they shoot six ducks and it's over. [00:55:59] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:56:00] Speaker C: But the real where I'm getting with this is, you know, if you've got a lot of grain in the country, that that is Appealing, you know, and a lot of feed. And you let somebody shoot that roost, you're really shooting yourself in the foot because you make a lot more money out there in the field, you know? [00:56:18] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:56:19] Speaker C: And there's been years. Last year, for example, we just finally went to these growers and said, look, you've got the right grain in the right places, but the rooster getting shot every morning, and these birds, they're leaving, you know, so, you know, Rhett, what do we need to do? Let's pump them. So find some lake bottoms. You got close to a well. Let's create our own. [00:56:42] Speaker B: Oh, create your own roost. [00:56:43] Speaker C: Yeah, we can control it. [00:56:44] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:56:45] Speaker C: So every bird in that county moved to the roost that we created, and then we can control that. [00:56:50] Speaker B: Wow. [00:56:50] Speaker C: Maybe it cost 1500 bucks to do that. I don't know. But 1500 bucks to make 10, 20, 30,000. [00:56:58] Speaker B: Yeah. Collectively. [00:57:00] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:57:00] Speaker C: Was worth it. [00:57:01] Speaker B: Even if you had growers going together, say, say there's, you know, grower A, B, C and D B has a place that would be the best roost. They can go together and say, hey, I'll pitch in 300 bucks for your electricity. [00:57:13] Speaker C: And we're finally getting to that point. [00:57:14] Speaker B: Are you? That's great. [00:57:16] Speaker C: In certain counties where, you know, folks get along and. [00:57:20] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:57:21] Speaker A: Well, growers are notorious for working together peacefully [00:57:26] Speaker C: in some of this arena. It really. It is. [00:57:28] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:57:29] Speaker C: Hey, you know that cow pasture out there? There's a. Well over there. What can we do about that? You know? [00:57:34] Speaker B: Right. [00:57:34] Speaker C: We work together, and that's. That's the best way to make sure that you're going to have revenue on those farms. [00:57:41] Speaker B: Right. [00:57:42] Speaker C: Protect those roost. [00:57:43] Speaker A: Yeah. What would it take? Like, what do you. And I'm, you know, not. I'm not a biologist. Don't play one on tv. I know you're not a biologist either. You're just around it more, and you're so. You're more in tune with it. But when you. If you were to build a roost, like I'm saying, like, I've got in my head a place that's got a passable playa lake in Terry County. Okay. That's soil is going to be a little bit heavier, so it's going to hold water a little bit better. But are you talking about going in there, are you going to deepen that. That. Are you going to put bentonite in it, or are you just going to just pump water into it and let it do what nature does? [00:58:19] Speaker C: It's a tailwater pits that you Grew up seeing water in, you know. [00:58:23] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:58:23] Speaker C: Maybe it makes sense to ditch over there. [00:58:25] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:58:26] Speaker C: And put you a riser, you know. [00:58:28] Speaker B: Well, we just did some stuff for a oil company we sold some water to for an oil company and they laid out fast line. Yeah, you can rent fast line. You can rent it and just put. I missed it. Just a three inch garden hose, basically. Yeah, that's all it is. That's unrolls and you roll it. They come roll it right back up. It's not that expensive to do. [00:58:46] Speaker A: And that's, I mean that's, you know, that's one of those things that, you know, it's, it's not that expensive to do. And you know, like everybody, every farmer's got to pay an irrigation minimum anyway on their electricity. You know, whether you, whether I pump it. Whether I pump a gallon of water or not in a month. It cost me a thousand dollars. And so for a thousand dollars I could probably fill up that lake. [00:59:07] Speaker C: Yeah. It's hard to talk about. Right. You know, because we're all struggling for water. [00:59:10] Speaker B: Well, and they just think about the data centers. Everybody's all like water, water