Ep 1: Welcome to Rewild Gear! Deer Camp 2020

Welcome to the Rewild Gear Podcast. Modern life, society, and responsibilities have domesticated us, but now it's time to rediscover your adventurous side. Whether that's camping, hiking, hunting, fishing, or just spending time in the great outdoors, this is the podcast for you. Join us as we get back to the wilderness and rewild. Okay, check one, two, three.

Here we go.

We're rolling. So welcome to the Rewild Gear Podcast. Hey boys.

Hello there.

What's up?

How do we want to get this thing started? This is episode one.

I think we're doing it.

Intro of Rewild Gear. Yes.

So we are coming at you. I guess this isn't live because it's gonna be—we're pre-recording this live right now. Live from live from the deer blind. That's right. From deer camp. Yeah.

Twenty twenty with some Jäger.

Yes, the, uh, the official drink of, uh, of deer camp. Yes. So hello, this is, uh, the Rewild Gear Podcast.

Tell me about Rewild Gear.

Hang on, let's get to the intros first. Okay, I'm Seth Spears. I'm the founder of Rewild Gear, brainchild that we've been contemplating for many, many years, and we're starting to bring it to fruition and decided to start a podcast to go along with it.

Adam, who are you? I am the younger brother of Seth Spears. And what's your name? Adam. Adam Spears. Sorry, I missed that minor detail. But I'm one of, one of the 4 brothers. Well, technically 5.

Oh yeah, there's 5 brothers. 5. One of them—

important point—

does one of them count since he's not, he's not here? No, he decided not to come to deer camp. Actually, 2 of them decided not to come to deer camp here. So they're, they're ostracized. They're kicked out. Yeah.

I am a Texan now, unfortunately.

You actually claim it? Are you admitting to that?

Yeah.

Like if someone says, yeah, yeah, yeah.

No, you would say you're a Texan?

No, I still say, I say I'm from Texas. You're from Texas? But I don't tell them I'm a Texan.

Two different things. Yes.

Like if someone says, no, I still say if somebody, if I'm talking to somebody, tell them I'm Kentucky still. Got it. I'll always go back to Kentucky.

That's good. Yeah. Dave, how about you?

Hi, I'm David Spears. I'm the younger brother of these 2 brothers, and I am a Kentuckian through and through. Still live here, born here.

Everyone else has dispersed. Married someone from here too.

Married someone from here.

Only one of us that did, I guess.

Yeah. Wow.

Yeah, I know about that. Super smart. Super smart. Um, but, uh, yeah. I work in healthcare, so getting outdoors, I take every advantage I can, opportunity with it.

There you go. Adam, what do you do?

Well, apparently I'm a firefighter. The amount of fire I see is not much, but that is my full-time job.

And you're a firefighter because you like to make fires?

Yeah, that's essentially why I got into it. No, I really got into it because we have a pretty good schedule. I have a lot of time off because I have 4 boys I gotta raise and wrangle.

Rear your 4 boys.

Yeah. So I, you know, it's a good rotation of 24 hours away, so I get a little break, then I go back home, back and forth, and I end up having 4 days off at a time. So there you go, works out well.

And I'm trying to figure out what I do. Too much.

A lot of ways. So if, if I first meet you I say— so, I feel like there's 2 ways to ask this question. One person might say, what do you do? Or then someone may say, what kind of work do you do? So, how would you respond to either of those?

Oh, that's a good question. What do I do? I'd say it depends on the day.

Okay.

But basically, I work online.

Okay.

I run multiple businesses and websites online in both the content education information space primarily in health. I used to run a digital marketing consultancy, and then I'm the co-founder of our personal care line of products. But my passion has always been the outdoors.

What's your elevator pitch? If I'm in the elevator and I say, hey, what kind of work do you do? You got like 10 seconds max.

10 seconds. And you know, I always hate this question. That's so hard because I don't know. It's not a terrible question. I just have a terrible— Do you ever use entrepreneur?

Do you ever use that word? Yeah, occasionally. That is such a casual word now.

It is. It doesn't mean anything.

And it's almost—

It's almost kind of becoming a dirty word. It is, yes. Because most people that think it, it's in this startup culture, like this Silicon Valley, I'm an entrepreneur, I'm gonna start a tech business or something. And, you know, we're gonna raise a whole lot of money and then we're gonna sell it and we're never gonna see a dime until we actually sell it.

Right.

So I hate that side of it. So, because I haven't really gotten into that game. Well, a little bit, but not, not enough. Well, not enough to say that. So yeah, no, I'm, I would say I'm a digital marketing professional who's Started multiple online businesses, and I work in front of a computer all day. I'm a computer nerd desk jockey who wants to be outside and not indoors. That's probably the best description.

Yeah, lead with that. Yeah, exactly.

That's a good yeah.

All right. So that's that's little intros about us, which we know, but everyone else out there yeah will learn a little more. Adam, let's, let's hear your outdoor interests. What's, what's, what's your favorite thing to do outdoors? Why?

I would literally move into the great outdoors and not think twice about it.

When you— when someone says great outdoors, what does that mean to you?

To me, it means probably the middle of Wyoming, Montana. I don't know, Idaho, Utah, the mountains, rivers.

That's what Horace Kephart did.

How about that?

He created a pretty cool knife too.

He did. Yeah, great design, great design.

But unfortunately, my priorities are raising children and a wife. And—

You're raising your wife?

Yeah.

All right, if you know how to—

Raising a family.

Okay, if you figure out how to do that, tell me, because I don't know how to do that.

Well, it's, it's a work in progress that I think everyone— no one really knows how.

We're not gonna let The wives listen to this podcast. I know.

I'm thinking it might be a bad idea.

Uh, so I mean, like, okay, last night I got here before everyone.

First time ever that I wasn't the first person to make it to deer camp.

Yeah. So I got here, I, you know, organized the place, got things together.

Good job on that, by the way.

That's great.

Yeah.

Saved me some time.

Great work. And then I just sat out on the front porch on my Deer hide and drank some Jäger and read and just looked at the stars.

Were you asleep when we got here?

No.

Okay, okay. Did you smoke a pipe?

No, I brought it. I didn't smoke it.

Okay, gotcha.

I have it, but, uh, I mean, literally just go— the amount of noise that I live with right now. So when I say 4 boys, I mean I have twin boys that are 4 years old, a 2-and-a-half-year-old, and a 1-year-old, and they're all boys. So there's just Chaos.

I have seen it. That's not an understatement.

There's no breaks when you're home. So when I get to go outside, it's like a refresh. I get a break. I get to think. I get to rest.

Would you say that it's the most relaxing thing that you do?

Absolutely. 100%.

And it refreshes you?

100%. Like, I'll go back— when I go back home to Texas, like, I'll feel ready to handle these boys again for another, you know, Yeah.

Nice. So, okay. So Liv, my wife, we always joke about this. Like if ever we go away, like on a trip or something and like individually and like it's really quiet, we always joke about how you have like this timeframe when you're entering back into the chaos where you're like super overwhelmed. And so you're like, where if the parent's been staying with the kids and like solo parenting, like they're kind of up to par with everything and up to speed. And then when the other parent like gets home, they're like, oh gosh, I'm not ready to enter back in. Yeah. I think— Or do you feel like you're—

No, it's easier for me to go back in, and I know that my wife Mallory is ready to—

she's probably borderline suicidal by the time I get back home.

So, so I know that I have to be on par and be ready to take over and let her have a break. Got it. Makes sense.

Mal, go to the bar. Yeah, take your friends, do some tequila shots.

Yeah, I don't know, it's just I never I mean, you can never foresee what your life's gonna turn out to, but I never saw 4 boys this close together.

Ain't that the truth.

You know, it's a lot. So getting outside, just like, I mean, it's been a passion of all of ours. I think when— so when I was 13 is when we moved to a new house with 5 acres. And I mean, before that, we, we grew up riding bikes or outside all the time.

Yeah, any chance we could get.

But when we got there, I mean, it was paintball wars, building forts, it was ziplines. We were literally outside Shooting guns. Yeah, like shooting birds. Like, we just— we're outside 24/7. Yeah, uh, any chance we got to, we're outside. So now living, living this, uh, urban life per se where I'm at is frustrating, but it's also—

Would you say it steals a little bit of your soul?

100%. And that, that's why, one, deer camp is huge, because you get to come back here and like—

It's the best time of year.

You get, you get to balance yourself back out.

