Show Notes
In this conversation, Nick and Dan Johnson delve into various themes surrounding hunting, parenting, and the dynamics of family life. They explore the end of deer season, the challenges and joys of parenting, and the importance of listening to children. The discussion also touches on Dan's venture into the swag game with his apparel line, Full Sneak Gear, and the humorous yet relatable experiences of being a father. As they share stories from their hunting adventures, they reflect on the balance between personal pursuits and family responsibilities, ultimately emphasizing the significance of building strong relationships with their children. In this conversation, Dan Johnson reflects on the end of the Iowa hunting season, sharing his experiences and emotions as he wraps up his hunting activities. He discusses his achievements, including successfully hunting a mule deer, and how this has shaped his perspective on future hunting goals. The conversation also delves into the planning for upcoming hunting seasons, including strategies for processing game and cooking wild game meals for his family. Dan emphasizes the importance of efficiency in meal preparation and the joy of sharing these experiences with his children. In this engaging conversation, Nick Otto and Dan Johnson explore various themes surrounding family meals, nutrition, and the ethics of hunting. They discuss the importance of protein in their diets, the process of meat production, and the differences in taste between mule deer and whitetail. The conversation also touches on wine pairings with wild game and the deeper connection hunters have with the animals they harvest, emphasizing the importance of using every part of the animal and the ethical considerations of meat consumption.
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Show Transcript
Nick Otto (00:00.082)
Like you said, I have those three areas I wanted to focus on. We're winding down with deer season. What does that look like? it a, is it a great time? Is it a, is it a somber time? What does that look like for Dan Johnson? Then we're going to get into some processing stuff. I'm very curious on how you handle your processing situations. And then, yeah, then we'll get into enjoying the harvest in the Johnson household.
Does that sound good? Good deal.
Dan Johnson (00:30.808)
Perfect. That sounds good. Now, can I open, can I introduce you as the guest? I introduce, can I, can I introduce you? Can I start right now and can I kick the show off for you?
Nick Otto (00:44.1)
It's already live. So yeah, man, I'm putting my I'm putting the show in your hands,
Dan Johnson (00:46.574)
Let's do it.
Alright, here we go. Alright. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the one of a kind Michigan and international podcast, The Huntivore with your host, Nick Otto.
Nick Otto (01:09.704)
thank you everybody. You're so kind. You're so kind. So kind. Everybody knows that everybody loves it. Thank you so much. Well, hey folks, if you're wondering who just hijacked the podcast there for a moment, just want to let you know we are on the line with Dan Johnson, other known as Nine Fingers, host of the Nine Finger Chronicles. He is the CEO and president.
Dan Johnson (01:11.186)
Hahaha
Dan Johnson (01:32.312)
Mm-hmm.
Nick Otto (01:36.378)
running the big wig stuff over at Sportsman's Empire network that I am a part of and also host of a whole sorts of other podcasts that are on that network as well. He's even a fashion designer. I think this gets overlooked a lot. Dan, you've gotten yourself into fashion design with the full sneak gear. What got you into making swag? I thought that was just for Gen Z kids.
Dan Johnson (01:52.046)
whoo.
Dan Johnson (02:00.162)
Yeah.
Nick Otto (02:06.226)
You're getting into the swag game?
Dan Johnson (02:06.626)
I don't know, dude. I guess I'm getting into the swag game. I like how you said you used the word fashion. Like I don't think anybody ever in my life has associated fashion with me. And so, but here's the, here's the quick version of it. I said, I want to start something different. Let's make some t-shirts with my, the way my mind works. think like, imagine a bouncy ball.
in a, inside of a metal room and it's, it, it never loses any momentum or speed. Okay. That is what the inside of my brain is like, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And so I'm, so I had this idea to start a t-shirt, like a, an apparel line and all these crazy ideas popped into my head. And I'm just like, Hey dude, let's put them on a t-shirt and call it. I don't know. I had just gotten a full sneak Mount back from my taxidermist.
Nick Otto (02:48.5)
You
Dan Johnson (03:06.348)
And when I said it out loud, I was like, dude, that sounds like a good business name, full sneak. And so full sneak gear it was.
Nick Otto (03:11.07)
Yeah.