did. Well, don't ask how much the circle of corn next to that data center use. [00:59:20] Speaker C: And it's a different time of year, you know, pumping costs. [00:59:24] Speaker B: Oh yeah, you're pretty much done anyway, [00:59:27] Speaker C: so it's always so touchy to, to talk about. And there's probably people that listen to this like what are you doing pumping groundwater. [00:59:34] Speaker B: Yeah. Is it, is it, is it not technically legal to shoot them off. Off the roof? [00:59:39] Speaker C: Absolutely it is. [00:59:40] Speaker B: Okay, so you. So it's something that, that happened. You could tell a game warden. [00:59:43] Speaker C: No, no, no, it, no, it's legal. [00:59:45] Speaker A: It's legal. Oh, it's legal as long as you're shooting them in legal shooting hours. [00:59:49] Speaker C: Yeah, it's 100. [00:59:50] Speaker A: It's 100 legal. [00:59:51] Speaker C: There's a right way and a wrong way to shoot a roost if you had to. And I'm not going to say we never have. [00:59:55] Speaker B: Right. [00:59:56] Speaker A: We have get them coming off of it. [00:59:58] Speaker B: Coming off of it. [00:59:59] Speaker C: In many, many. You shoot them coming back. [01:00:01] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:00:02] Speaker B: Oh, okay. [01:00:03] Speaker C: And that way, you know, not all of them are coming at the same time and then you can get out of there. [01:00:11] Speaker B: This is a really dumb question, but why. But since I live by the one in Preston Manor, really close to it. I mean I can hear them in my backyard. [01:00:18] Speaker A: Right. [01:00:19] Speaker B: They're just. [01:00:20] Speaker C: But because nobody can hunt that far. [01:00:21] Speaker B: Well, I know, but why. Why do they know it so well? Where are they going at night? [01:00:25] Speaker C: They're going to Target Pond. The pond across from Target. What if they. [01:00:30] Speaker B: They're in, like, I'll get home and they'll be in. [01:00:32] Speaker A: Really? Is that what. The one at the. [01:00:33] Speaker C: What is it that are going over there? But they. [01:00:35] Speaker B: But they're staying in my pond. In my pond. The one in Preston Manor. And then I may be out at like 9 or 10 o' clock at night and they're going off that. [01:00:43] Speaker C: Yeah. So that's called a loaf. And I'm glad you bring that up because that's also something we see in the country. They. They may have a roost and they'll go feed, but they don't want to go all back to town and they'll hit a pond and just loaf there. [01:00:58] Speaker B: Oh, it's like, oh, I gotcha. [01:01:02] Speaker C: For cranes. It's. It's a big deal too. Especially in Tarrant County. [01:01:05] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:01:06] Speaker C: It gives them some fresh water, but also just a place to chill out. It does go all the way back. [01:01:10] Speaker B: Yeah, you're right. There's one right south of Brownfield by our vineyard. [01:01:13] Speaker C: Very effective way to hunt. I mean, it's a. [01:01:17] Speaker B: A guarantee because it's a different time of day too. They're coming back. [01:01:21] Speaker A: So you're basically so going back to what farmer. What farmers can do. So you've got winter wheat is a big deal. [01:01:28] Speaker C: Yes. [01:01:28] Speaker A: I'm assuming that that's what I. That's what I typically see. Geese. You know, everybody thinks about geese eating, you know, corn and stuff like that. [01:01:36] Speaker B: And they love that. [01:01:37] Speaker A: They love that grass green wheat. They love that grain weight. So you got that. If you did that and you. And had. Say you went in and you had a buddy that had a. And was in the oil field and could get you a. A liner and you just dug a pond out there, say inside your first tower by a well that you can run a line to or something like that. And you just put a. How big of a tank? [01:02:02] Speaker C: Yeah, an effective way to. I don't know that the cost would be there. That liner's so expensive. [01:02:09] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:02:10] Speaker C: The best. Is it literally like the. The tailwater pitch you grew up. [01:02:15] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:02:15] Speaker C: When it does rain, I mean, all that clay's in there anyways. It doesn't take a lot. [01:02:19] Speaker A: When you go south, you go south here, there's not. There wasn't a lot of headtail water. [01:02:22] Speaker B: You go get the. No there. Yeah, it's pretty