Gamekeeper Podcast

EP: 470 | Adam Wainwright the Gamekeeper

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This week we’re joined by former Major League Baseball All-Star and Gamekeeper Adam Wainwright. Adam played 18 seasons for the St. Louis Cardinals, winning a World Series in the process. During those years he never strayed from his love of deer hunting and in fact the Drury’s during his time there lit a fire in him to manage a property! After retiring from MLB Adam moved back to his home state of Georgia and purchased a rough 1600 acre property that was truly a blank slate and is in the process of turning it into a wildlife haven. It’s an interesting and fun discussion. 

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SPEAKER_03

I'm Jeff Foxworthy, and welcome to Gamekeeper Podcast. If you want to learn more about farming for wildlife and habitat management, everybody, you are in the right place. Join the Gamekeeper crew direct from Austrian Land Enhancement Studios. They discuss the latest wildlife and habitat management practices. News, and of course, money. There's no telling what you'll learn, but I'm going to tell you I've had a centre. Enjoy.

SPEAKER_02

We are live in three, two, one.

SPEAKER_00

The Cardos are one strike away from going to Detroit and the 2006 World Tour. Adam, Wainwright gets a new baseball. Rubs it up, stands on. Looks in, but the base is loaded two out. Cardo's leading three to one here in the bottom of the ninth inning. One of the most dangerous hitters in the business at the plate. Carlos Belton. He is ready. So is Wainwright. The O2 delivery. Kerr struck him out looking. The Cardinals are going to Michigan to take on the Tigers. They mob, they mob Adam Wainwright on the mound. They are National League champions and headed for Detroit as they mobile. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01

Gotta be chill bumps back there because it does it back here. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

And to hear Mike Shannon's call, too, is just a special. That's a special thing. I'm glad I got to live that out. I mean, every now and then I just have to pinch myself and remind myself, you know, and the whole world, only one person gets to close out a World Series. Uh only one person in the whole world. And I I was able to do that. You know, and but the funny thing is, just like y'all played that clip, the question I get asked more than anything in the world is tell me about game seven, Beltrans at bat. No one talks about actually closing out the World Series a week later. No one talks about that. It's all about because it was so dramatic, you know, that was such a cool moment. Game seven, bottom of the ninth, bases loaded, Carlos Beltran, Cardinal Killer up. Uh, that's what everybody remembers. Wow.

SPEAKER_08

I can imagine the pressure. No, no, I can't. Yeah. Well, look, let me get it, let me set the table here. So we've got Adam Wainwright. He was uh look, I'm I'm gonna introduce him properly here in a second, but Toxie's here, Lanny's here, Dudley's here, Adam's here. I think we've got Caleb. You he may stay in here with us uh over there with Adam. All right, in the house. Let me just set the table up here today. Adam, I met him back in around 2011 with the juries. He was a uh celebrity guest judge when he got injured one year on the dream season. That was a lot of fun. I enjoy getting to meet him there. Learned that he is a big, serious hunter. Lanny, I'm being serious. Game keeper recording everything. I put my glasses on here so I can do it. So look, imagine growing up in Georgia, pitching in your backyard, all of a sudden, you getting signed with the you sign a major league contract out of high school. This guy, over an 18-year career, spent he spent the whole 18 years with the St. Louis Cardinals. He was a three-time All-Star, won a World Series, two-time golden glove winner, a silver slugger. Twice uh he led the NL the National League in wins. Three times. Well, he was uh voted in the top three, or maybe maybe four times in the top three of Cy Young. Whoa. I mean, this guy has done it all. But maybe his most important thing that we love about him so much is when he retired, he somehow figured out a way to put together some land, and he is a gamekeeper. And I say, Lane, is there anything more American than growing up playing baseball, doing all this, and then getting a farm and getting to enjoy it? I can't think of anything. He is our hero of the day. Welcome, Adam Wainwright.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, thank you. That's that's the whole reason I played for so long, man. I need to keep adding acreage and keep adding fields. And uh that's you play a lot. So I so many people have said this, but players play so they can farm, and then farmers farm so they can try to play. You know, it's always it's always uh you always want to be doing something different. But uh I've always wanted to be uh get my hands dirty since I was a kid. I've been in the garden and and uh now we've uh got a just a really cool operation out there at the farm, and we're we're seeing some major growth in our animals, but also in our soil health, and it's where is this farm? It's in Jessup, Georgia. Wow. Um just just up the road, we say here.

SPEAKER_07

Oh yeah, that's right.

SPEAKER_04

It's about uh it's just about an hour from my house. I live on St. Simon's Island, Georgia, and so it's about an hour inland. Um Wow. A little bit a little bit north, a little bit west, and and uh just a wonderful place. And it's a really cool spot. I I wanted when when I was picking out land, I'm I know I'm probably jumping ahead. I wanted something that was uh just as raw and untouched and unaffected by humans as I could possibly get. I could have bought a you know, fully formed, finished farm already, and and uh I just knew I wanted to do things differently and and put my own stamp on it. So I bought just a raw, super acidic, just just cut over piece of land, and and we built up something pretty neat from it.

SPEAKER_09

Well, that's the fun part. Exactly. Yep. Yeah, the the work and the whole process is so enjoyable.

SPEAKER_01

Absolutely. And you're wise to get something close to home, in my opinion, and not you know, go dive into you know, middle of the Midwest where they're already the biggest and everything, too. Because to me, the joy, you know, we're living life, and like we all say here, time is your most valuable resource, always will be, no matter what you have. And having stuff closed is especially when life gets busy, is so much more valuable because not the size of the critter or whatever it's just you can spend more time on it, you know.

unknown

For sure.

SPEAKER_01

That's right. That's just a good idea.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, so important. Two or three times a week, I drop them off at school and I head straight to the farm. That's what I'm talking about. Yep. I'm either I'm fishing or we're, you know, planting something or moving something or hanging stands or safety lines or whatever we're doing. I I love, you know, clearing out and making making shooting lanes and all that stuff. I I just love that. Caleb just shot him a nice access deer on here. All right. Laying them down. I thought he was only allowed to play that game while we're while we're uh yeah, and I think it is that's exactly right. I I could have gone three and a half hours from here. There was farms available three and a half hours away that are growing massive deer, especially for Georgia. They're along the Flint River, talking 200-inch deer. Uh and uh but how often do you get to go to that? You know, how often do you to to to to run out there and be able to come back for school pickup? That's huge, man, to be able to run out there and spend the day at the farm and come back, but also be far enough away where you're out of town for when you don't want to have to do things, but close enough in town where you are in town if you do want to do things, it's a it's a good spot.

SPEAKER_09

That is the sweet spot.

SPEAKER_01

It is and I mean it's I mean, Dudley went through the same thing. He had a family farm, maybe what, two and a half hours or so from here, and finally loved the place, it meant a lot and all, but finally, you know, he went ahead and sold it and bought something closer and you know, in an exchange. Between here and where you live is so close, and it makes all the difference in the world.

SPEAKER_08

That's right. Well, speaking of Dudley, why don't we get why don't we start with rapid fire? Yeah. Get to know Adam a little bit better. We're we're so excited to have you, Adam. But uh Dudley's crafted some questions, he calls it rapid fire. It's brought to us by Nutrient Ag Solutions. Those are some fine folks.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah, talked to Twinkie last week. They're busy right now.

SPEAKER_08

Talking about helpful. All right, Dudley, don't let us down.

SPEAKER_09

All right, Adam. Um, I'm gonna ask you some rapid fire questions. So are you ready? I'm ready. Are peanuts or hot dogs more baseball to you? Ooh. Peanuts. Favorite Saturday Night Live cast member over the years, Chris Harley. My heart. Name a pitcher who could hit well that you looked up to growing up, a major league pitcher who could hit well.