It is. It's literally better than Christmas. Yeah, I mean, it We're recording this the day before the opening of rifle season.

Yeah, especially now because I work on Christmas a lot of times. Yeah, like not only— Yeah, just like our trip to Wyoming. It was huge.

Oh, amazing.

Like, or I think back, like, right, so when I was engaged, right before I moved to Texas and started getting things ready for our marriage, I took a 10-day trip to Wyoming with the Sophia boys and An Irishman.

A random Irishman.

That's when I—

Oh, that's when you nearly died.

Chasing grizzlies. Chasing grizzlies.

And concussed yourself.

But like 10 days out there, it was just unreal. But it's trips like that that bring you back to life and let you remember that it's not all for— like, you're not just— yeah, you may die for a little bit living this, you know, life of family and kids and job and Yeah, yeah. But getting back outside and into the woods and the mountains, drinking and eating good, like, it just refreshes you, makes you ready to go back to what you need to do.

I agree with that 100%.

For sure.

Dave, how about you?

Um, so when I think about the outdoors, like, if I think back to like some of my earliest memories of like childhood, those are like some of my best memories. So like any chance, could go hike, camp, fish, canoe, kayak, like any of those things are like some of my best memories. And so I think, um, especially like the environment that I work in, it's a very kind of sterile environment working in a hospital.

Literally.

Yeah, yeah, exactly, exactly. So, so it's always, it's always such a breath of fresh air to get outside, to just be outdoors. Um, and I think too, like My wife and I, we have 3 children. And so, I mean, again, just like Adam said, it's very busy. And so any chance to be where there's just quiet or just like the sounds of nature, you just get to like think and you just get to just enjoy being outside. You know, it's, I mean, it's amazing. It's amazing. So, you know, some of my biggest interests are really anything outdoors, obviously hunting, hiking, camping. And some of the best trips that I've been on have been, you know, uh, really outside, you know, geared towards that. Um, Yosemite, you know, stuff like that.

What would be your top 3 outdoor trips?

Oh man, I would say Yosemite is probably one, one of my top ones.

Um, is that when you guys nearly died?

We nearly died.

Dehydration?

Yeah, yeah, we almost— hiking Half Dome and we got lost on the way down because the youngest brother Joe thought we'd take a shortcut.

Oh dear God.

The shortcut did not work. There's— so there's a— there's only a few times in my life There are 3 times in my life that I thought this might not end well, as in someone is seriously gonna get hurt or we could very possibly die, and that's one of the times.

Why does it seem like our youngest brother Joe has nearly killed all of us?

He's always there when the worst things happen.

Like the worst shit that could go down, he was always there, and it seems like he instigated the things that preceded those bad things happening.

It seemed like a good idea.

That is so interesting.

Oh yeah.

I never really thought about that, but that's funny. Some truth to it.

Yeah, a lot of truth. Regardless of, of almost dying and getting lost in Yosemite and being dehydrated, uh, I'd say that's one of my top trips. And then, I mean, obviously deer camp is just fantastic. I mean, you, you literally look forward to it every single year, like just the prep, getting ready, what kind of new gear you're gonna get, you know? I mean, our, uh—

We're gonna get to gear in a second here. Yeah, yeah, exactly, exactly.

Like last year Um, I just started bow hunting. So I mean, just, you know, practicing bow, you know, shooting. Um, I mean, you just can't beat it. You just can't beat it.

Nice. Love it. What about you? Yeah, so for me, um, I am in front of a computer all day most days, way too much, just dealing with tech and marketing for all the different websites that we run. Um, so my wife and I have 6 kids and stay extremely busy, run multiple online businesses. Um, and so just incredibly busy with all of that, just the logistics of it and managing teams and, uh, and everything surrounding all that. So anytime I can get out into nature, into the woods, into the great outdoors, it is the best time just to, uh—

Sensing a theme.

Yeah, for sure. And I mean, that's kind of the whole concept here that, you know, we're, uh, you know, we're dealing with and you guys are just drink the damn Jäger. Seriously.

I'm showing him it's plant-based. It's all botanicals.

Of course. It also has deer's blood.

There's, there is no Zero.

Zero.

Yeah.

So I'll come back to my story in a second here. But, you know, the official drink of deer camp has been Jägermeister forever. And I think all of us really acquired a taste for it when we studied in Austria. So all of us took a semester in college and studied in Austria. It was one of the best experiences of our lives. And we'll come back to that later. But Jäger—

That's a whole nother story.

Yeah, we could have a whole podcast episode just on that.

Yeah, easily. Side note, there's a 12-pointer on the front of the side of the bottle. I never counted. Yeah. What's funny, I never like, Before, I never really liked—

That's not a whitetail, that's a red stag. That is— that is the ultimate deer.

Yeah, that's it.

The most gorgeous, gorgeous beast.

We should bring some and raise them here.

Yeah, we should go train them. Yeah. So, um, for me, getting into nature, into the great outdoors, is the most relaxing, refreshing, and invigorating thing that I can do. I sleep better outdoors when I'm away from technology, um, when I don't have my phone dinging nonstop. And unfortunately, Most places where you do camp and hunt and stuff, there still is, uh, cell phone signal. So it's not quite as, um, uh, no electronics as I'd like, but you know, that's all part of it. Uh, but just being in nature and playing with new gear and hiking and hunting and camping and fishing and, uh, just reconnecting with nature is, uh, fantastic. You know, our Our ancestors, they live this life, uh, on the land of foraging and hunting and collecting all their own food and growing it. And we've become completely disconnected with that side of life. We— most people in the world live in a very urban environment, and it's a concrete jungle. It's not the nature like we're seeing right here, you know, even though we can see a highway from the deer blind that we're recording this in. Um, There's, you know, there's trees, there's oak trees, there's maples, there's birch, there's, uh, hickory. Um, there's just all of these different beautiful huge trees, um, that just feed wildlife and nature. Um, and it's just something that is rejuvenating and makes us realize where we came from and, you know, what we've gotten away, away from. And so that's what I love about it and trying to raise my children to love it as much as I do. And Don't know that I can raise my wife to do that. She, uh, she likes her creature comforts way too much. Um, but, uh, you know, that's another story. So, so yeah, so just, uh, any time you can spend outdoors, um, is, you know, the, the best of times for sure.

A quick, quick story. We, uh, we went camping a few weeks ago with some friends, and, um, it was kind of a mixed bag. Some had like an RV, some were tent camping.

That's not camping.

I know, I know. It, uh, like I said, it was a mixed bag and everyone has their, uh, own, I guess, interpretation of what camping was. So we, uh, we were tent camping with our 3 kids and, um, you were talking about how you sleep so good outside. And so like middle of the night, like kids are awake yelling, can't go to sleep, cold, you know, every single thing. And, uh, it's so funny though because You— I sleep so well. Like, even if it was only like 4 hours, 3 hours, like I woke up, I was like, this is amazing. You just feel so much better. Like sleeping on the ground, you're in the fresh air when you wake up. I mean, it's just, it's amazing. It's amazing.

Yeah. It's really funny how many creature comforts that we have and we do all these different things for health and just a little backstory. So I'm— I primarily work in the natural health space as far as like education and information and product recommendations and that sort of thing. So I see that side of it day to day and realizing that all of these things we do whether that's biohacking or using different products to improve health and tracking our sleep cycles and stuff, just stripping all that away and just being out in nature away from blue lights and electronics and everything else and all those things that are supposed to make us healthier and helpful and realizing how much better we sleep and are just have more energy and are more rejuvenated to live life just by getting away from all of it.

It's funny how many biohacks that we have to do Because we're away from nature. Have you thought about that though? Like, think of all the things that we have, like, we should be doing, like these hacks, but it's because we're away from nature. Like going to bed when the sun goes down, you know, waking up when it comes up, you know, like stuff like that.

Yeah. So like, um, 4 days ago, me and my 6 kids, you know, camped out here. Um, and my wife was traveling, so she wasn't, uh, Katie was on a trip. And so she wasn't out here. I think that no skin off her back. She doesn't actually want to be out here too much, unfortunately. Uh, but me and all the kids, you know, So, we just made a fire, we grilled out, we just camped out and slept out here in the woods. And, my sleep was so much better just tracking it via one of these devices.

Oh, yeah, yeah, one of your hats.

Yeah, one of the biohacks to see how your sleep is. And, my sleep is the best all week when I was out here than it was sleeping on an organic mattress and in a climate-controlled environment and everything even though it's You know, it's either hot or it's cold. It's just funny how that happens.