sandy like. But you have to. You'd have to go to apply and dig and you could dig it out [01:02:29] Speaker A: or just scrape out the silt out of the top of it. It's Top silt of it. [01:02:33] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:02:33] Speaker C: Well, you know, if you'll get south of you a little ways towards Welch and in there there's little pockets, the whole water. [01:02:39] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, that's the headwaters of the Colorado River. It runs down east of. East of Welch. [01:02:44] Speaker C: There used to be birds that'll get down in there and. [01:02:47] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:02:47] Speaker C: Stay and make another route. [01:02:49] Speaker A: There used to be a big lake down there. I mean, we had a cousin used to have it rented. [01:02:54] Speaker B: Last time I was down there was dry. [01:02:56] Speaker A: It was. Last time I was there. 3. [01:02:57] Speaker C: Are you talking about 179? [01:02:58] Speaker B: I don't. Yeah, it kind of cut. [01:03:00] Speaker A: Does it really? [01:03:01] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:03:01] Speaker B: You what does it have. [01:03:03] Speaker A: Does it have really in it anymore? Okay. [01:03:05] Speaker C: And that's something that he's trying to. He wants to figure that out. [01:03:07] Speaker B: Yeah. You can see. You can see where our cousin had the slalom thing set up in there where he would go. I used to go pull him. I pulled him all the time. I didn't have much room to turn around when I got to the end. But he. [01:03:19] Speaker C: There's some pretty good mule deer in that country. [01:03:21] Speaker B: Yeah, there is. [01:03:22] Speaker A: Yeah, there's some. I'll tell you what. There's some mule. Some pretty good. It's funny because I have people that are like, oh, you want. We want to come shoot a meal. Everyone comes to me earlier and I'm pretty selective on. I've gotten less selective as they become more and more of a pain in the hind parts for me, but I'm still pretty selective on it. [01:03:38] Speaker B: Poached. [01:03:39] Speaker A: Yeah. And that's the thing about it. Like. Like you can come hunting. But I was like, I've never seen a mule deer buck. Especially this since they put the 20 inch limit on it. Now I've never seen a shooter mule [01:03:50] Speaker B: deer on our place. [01:03:51] Speaker A: On our place during season. Now I see them. [01:03:54] Speaker B: No, I know. Is that where they're going whenever they. We have like. We have like at one point there was like 22 or 23 out there. And like after the season it's like January or something. [01:04:06] Speaker A: I ran 23 out. January of 25. I guess I ran 23 out one day when I was. When I was down there checking water. But three weeks ago I ran 19 out. [01:04:18] Speaker B: Oh, were they all those. [01:04:19] Speaker A: I think there was 15 bucks. Whoa in it there. Everyone was buck. None of them were a shooter. Last week I went down there and caught some crossing the road into the. Into my vineyard. And there was one of them that was. I don't get excited about mule deer. I used to help a taxidermist, and so I helped mount a bunch of mule deer. And I do not want to ever feed a mule deer just because I know what it takes to turn a mule deer ear. And it's a lot of work, but it was one I got excited about. It was big enough. It's not far from you. And I can promise you I won't see him during season. [01:04:49] Speaker B: No, they disappear, but they just. [01:04:51] Speaker A: They vanish about two or three days before season. And then within a week of season being over, they're everywhere out there again. [01:04:57] Speaker C: And a lot of that's pressure. [01:04:58] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:04:59] Speaker C: They know when those county roads are getting beat up. [01:05:01] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:05:02] Speaker B: Well, we know where our vineyard is. Like, it goes down there and dead ends. Like, there ain't nothing good happen. Anybody goes down that road, they have to know good. [01:05:10] Speaker A: Yep. [01:05:10] Speaker B: It's kind of like being a living on a cul de sac. [01:05:13] Speaker A: I ran into the. The game warden out there, I guess, his last season, and I stopped and was talking and just wanted to make sure I talked to him, made him. I was like, hey, you see anybody down there and their last name's not, like, Timmons or. Yeah. [01:05:26] Speaker