SPEAKER_04

Uh John Smoltz.

SPEAKER_09

Would you rather watch NFL football or major league baseball on TV? Depends on the game. Okay. What would you what would you say is your favorite college team to root for?

SPEAKER_04

University of Georgia. I knew that was coming.

SPEAKER_09

Uh, what is your furthest field goal in high school? In a game, 48 practice 60. Oh, wow. Uh first deer. Where, when, and what was it?

SPEAKER_04

Metter, Georgia, 1999, I think. Uh eight-point buck. I I hunted for three years. Uh, whitetail hunting. I grew up a bird hunter, doves and quail and and uh ducks, but mainly mainly uh dove and quail uh and greenweed shooting at uh for um con contest shooting for um sporting clays and trap. But I got into deer hunting late 90s, early 2000s, and I hunted for three years because I wanted to shoot a nice buck first um and a shout-up in Meadow, Georgia.

SPEAKER_09

That is awesome. All right, name a gamekeeping activity that you have been really enjoying doing lately.

SPEAKER_04

Um we have a biologist that's given us a uh a book of all of our deer from one and a half year, two and a half, three and a half, four and a half, five and a half, and up to up to we label them up to six and a half. Um and and getting to know the deer and name them so that uh that when they come out, you know as soon as oh, there's blades, there's there's Muley, there's FFR, there's there's all these, you know, I I love that stuff. You know, so I got I got names for all of them. And my daughter Sadie and my little guy Caleb here, they they know the names too. So when they come out, they go, Dad, is that is that CG? Is that is that linebacker? I'm like, no, it's not. It's our four and a half, you know, he's not quite there, but uh I love I love that part of it.

SPEAKER_09

It is very fun studying up on that stuff.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah, naming them, just creating the names is great.

SPEAKER_09

Now, name a local gamekeeper who has influenced you.

SPEAKER_04

Um not many local gamekeepers around here, I'll be honest with you. I've got a couple of buddies in South Carolina that have really helped me with with knowing when and and what to plant based off of our our climate down here. It's climate is so hot and humid. It's it makes Missouri look like Antarctica sometimes. You know, it's uh it's very hard to grow things in the dead of summer. I mean, we're our growing season is almost kind of over now, uh if you can believe it, because it's just too hot and humid out there. Oh yeah. Um, but uh it's almost time to get those those uh fall and and winter stuff going, which I'm really excited about. Um I would say my land manager, uh William Tankersley is is is really he's really savvy and wise about uh the dirt and soil and and uh Gabe Brown is a guy that I've really studied a lot about. Okay. I don't know if y'all know him, but uh I've got a few books on the shelf back here. One's called Dirt to Soil that really changed my life about how I wanted to grow things.

SPEAKER_09

All right, last but not least, hitting a home run on on your first pitch in the major leagues or singing in the national anthem, what do you think meant the most to you?

SPEAKER_04

I thought I was gonna have to choose. I was gonna say I've done both of them. Um, hitting a home run was I mean, I I I wanted to be a show ahead of Tiny. I wanted to be a two-way player. That's who I wanted to be so bad. And uh that wasn't something that they let people do, you know, in the minor leagues. Even though I was, you know, I was gonna be a second round hitter, um, I was you know only afforded the pitching route. And so to to be able to kind of show off your chops at the plate every now and then, that was that was probably that's my answer for that.

SPEAKER_06

That's huge. I can completely get that. It had to be excited. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_08

Yeah, those are good, Dudley. All right. You know, I was just looking at the map, Jessup, Georgia. Uh this just this year we've had Bobby's Bobby's own and don't drop any pins and send them to me. No, no, I'm not. But we've we you know, we had Davis Love. He's in South East Georgia, and uh we we've had well quite a quite a bit.

SPEAKER_04

Davis is right down the street. Brian Harmon, another great golfer, British Open Champ, is right down the street. Both of those guys are are great stewards of the land as well. They are.

SPEAKER_01

So St. Simon's is in Georgia or South Carolina? It's in Georgia. So it's got a bunch of really high-end golf courses on it, too, doesn't it?

SPEAKER_04

It does. That's why, you know, we we have Davis Love, Zach Johnson, uh Brian Harmon, Russell Henley. Um we got uh five or six others also golfers that are down here that are PGA you know pros. So um yeah.

SPEAKER_06

Well, and they've got uh you know saltwater fishing and great whitetail hunting within an hour of each other. I mean and turkeys and techies. You know Davis Love's got turkeys. Yeah, I mean, so it's like a great little paradise.

SPEAKER_08

I tell you that Brian Harman, he's really hustling on his place. He's uh he's putting in the work and he's doing it in a lot of it himself, and he I've just been real impressed talking with him.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, he loves getting on the tractor. He does. He it's his like his, you know, whether he's played good or bad, that's his kind of getaway and get out there on the tractor and tear something down if he has to.

SPEAKER_01

Tractor therapy. Oh, excavator therapy.

SPEAKER_06

It's a real it's a real deal. Yeah, it is. It is equipment therapy.

SPEAKER_08

All right, Adam, walk us back to you growing up and where did you how did you get introduced to hunting? And and uh I understand you're your first deer, you mentioned that, but what what did hunting mean to you when you were growing up?

SPEAKER_04

Well, I mean, I can since I was probably seven years old, I was in the backyard running down squirrels and rabbits and dove with with a BB gun. Uh and then as as I got older, that turned into a pellet gun. And my brother's seven years older than me, so I always went with him to the Ducks Unlimited Greenwing shoots. Uh, and then as I watched him compete in those, I really got uh enthralled with sporting clays and shooting, shooting skeet and trap, and and uh and the craziest thing was uh I grew up shooting right-handed. When I was probably 10 or 12 years old, I could shoot 90 out of a hundred, shooting right handed. And then when I was 16, I could shoot 75 out of 100, and it was my eyes were switching, and and my left eye became uh just severely dominant. So now I shoot everything left-handed, and it's uh it's been so cool doing that. But um, that's kind of how I got into it, watching Big Bro and and wanting to be like him, and and uh getting I was a Boy Scout, so camping and and shooting and hunting was always a part of my always a part of my youth.

SPEAKER_01

That's the first time I've heard someone went through that same attack process. I was a little younger, but I I I switched eyes shooting. I shot out right-handed, I was throwing right hand about right hand and all that, and then I think probably about eight or nine, and I went with daddy one day, and he was like, wait a minute, because I'd shot and missed something I shouldn't have. It's like no way. I think it was squirrel hunting with like a 20 gauge. And so he had me tested, and I was totally left eye dominant after all that time. Switched to the left, ever since then, everything is left-handed.

SPEAKER_08

Is there a way that you can tell your eye?

SPEAKER_01

How do you do that, Lenny?

SPEAKER_06

Oh, you point at something and you close one of your eyes. Well, cover it up and then close one and see it.

SPEAKER_01

I'm just hoping you'd explain it. That's pretty easy. Yep, it is pretty. You can go online. I there's a you can go on the line and look it up, Bobby. Watch it.

SPEAKER_06

There's a lot of people that do it. We went through that with Hayden too. Mine, you know, started out left and went to right. So yeah, several people find it hard to switch.

SPEAKER_04

They end up, you know, shooting like around. They're still using their dominant eye, but they're cranking their way over the the gun more or something, you know. But when you're shooting a bow or something, you really need to be looking down the barrel, looking down that sight line with your with your dominant eye.