So simplistic.

Yeah, exactly. You're not in front of devices and, you know, just the natural fire light and you get tired when it gets dark, you know, because you don't have all this artificial light to keep you up. And then you wake up when it gets light and you're energized and ready to go.

Do, do your girls like being out here as much as the boys?

Yeah, they really had a good time. You know, it's more of a novelty for them because they don't— they're not out here for deer camp. Right. They're not, they're not in it as much. So it's a little more novel to them than the boys. But yeah, but they both like it.

Fun little jaunt.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So let's talk a little bit about Rewild Gear, the company we're starting, shall we?

It's a good idea. In the making for many years.

I'm trying to think back to when this concept actually came about, because I know we've kind of talked about it in passing for a long time.

And, you know, how long have we been doing Deer Camp?

2015 was the first year. So I bought this property in 2014 and it was actually during, during rifle season. Yeah. And bought it and I came out and hunted. That's right. That's right. And me and our oldest son, Tony, camped out during that time as well, but just in a tent because we hadn't built the cabin and stuff yet. But we did our first official deer camp in November of 2015. But I feel like we've been talking about it. Oh, for sure. For sure. I mean, you know, just camping like up at like Red River Gorge or, you know, other places and stuff.

I love that place.

Yeah. The gorge. Oh, it's amazing. Um, yeah, I— so I can't think when it actually started, just conceptually. Yeah. Um, but you know, we've always been gearheads, all of us.

I mean, I think since childhood we've been prepping for this.

Really?

Like, yeah, I mean, we couldn't go to a Walmart or any— literally anything that had any sort of outdoor— we— that was our first department we went to.

Yep, sporting goods section.

For sure, find it, you know, make a beeline for it, even though the The equipment they have at Walmart is pure crap. But, you know.

Yeah, but the fact that we just like— that was the— even though we didn't even grow up outdoors, that like, if you think about it, like, we didn't camp a ton.

Not a lot.

Like, because our parents didn't want to.

Yeah, there was a few times I remember.

Yeah, we went a couple times, not a lot. Yeah, until we got older, we were able to do it ourselves. Um, our dad didn't hunt. He never took us hunting. Yeah, you know, like, we had these desires for these things for whatever reason, even though we didn't Actually do them significantly. Like, I know people that I grew up— that I work with, they grew up hunting as kids with their parents.

Oh, especially around here. Like, oh, in Kentucky.

Like, you grew up in Texas?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I had this thought last year, like, because so Dad was out here hunting and helped him get his first deer ever, right? Like, I mean, like, I helped him put him in the stand where he needs to go.

How funny is that?

Yeah. And I'm like, this is kind of backwards, right? Right. But I mean, it's kind of cool too, helping him get his first deer, because I've been hunting for years and just love it, you know?

Yeah, that was cool.

Um, so that was just a— it was like a role reversal, I guess.

And, um, yeah, yeah, it was funny to think like that because, yeah, we never, we never had the option of a hunt. Like, it wasn't even really a thought to go— I mean, it was a thought for us, like, we'd go shoot birds with our BB guns, right? But like, yeah, we never actually—

Slingshot. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Do you guys ever—

because this is something I think about— do you guys feel like you are behind Like, in terms of hunting? Like—

Oh, that's a good question.

Because this is something I think about. Like, I feel like I'm playing catch-up.

Because you don't have as much experience starting at such a young age.

I feel like I'm constantly reading or watching or consuming, like, material because I feel like I'm behind.

So here's, here's actually— this is really interesting. So remember that picture I sent you guys of me, of us skinning the deer?

Oh yeah, yeah.

In the fire station?

Uh, yeah, yeah, yeah, that was cool.

So it was that—

it was—

Let's tell that story though.

Yeah, so we Another typical shift, not many calls, just hanging out at the station. But, uh, someone hit a deer, and it was one of our other stations that responded to that call, but I guess they didn't want to deal with it anyway. The, the game warden said, well, if you guys want, you can take the deer.

It's, you know, that's kind of station practice. Yeah.

Um, yeah, so we sent one of our guys to go pick the deer up in our utility truck. Threw it in the back, brought to the station. Today, this particular day, we did not have a lieutenant working with us, so one of the other firefighters was riding up who is an avid deer hunter.

Will your lieutenant listen to this?

No, don't ask, don't tell. Probably not. Um, but so he, he's an avid hunter, okay? And like, he talks about hunting all the time. He like goes deer hunting and he goes boar hunting and duck hunting and So I was like, you know, he's gonna know, you know, clearly he has a lot of experience. He's a little younger than me, but, you know, he, he grew up in Texas and whatever. So we bring the deer back and we start field dressing it in the station. We hang it, we use, we use a couple of our stepladders to hang it from. We literally—

You just rigged it up?

Yeah, we rigged up in the station, in the bay where our fire trucks are. We're literally 10 feet from our fire trucks. Yeah. And thankfully it was right after 5 o'clock, so the admin building, the chiefs had left. So like nobody was around.

So you're not gonna get in trouble.

So we're not getting in trouble. Nobody's gonna catch us unless one of us tell, which we didn't. But, uh, we used a skill saw to finish cutting some bones off.

Okay. Yeah.

Off the truck. So we had to like thoroughly clean it.

You're using the jaws of life to open the calf feet. It's the quickest field dressing we've ever done.

But we're, we're cutting this thing up and field dressing it and skinning it. And I felt as knowledgeable as these guys did who grew up doing this. Oh, that's really— it was very fascinating.

Why? Why do you think that was the case?

I don't. I think part is because even though these guys grew up hunting, they usually take it to get processed, and they don't usually do it themselves. Really? Huh.

So they're just field dressing it and then just taking it straight in.

So they've never actually done. They're not like flukering.

But they like a couple of guys that are hunters that grew up hunting that were there helping. Yeah. They were like, I guess this is how we do it.

And they okay. One of the guys.

So I was like trying to. Get the insides out so it didn't all leak, like all the intestines, all that, and the blood.

Yeah.

And one of the dudes like, what, can't you— the guy, the dude that's riding up, lieutenant who's been hunting forever. Yeah. He's like, can't you just pull it and break it? And I was like, okay, yeah, you can. And he did, and he— some of the pee and stuff like went on me.

I was like, pop the bladder. What are you doing? I was like, what, you're a hunter?

Yeah. I was so confused. I was like, so Maybe I'm not that far back. Maybe I actually— interesting, huh? Even though I've only done this a few years, I was like, yeah, I feel like I'm at least as knowledgeable as these guys in some of this. Because yeah, they go out and hunt, but I think they let someone else do a lot of the processing.

So were a lot of them— did they go on guided hunts?

No, no, they definitely go out by themselves. But I think they just pack up the deer and then take it somewhere else.

Take it somewhere.

Yeah, I think it's the worst thing you can do for the meat, because I mean, you've got to field dress it, at least get the intestines out and all of that, even if you're gonna have it.

I was looking on— I— because It had been a few hours by the time we got to the station, and I was like, well, how long do we have before this meat starts going bad? And I looked it up. It's Google, so you can't— I mean, depends on the temperature and stuff, but it said typically you may have up to 12 hours before you have to worry about it.

If you like get it opened up and like get some wind in there, you know what I mean? Like so it can breathe some.

Yeah, yeah. Which should be fine, assuming you've got all the intestines and everything out, because you don't want that. And depends on like if you shot it versus it got hit by a car, right? Yeah, which is very different. That's true. Like, what you could see—

yeah, there is a few spots you could tell that there's a little internal bleeding, you know, from the, from the hit.

Oh yeah, uh, that which can affect the meat.

Yeah, right. Um, but I mean, another, another interesting thing is this guy wasn't— he wasn't particular about those spots that had been hit. He wasn't— oh really? Discard them? Or he wasn't worried about cutting that out?

He wasn't worried about any of that, really.

Which is also worrisome to me. Yeah, that's funny.

Which you don't want the meat to be contaminated.

No, which also brings me to another point of like, do you care about what you're eating, what you're putting into your body? Which goes back to honey and natural and organic and— yeah, yeah, that which is a whole nother topic.