B: Or Miller. Yeah, Miller. [01:05:28] Speaker C: They'll figure out real quick who needs to be down there. [01:05:30] Speaker A: I was like, you know, I don't want anybody down there. But I always was just tell people, you're a whole lot more likely to get to shoot a. A mule deer off the place than a quail off my place. But it's. It's been really. That's the weirdest thing. But I remember as a kid, the very first time I saw a deer track in Terry county, because I was out hunting quail and rabbits in my granddad's pasture, which is right across my vineyard now. And I was. I was walking along, and I'm like, going, that looks like a deer track. And I walked that because my granddad [01:05:58] Speaker C: think somebody was messing with you. [01:05:59] Speaker A: I did. [01:06:00] Speaker C: So that happened to me. You know, I'm on 179, Woodrow. [01:06:03] Speaker B: Yes, you are. Yeah. [01:06:04] Speaker C: Tracks. [01:06:05] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:06:06] Speaker C: And I thought, surely these guys are. [01:06:08] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:06:11] Speaker C: And I was on the porch one morning, summer day, with sprinkler going, and it was real drowdy. And I look up in the drip, those coyotes or what, and four does come up to the back fence. I guess they're not messing with me. [01:06:25] Speaker A: Well, it's kind of funny. We had a guest on that. They've got. They have a dry Land farm and they spending out some sheep and they're probably following. I follow them on Instagram and they're posting pictures of harvest and they got the combine right in the back and there's three mule deer. And then in the background of it is the, the power plant. You can see right over here. I mean it's like you know, 10 miles from where we're sitting. [01:06:47] Speaker B: Oh well, for sure. Yeah. [01:06:49] Speaker C: You'll there be another discussion one day. These. There's a lot of guys that are having trouble. Big trouble. You know we're 60, 80, 100 does. [01:06:58] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. [01:06:59] Speaker C: Just mowing Milo. And they can't do a thing about it. [01:07:01] Speaker B: Yeah, well, no, what, what that, what. We have nets on all ours but we have actually a 10 acre block that we. Once they came in we tried to plant some more grapes and we couldn't figure out why they were not growing because we had like a two foot tube that that thing has. The plant has to grow up and then it grows out the top of it. You can spray underneath it. Well they were just going every morning and whatever was sticking up out of that tube, they were just. It never got bigger than the top of that tube. Yeah, I mean they just like they [01:07:26] Speaker A: hit the fresh growth off of it every day. [01:07:28] Speaker B: So we had to high fence that. We had to high fence at 10 acres. [01:07:31] Speaker A: We closed the gate in that high fence and two weeks later we had 12 inches of growth out of those things. [01:07:35] Speaker B: Yeah. All of a sudden they start. But no, it is gonna, it's. They, they, they need to let some people shoot some does out there because it's just gotten way, the population's got way out. [01:07:46] Speaker A: I don't, I don't know what the numbers are but it's got to be double digits to one the ratio. I mean it's got to be 10 to one or higher buck to do it seems like to me because it based upon what I see as far as you know, the number of deer I see and now I did find a small spike that was dead this year as I was checking my water [01:08:03] Speaker B: well somebody probably shot it and it probably not where it was get across. [01:08:07] Speaker A: I don't think that they. I don't think where they. I don' what killed it. It was too late for me to tell and but I'm like well you [01:08:14] Speaker B: guys, you guys bought the old country club which is about a half a mile from my place and I'm trying, I'm trying. The previous owner to y' all had a bunch of stuff in there and I'll never forget one morning I was out checking water early, and I heard an elk bugling over there. That was so awesome. [01:08:31] Speaker A: I've got. I have a picture on my phone somewhere of a fallow deer in the vineyard. [01:08:35] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. Yeah. There may not be one of y'. Alls. I don't know. Well, I think it's gone. We didn't. We didn't. We have wildlife, so we don't shoot it. [01:08:45] Speaker A: I could have. I could have hit