SPEAKER_09

Yeah, I struggle with that. And so oftentimes I will make my left uh lens on my glasses purposely. I'll make it dirty to encourage my right eye to stay dominant.

SPEAKER_06

We use the pirate patch, you know. We used a pirate patch from a Halloween costume to get around it sometimes. How about that?

SPEAKER_08

Well, uh, golly, when when you started playing, but you were you were signed out of high school, it sounds like from what I've read about you, but you landed in St. Louis, the juries are right there. You had access to some pretty incredible hunting uh right there in Missouri where you uh were playing baseball. Did you get to hunt much up there?

SPEAKER_04

Oh yeah, yeah. I uh I uh I started hunting with the jurories in maybe oh eight, um, oh seven, even maybe, uh, and then on Dream Season in 09. But Matt, I had a I had a uh a lease up there for for a long time by myself in Ellsbury, Missouri, uh, an hour away from St. Louis, just a man, I loved this place. I loved it. I tried to buy it 10 different times. I tried there was an old, there's an old like Braddy house that needed to get either torn down or completely renovated. And I I even had a my builder come out there and like price out a complete rental of the place, and I was gonna like, hey, give me a 20-year lease on this place if you won't sell it, and I'll I'll completely like make this thing an awesome barn, like super cool, whatever. And uh the guy wouldn't let me do that either. I just could never understand that. But I shared it that the last five or six years with Matt Drury because uh I just couldn't get up there as much. And uh killed my my my biggest bow buck ever, 184 and 3.8s out there. Um just a just an awesome place. And I love that little town of Aylesbury too. There's like one Casey store and like a Mexican joint, a subway, and and that's it, man. Pretty much that's enough.

SPEAKER_07

What else do you need? That's all right. What else do you need?

SPEAKER_05

As long as you're at a bait shop, too. Yeah.

SPEAKER_08

Do you get to do much turkey hunting?

SPEAKER_04

Here we go. I have just in the last two years started turkey hunting a lot. That was it's always tough in spring. Oh, yeah. Uh you know, there's uh there's just no time to do it during a season. I mean, I I would try to run out there once or once or twice a year with the juries, and and those guys uh would try to put me on some birds. We never had much luck. Um I was like, hey, Matt, why don't you call your why don't you call your uncle down here, man? Let's get this thing going. But um uh I've it's on my property, you know, we have, especially for Georgia, we have good deer hunting. We have we have pretty good quail hunting. It's it's really it's really improving. We have great bass fishing. We have amazing turkey hunting. I mean amazing. We killed uh I'm I'm this is no exaggeration. We we harvested four gobblers this year, maybe five. Um at any given time on our on our cameras, we might have a hundred turkeys on film. I'm being I'm not exaggerating.

SPEAKER_01

We just actually you can't see acres. Bobby, we just had to do some smelling sauce to revive Bobby over there. He's laying on the ground.

SPEAKER_08

Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_04

It it's a it is really amazing. Last year I was after this one old beard, uh double beard that had it's been kind of elusive the last couple years, and I had such a close call. Me and him, we had a close call one day at Turkey Hunting, didn't we, buddy? Just uh had a big gobbler coming in, and just you know how they do those big ones are wise, and and there's just no reason that it didn't step out beyond this palmetto and it just didn't, and I we never know where it went. We sat there for 30 minutes, but we called him in nice and god, we were close. But um, you know, some of my favorite memories are not of harvesting them of but of the hunt itself. Yeah.

SPEAKER_09

100% sometimes those close calls are are better than a kill. I mean, I'll say it.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, I spent I spent I think an hour and 40 minutes army crawling across the field with a low cover crop on it uh two years ago, and I got within maybe 20 yards before I got into the place where I could finally uh see through the brush to shoot this thing, and and uh and I had no idea that there was hens and and other gobblers in the field, and and there was a hen like literally 10 feet from me that busted me and he flew off and I was like, oh no. But it was just the that I remember picking up kids that day from school, and I was just totally disgusting. Uh just dirt all over me, and it was just like such a cool story to tell, but um no, no, no finishing. result, but uh the result of the hunt was still fun. Yeah, that's how it is.

SPEAKER_08

Well let me ask you this, Adam. So uh when we were preparing for this, you mentioned that this property that you bought, it it sounded like it didn't have many deer on it at all. It it sounded very bare. And so walk us through the renovation process of this 1600 acres.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, it was a former dog hunting club um where in South Georgia they they uh there's big groups of people that run dogs through there and and it's it is it is fun but it the sporting of it is is uh it's not something that we try to do on our farm but uh it is a blast. Um so we got it and and for the first year or two honestly it they were pretty nocturnal like they would not come out in the day at all. We had to get some good food practice out there for them. We had to establish our cover crops we had to um we had to to give them a reason to want to stick around you know we let it go quiet. I didn't shoot a doe for three years um maybe four years even just trying to build up the population. Now we've got it in a great spot where we're having to harvest last year we had to harvest 15 does uh I think we I think we got 12 or 13 of the 15 we wanted to shoot um we were uh we're we're we're now at we're getting our buck doe ratio in a spot where it's really healthy before you know you hunt you'd see you might see uh two deer in a sit you in and and uh you know a spike and a you know so it just wasn't good hunting you know just wasn't wasn't good at all and and now you know we'll see we see 15 to 20 deer on a good sit sometimes more than that but but the but the buck population now we're seeing all right there's our there's our two and a half there's our three and a half we know them by name there's our four and a half okay there's our five and a half I really don't want to take him right now though I'm saving him for him or somebody else like that so I love that kind of stuff it's been really cool to see the wildlife come around because the soil was so acidic our farm was a was a was a pine plantation it had just palmettos and pine trees only it had been clear cut almost every tree in the property had been cut about 30 35 years prior to that so you have some oaks coming back but they're they're about all about that 30 30 35 year old um age we have uh now we've seen our soil health get in such a way where we have we have tons of birds now coming in there was no forage for the birds before uh there was nothing to I mean we never saw a turkey we never saw a turkey now there's turkeys everywhere literally we've we've also we've we've put a a really cool trapping plan together so that we're we're keeping track of our our keeping uh our our predators in in check we have you know we have uh 300 to 400 chickens out there too we were we're we're doing some some some eggs and um you know before I think we trapped 104 coyotes the first few years or some crazy number like that with bobcats and fox and all this and and uh it was just it was out of control out there there was the predators were crazy the hunting was crazy the the the the food source was neg like nothing so like improving in all those areas it's a big question to answer has been such a fun process and seeing the the results of the animals seeing the the birds come around because there's there's actually bugs in the ground there's worms earthworms in the ground moving around keeping our soil nice and loose and seeing that dirt change from white sand to a darker brown deep brown not to the Midwest yet but we're working on it um you know getting our pH levels balanced so that we can grow really well and and uh I I love it man I I'm I nerd out about this stuff that's fantastic um I want to hear a little bit more of your about your um soil management regime 100% yeah so I mean we and we don't do any we don't do any spraying um so uh my wife's big on that man big like the the the the roundups just not coming on the farm you know it I mean don't tell her every now and then on the fence line I we have to get after a little bit of you know something but we ain't gonna tell nobody about that don't worry yeah yeah but uh it's it's really cool to to hear people who have who have invested their whole lives in this speak about you know it is possible when I first bought the farm I said man I'm gonna start growing corn and soybeans and all these out there and I remember that my neighbor told me one time he said well you can't do that here I said why not he said because no one's ever done it and that's just not a good reason not to do something sure um and so it's been fun proving people wrong about what we can do what we can't do out there. We've got uh cover crop mix different in spring and fall um but uh of different grasses and legumes and and peas and different you know daikon radishes and this brings phosphorus this brings nitrogen we need to we planted this so now we need a nitrogen fixer over here I love I love getting into all that stuff um and what the different grasses do for the animals but also for the soil health you know what is it what do we how can we plant things around this uh around this field to keep the weeds out or to maybe keep the pests out we had like a a plague of like a biblical plague of of locust grasshoppers come in a couple years ago that just took our pecan leaves down to the nub and so we're trying to figure out how can we plant something deeper and thicker around the edges to keep them kind of off the the main thing. It's all experiment right until until you know what works. But um I love all those little intricate processes.