Sure. But that's— I mean, I feel like that's part of it, especially what we're trying to do with ReWild. Oh, definitely. I mean, obviously creating amazing products, but also, you know, bringing information and knowledge To both the hunting space. Yeah. Um, to the outdoor space and having a conservation ethic. Yeah. Um, just because I feel like there's, at least here in Kentucky where we grew up and hunting, a lot of people, they just go out and they'll just shoot them, hunt them, you know, whatever. It doesn't matter what animals they're hunting. They don't care about what they're putting in their body. It's like, it's more just a sport or just to kill it.

Right.

But it's not like, hey, these are amazing creatures and you got to respect it and realize This is also some of the best meat that you can get because it's as free-range as it gets.

Oh yeah.

You know, you know, with exceptions depending on what it's eating and stuff like that. And you know, there's a lot of crappy GMO corn growing and stuff that they're eating off of and, you know, stuff like that. But, um, but it's probably a lot better than—

No, as a general— it's gonna be— yeah, as general, it's gonna be much healthier.

A little bit leaner and stuff like that.

Yeah, for sure.

Um, yeah, but I think that's one— that's something that I'm definitely very fascinated in.

Yeah, for sure.

Yeah. And want to bring more information to both the hunting space and just out outdoor and camping and everything, and just being aware and conscious of where our food supply comes from and whether, you know, we're foraging as opposed for like nuts, like out in the woods, as opposed to just going and spending $12 for, you know—

Oh my gosh.

A few ounces or whatever. Yeah. You know, which, I mean, that's going to be healthier and better. Yeah, it's a little more work, a little more inconvenient, but You're then connected to your food, food source, where it comes from, the food supply, and you know where you're getting it from. Yeah, because most people, they just don't know. Like, they go to the store and buy their meat.

No, it's— so actually, this is really interesting. So, okay, so at each station we have roughly between 3 and 6 guys at each station. Yeah, we just got a 4th guy at my station. So my lieutenant was like, you know what, we've all been bringing our own food and eating our own stuff. But it's gonna be a lot, 4 guys trying to cook. And I was like, yeah, yeah, you're right, I get that. So he's like, let's all start buying food, eating together, cooking the same thing. I was like, all right, um, we can do that, but— and this is a big but— there's a stipulation that I eat a certain way and you guys are gonna have to abide by that. Otherwise I will not do this. And like, this is a job. You can't make me eat a certain way.

You guys are doing like communal meals now?

Yeah.

Okay.

And which is—

you will have to cook for them and they will have to cook.

Basically. Okay, okay. So because it's my butt, I'm the one that ends up doing the cooking, which is fine. Yeah, they're buying my— so I was like, look, we will buy the same food and cook and eat together. That's fine. But we're gonna buy organic food. Nice. And we're not gonna eat all this crap. Like, so because he— his life— because he knew I ate different, but he didn't really know how or what. How different?

Yeah.

And I mean, yeah, they make fun of me for it and poking fun, but then they eat it and they're like, oh wow, this is incredible.

I feel amazing.

Even though it's more expensive.

Sure. Yeah. But they're like, quality is expensive.

And then, well, then they'll question me like, okay, what's it like organic? This, like, I didn't know organic was like organic syrup or like maple syrup. Like, what, what is that?

It's not just flavored.

Like, well, I showed him. I was like, all right, go Go get your Aunt Jemima, whatever the hell it is you're putting on your food. Look at the ingredients on that.

I don't think you can say Aunt Jemima anymore.

There's no maple syrup in it. It's literally all chemicals.

No, it's flavoring.

No, it's not actually. And then I showed them mine. There's maple syrup in it. They're like—

Did it come from Vermont?

What? One of them did.

Oh, nice. Yeah, Vermont maple syrup. And they're like, this is incredible.

So my lieutenant started buying it for his house. That's like— oh nice. They just— they literally don't even know. Yeah. And they don't— well, one, they don't care. They never thought about it twice. But also they just like, I don't know, people don't think about what they're eating, what they go to the store for. And it's so frustrating.

Yeah. Especially firemen.

They're terrible. They're terrible.

I feel like a lot of the service line industries, like typically we take care of our bodies last. Like, yes, I feel like, like, especially like in healthcare, like paramedics and EMTs are the worst. Well, it's just, it's bizarre because You know, you're, you're trying to help people, but like you're not taking the time to help yourself. Um, but what I was gonna say was, when— so like if I make a meal based off of something that I shot and killed and, you know, butchered everything, like the connection to that meal is so much greater. And like, I guarantee you, if you, if you go out and kill an animal and you bring it back and you do everything from the butchering to the cooking, like you will not waste a drop of that.

No, because you have a connection to it.

Exactly.

I've actually got a story about that. So my oldest son, Tony, when he was, I don't know, 6, 7 years old, maybe he might have been a little younger than that. Well, let's call it, let's call it age 6. He wasn't big into seafood, didn't really like fish at all. So we went down to Florida and where we actually live now on Went down for vacation. And so we went fishing while we're out there, just from, from the beach and just fishing. And Tony caught a fish. He caught a little, like a whitefish or something like that. I'm like, hey, Tony, do you want to like cook it up and eat it? He's like, yeah, that'd be great. You know, he's, he's young. He's, I don't know, he's 5, 6 years old, something like that. So we took it back to the condo where we were staying and we filleted it open. We put it in a pan and just kind of some olive oil and butter, maybe some lemon, and just kind of grilled it up and stuff. And he was all about it. He's like, this is the best ever. I love this.

Loves seafood now.

And the reason he never liked fish before, but he then had a connection. He realized this is food. This is where it comes from. It's not just something that you're getting from a store where you're going and buying something prepackaged or frozen or what have you. It's as fresh as it can get. It came right out of the ocean, right out of the saltwater.

And it's 6 years old.

Yeah. Within half an hour, we're grilling it up, cooking this, and it was delicious. It was so good. And he loved it. And he's like seafood since then.

With the exception of canned tuna.

want to eat that.

Yeah, but that's a little different. But, but I think that— I mean, I think that's what, what we're trying to do and want to do with Rewild. It's just, it's a, it's a philosophy for life, you know. It's a mentality, um, of getting back to kind of simpler things, you know, and getting outdoors and really just, you know, taking full advantage of everything that the outdoors has to offer, um, and, you know, and offering fantastic gear for that.

Yeah, yeah. So when we started coming up with this concept of Let's start an outdoor equipment company. And we went back and forth on names and what should we call it. And we talked about dozens and dozens of different names. We finally settled on Rewild Gear. And I don't know, Dave, you want to talk about the reason why?

Yeah. So, so kind of the funny thing is this is— so it's kind of a controversial topic, which is kind of funny, but it basically— you hear a lot about wolves today, right? So like Yellowstone, okay, with the reintroduction of wolves, it's a very hotly debated topic, but the concept is really cool. Okay, you're taking something that used to be there, no longer was—

Something that was wild, something that no longer is as much.

Lived off the land, right? Um, vanished, and then bringing them back in. Okay, so if you think about that in terms of us and humans, We've always lived off the land. Okay. We've always been outdoors.

We wouldn't be here today if our ancestors were vegan.

Exactly. Just wouldn't. Exactly. Exactly.

We're here because our ancestors hunted and fished and foraged.

Yeah. We're hunter-gatherers. Might not be the best podcast for a vegan.

I would recommend they not listen. Probably.

Probably not.

Now they can listen. Or they might change their minds. It might be entertaining.

It might be okay. But, um, but anyway, so kind of taking that in terms of us, um, you know, in the intro we talked about, you know, kind of our field of work and, you know, the common theme was how busy we are, right?

Right.

Lots of responsibilities. Um, it's easy to kind of get lost in, um, just life, you know, the, the responsibilities. Um, and so in, in terms of the brand and kind of what we are doing and kind of what we're about, it's really kind of getting back to nature. Um, you know, as Seth, you mentioned about losing part of your soul, you know, with, you know, being away from nature. And I think we can all relate to that.

Um, 100%.

Yeah, yeah. You know, so, so kind of getting rewild again, um, and, and just doing that. And that's going to look different for everyone, right? Yeah. You know, for—

to a point, because when it comes down to it Going back to the basics, going back to the beginning is essentially what rewilding is and essentially what everyone always needs to go back to.

Yeah. So, so for someone that might be backpacking, for someone that might be hunting, that might be whitewater rafting, you know what I mean?

Through hiking.

Exactly.

A day hike.

Exactly. Exactly. You know, so that, that means something different for everyone, but it's, you know, it's getting back to, you know, simpler times, simpler things. It's a—

Bungee jumping.

Bungee jumping. You can rewild.