it with a slingshot. [01:08:47] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:08:48] Speaker A: I'm a bad rock thrower, and I could have hit it with a rock. It just stood there and looked at me and I'm not going. I did a double take because I was going along, and I'm like, stop. [01:08:55] Speaker C: We had some trouble early on out there. There's a few times that both gates would be open. Oh, yeah, we pretty well got that. [01:09:03] Speaker B: Did you have. You got electric gates on it, stuff [01:09:05] Speaker C: closed, or just better cameras? [01:09:07] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. [01:09:12] Speaker C: There's a lot of money invested in that. [01:09:14] Speaker B: Yeah, there is. Yeah. [01:09:15] Speaker A: The pictures at that place are amazing. [01:09:17] Speaker C: Well, y' all need to come see. [01:09:18] Speaker B: Yeah, I would love. I'd love to. It's. Last time I was there, I played golf. Yeah. [01:09:24] Speaker A: I can't say the same, because I was out there when the last guy had it, and I had the. The help. Cape and skin and quarter and elk. [01:09:32] Speaker B: I bet it wasn't the last guy. I bet it was a guy before the last guy, probably. [01:09:35] Speaker A: So. [01:09:36] Speaker B: Yeah. The local farmer that had it. [01:09:38] Speaker A: Yes. [01:09:38] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:09:39] Speaker A: Yeah, it was. It's been so long ago that I don't even remember when. What year it was. The years all blend together when you got kids and you're chasing. [01:09:46] Speaker B: Do y' all have places for people to stay out there, too? [01:09:50] Speaker C: Yeah. So that. That lodge is actually 8,000 square foot. [01:09:53] Speaker B: Oh, wow. [01:09:54] Speaker C: It sleeps 17 in their own bed. Wow. It's. It's. And honestly, speaking of that. That's one of our better dove feeds right now. [01:10:03] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:10:03] Speaker C: Within. [01:10:04] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. [01:10:07] Speaker C: It's got the trees, water, and always. [01:10:09] Speaker B: It was so good. It was like. [01:10:12] Speaker A: Did y' all plant some food plots on that? [01:10:15] Speaker C: We took a lot of the cedars out. [01:10:16] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:10:17] Speaker C: We left piles of cedars for our quail, which is unbelievable. They're coming. Coming back like crazy. [01:10:21] Speaker A: Yep. [01:10:23] Speaker C: And hay grazer in the summer and wheat in the winter. So it's. It's a neat place. It's a constant work. [01:10:30] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:10:30] Speaker A: Yeah. I planted that end where I've got a lot of. We've had erosion over 20 years. Of the, you know, vineyard being in the same place. I put pearl milling in on the ends and keep that up. Man, you talk about, oh man. I mean it's incredible. Of course I planted it, you know, way, way, way too thick because I didn't have a clue what I was doing because you know, I went from row cropping and stuff to looking at, you know, to growing grapes for 20 years and pretty much forgot everything I knew about row cropping. It's kind of one of those things you're just like, it's a black, the black hole of knowledge. But, but it has done a good, I mean it's as, even as dry as it is. Like I planted it in June. I've had, I had six inches raining until the three tenths I got yesterday. I have not had rain since July 1st. I mean that's, that's, that's all I'd had and I still got enough of even, even planted too thick. I still got enough it to go to seed that it's, you know, it's already start. I noticed songbirds in it today going ahead and picking out stuff out of the sledding on it, picking seeds and I bump quail out of it all the time and it's pretty amazing. But that's one of the things that, that what is an ancillary side effect. You know, you've got hunting. Hunting tourism is what I'll call it that you can do. But if you, if a farmer was to go in and do some stuff to improve the, you know, the geese habitat and the sandal crane habitat, you know, other animals are going to like that and then you can get with it non consumptive outdoor tourism too. You could put a blind out there and society can have, can come out and take pictures of birds in the off season because I mean you start running once you start changing the habitat and you start diversifying the habitat out there, the number of other non game