SPEAKER_09

Yeah that sounds a lot of fun and you know your practices are making it to where you don't have to use herbicides. You know you're leaving all that stuff on the surface and planting into that so kudos to that. It's not easy to do especially in the in the deep south.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah and it's not easy to like when you're talking to traditional farmers and and and uh gardeners or row crop people to to tell them hey we're we're this is a no-till zone we're gonna we're just gonna crimp it we're gonna plant it and they're like what what do you mean it's a no-till zone so it's it's fun to and sometimes you got to till right sure sometimes you do and uh yeah but uh we're we're trying to keep that carbon in the soil um that just was non-existent beforehand so and if I'm reading this right you're somehow using chickens to help build up the soil in your food plots or how are you doing that? Yeah we have mobile chicken coops that we move around every three days chicken tractors yeah chicken tractor that's right so we move them every three days and they mow down and they pick out all the nasty crap and stuff that's in the dirt and bugs and whatever but their chicken litter the poop is like the best fertilizer in the world man so uh the the the orchard that we've had this uh system going in the last the last couple years we've seen dramatic growth um from what we're able to grow the the the health of our pecans have gone way up the the uh the health of our gardens have gone way up and our soil has gone way up and and uh they're just they're one of natural's cleaners you're uh the earth's natural cleaners they uh you know what I want to do eventually is is bring in this great rotation of cows and chickens and goats and uh pigs and all the things and move them around and because I think that's just how it's supposed to be those those cows kind of walk around break the soil up they they poop the chickens come behind them and they pick through the things that need to come out of there and and and then lay down their soil in enhancing uh number twos and then they move on and then you know this there's a great rotation that's that's around that I think this it's the same as crop rotation you know as there's animal rotation I can't wait to get into that.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah rotational grazing and it you know it kind of mimics uh like think about bison back in the day right you know they create a disturbance they eat they pee they poop and and but they're not in a big fence so they can go to a new area right and then that stuff grows up and then they come back and uh pushing seeds into the ground you know had them doing some serious farming over there because I mean we not only deer we're talking about chickens and everything else to drill the soils that's awesome. Well what about are you are you seeing quail on your place now?

SPEAKER_04

Yeah we have we've we see a a fair amount of wild birds now too it's um we would see a a a wild covey every now and then when we first got the property as they were just kind of strolling through to find somewhere else probably um but with the predation and and the lack of food there was no reason for them to stick around. Now we have we have everything that feeds the deer feeds the quail.

SPEAKER_08

Actually out there in Ellsbury one time I remember um and I know the quail population in Missouri has gotten so low uh I was out there hunting and and I walked up uh by that cabin I was talking about earlier that was kind of run down and and uh covey of Bob Whites jumped out and I remember my buddy Aaron uh who films me a lot and was with the jurories uh also Aaron was like oh my gosh dude a quail he's like I've never seen a quail in live like in person down here and I'm like yeah that's awesome I I thought it was I didn't think it was a big deal because we have them all the time but I have seen a lot of uh improvements with our quail hunting big time so Adam uh off camera uh but but he's he's got his own personal camera we've got Richie Davenport and he's a huge Cardinal fan he's been so excited I want to make sure Richie gets a chance to ask you a question. Oh smart man that guy he is well I appreciate that and let me tell you this about him Adam he his dream growing up when he was just a little boy he wanted to be the announcer for the St.

SPEAKER_04

Louis Cardinals went to college studied radio announcing uh he's made a career in uh and he's landed here at the game keepers now I'm here at Mossy so I I you know all we can do is go up I say but I I I agree I I love it here and I love yeah so it's just the the road takes us and so no yeah I've always been a Cardinals fan since I was a little kid old Bush Stadium there like I said I remember uh uh Buck's call there go crazy folks and it's just uh you know the wizard you know doing flips out when the first time I went to the game there I saw him doing a backflip out there on the field just you know hooked me hooked me ever since so what are some things you're doing on the property right now I guess an aspect of getting ready for uh this upcoming season well I just got our cameras out uh a couple weeks ago um we are right now we're in the process because the the leaves are out trying to figure out exactly what stands we want to move what uh what lanes could be improved on I I love entry and exit uh into a stand I think it's so important and uh I'm trying to do a better job this year of masking my entry and exit out uh into and out of stands um we just uh as far as growing things we just um we just enclosed 15 acres of of property to uh to expand our we had a one and a half uh acre garden so now we just we have so many deer now it didn't matter before but last year they ate every single tomato on the vine so we had to enclose our our garden where it's uh we sell to local restaurants and we have a CSA program that's about to start up where people can get whatever's fresh on the farm um every Monday. So uh right now we have 26 26 families we we uh we provide but uh the the goal is this next year is to get 50 families that are paying and 50 families that can't afford it and provide food every week to those families um so we're in the process of all that as well um but uh right now I'll tell you what I'm doing is I'm I've uh I've got the bow out I've got it tuned up of I'm I'm working back to to 70 yards. Uh I've got a big elk hunt trip in Idaho coming up in September and uh so I'm getting ready for that. 70 yards Lanny. Yeah that's a little far from elk hunting he's he's getting he's getting dialed in that's right how many pounds are you should if if you're if you're comfortable at 70 you're gonna be real comfortable at 30 and 40 which is like yeah so uh your elbow issues and all that hadn't doesn't affect your ability to draw the bow and you you're through all that no and and when it did uh in 17 and 18 I had some um the back side of my elbow I've had three surgeries back here for cartilage issues and and I had a nasty bone bruise because that's my like my extension arm right there where I'm pushing out with that. That that bothered me for those two years and so I used a crossbow for for two years um which is a pretty awesome way to hunt I mean as far as making shots and being able to shoot flat and all that but uh I did miss the bow and now luckily it's I've got no problems pulling the bow back and and drawing it at all.

SPEAKER_09

That's great. And it's it's cool that you're doing the CSA thing.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah our listeners uh that's called community supported agriculture yeah I've got a buddy that does that locally here uh it's called Bountiful Harvest Farms but uh yeah he supports a whole bunch of families and he's out there working every day um it's a it's a really neat concept we have hydroponics we have 120 beehives we have uh three 90 foot long uh high tunnel hoop houses we have a big greenhouse uh for our seed starters and and when it gets cold and so like I'm I'm I'm all in on this stuff I can tell yeah well you know knowing where your food comes from is important hey that's why we hunt you know that's why I like yeah my buddy Sam like I can just go pick one of his tomatoes and eat it off the vine I mean I know it's never been sprayed with anything uh and uh it's just a great way to do it a a free range egg is better than any egg you could buy in a store man it's just like you free rant like the other day my son and I went out to the farm and uh he wanted he w he's like let's let's go just me and you I said all right we're gonna have a dude's trip we went out we we ate for dinner his deer that he had had harvested earlier in the year in the morning we got up and we had uh we went and picked our eggs from the from the mobile units fresh eggs off the farm with sourdough bread and it's like dude y'all making my stomach grow I'm gonna go in that's exactly what I had for breakfast I had my wife's bread and our our our eggs our new chickens are laying I mean testosterone levels went way up that day it was a great day yeah that's awesome can you visibly look at an after you crack it open versus one that you bought at the store and just go oh that's free range right there. Oh it's bright orange.