Would you call that rewilding if you're bungee jumping? I don't think that ever happened in nature. Yeah, it did.

There's tribes that do it. What? Yes. Do they use vines? It's part of their— basically their adulthood initiation. Like doing a walkabout?

Is this essentially the same thing after they do ayahuasca?

Probably.

Or before? Probably. Probably after. Yeah, funny.

But yeah, bungee jumping is actually But skydiving may not be rewilding, but still outdoors. You're still in the sky.

Okay. Wingsuits. Yeah. Yeah. Wow.

Wing— I would definitely consider that rewild.

I would just call that wild. I'm not opposed to it necessarily, but you know, maybe lose the we.

The rewild. The re— yeah.

Yeah. That would just make you wild.

Yeah. I think that just makes you a little crazy, but—

Oh, I definitely do it.

Oh yeah. Might have a little bit of a death wish there, but you know, maybe they say it's one of the most dangerous activities you can do, but looks like a hell of an adrenaline rush.

Have you guys ever seen, uh, oh, it's a documentary about Yosemite.

Uh, the one that Robert Redford narrates?

Yes.

Uh, yeah, what's the name of that?

I can't remember it.

Yeah, no, it's really good.

It's really good.

But they, uh, they show some people, uh, called like Mountain or Mountains or something like that.

I can't remember. I think it is, it is on Netflix. Yeah, but no, there are people that use wingsuits on there, and I think a few people died from—

oh yeah, there's a lot there.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, you know that big rock that you swing from in Utah? There's a name for it. A big rock? It's a big— it's a big, like, a well-known rock.

Yeah, in Utah there's YouTube videos out, but there's a lot of rocks.

No, this one's very particular. People go there and created this huge rope swing. Oh, but someone died a few years back, so they kind of banned it. Oh, huh. I was gonna say that's another concept I would definitely consider that rewilding. Okay, you're—

I mean, some Yeah, cuz to me, if there's not an element of danger, a little bit of— ask a little aspect of danger in an activity, what's the point?

And a little bit of unknown.

Yeah, yeah, cuz if it's already known, yeah, you already know what the outcome is gonna be. It's— well, why do it?

Pretty monotonous. It's almost like your daily life.

Yeah, right.

Well, that's like, as humans, we've spent so many years of trying to like remove that. Yeah, you know what I mean?

In modern society, modern society, we tried to get completely erased and get rid of any element of danger or the unknown. Yeah, or things where it might— and now look at the modern American It's pretty sad.

Well, pretty sad.

Just human in general, not even just American.

No, you're right.

I mean, sometimes it's even worse than that. But I mean, it's— there's an element of danger in life. The only thing that is safe and secure is when you're 6 feet under. Yeah. Yeah. Was it Ben Franklin who said death and taxes? Yeah, I think it was one of them. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. So Rewild Gear. So what we're trying to do here is create really high-quality products that people can use to spend more time in the great outdoors and get back to nature and rediscover who they are and what the meaning of life, what they're doing, what they want to do, where they're going, because so that they can reconnect with family, with friends. And so when they get back into quote unquote real life or the day-to-day grind, then, you know, then they can be better husbands, better fathers, better bosses, better business owners. You know, all of that. We need to take a little break here. Adam, you drank a little too much Jäger. You gotta pee?

You know, take 5.

Here, let's, let's, let's take 5. We'll come back.

Take 5.

We'll be back.

Okay, we're back.

Feel much better.

After the pee break?

Yeah.

We'll call that a commercial pee break.

That's right.

Or something. Okay, let's, let's talk about the products we're gonna use. Let's do it.

Good idea.

So I, I know, you know, there's a lot of products that we're working on, we're designing right now, and we plan to do a phased launch of things. So, um, we'll talk a little bit about them, and maybe we can each comment on what we're most excited about. Um, so you want me to just give a quick overview about those products? Yep, go for it. What they are. So right now we are designing a knife, uh, a fire starter, a bellows to help with fire starting.

Explain what a bellows is.

Yeah, some people definitely don't know what that is.

That's a great point. Yeah, um, a bellows is a collapsible, almost like a straw, like a tube that you use to blow into on a fire or sparks or embers to help get more oxygen on it so that it will, um, make it easier to get igniting, make the fire.

They've been, they've been using bellows for years. Yeah, like, because if you, if you look at like the old-time bellows, it looks like an accordion kind of.

Oh yeah, yeah. Those are used for fireplaces.

Yes, exactly, exactly. So they use them way back when.

This is just a more manual option where you're blowing through it, like kind of like a like an extendable straw. Yeah. So the knife, fire starter, ferro rod, the bellows. We're also working on a collapsible camping stove and a backpacking grill, a usable utensil. So not a spork, but one that is a little bit more usable. Um, and that works better because this fork is a pain in the ass to actually use. Doesn't work well as a fork at all, or even as a spoon that, that well. Um, and cookware, like a mess kit, that, uh, multiple piece that can be used in, um, multiple applications. And for whether you're thru-hiking or hunting or backpacking and things like that. So—

You say mug, did you throw that in there?

Well, the mug is part of that kit, you know. So yeah, so Let's, uh, let's just start. Um, David, what— which of those products are you most interested in?

Can I take the knife away? Because I mean, I feel like everyone's gonna be most excited about the knife.

The knife is the thing that got this whole concept started because we've been talking about creating our—

the perfect knife forever, which is—

and we could even go back to our knife history as kids and like, yeah, why we have such a fascination.

I remember the first knife I ever got. I mean, I— for my 7th birthday, Dad gave me a knife, and I think The first time I ever went camping, I was 7 years old. Yeah. Took me camping up the Barron River. We pitched a tent. It took forever. A long time. We had to borrow a tent because we didn't have a tent because apparently, I mean, Mom and Dad didn't really camp.

Well, Dad, Dad being in the military, he just, he hated camping growing up.

You know, he grew up and, you know, the— he grew up with an outhouse and like, yeah, he was basically— yeah. All right, hold on. Let's, let's, let's, let's take a step back. Why do we call it a 2-holer?

Go ahead, Adam.

Okay, so when we started doing deer camp back in 2015, I started just looking up videos or researching deer camp, you know, because I've always heard this concept and what it was. And there's this movie called Escanaba in the Moonlight that is set up in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, in the UP, Escanaba, and starring Jeff Daniels. And it's all about this family that has this deer camp. And it's— so it's become our tradition that we watch it every year before the opening of rifle season, opening of deer camp. And it's hilarious. It's like a cult classic, and it gets really weird and kind of super science fiction weird stuff.

But when I think about that movie, like, because it starts out so, so good, so good, and then it just gets— And you're like, wait, what is this?

It just goes off the rails.

Yeah, the first, the first year you sent that out, I remember watching it and like I think it was late at night, so like I turned it on.

You're like, Seth, are you stoned right now?

What was funny was I fell asleep and woke up and was like, does this say movie? Because it is so out there. You just don't see that coming halfway in.

But back to the 2-holer. So in the movie, there is— they have an outhouse and it has 2 seats side by side. They call it the 2-holer. So, and we have an outhouse here at our deer camp, and so we It's not a 2-holer, but we call it that. Not yet it isn't.

We may add another one.

Exactly. Yeah. So, um, back to the product.

So, okay, so take the knife away because, I mean, the knife I'm pumped about. Um, you know, I think having a knife that does a lot of different tasks easily, that you enjoy using, that's easy to use, um, that's super reliable, that you want to carry You know, on your belt. That's just— I mean, that's priceless, right?

Yeah.

So, so taking that away, I'm, I'm pretty excited about the mess kit, honestly. I know that's the bane of your existence right now.

It's one of the things I'm most passionate about, but it's also going to be the hardest.

It is. It's tricky. It's tricky. I mean, because you're trying to, you're trying to cover all the bases with it. You're trying to make it very usable. Um, you're trying to make it obviously excellent, excellent quality so it'll last. Um, but you're, you're trying to make it fit into a compactable piece, right? So I mean, that, that I'm very excited about just because, you know, if you like to cook outdoors, when you have a good piece of cookware that works well, it's, it's fantastic. It's fantastic. So I mean, obviously, you know, cast iron is great to cook in, but it's just not usable or practical if you're—

Can't set up the—

Yeah, exactly. It's just, yeah, it's not, it's not realistic. So, um, I'm, I'm excited about the mess kit.

Adam, how about you?