species that will take advantage of that is huge. And it just gives you. There's another revenue stream that you can look at. [01:12:26] Speaker B: Are there any government programs to assist growers in doing or stuff like that or would it be through like a foundation like Quail Forever that's unlimited and [01:12:37] Speaker C: there's some guys that are working through that, but there's not a lot of traction in it. [01:12:40] Speaker B: They're not. [01:12:41] Speaker C: A lot of times it's us call sharing it or doing it with these growers. [01:12:44] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [01:12:45] Speaker C: You know. [01:12:46] Speaker B: Well, I know, I know one of them you had to do. You had to Go ahead and pay for all of it. And they would like reimburse you later or so. You know, I mean that's, that's what [01:12:53] Speaker A: a lot of the, A lot of the government, the NRCS stuff I think is, is done that way. But a lot of the NGOs that do stuff and Ducks Unlimited is one, but it's not the only one. And there is money out there that you can do that. Like the, the current thing that Ducks Unlimited is doing that TAV and Dotson is working with, they cover ducks and DU covers all of it. The dirt work, seed, planting it, everything. It's all hundred percent. DU does it. And so it's. So you're not out of pocket at all. [01:13:22] Speaker C: And that's within the past three or four years. [01:13:24] Speaker A: That's. Well, that's within the last year. [01:13:26] Speaker C: Okay. I mean, the traction started getting better. [01:13:31] Speaker A: I think that one of the, I think one of the big peanut buyers has put money into improving Playa Lakes kind of as a, as kind of a give back because. No, we pumped a lot of your water here. Let's give you some money. But I don't, I don't know that for a fact, so don't quote me on that anybody. But it is, you know, there are some things out there, but you know, NRCS is going to be a place to start when you look for doing that kind of stuff. But I mean, even if you had like DU come in and did that and restored your ply lake, you got it where it'll, you know, where the silt is removed and it works and it functions properly. I mean, you know, you could even on a dry year, for not a great deal of money, you could probably keep water in that Playa Lake. And it doesn't take as much in a Playa Lake as I think people as I had thought to get it done. I mean, you don't have to have 10 foot deep water and especially in [01:14:23] Speaker C: the winter, it's not evaporating near as much. Yeah, it goes quickly. Quicker than we like to see it. [01:14:28] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:14:32] Speaker C: I don't know. I mean, that's got. If there's 20 or 30,000 birds coming and going out of that every day too. That's not helping. [01:14:38] Speaker B: Yeah, no, there you go. Because they're just like watering cattle too. [01:14:41] Speaker A: Yeah, it is. But I mean, and you got to take, you know, be dedicated to keeping it in there. But man, if it kept it where you could, you know, keep a place huntable for longer. Yeah, I mean, that would be, you know, there's a lot to be said for. There's a lot to be said for money that comes in at that time of year that doesn't. It's not earmarked for something. [01:15:01] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:15:02] Speaker C: And that's, and having that water there when it's frozen too, to be able to turn it on and keep that water. [01:15:06] Speaker A: Yeah. Yep. [01:15:08] Speaker C: It's a big deal for these birds. [01:15:09] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:15:10] Speaker C: So pack up and leave. [01:15:11] Speaker B: Yeah, they will. [01:15:13] Speaker C: Yeah. If they can't get back in there. [01:15:14] Speaker B: Yeah, that's true. [01:15:16] Speaker A: And you tempt. That's the thing about, you always think about water being cold, but if it's 24 degrees outside and you're pumping 65 degree water on it, that's heated lake, [01:15:26] Speaker B: maybe that's what we need to do with this water. If they clean that water up from. We talk a lot about produced water from oil wells. You know, they're cleaning it up because they don't have a plate. They're about to get where they don't have a place to go with it. It'd be nice if you could use that produced water after they've cleaned it up because they've, they've already, they've already, they have two or three permits where they're about to start putting