SPEAKER_09

Yeah the yolk's a different color and it's harder to crack them you know the shell is stronger I mean everything the the yolk doesn't break when you drop it into the hot grease I can't stand a broken yoke.

SPEAKER_06

No. Adam we're starting a new uh segment on here it's called Gamekeeper Scouting School it's brought by our buddies at Moultrie and just wanted to ask you you know you what are your best tactics uh for preseason scouting of whitetailed deer the camera we I do believe in using the cameras right um we have cameras set up where we think I want to know where they're bedding and uh I try to stay out of those areas I want to know where sometimes they take different routes to get there but I want to know where is their favorite spots to end up in the evenings.

SPEAKER_04

If I can limit some of the lanes that they're gonna walk into a field and make them kind of funnel into certain areas to come out to be hunted um that gives me an advantage.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah. So are you doing hinge cutting or you know to to to try to you know make the deer come in the field at certain spots?

SPEAKER_04

Yeah if I find if if there's a couple lanes that um that I just don't want them to walk out of I will push over a small tree or we'll we'll get some brush and make giant piles uh we've we've like figured out that we got to make those kind of like they'll walk over some things I didn't think they would walk over. But uh most of the time they're gonna choose a a a smooth path. They're gonna choose the easiest least least least resistance path. And so we've had I mean it it one of our food plots um that uh that actually I had uh Mark and Terry help me design because uh they got into this kind of U-shaped field where you could hunt several different areas and different winds and and uh one of those areas I there's just like the prevailing wind most of the time during our hunting season just is really it's really bad if they walk from in front of me to the left. So we blocked that whole like it's probably 300 feet we blocked it. We blocked it with as many trees and brush piles as we possibly could to try to funnel them into different areas. But uh it's really helped with our turkey hunting as well um and our visibility and our line of sight on that food plot it's really improved because we've done those kinds of things but uh I wish I had more time out there. Uh keep taking jobs I'm really bad at being retired. Every time I leave out there I'm like why don't I live here man this is just all right future goals.

SPEAKER_08

So what what are you doing what are you doing uh what are some of these jobs you're doing uh I'm working broadcast with Fox um and I am a uh I don't know if I would call myself a big league um travel musician just yet but I'm in the minor leagues at least country music is is uh really picked up I've got a record label now and um playing and writing songs about to cut our second we're cutting our second album right now actually gonna release it in spring so uh it's been fun man i'm I'm having a blast with it but it you know have too many hobbies you get mediocre at all of them so you sound like a busy man no doubt about it and you have a lot of hobbies yeah I had to make the decision not to get into the B thing because I just I knew I would not be able to go over the top right so oh wow I look I knew you were a Fox announcer but I I had no idea about the country music and listening to you describe your farm there's way more going on there than it's a farm it's not a hunting place no doubt about it.

SPEAKER_06

I mean giving back to the community working on the soil you know raising chickens and using that all together it's it's really cool.

SPEAKER_08

So Adam do you have uh down there you're a highly visible person people you're are you're a magnet people you're a lot of fun to be around are you do you have problems with people sneaking on your place and trying to poach it for the first few years we did um just because they've been so used to hunting there and it's you know it's tough when families have been hunting a certain place for a long time uh you know grandpappy's been hunting it you know and you got memories with grandpappy out there hunting it uh it takes a couple of months maybe a couple years to to persuade people that that's no longer um an option you know um yeah but the the toughest part about it is you know if if we don't really watch that the the game management goes way down because it's just not everyone thinks like we think you know not everyone uh waits till five and a half to shoot a deer not everyone uh five and a half days maybe you know um so I remember growing up hunting it I've heard so many people say if it's brown it's down you know because if I don't shoot it the neighbor's going to shoot it so I might as well shoot it.

SPEAKER_04

And so you know that's that's just a a spider webbing effect where gosh these poor things can't get three years in of life you know and and so uh it's it's it's something we've watched the our neighbors are are great now they're they um we respect them and they respect us. Yeah.

SPEAKER_08

What's the best deer y'all been able to grow?

SPEAKER_04

Man my best deer you know this deer I call him linebacker because uh he had a strong side and a weak side um his his right side was was just incredible uh his left side was was a mainframe like maybe a five and over here is is probably like a you know mainframe uh eight but then like there was a lot of stickers and and I think you know I think non-typical I think he's gonna go 160 165 I do I just do. But he ghosted me last year and I'm really worried that something happened. He had a a region where he traveled and I I I caught up with him All the way until he was four and a half. And when he became five and a half, I decided I was gonna I was gonna just see, and I wanted him to last till six and a half. So I had three great encounters with him. He was five and a half. I just wanted to see, because down where we live, they they just say five and a half and six and a half deer start to go the other way already. Where in the Midwest, we know that six and a half year, they're they're still rocking. Um down here though, it it has it has kind of it has been a a true story, but I just know that we're feeding them different. And I really think that six and a half is is still, I do think that that's possible to have their peak season six and a half.

SPEAKER_09

I agree, yeah. Especially, you know, when you're improving the soil like that.

SPEAKER_04

That's right. If it was just you know normal, I I I do I wouldn't think that. But I waited and six and a half, I didn't see him once the season started. Uh not on nocturnal cameras, not on not in daytime. So I'm a little worried that I lost him somehow. Um nobody's posted anything, nobody's neighbors haven't. I mean, if they shot this deer, they would post it. They just would. You know, they'd be like, look at this thing, it'd be it'd be it might be a county record, I don't know. But you know, my average shooter buck is around 130, 135, which is tremendous deer for our area. We've got a couple deer that'll push 40s, um, but he's my big guy for sure. I had a big one that I called um Mic Drop because uh he had this big drop tie on his right side, and uh and one of my buddies shot him and never recovered him, so I don't know where he went, but yeah, he's not allowed back. But I I think I think Mike Drop would have gone 160s also. Oh wow. He was a mainframe 10 with a big drop tie, and he was an awesome deer.

SPEAKER_08

Well, you're growing some big deer. Oh, yeah. Yeah, um I mean, so you know, when we we talked to Brian, we talked to that, you know, Joby Martin's got a place down there. I'm not hearing a lot of about 140s, 150s, and 160s in that world. So if you're growing deer like that, you're doing something right.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, yeah, I think so. The Caleb's deer Muley was not a was not a a trophy, trophy deer. He was a really cool deer. He scored 127. Um, and and we have four four shooter bucks out there that are bigger than him. So uh I'm confident this next year we'll get one in the 140s. I really do think so.

SPEAKER_08

You know, Lane, these guys may not be telling me about those deer. They may be growing them, but they're not telling me about them. What 140s?

SPEAKER_09

That's not uncommon.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08

People are so quiet about things.

SPEAKER_04

Davis's land, I've hunted Davis's quite a few times. His land absolutely has a couple 140s walking around.

SPEAKER_08

Yeah, he's just not telling us about that.

SPEAKER_01

So why is Bobby not being told things? Bobby, do you ever look at yourself and wonder why people don't do these things?

SPEAKER_08

Probably is something about me that that's doing that.

SPEAKER_09

I can only think it's gonna get better. You know, proving the soil.

SPEAKER_01

No question in my mind.

SPEAKER_09

Don't uh, you know, the experts, the biologists often say that it takes several generations of healthy deer before it really starts kicking into high gate. No doubt it takes at least two years or two.