I agree. I mean, the mess kit is gonna be a really— definitely make an impact on your camping experience, and I'm excited about it. But I feel like if you, I don't know, go back to the ReWild concept, yeah, the ferro rod is kind of huge.

Like a fireman and creating fire.

Yeah, I mean, it's on par with—

and yeah, granted, there's tons of them out there, but for us to create our own It'll be a little different. I mean, just, you need fire across the board for warmth, for food, for, you know, it's just like, yep, it's your—

one of the staples.

It's one of the staples, one of your essentials that you need across the board. Like, you can figure out another way to cook food if you absolutely have to. Sure. Um, but you have to have fire. Yeah. You know, without that, like—

How do you feel about the bellows in relation to that?

Without oxygen, you have no fire. Yeah, I mean, it's a, it's a big— I don't know, I think it'll be huge too. And the amount of times that I've gotten close to blowing into a fire to, to try and build it and burn off my eyebrows and my beard and my hair, like, yeah, it's terrible.

When you build a fire without using a bellow and then when you build a fire with using a bellow, I mean, so I don't know, it's amazing.

Wait, have you guys ever done this? You ever use your blower?

Yes, your blower for the grill. Yeah, yeah, like a, like a leaf blower.

Yeah. Yep, it works really well.

For like just the outdoor fire? Like, it never— I have for my Green Egg. No, so I've done it for like our back— yeah, for a little fire pit we have. Cool. Like a couple seconds of that and you're ready to go. Right on. It's almost like throwing fuel on it. Like, yeah, throwing— yeah, really cooling fuel. Like, yeah, it's crazy. But no, it's huge having that, and as compactable as it is, like, I don't know, they go hand in hand with each other. Got it. Yeah, you can't have fire without fuel or without oxygen, you know, like Makes sense. Yeah.

Which are, you know, the knife is what started all this. And so I feel like I, I go back and forth between the knife and the cookware, primarily just having done enough backpacking and trying to create cookware that is both usable, both for a couple people, 1 to 2 people. I mean, if it's a big group, obviously that's a different animal entirely. So like if you're family camping or car camping, you can get away with a lot. But if you're backpacking, or, you know, Adam, like what we did in, um, in Wyoming over the summer where, you know, we backpacked everything in. Yeah. Um, and not a far distance, but enough where we had to—

No, but enough if you had cast iron, that would have sucked.

Yeah, no way. That would be so much worse. And we were taking, uh, either stainless steel, a lot of stainless steel, but a little bit of titanium. Yeah. Um, so, but creating high-quality products that are going to last a long time, that are lightweight, that aren't going to leach chemicals that are going to make you sick or hurt you. Um, And having multiple pieces there that, uh, so that they can be used for multiple applications, you know.

Yeah.

Having like a small skillet or pan, having a bush pot, um, a cup that you can use, you know, to drink out of, whether you're drinking your Jäger at night or your coffee in the morning. Crappy campy coffee.

As they refer to it, right?

Yeah. Um, or if you're just going solo style, like if you're on a backcountry elk hunt, Um, and you know, you're using dehydrated, uh, meals or something, and so you just need like a cup for that and something to drink out of. Um, and so just putting all these pieces together and trying to marry them together. So that's, that's been a challenge for sure and has been the bane of my product design existence.

And I think, I think a big thing also is the fact, like, the amount of gear that we have purchased and that we have tried and that we have over the years, there's a lot to be able to I don't know, essentially replace all that. Well, you're taking, taking the best things. Yeah, like we're basically creating the best essentials to replace all these. That's the goal anyway. Yeah, yeah, and I think we'll be able to do that very easily. Yeah, and the other thing is like, yeah, we don't get outside as much as we'd like to by any means. We don't get to do— but like, when I do, part of the reason why we've gotten so much gear is because we want to try all of it because we don't get outside enough to try all of it, right? So now different applications that we need it for.

Yes.

And now by being able to narrow it down to these essentials is gonna be huge. It'll make packing and getting gear ready easier, and we'll know like, we have this, this is gonna, you know—

Yeah, exactly.

Deal with all this.

Yeah, that's the thing. Like, I brought a ton of gear in, I'm like, hey, I bought a lot of this just to try out and test, and I know I'm never gonna use it because it didn't meet my standards. So if you guys want to take it and use it, try it out, go ahead.

Yeah, well, I think we're scratching an itch, you know what I mean? Like, like, the goal is to create things that will replace all these other things that we want to use, that we're excited about using, that works extremely well, and that's fantastic quality. It's going to last.

I don't know. I like— I have a minimalist mindset in regards to like, great, it's very—

Less is more.

Yeah, less is more. And it's very hard to do when you don't have the best gear out there because—

Well, you have to take extra pieces.

Yeah, you don't have the right size, the right— if it, if it's not great quality, like You know how they always say like, what is the, what is the quote?

2 is 1 and 1 is 0.

Yeah. Yeah. Kind of the prepper's mindset.

And I get that if you have crappy gear, but if you don't, you shouldn't have to worry about that.

Unless you lose it.

Unless you lose it. Hope you don't lose it.

Don't lose it.

I think we've all done that usually before too. But yeah, I mean, and I think that's the basic, the basis of the Rewild ethos that we're trying to hit is that And guys like us who are desk jockeys or work indoors, we don't get to spend as much time outdoors. When we do get out here, we want to be able to make the most of it. And so we want gear that is going to last, you know, buy once, cry once. Yeah. Yeah. Not have to— yeah. You know, we may spend a little bit more on high quality gear, but it is going to last. And so if you only have to buy it once and it's going to last you for the rest of your outdoor life, yeah, then that's well worth it. You can save money in the long run.

This is Kind of off topic, but not. Like, if you talk about buy once, cry once, like, put that into your health. Yep. The people that take care of their health, right, and maybe they have an upfront cost for a gym or buying organic, whatever the case, they don't have these thousands and thousands of dollars of medical bills because they took care of themselves.

Insurance costs.

You know, it all goes back to the basics and like doing the essentials to take care of yourself on the day-to-day, and you don't have these—

Focus on the fundamentals. Yeah.

Here's a question. Have you guys ever bought a piece of gear that was like really great quality, that was expensive, and then maybe you stewed over it for a little bit like, yeah, I don't want to pull the trigger on it, or have you ever regretted it?

Only if it didn't function the way it was supposed to.

So if it, if it was not what you thought it was gonna be?

Yeah, if it delivered on the promise of the quality and it actually worked like it's supposed to, Then no. But there's been a few cases where I bought something that was quote unquote expensive. Yeah, right. But it just did not work as well. But the quality was great. It's going to last. But the either the functionality just wasn't what it was supposed to be. And I don't know that that's necessarily the case of that particular gear or piece as it is just the design in general. That makes sense. So and that could be my own personal use case. Sure.

No, I think that's pretty accurate, actually. Yeah. I mean, typically, even, I don't know, across the board, you get what you pay for. I mean, if you go to Walmart and buy some crappy stuff for a couple dollars, like, right, it's not gonna last. Yeah, ask Casper about it.

He's gonna be on the podcast pretty soon. One of our buddies who's affectionately known as the Dirty Pirate Hooker.

No, like, I, and I mean, I And if, if I don't have the money for something right away, then I'll be like, that's fine. I'll— I will literally wait a couple years to buy gear that is 100% quality and has like this incredible guarantee on it than to buy some creeps, you know, some crappy stuff that lasts 6 months or a year.

Right. Yeah, for sure. You know, and I've always been that way, and I think that was just kind of a work ethic that was built in when we were kids, is that because nothing was really given to us. No. And anything that I wanted, I had to save my money. I had to work for it and get it. And so I respected it. So I'm like, okay, if I'm gonna, if I'm gonna save my money, I'm gonna buy something. I want it to last. And so I want to, I want to get the best gear, the best thing, widget, whatever it is. Yeah. So that it's gonna last me and I'm gonna take care of it too.

Exactly.

Yeah.

And I think when you, when you have a little bit more into it, you will, I mean, like you said, you'll take care of it. You'll, you know, you'll, I don't know, you just have a bigger stake in it.

Mm-hmm. Yeah. So, you know, we started talking about like all this different gear we're developing and we talked about the knife just a little bit. But that's— I think that's the one thing that we're all the most interested in just because we've all been, you know, the amount of knives I've had.

You guys remember? Crazy.