produced water that's been cleaned up into the Pecos river for, for water districts down below of that. I mean, and the, the main thing that holds oil production back in Terry county is in the, in Permian Basin. And this is like every barrel oil you get like three or four barrels of water. Terry county, every barrel oil you get like 30 barrels of water. So there's just, it's just so cost ineffective. But if you could stage that around and like fill these instead of those guys trying to inject it, put it in Playa Lakes, I mean, because it's, it is cleaned up enough for human consumption, but it's not labeled for human consumption. But you could irrigate it on crops. That's how clean that they've got it. And as the technology goes on, that'll keep building. Well, just think if you had, oh, you know, an oil well that's producing, you know, who know, 10 or 20,000 gallons a day and it needs to go somewhere if it's cleaned up, if they finally get it to where they can clean it up in a. It didn't have to go to some huge plant to clean up. But they, they think they've got that they can water what they say, 20 or 30,000 acres of farmland, just not in the not too distant future. There's that much water that they can clean up. [01:17:00] Speaker A: I mean that's, that's a lot. They're already looking at the next step. I think looking at is trying to put it out on and doing pasture improvements down that, that area down there. Although, man, somebody down there is buying an ungodly amount of land in the, in the Permian Basin and in the. [01:17:16] Speaker B: I imagine it has nothing to do with the two letters AI probably. [01:17:20] Speaker A: Oh, they're 200 and they just bought it. But 286,000 acres in New Mexico just right across the border or. No, they got 286,000 acres in the Permian Basin and they bought 80,000. [01:17:33] Speaker B: I mean it's that lands. Not what my, my father. I said all it does is hold the world together. I mean, all on it. That's all, that's all it'd be good for. You grow one cow section just about down there. [01:17:45] Speaker A: But there's a lot. I mean there's, there's new technology coming down and when they once and you know, I don't think it's going to happen very quickly, but eventually they'll get it small enough. Where you. Where a company could probably put some sort of a cleanup facility for, you know, a filtration facility. [01:18:02] Speaker B: Yeah, there's a lot of. There's a lot of oil in Terry County. It's just that there's a lot of water and you know, it's too bad that it's not and they, they, it would. This is a long ways down the road, but maybe one day they pumping all that oil out and they can clean that water up and they can put it back in the aquifer. Yeah, you know, they could. There's a lot of. If they get it, if this, if it's clean enough to go in a river, it's clean enough to go on aquifer because I mean, they're going to use it to irrigate crops with. I mean that's. I know people drink out of the aquifer, but I mean, you think about it, if somebody goes up in space, I know it's on a lot smaller scale. They don't like have a water generator up there. I mean they take. Clean it out of 20 gallons of water or whatever and it's, it's recycled. [01:18:46] Speaker A: I mean used over and over. But that's, that's what's going to be interesting. But so going to recap on it. So if a guy wants, you know. [01:18:55] Speaker B: Yeah. How do they get a hold. Do you have a website in the final descent. Final descent. [01:19:01] Speaker C: Godservices.com I believe. [01:19:03] Speaker B: But most usually had a lot of people on Facebook, messaging, stuff like that, or any kind of social media. [01:19:09] Speaker C: Yeah. And then obviously call. But we'd love to talk with any of them. But we have our core growers. My point today was, I think I told you on the phone, you know, these guys need help. [01:19:23] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:19:24] Speaker C: It's always difficult for me to think, you know, let's get on the radio and tell everybody what we're doing. But it was time. [01:19:33] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:19:34] Speaker C: If anybody, even if they've got an outfitter they work with or trust or their grandkid or somebody's young outfit, and they want to know what to do better, we need to help you. [01:19:41] Speaker A: Them. [01:19:42] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:19:42] Speaker A: Well, one thing about improving habitat is