SPEAKER_01

30 years ago was growing some giant deer, and he said, I said somebody's genetics. He said, What makes genetics is generations and generations of great nutrition.

SPEAKER_06

And the more we the more we learn about them, the more that it rings true in everything that we do.

SPEAKER_09

Well, you know, there was that study the guys at uh the deer lab did a few years back where they got deer from different soil regions and then moved them into the pens and fed them exactly the same. And uh, you know, after a while you really you couldn't tell the difference between them.

SPEAKER_01

So it works. Yeah, I remember that uh they found a spike, you know, they were people could bring them deer way back in the day. I this may have been Dr. Jacobson was there so long ago, but I do remember this for sure. Someone brought them like a spike and that they whatever caught or however they got it anyway, and it was from around here, is all. And you know, it got fed the perfect nutrition and the you know, pelleted ration on top of great groceries and stuff too. And it was, it turned out to be a Boone Crockett deer. I remember that. 170, yeah.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, that that's been another thing we've added into the mix is a non-GMO uh protein pelleted feed to uh to supplement. And that's I really think that's made a difference as well.

SPEAKER_01

Oh yeah. Well, you know, the thing about it is if you've got you parts of the year with limited available perfect nutrition, they'll they'll use it more. I mean, you'll see like spring green up, they almost won't touch it, and then like late winter or late summer, they'll hammer it. So it it kind of evens out that so they don't go through a nutritional drought, you know.

SPEAKER_08

That's right. So, Adam, would you tell us one of your best deer stories?

SPEAKER_04

Well, I've got I've got a lot of great deer stories. Um got a great elk story, um I've got unfortunate uh mishap stories. I mean, that the my the big deer I was telling you about 184, that's one of my favorite. That's one of my favorite stories. I mean, we we hunted we I call him blades. We hunted blades for for two years. Finally got him at five and a half. I think he might have been six and a half. Uh we finally got him. But as he's running in, there was an it was like his little brother, maybe. Uh we thought it was a different deer. And uh we saw we saw him maybe 200 yards away through the brush, kind of like that's obviously a shooter, see his body. Oh my goodness. That's what I love about the Midwest. You can't mistake a big barrel-chested shooting buck, shooter buck, man. They're just pigs. Um and uh we see the body, we see the the rat briefly. Okay, call to him, and he just on a B line comes and I had pre-arranged everything, and and uh I think that's just I think that's just so important for hunters to know their their surroundings, and this tree's at 35, and this tree's at 18, you know, and anything in between there, I'm good on my first pin, I know where to aim, and that kind of stuff. And and I had already pre-thought this out. And uh he came sprinting right at us, uh, stopped at 35 yards, and I made uh a what I thought was a good shot. I was a little low, and uh ended up trailing him for, you know, we let him sit for a couple hours and then we trailed him the next day, even, and we ended up bringing Jesse. This deer was so savvy, it had, you know, it had found the the low spot of the fence, it found the stream to walk through to get over this high hill that's on the property, and the wind was blowing like 20 miles an hour, and I saw this bloodhound go nose to the ground right through the stream, right through the stream to track this deer and find one spot of blood in a 20-acre cornfield where the wind was whipping and go right to the deer, and I just was I was blown away. I was just totally blown away. But you know, in the same stand the following year, I'm I'm uh I've got a a muzzle loader, and I was using, I'd I had practiced for a couple months on on a on a different type of muzzle loader, and uh, I get out there and there was a double safety on this one, and I just went click. Good story, but like not a good result, kind of like the turkey hunt earlier. But it was a I would have had a 185 and a one and a 155, 160 back-to-back years in the same stand. You know, I could go on and on about this stuff. Uh there's so many, there's so many lessons learned. You know, for years I only used a whisker biscuit because I had a followway rest that that uh I went to to, you know, as you sit there in in the stand, the arrow fell off, went, you know, and right before I pulled up, the deer goes like this and runs off. And lessons learned, you know, lessons learned. Valuable lessons.

SPEAKER_08

I'm a whisker biscuit fan. I love a whisker biscuit myself. They are they're good. Gally, we hadn't even asked any baseball questions. Lane, I know you've got some baseball.

SPEAKER_06

I actually have I do have a baseball question because I knew that you were gonna call me out on something. I guess, you know, listening to Mark, um, I'm kind of I'm kind of intrigued by the I and I'm known for not being a um a baseball fan. Well, not even, I mean, I'm just not really into a lot of sports. You're just not in the loop on sports. I'm not in the loop on sports, but listening to uh I do watching Mississippi State a little bit, learning from Toxie and Bobby about the whole game and the strategy is so such a long-term strategic thing. I guess what have you learned in in baseball that you think makes you a better gamekeeper?

SPEAKER_04

Well, uh you're when you're when you're prepared, um you're you're confident. You know, and and uh I was always very confident on the mound because I knew I was prepared. You know, I put the time in to be ready for each outing, each hitter that came out there. I knew I'm like the back of my hand. And when I'm when I'm out there shooting and I've prepared the the lanes and I've uh comfortable out to like I said 70, you know, and and feeling real like just like if it if a deer's inside 30, um I know that I know that I know that I'm gonna make a shot within a two-inch radius. I mean that that gives you a a great, great amount of confidence uh going into a hunt, you know, and and knowing your zone and and knowing your your your uh your equipment really well. All that I say all that to say is just preparation breeds confidence. And uh early in my years hunting with the juries, I was not very prepared. I was not very confident, and my results wavered. And uh as I've gotten older, I've realized how important that those those steps are to being you know a successful hunter. The reason Mark Drury and those guys are so great at hunting is they they're prepared.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_04

You know, they're they put time in.

SPEAKER_01

The oldest saying in the book, practice makes perfect.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah, you know, talking to him last week, he hunts every day of the year, just about. Yeah, he does. He watches that moon, the wind, the moon, every day of the year or every day of the season. Excuse me. Good point. Let me correct yeah, mark it during correct every day during the season.

SPEAKER_09

Well, he's probably cooking something every day of the season.

SPEAKER_06

Good point.

SPEAKER_01

Madam will tell you, he will not hunt a stand, the wind isn't perfect for him. No, no. And he will sit at home and not hunt if he doesn't have a spot. He did mention that on there's certain days. Very few that they don't. Well, and that's a good point.

SPEAKER_08

Guys guys need to have uh multiple stands, multiple wind locations.

SPEAKER_06

You got a place to go. Yeah, and by and to Adam's point, too, different ways to approach it when you're um taking that wind into consideration.

SPEAKER_04

That's actually one thing that is my goal that I didn't mention earlier this year, is to have a board out there with the proper winds color coordinated uh for the stands, you know, and and and just having a board, just having a board where these are our our our southern southeast stand, this is our north, this is our west, this is our east wind stands, like having all that. So, because growing up, it was all like, all right, where do you want to go today? Well, I'm gonna go with a double look stand. That's it. No reason behind it, just feel like it's good, you know, and and uh that's a lot of stuff I've learned from the juries, and I really wish I knew more about the moon phases and the the different weather climate things that they know that give them such an edge.

SPEAKER_02

Laney can tell you all you need to know about the moon phase. No, I can't. Richie, Richie, Richie, please.

SPEAKER_08

All right, Adam, I'll by the way, Richie. I got a serious question. And I think I think and I'm being I think I might be I'm being insightful here. I don't know what you're how you're gonna answer this, but I think guys listening, younger guys listening that want to have their own place, I think Adam has cracked a code because it sounds to me like you've got your wife involved on this farm in a bunch of different ways. And she enjoys going out there, I bet.

SPEAKER_04

It is, and this is what I talked to Terry Drew about so much. Um that happy wife, happy life. Oh, good too.