Do you remember a couple of years ago we were sitting around the fire at deer camp? We're like, how many knives do you have on you? We probably had like 30 or 40. No, no, no. It was over 50. I think it was crazy between— between— there was There was 4 or 5 of us. Yeah. And like with, with our kids here as well, our sons who are out here. I mean, the amount of knives there was, there was like—

It was just ridiculous.

7 people total. There's probably over 50 knives.

Think about though, getting ready for deer camp. Like, what was the question? Like, so what knives you bringing? You know what I mean?

Yeah, exactly.

Like I asked you, what knives you bringing?

And it's just, you know, I mean, it's just trying to say—

And that's the thing. And part of it is because what is the use case that we're, we're going to be using it for? Right. The application of that particular tool. The knife, or a knife in general, was the first tool. It enables you to create lots of other tools. So if you're bushcrafting and you're in nature, you're trying to create other tools or things that you can use to survive. Yeah, a knife is the original tool that you need to—

Well, again, go back to our ancestors.

Exactly.

Like, that's what they used to live, survive.

They would like take stone and make a knife, make a spear, you know, a sharp pointy object that they can use. To, you know, cut sticks down that they can use for other things.

It was an essential tool that they relied on.

And that's why it's the first tool that you—

first tool, first piece of gear that you get if you're going to go outdoors.

Yeah, for sure. Knife is the most important. Yeah. And so the knife that we're working on, you know, we're— we've bought and tried probably hundreds of knives over the years, hundreds and hundreds of knives. I mean, spent thousands and thousands of dollars on knives over the years. There's things we like about a lot of them. There's a lot of things we don't like, whether that's the steel quality, whether that's the blade— Handle material. The handle, the shape, the size, the length, the width, the thickness, characteristics. Yeah, like just so many different things. So honestly, we're trying to scratch our own itch here, but also create a tool, a product that can be used in multiple applications. Something that is great for just general camping, camp tasks, whittling, Bushcrafting, if you can use it to skin a deer, um, you— so many different use cases. It's not going to be perfect for anything, right? Really, because that's impossible. You have to— yeah, there's, there's no perfect tool, you know, because everything is so different, so varied, especially when you're in the great outdoors. But it's going to be very—

You can't— there's no one gun for every scenario that you need it for. Yeah, you have to buy multiple guns for multiple occasions.

Same with a knife. Yeah, yeah, exactly. So I mean, And people—

this knife, we're taking 4 different opinions, putting into one knife. Well, more than that actually though.

Yeah, exactly.

So we're getting, you know, all these different concepts, all these different opinions, and trying to create the most practical, best fit knife for as many applications as possible.

Yeah, exactly.

And that's the difference between a lot of other ones.

Yeah. So the other products, um, so the backpacking grill— there's not a lot of options out there as far as good grills if you're backpacking and, you know, you're you're doing some fly fishing or just streamside fishing and catching some fish, what can you— creating a grill or throwing it on there to grill up, or a small like hobo or twig stove. Um, there's a lot of options for that out there, but none that really meet the criteria we're looking for as far as functionality, how well it works, how compact, how lightweight.

Yes. Um, and I think too, that is marrying like aesthetically You know, with aesthetics and with functionality and the quality gear too.

Like, how long is it gonna last?

It's marrying all of those. Yes, all of those aspects of it.

Like, is it gonna bend and like twist and turn after a couple times being on the fire? Like, you know?

Yeah, exactly.

That's a great point. So that's all the products. Um, we need to wrap this up here pretty soon. Yeah, I mean, we could, we could literally talk about this for the next 24 hours. We wouldn't even make Make it into a deer stand or hunt. Yeah, we're not trying to go Joe Rogan length here. Yeah, right. Yeah. Um, I guess let's talk about, uh, other topics that we're going to cover in the podcast or what, what you guys are interested in. Um, and you know, we'll probably do some interviews with people kind of in the space and just chatting about our own likes and interests and things as well.

So I think some of the things— I mean, say someone's new to this space, how do you get them outdoors? You know, like what's some practical ways. And whether that be, uh, gear related, whether it be, um, you know, where, you know, uh, would that be public land, you know, well, you know, so just a how-to to get outdoors to try to live the lifestyle of Rewild. Um, yeah, you know, I think that would be a good one that we want to—

I think so. Well, okay, here, here's actually off talk, but, but kind of the same topic. So An example would be like, I mean, I've always wanted to have like land and be outdoors, be in the country. My wife, however, has not had the same mindset.

Mine either.

Up until late, like mid-COVID-19. And I hate the fact that I even brought this in, but, but it's just switching. So there's like a, a mind shift of like How reliable are we on our own? How much do we have to rely on other people and stores and modern nation? I don't know, society. Like, yeah, and it becomes frustrating when we can't sustain ourselves or our children. But so, you know, mid-COVID-19, like, the stores were like, I don't know, out of everything. It was ridiculous.

Toilet paper especially.

Yeah, right.

Does that still like blow your mind?

Yeah, it still does.

Why did we— why did everybody want to just buy toilet paper?

I don't know. I, I still don't understand it.

It was a supply chain issue, I think. Yeah, so something's coming from China.

None of it makes sense, but nonetheless.

Either way, you want to wipe with leaves?

Get some leaves.

Fine. Or go in the river.

Go in the river.

That's gonna affect the water supply. So if you're living off the land and you're gonna drink out of that, right, better have a good filter.

Better have a great filter.

Or dig a hole away from water.

How many other animals are pooping in that?

Yeah, that's why you need a good filter.

Exactly.

But also, what are they eating? They're eating a lot of different things than we are.

Yeah, that's a good point.

Because, you know, we eat What what what we eat, we're actually eating what they eat. Yes.

So that's why it's important for the food supply. Anyway, what basically what I'm saying is, I wanted to you know I still have the concept of the hat being self-sufficient, having your own land and growing your own food. And my wife was not that way until she realized how dependent we are. and how much we have to rely on other people for our food source.

And there's a chance.

Yeah. And then she, she's like, what is going on? She's like, I went to this grocery store. I mean, she does the majority of the shopping for us. And so she got to see firsthand, like, things running out. Like, we are— like, we have to worry about our kids. Like, if there's not enough food, like, we don't have our own garden, we don't have our— like, we're not hunting every day. Like, yeah, she's like, we're gonna start looking at land, we gotta buy a new house. Like, and so now she's on the same page, and it was huge. And so I'm saying, like, have that mind shift of realizing, like, you can live this way, but like, there are no guarantees in life across the board except death and taxes. Yeah, yeah. Like, you just— you don't know how long supplies are gonna last, especially— I don't know, it's just crazy things we're living through right now. Yeah, that's a great point. Especially if you have kids. But like, having that mind shift, it doesn't take much. to start thinking outside the box and be like, all right, maybe I should go back to the basics and learning outdoors. And like, and once you start that, that phase and like transition to that, it's huge. You'll feel different, you'll think different. And it's like, yeah, just start a little garden, whatever, like a little raised bed. Composting. Composting.

To me, that's— composting is a big thing because, you know, we're in this, we're in this world where environmentally we have screwed up so many things, you know, whether we've overhunted certain populations or we're using single-use plastic and it's going in landfills the ocean, um, and we're dealing with microplastics and mycotoxins and things from all of this. But just taking, you know, your general waste of, of things that can be composted and starting a compost bin in your backyard. Yeah. Um, which is going to create amazing quality dirt that you can use to plant a garden. To me, that's incredibly important.

That's a great point.

Yeah. But Dave, how about you for our topics?

Um, so something else I think would be Uh, good. And I, I've found it beneficial with, um, kind of looking into this, but kind of how you get started hunting and if you want to, you know, procure your own food.

Yeah.

You know, um, because like we were talking, you know, we didn't grow up hunting. And so, um, I think I said earlier, I almost feel like I'm behind, um, and sure in it. So, um, just kind of a how-to get started in it, you know, uh, what do you need, uh, where to go for information, you know, which I think we're looking at Being a source for that.

Resources and tools and experts.

Yeah, exactly, exactly. So, um, just kind of getting, getting a good grip on how to get outdoors. So like, when I think of myself, you know, um, being in the, in the field of work that I am, of what are the things that I do to get me outdoors more? And sometimes that's with kids, sometimes that's without kids. Um, you know, in our backyard, we've— I've built like a little, kind of like a little lean-to for the kids playing.

Oh cool.