it's. It's one of the true things that a rising tide raises all boats because the better that, the better the overall habitat is throughout the county or that region. Then the more birds are gonna find it. The more birds find it, the more people are gonna come in from elsewhere to hunt. [01:20:00] Speaker C: And not just that. Just, you know, understanding, like the roost stuff, you know, what can really shoot you in the foot. [01:20:08] Speaker B: Right. How that can ruin it for everybody. [01:20:12] Speaker C: And you may be taking money away from your neighbor or, you know, next year you might have the crop that you would have made the money, and then they're letting somebody shoot it. So. [01:20:19] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:20:20] Speaker C: Just talking through those things and that was my point today, is that there's a lot of money that could be made with these guys that. That they're not thinking about. And. [01:20:28] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:20:28] Speaker C: You know, when we first started, they really. They're like, yeah, you can shoot it or we don't want money, you know, thank goodness. [01:20:34] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:20:35] Speaker C: We've always. Right. But, yeah, you know, it's 25 a gun. Well, nobody's gonna. [01:20:40] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:20:41] Speaker C: You know. [01:20:41] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:20:42] Speaker C: You might buy a Christmas present if we hunt it a lot. [01:20:45] Speaker A: But. [01:20:45] Speaker C: Yeah, now it's getting up, you know, 75, 100 bucks. There's people that are paying more. [01:20:51] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:20:53] Speaker C: Which is a whole nother game. [01:20:55] Speaker B: Well, you know, it's. I mean, we. I guess we're about out of time, aren't we? [01:21:00] Speaker A: Yeah, we're moving. [01:21:02] Speaker B: That's a story for another. Another day. [01:21:04] Speaker A: I mean, it's. You know, that the more we can have. [01:21:07] Speaker B: No, we're still on the. [01:21:09] Speaker A: The more we can have in it, you know, the better off as far as, like, winter feeding forum, winter water forum. You know, look at. Look at what the nrcs and group fun. People like Ducks Unlimited, there's another. Another NGO out here that. That function that's functioning on and I drawing a complete blank, but they focus on improving playa lakes. You know, anytime you get a playa lake fixed up and in good shape and you've got some cover on it, hey, you can turn. You can run fast line to that without having to drill a well and just turn your water on. And, you know, if you had a good wet fall, you've already got a ply lake. It's just a matter of maintaining. And if you didn't, you know, hey, you got a roost for them. And you know, you may not hunt them off the place where the roost is, but you may own the place next to it, next door to it too, you know, and with a little bit of forethought and a little bit of planning that additional planning on your crop rotation and the crops, you could be setting yourself up to get some. Some extra money off of that. There's. And you know, nowadays, farmers can't afford to not look at every revenue stream. [01:22:15] Speaker B: That's what he means by a lot of people are hurting. You just. You never need every little bit. [01:22:19] Speaker C: Yeah. And thank goodness, the amount of producers that are coming and asking. You know, I had calls this morning, Rhett, what do we need to do with these stocks? [01:22:26] Speaker B: Awesome. [01:22:26] Speaker C: Better for. For dove hunting, you know, that's awesome. So they're. They're geared that way. They're thinking that hopefully earn their trust where they. They know. But. [01:22:35] Speaker B: Well, that's what. That's what we talked about. Being trust being built is calling. Then it's in. It's for. It's. It's front of mind too. It's like, hey, I, you know, I'm through stripping cotton or this. You know, I'm gonna go, oh, wait a minute. What I do with these stalks, you know. Yeah, let's don't spend the. There's no telling what diesel's gonna be this fall. Diesel could be 8, 10 bucks a gallon. But anyway, we need to sign off now, so. Yeah, so I'll let you finish this. [01:22:56] Speaker A: We'll wrap it up. And thank you all for joining us again for another episode of Dry side Dispatch, bought to you by HSI Water. We'll see you next week.