That's awesome. That's awesome. The designs that are coming out, I like them too. Cause again, from your metal cage with the bouncy ball, you're coming out with stuff that it's like, when you see it, it may not fit. It doesn't fit me exactly, but I love looking. If it was a poster, the zombie deer do that, that poster, I would put that as my backdrop. I would put that up in my room if I had posters still up in my room.
Dan Johnson (03:24.398)
you
Nick Otto (03:42.992)
I love that. In fact, I think I saw your reel. I think you reposted it again, but pointing out the different details of it. The deer standing there just open, open wounds. I'm sure that's how a lot of books bucks are looking right now. Just beat up after the rut. And then, yes, the skull in the corner, very metal band, very like hard metal band. It's got the arrow going into the skull. That was a great setup. I do love that shirt.
Dan Johnson (03:53.723)
I'm
Dan Johnson (03:58.168)
Yeah.
Dan Johnson (04:04.376)
Yeah. Yep.
Dan Johnson (04:10.592)
I had a vision of what I was looking for. I was just like, I started Googling death metal album cover artwork. And it brought me to a company in, I believe it was the Czech Republic out in Eastern Europe. And they,
That's what this, this, this company does is they design all over the world from the United States to, I guess Eastern Europe is like, it has a heavy presence of a death metal and like heavy metal type bands. And they, and I brought this idea to them and they're like, let me think about it. And then they said, yes. And then that was the outcome we bounced. We bounced some things back and forth, but
It was pretty cool to get a, go outside of the hunting industry to the death metal realm to pull inspiration for that t-shirt. So it's, it's crazy, man.
Nick Otto (05:21.864)
Yeah, there's a big, I would say like, with that same like heavy metal, death metal genre, that is huge in Scandinavia, like Finland and Sweden. So I was surprised to hear you say Eastern European. I mean, we think we rock hard here in the US. I think, again, we need to take a look outside. Like there's some people who definitely rock much harder than what we do on some days.
Dan Johnson (05:30.683)
yeah.
Dan Johnson (05:43.832)
They got that, they got that Viking blood in them.
Nick Otto (05:47.93)
That's what it is. That's what it is.
Dan Johnson (05:49.602)
The Viking blood. Yeah. Hey, before we move on, I do got to say one thing, dude, you have the perfect voice for teaching children. Okay. But I have to say that I'm trying, I was brainstorming. was like, okay, Nick Otto's voice. That's his, he's got it. Right. He's got the voice that he could be a news anchor, whatever the case is. But so I was, I don't know why I was thinking about this.
Nick Otto (05:55.017)
Yes.
Dan Johnson (06:18.422)
I was thinking about what other pro what other profession you could be with your voice. And the first thing that popped up into my head was a terrorist slash hostage negotiator.
Nick Otto (06:34.58)
Put me in that type of, I don't know if my voice would make it, in that type of stressful situation.
Dan Johnson (06:36.142)
.
Dan Johnson (06:44.034)
You, but you, you, it sounds like you're calm all the time. would love to see you parent. Like let's be, be truthful with me here. Do you ever yell at your kids?
Nick Otto (06:52.71)
Okay. Absolutely. I yell.
Dan Johnson (06:56.162)
There you go. Like I want to hear that. I want to hear what that sounds like. Cause that might, that might change my view of you, but it's more of a realistic view. But I can't, I can't like, I can't imagine or I can't imagine you just being like, all right, everybody let's calm down and blah, blah, and blah, blah, blah. And so I don't know why I was thinking about that. That's, that's me in a nutshell. I'm just a dumb ass who thinks about stuff that really is wasting my time.
Nick Otto (07:24.692)
I love it. And it's also, yeah, I now I have to like be honest about myself too. Like, yes, I, I yell at my children. I feel like as a father, it's one of those things like I've been gifted. I've been given this power of my voice when I want the attention of the entire room, whether it's children, whether it's adults, I will get that. And
Dan Johnson (07:31.246)
Mm.
Dan Johnson (07:42.966)
You
Dan Johnson (07:47.906)
Yep. Yep.
Dan Johnson (07:52.419)
Yep.
Nick Otto (07:53.36)
I refer to it as the Mufasa effect in the movie Lion King. You've seen it Mufasa roars and all the hyenas shutter and they stop and you hear Mufasa talk. And then at that point they either, they, they only, they run away and they laugh about it and they, you know, talk shit behind his back. at the same time, at that moment they listened. And so that's my approach to when I do yell. It is to get that attention.