SPEAKER_06

Uh yeah.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, I knew that if I wanted to enjoy lots and lots of hours out at the farm, uh, I needed her comfortable going out there. I didn't need to build some, you know, trailer in the woods with no shower and whatever. I needed to let so she's designed, um, she's designed the barn out there. She designed the farmhouse that we stay in, and she had such a big hand at picking out all the I mean, it's look, it's her place. So there you go. Uh and she's got an incredible eye at that. She's just the best at at interior design and decorating. So um, yeah, that to your point, she likes going out there too, and that gives us space to to spend more time out there. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02

There's a there's a really a good lesson to learn right there, guys. Just kind of tagging on to that question you said, Bobby, about you know, involving your wife, you know, we all got kids, uh, just like Adam's got kids, we all got kids running around various ages. Can you talk about, you know, someone trying, you know, just getting their kids involved in outdoors and some advice on that aspect?

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, I think it's important to bring them along with you. You know, I always want mine to go with me. I when my daughters were young, I had two daughters in the stand with me all the time. You know, sometimes we needed to be in a box stand because they were moving around a little bit. Sometimes they need to have an iPad with them. Sometimes they, you know, sometimes it was a a tree stand, double stand where they got one in my lap and one next to me, and and we're just trying to work on being being calm and careful. But I I love I love bringing them along. Um, I love bringing them along with me because I I grew up without a dad at home. And uh I always I always want them to know that like where dad goes, they're welcome to be there with me, you know. And so um it getting them exposed to the outdoors, getting them comfortable getting dirty, getting them comfortable swimming in the lake, getting them dirty, getting mud between their toes occasionally, you know, getting getting hay in the hair, you know, like this one gets sometimes because he likes rolling around. I think that's all important. And and learning to whittle me and him are about to start learning to whittle. He doesn't even know that yet.

SPEAKER_09

Uh-oh.

SPEAKER_06

We spent a lot of time whittling in the old deer blind.

SPEAKER_08

Yeah, well, I've look, Adam, one time Landy and I went on a turkey hunt and Hayden went toxic. You know, Hayden went along with us. We're sitting there beat trying to be quiet, and I can hear shh shh. Oh, it's more like shh sh he went like a beaver sitting over there whittling the whole time.

SPEAKER_06

He was chopping wood. He wasn't reading that much, but yeah. It it's great to keep them entertained and engaged the whole time you're in there.

SPEAKER_01

And you know and not doing it with a phone too.

SPEAKER_06

Right. Just, you know, overlooking the small stuff and enjoying the time you get to spend.

SPEAKER_09

You never know when you may if you make a spear in the deer stand, you you may need it. You may need it, yeah.

SPEAKER_08

Well, I tell you, standing back looking at Adam, I I'm I remember meeting him a long time ago, and he was just a great, great guy, young guy, and just you know, an athlete and a prime of his life, and he just had so much promise in front of him. But looking at him now and how he was relating to life and he's involving his family and just the things he's doing, I mean, he's just done things right. He's just a blessed guy. And it's uh I just have a lot of admiration for what you've done, Adam.

SPEAKER_04

Thank you very much. I appreciate it. I I I am a blessed man for sure. I I live a crazy life and uh five wonderful kids, the greatest wife in the world. Um, you know, got to play the only thing I ever wanted to do my whole life since I was three years old was play Major League Baseball. Um I got to live that dream out, and and now I'm living out several other dreams as well. So um every day is a blessing that we get, and I'm I'm finding joy in all of it.

SPEAKER_08

Yeah, and you played 18 years with one organization. That's that that doesn't happen to everybody. I mean, most guys get traded around, don't they?

SPEAKER_04

Especially in today's world, yeah. I mean, that was rare even when I was first coming up, but nowadays 18 years with one organization is like a you know, it's like a unicorn. There's maybe three or four guys that might get to do that. Maybe. Maybe not, probably not, actually. It's uh that's a that's a different kind of thing than the game today allows, uh, unfortunately. Um guys have to choose team over contract sometimes. Guys have to to to I loved where I played so much. I mean, I grew up a huge Braves fan, and I was drafted by the Braves, and that would have been a great uh career too. But I just can't I can't there's nothing really better than being a St. Louis Cardinal for 18 years, playing in St. Louis, the best fans of baseball, in my opinion. It's been a great ride, and I've been you know very fortunate and blessed, and I feel you know, just it's like sometimes I gotta pinch myself.

SPEAKER_08

So, Adam, I'm looking over here at Richie, and uh you're you're an announcer, and you're at you're you're getting to is there any way? Maybe maybe one day when you're gonna do a an a gate you're announcing a game somewhere, could Richie just come and sit in the box behind you and just observe how you the announcing product could we make could we figure out a way to try to make that happen? I think so. I think so. I think that I think by the way, hit the horns, Richie. I mean, you would make another person's dream come true, Adam.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, it's it's fun. I I love getting to go to still the parks. I was at Yankees, I was at uh Brigley Field watching the Cubs Yankees on Saturday. Got to call that game, and I had just come from LA doing some music stuff out there, and so um it it's it's fun to be able to still I love going to those parks and and um it's cool to uh to still get to see those great parks, to see the players and and walk through the clubhouse and and just talk the game because I still love the game and the game is just the game is awesome.

SPEAKER_08

Yeah, it is. All right, Richie, why don't we uh let's turn it over to you and you do a trivia question.

SPEAKER_02

Our trivia is brought to us by our buddies at the peanut patch. Uh so Adam, I bet after eating a can of boiled peanuts, you could throw a nasty curveball. You know, the old Uncle Charlie, your curveball there, you could throw a nasty one.

SPEAKER_04

My favorite snack in the world, boiled peanuts.

SPEAKER_08

There we go. We love them. Georgia boy. Yeah, yeah. You know what? I went recently. I was in Georgia and they and uh I was eating at this place, and the guy said, We have two desserts. You can choose which one you want. We have pecan pie and we have pecan pie.

SPEAKER_06

Oh, I love both of those.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, there's a state divide in Georgia. I know there's pecan, pecan, and pecan. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_08

Tomato, tomato, caramel, caramel. That golden eagle pecan pie is um kind of good. Yeah, that golden eagle pecan pie is delicious. All right, this question, Adam, was designed for you. We're gonna see how well you're paying attention to what's going on in Georgia.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. So first, before we get to the trivia, we have a listener who left a review, Joe Monday, who listened on Spotify to the Mark Drury podcast, number 463, dialing in on deer. I thoroughly enjoyed Mark's insight to deer hunting. Very helpful. Looking forward to deer season. I have learned so much from the dreweries over the years.

SPEAKER_09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

So here's the question: What is the score of the Georgia state record typical white-tailed deer? Typical.

SPEAKER_08

Typical state record, it's been in existence for over 50 years.

SPEAKER_04

I'm gonna say 194 and 78.

SPEAKER_02

Whoa. Well, well, you're you're you're very close. You're a lot closer than I would have been. I'm gonna say you got that. You got that. What 191 and 48. Yeah, he just got a half close. That's like three inches, yeah. That's three inches.

SPEAKER_08

I mean, well, he got his fractioned reversed. Yeah, yeah, maybe, yeah, yeah. That's a heck of a deer, a southern deer.

SPEAKER_06

That is not a heck of a deer. That is a bohemian brother.

SPEAKER_02

A 16-pointer in 1961. I can't believe you called a one nine a heck of a deer.

SPEAKER_01

The score, score is not always indicative of the greatness of the bird.