It's a ton of fun, you know what I mean? Just like Yeah. Because it's something that I want to pass on to them. I think I mentioned at the beginning of the podcast, some of my best memories from early childhood are being outdoors. And so that's something that I really want to pass on to my children as well and just get them comfortable outside, just get them to have a great love for the outdoors. And I think you do that by— I think a couple of things, by getting them out there, but also them watching you and really seeing how much you love being outdoors and how much fun you have. Yeah, that's a great point.

For me, I think one of the things that I'm most excited about as far as this podcast is talking to people and experts and just you know diving into the topic as far as understanding our food supply, where it comes from, and kind of a conservation ethic. As we're so disconnected from our food, what is food? Adam, you're about to die over here from Jäger. I need more Jäger. More Jäger. It's called medicine. You got the Kovidachi.

That's right.

Here you go. Yeah, for me, it's just getting back in touch with where our food supply comes from, how we interact with the land, with nature, because there's so many people today and so much thought that it's like us against the land. It's us against nature. And that's not true. That's inaccurate. It's not us or them. It's, it's not nature lives without us or should live without us, or we live without it, or we're, we're expressing dominion over the land, or we have to wrangle it or make it conform to our will. And no, it's like we have to live in harmony with it, and we can, but we can't overfarm, overfish, overhunt. Um, it's also not just going completely plant-based and everything. We should never eat eat meat or animals or fish or anything like that. It's— there's a right and a wrong way to do it. And so it takes, um, understanding nature and not just doing it for the sport. I mean, there's nothing wrong with that, but also realizing that this conservation ethic that we're trying to, to focus on so that everything is in balance and harmonious. Because if we're not hunting, there will be an overabundance of deer because we've killed off all the natural predators for them, you know? Yep.

Everything comes back to balance and moderate— like moderation. Yeah, everything. That's across the board.

For sure. Doesn't matter what people do.

That's what we've been talking about. Like, I mean, you have this great property here and just like the land management of it. Yeah, I've been talking about, you know, like what are— what do we— what do we hope for the property? You know, like what—

I'll tell you right now what I'm really interested in, that I was listening to a podcast. Um, Daniel Vitalis has a podcast called, uh, Wild Fed. That's fascinating. He started talking about Like apples, like these wild heirloom, um, apples, like up in Vermont or Maine or somewhere where they've been around for hundreds and hundreds of years. Because most apples that we get at the store, um, they're like these— they're genetically modified or they're crossbred, something just to produce the most.

Right.

But they taste different. They're not the same. And it's not what was here originally.

Yeah.

So possibly planting some of those. Um, something else like Like the American chestnut. Yeah, we have lost practically all of the American chestnut tree because there was a similar chestnut tree that was brought over from Asia and it had a blight with it. And it, uh, it didn't affect those type of chestnut trees there, but it pretty much destroyed the entire American chestnut tree. That's interesting. And so we tried to bring some, uh, early 1900s, I believe, late 1800s, early 1900s, I think. But, you know, bringing back some of these species of plants, animals, flora and fauna.

I'm still holding out for my elk and bear here.

Yeah, eventually, eventually. Wolves as well. Yeah. Yeah. And so, but being mindful that as a species, as a population, everything has changed a lot. And anytime you reintroduce something, there's going to be consequences. So that it may not be the same as what it was before.

Yeah, for sure.

Yeah, and so I think we're still learning that and trying to figure out the best way to balance all that out.

So it's fun though. It's a ton of fun.

If you guys watch the series Yellowstone—

I haven't, but I've heard it's amazing. It's on my list.

But they're, they're— yeah, yeah, it's basically a fight for them keeping Yellowstone in the wilderness and modernization taking over, and it's a constant battle.

Yeah, give and take.

Yeah, of them trying to keep the wilderness and the, and the woods and the animals, and then these other guys coming in trying to create buildings and, you know, yeah, yeah, businesses, whatever.

I mean, the wolf thing in Yellowstone alone is super interesting.

Yeah, it's really controversial in Colorado. I guess that past— that is— I mean, the thing is with that, and I don't want to get off too off topic here, but I know wolves are already showing up in Colorado right now. Yeah. But there's people that think they don't want them to reintroduce them, right? Like manually, or they're, you know, they're tranquilizing them and then putting them in and letting them go. And I guess they would probably have them collared so they're seeing where they go. But I mean, it's going to happen naturally either way. But some people are against that. I go back and forth. I don't know that there is a right or wrong. I mean, I could see pros and cons to both.

It's— I made a pet wolf friend once. Did I tell you about that? No. In Steubenville.

A pet wolf? An actual wolf?

Real 100% wolf.

There's no wolves in Ohio. Are there?

How was it tamed?

It had a collar on, so—

Oh, really?

I— it was late. I was like, I drove, I don't know, I drove to this park and I was just, I don't know, I think I was like just trying to get out away from everybody.

You're trying to rewild yourself.

Basically. At a park? And my lights were on.

Steel country.

Yeah. And I saw this huge dog, so I thought And I was like, oh, that's a beautiful dog. I'm gonna get out and pet it.

Adam is our resident animal lover.

Did it look like a husky?

Like, did you think it was a husky at first?

No, I mean, it was dark. It was pitch black. It was like— it was late. It was like 12 or 1 o'clock at night. Yeah, and my headlights were still on. I saw it. I was like, come here, boy. Come here. I was calling it. Come here, wolf. And it was like a little hesitant. It came to me and I started petting it.

Nobody was there?

I took— no, no, no, nobody was there. Okay. And I took some pictures of it and I was petting it, I was rubbing it. It like laid on the ground for me. And then like I was kind of like feel around its neck a little bit and it almost— it didn't nip at me, but it kind of got like—

Didn't like it so much?

Yeah, it didn't like it, but I felt it was—

Tracking collar?

Yeah, no, it was definitely tracking collar. And I played with it for probably— I fed it like a—

But it was tame?

Well, I don't know how tame it was, but—

But it let you touch it?

It let me touch it. I fed it something. I fed it like a Clif Bar or something like that.

I played with it It for a while.

Does he eat Clif Bars? Yeah, they do. And, um, I, you know, eventually just left and it took off. I named it— what did I name it? I named it, um, no, no, no, I think I named it, um, what was Gladiator's dog's name?

Oh, uh, I don't remember.

Ah, anyway, I should have— not Hercules. I didn't know. It was— anyway, and I— so I had a couple pictures of it. I don't think I have them anymore, but yeah, I took them I showed multiple people. I showed dog breeders. I showed people across the board. They're like— I didn't say anything. I was just like, what is this? Like, that's a wolf.

Really?

100%. Like, there— it's not a hybrid. Like, pure wolf.

And there was nobody around?

Nobody around. It was just by itself. That is bizarre. Interesting. So these dog breeders that were from the area, they're like, well, we've heard that they're trying to implement wolves back in this area.

No kidding.

And they have trackers on them and stuff.

Who's doing that?

I don't know. Wait, when was this?

Like, I mean, I mean, it's stupid. So I've been married for five years. It's probably eight years ago. Wow. Nine years ago.

In Ohio. Yeah. I don't know.

But how about that? Hundred percent a wolf. Yeah. Like cool with the collar. Yeah. With the tracking collar.

So that's obviously a controversial topic, and I don't really want. I mean, I know in some places where it's been implemented, it's worked out great. I mean, just in Yellowstone is the perfect example of reintroducing wolves and how it's completely changed the landscape for the better, um, and kind of put balance a little bit back into that ecosystem. Um, so will that work everywhere? Who knows? Don't know. Um, but we'll see.

You ever seen a pack of wolves?

Uh, no, actually.

I did in Yellowstone.

Did you really?

It was incredible.

Oh, wow.

Literally saw that. I mean, I was very far. Yeah, it's too far to tell, but I—

you could literally see all of them just Running.

Oh, it was amazing.

Nice. Yeah, super. All right, boys. Well, let's wrap this up. Any final thoughts?

Let's go get out there and explore.

Let's go drink it for tomorrow morning.

Yeah, let's go drink some Jäger tonight. We'll grill up some steaks, make some chili, hang out around the fire. Yep. Deer Camp 21. Yeah, and maybe we'll record a little episode post-episode. Yeah, good idea. Good idea. Because there's always gonna be stories. See how the bounty goes.

Exactly.

All right, that's a wrap.

All right, see ya.

Thanks for listening to the Rewild Gear Podcast. You can check out the show notes for today's episode at rewildgearpodcast.com.

If you're ready to spend more time in the wild, our line of high-quality minimalistic outdoor gear can help you do just that. Check us out at rewildgear.com.