Dan Johnson (07:56.429)
Okay.
Dan Johnson (08:03.277)
Mm.
Nick Otto (08:22.526)
But then yes, I, being an elementary school teacher, I then back it way down. Hey, let's now calm down. Let's get to the line that we were supposed to sit on 40 seconds ago. And then at that point, everything's all good to go then.
Dan Johnson (08:35.79)
Right.
I have the same thing, but I call it volcano dad because for me, I have a very long fuse. I'm very patient with my kids, but when that fuse is gone, it becomes eruption time and I lay waste to the entire house. I, I eradicate. Yeah. I, nobody's surviving. I eradicate all sit like all life within reach of this volcano.
Nick Otto (08:59.942)
Nobody is scared.
Dan Johnson (09:08.968)
And the, the house then after that is calm until the next time. Right. So, so I give, I give everybody a fair opportunity. And I even warn, like, I even warn people now, like, Hey, listen, you're one step away from volcano dad. And I, we both don't want that. Do we the last time I did volcano, the last time I did volcano dad, my youngest son was throwing a water bottle in inside of the car while we were driving to a baseball game.
And he hit me on the back of the head with it while I'm driving. And I had to like slam on the brake to avoid hitting a car. And, my God, I put the car in park right in the middle of the highway. I just like blew up, dude. I blew up, but now we're calm. My parents, know, kids, they respect authority and we're, we're, good now, dude. We're good.
Nick Otto (09:45.716)
my goodness.
Nick Otto (09:54.642)
You
Yes.
Well, good, good. With that though, you mentioned a little bit how, yes, it comes back down. Volcano Dad blows up, lay waste. But now on that return side, things are calming up. Green up happens through the magma, happens through that lava rock. Don't you love the return of Calm Dad? The kids come and snuggle up to you.
Dan Johnson (10:13.272)
Mm-hmm.
Dan Johnson (10:21.27)
Yes. Yup.
Nick Otto (10:30.61)
They jump up on you they want to mess around or excuse me. Yeah. They want to wrestle. They want to, you know, be close to dad again. Isn't that. I love that. I love the fact that they can recognize like I messed up, you know, and it works better. A couple of my boys that works quicker than, a couple of the other ones, but at the same time, I just love that, that they realize like, well, I stepped out of line, but then when, when things are good, things are real good when it comes back. So.
Dan Johnson (10:36.002)
Yep. Yep.
Yep.
Dan Johnson (10:58.79)
absolutely. Absolutely. It, it tells you that you're doing a good job too, as a father where you can blow up, you can kick some ass and they, at the end of it, they come and sit on your lap, right? Or they want to, they want to snuggle up by on the couch and, they want to go out and side and play catcher football or whatever the case is. They, they keep coming back to you because you've built a relationship with them where they can, like they can trust you. Right.
and you start to trust them, you let them know that, and this is a life lesson, right? For every action, there is a reaction. So if your actions are positive, you're gonna get a positive reaction. If your actions are negative, then you're gonna get some hot magma right in your face. we're, hot some hot magma, right? That pyroclastic flow as the Wu-Tang Clan would say.
Nick Otto (11:45.94)
Get some hot magma.
Hello.
Nick Otto (11:54.042)
Yes. Man, you kind of stole it, but I was gonna sneak it in on you, Dan. I was gonna take your trick and be like, all right, throw some dad wisdom on us like you do from the Nine Finger Chronicles, and you worked it in automatically. So that's good. So yeah, now that we've talked a little bit about that Mufasa effect and being volcano dad, what's your current bit of wisdom?
Dan Johnson (12:04.937)
ha ha ha!
Dan Johnson (12:10.208)
automatically.
Dan Johnson (12:16.238)
Mm-hmm.
Nick Otto (12:20.264)
that you have as a father, is it that volcano-ness or is there another segment of being a father that really is hitting you hard daily?
Dan Johnson (12:29.314)
You know, this is, this is great timing, right? because we've had some shakeups in the past. I mean, even, even in the past days and, and you, you're, think leading by example, obviously is, is a good trait for all, all things, right? Leading by example, not only to show other adults how you act, but also how your kids, right?