SPEAKER_04

There's a story behind this. So the the deer population of Georgia was so so few and far between. In the 1950s, I believe, they brought in a Wisconsin strain of deer. They did introduced them all along the Wisconsin the uh Flint River. That's right. And um going up from like uh Merriweather, Gay, Georgia, all the way down to uh Albany, Georgia, that's the that's the rich farmland, that's the big deer area of Georgia. And it's I mean, there's there's 200 dentures walking around.

SPEAKER_06

Isn't that way too much?

SPEAKER_04

Jeff Oxford has got an incredible place. He does.

SPEAKER_01

John Lester has got an incredible place. Close to each other, right there. And I mean, they still have their issue, their their strength. Is that that genetic, but it's also their weakness. You know, they have that same abscess disorder. They lose so many deer over, but it was because they had the Wisconsin gene.

SPEAKER_06

It grows inwards towards your brain or something. It's pretty crazy.

SPEAKER_01

That's a big deer.

SPEAKER_06

That's a giant deer, Bobby. Yeah. Would you if you killed a 191, would you call it a big deer?

SPEAKER_08

Well, I'm I'm choosing my words carefully. Uh I mean, that was one. It depends on how humble you want to be, right? Uh you know, well, maybe, maybe one day. I call it a 190 is what I would do. Adam, what should we be at? What's something exciting you got going on there that we hadn't even asked about?

SPEAKER_04

Oh, I've got a big show coming up on uh let's see, six days from now, August 9th. In Washington County Fair outside of St. Louis. I've got a I've got a big show. I'm headlining. Um last year I opened for Travis Tritt out there. This year I'm headlining.

SPEAKER_06

Come on.

SPEAKER_08

Great day to be alive.

SPEAKER_04

Where can we go listen to some of your music? Apple and Spotify, uh, iTunes, wherever you get your music. Hey y'all. There's music out there.

SPEAKER_06

Hey y'all.

SPEAKER_04

Hey y'all, yeah. That was my first my first album is like very very much a uh kind of like a family album almost. It was um you know very much about my life, and all the songs I wrote in there were were about my life or growing up. You know, one song is about growing up without a dad, one song's about parenting, and and uh one song's about my son, and and so this next album we're we're we're making a killer record of of uh there's gonna be some great concert songs, man. It's gonna be some real fun um moving forward. But uh things are going up in that direction, and I'm having fun. I've just have now I'm having to be mindful of what I say yes to and uh and remember that I I I my most important thing is is being a great husband and a great dad. There you go. This guy's got his priorities in order.

SPEAKER_08

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Well, I so you're sitting in a when now when you're sitting in a deer stand, you're thinking about writing a song.

SPEAKER_04

All the time it it happens. I remember Garth Brooks said one time um he likes turning a phrase, you know, a conversation with somebody and somebody says something, you go, wait, what'd you say? Say that again. And then you go to your phone and put it in the notes or scribble it down, because if you don't remember it that moment right there, you'll forget it. Um, but uh I love I love turning a phrase. I think it's such a fun part. My my favorite part of music is is writing songs. It's just it's just a blast to me.

SPEAKER_08

I don't see how you guys do that. It's it I I've always wondered, does the tune come first and then the words, or the words come first, and then the melody, or you know, it depends on the artist.

SPEAKER_01

He reminds me a little of Foxworth, you know, listening to all this because there's a saying about that sometimes, you know, God tip tips a thumble full of talent on one of us here and there, and then every now and then he finds someone and just dumps a bucket on. Yeah. Yeah, Foxworthy like that, and you're like that. He can he can literally just kind of do anything, especially artistically. Except play golf.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

But that's not that's not an art form, buddy.

SPEAKER_08

Oh my goodness. Well, Adam, we've enjoyed talking to you, and and uh Lord have mercy. That air that part of the Georgia down there sounds like it's a lot of fun. That sounds like there's a lot of people that are taking it serious and trying to manage some properties.

SPEAKER_04

It is fun. It's a it's a it's been this is where I was born and raised, and uh to come back here and call it home. And it's it's a great place to live, great place to raise a family, and um certainly never, never bored down here for sure. Yeah.

SPEAKER_08

Well, it doesn't sound like uh with everything you got going in your house, you can't ever be bored with like all that.

SPEAKER_01

You know, me one of my favorite things the wizard of ice, there's no place like home, there's no place like home.

SPEAKER_08

Yeah. Well, Adam, you've had a great career.

SPEAKER_01

Unbelievable. Yeah, just I mean, it really is. I appreciate it. I just applaud everything, and not just like all the accomplishments. Um, honestly, I think more important than all the accomplishments, uh, the way you did it. That's the coolest thing, you know. All I can tell you is, you know, I'm getting old now and enjoy every day. Every day, especially when you get outside and be with your family. I appreciate it, yes, sir.

SPEAKER_08

Yeah, that's good stuff. Enjoy your family, uh, enjoy that farm. Uh Lanny and I, maybe Dudley talks, we might try to ride over there this spring and see if we get in there, yeah. Yeah, don't yeah.

SPEAKER_04

You won't find anything besides mossy oak camo in there either, I promise you.

SPEAKER_06

Everything's better in the bottom line. Ain't no doubt about that.

SPEAKER_01

Uh we just we uh keep us, yeah, keep us send pictures, keep us updated on the season, especially on him, too.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah, we love to share it on Blood on the Biologic.

SPEAKER_08

It's gonna be coming up soon.

SPEAKER_05

Bobby's excited about it.

SPEAKER_08

Hope linebacker shows back up for him.

SPEAKER_05

Me too, man. Me too. So bad.

SPEAKER_01

We may have to do a short update later in the season, maybe just grab a quick short one.

SPEAKER_05

Let you update poop.

SPEAKER_08

Okay. Yeah, that sounds good.

SPEAKER_05

I'll send you something.

SPEAKER_04

I got your number now.

SPEAKER_05

I'll send you something if we get him.

SPEAKER_08

There you go.

SPEAKER_09

That sounds great. Thanks for your patience, Caleb.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, we don't know if you call that patience, but we're working on it. It is patience. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Richie, did you enjoy this one? Yeah, it was great. It was great to you know sit and listen to Adam talk about you know his career and then also gamekeeping. And uh yeah, it's been great. You know, and now he's getting into music and his music career. We're looking for a uh gamekeeper's uh song there. Maybe we can work something out with strumming on the strings.

SPEAKER_01

That's awesome. That's like I said, talent bucket full. Yeah, it is.

SPEAKER_06

Gonna kick Jeff off the front of the front of the show. You know, I don't know about that.

SPEAKER_08

There you go, put me on the spot. That's what we do. All right, guys. Well, it's about lunchtime.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah, don't forget to sign up for the Rambo Bike giveaway. Yeah. Uh the Gamekeeper giveaway going. Uh so yeah, go to the website, be sure to man uh sign up for that. Uh got some super special deals going on plantbiologic.com. Dudley's got a bunch of fresh inventory being grown at Native Nursery, so be sure and pre-order for fall delivery.

SPEAKER_08

That sounds good. Richie's got the TV shows humming on Tuesday nights on the Outdoor Channel. Outdoor channel, yeah. Yeah, we got some stuff going on. Adam, you got two next Tuesday night, you got something to watch. So there you go. All right, guys. We've enjoyed this. Why don't you say goodbye, Dudley? Goodbye, Dudley. Get us out of here, Richie.

SPEAKER_03

Thanks for tuning in to this week's episode of the Game Keeper Podcast. And be sure to tune in again. Subscribe to Game Keeper Farming for Wildlife magazine, and don't miss the Mafio Properties Fistful of Dirt podcast with my good buddy, Ronnie Gus Drickler.