The other thing that I think with kids, and this is just how I feel, is that is often overlooked is listening to them because young kids have a lot to tell you. They just don't know how to say it yet. And I think that's where children get the most frustrated is they, especially the younger kids, they want to say something. And that's where their behavior acts out because they don't have the words yet to.
tell, tell that. So as a father, I ask a lot of questions. I spend a lot of time trying to listen to them and I'm like, Hey, listen, calm down a second. Let's talk this out. And usually if you spend just a little extra time as a father or just as a parent in general, listening to your kids, it may save a further negative reaction in the future. So
Not only do I lead by example and I, you know, I'm in charge. I'm the parent. one of my favorite, one of my favorite quotes comes from a wrestling coach and Iowa wrestling coach where, he basically said like, until you're 18, you don't get to make decisions. You don't get like, I'll listen to you. I'll, I will show you respect, but that doesn't mean that you get, you have anything.
Right. You don't, you don't get, you don't like respect is earned. It's not given in my, in my opinion. so, you know, he, goes on to say something like that, where it's just like, Hey, listen, you're. If an adult tells you to do something, you better do it. Right. Teachers. Like in today's world, we have all of these kids being able to question teachers. Right. And they're like, no, no, I don't feel good. And then the parents are siding with the kids. Like.
Dan Johnson (14:55.929)
Do you know what happened when I was a kid in high school? Like I can remember I was naughty. I'm trying to think of what year it was. It might've been seventh or eighth grade. And I, my mom had to come away from work for a school meeting and the teachers were like, listen, your kid is doing this. Your kid's doing this. And my mom looks at the teacher and goes beat his ass. Like, like, like I feel like, yeah, green light, you do whatever you need to do to shut him up. And.
Nick Otto (15:20.916)
Green light, go.
Dan Johnson (15:25.935)
You know, I never was beaten by a teacher, but they sat my ass down. They checked. started checking me and things like that. And I think that that kind of mentality has gone away and we need to bring some of that back.
Nick Otto (15:40.116)
Absolutely. Yeah, I'm not on record, but I agree. I agree. Yeah.
Dan Johnson (15:41.422)
But listen to your long story short. Yeah. Oh yeah. That's right. You're a teacher. Right? So you can't say you can't, you have to play like Switzerland in this role. Right.
Nick Otto (15:51.476)
I gotta be, I gotta be super nicey nice in this situation, but at same time I'm kinda like, Being a dad at school though, my kids are in elementary, so I actually have my kids in class. Just for PE though, it is definitely, I've got colleagues who had their kids with them all day. And I'm like, no, no. I want my kids to learn and yes, they will learn from me. There are lessons. I will give a lot of heavy life lessons.
Dan Johnson (16:03.29)
my God, that would suck. That would suck, dude. I couldn't do it.
Nick Otto (16:21.192)
But reading, writing arithmetic, it's not going to come from me. It's going to come from someone else. They need to be able to get that in there. but to, yes, my youngest, kind of messing around in class and I'm hearing that from the teacher and on the way out to recess, like I'm like, Hey, come here, bud, come here. No, you're, sticking in with me. I pulled my own kid out of recess and he's, know, it's, it's one those things like I can keep tabs.
on them at school. So I do have like this little bit of superpower where dad is the all seeing eye. He knows what's going on and being able to handle that, which does keep them in line. Two of them, you know, that was, it's really going to be something that, you know, they're like, dad's over my shoulder right now. My oldest, he kind of just, he's on his own. He's on his own planet. He's doing so well. mean, he's up and out into the intermediate. He's in the five, six building. and you know, he, like you said,
The older they get, they, they need a little bit extra leash. They're looking for that respect piece. And it's like, Hey, I'm to give you some, you know, you're, you're still young. We're going to, still growing here, but he's been able to take that and run and do some really cool stuff on his own. Like he's gone on to do plays. He's, he's getting part of a big production, with the school, which I'm like, I would have never done that. I would have never gone and done plays. And I'm like, hats off to you. He's doing that. he's.
Dan Johnson (17:35.224)
Yeah. Yep.
Nick Otto (17:48.424)
joint swimming. That's been a new opportunity we've been able to do. we're doing the swimming. he likes backstroke and he likes, the American crawl or freestyle. think that was what they call it now. So it's like, he's venturing out and doing his own stuff. Whereas the others are still, they're staying in dad's lane or mom's mom or dad's lane. They're not venturing out too far yet.
Dan Johnson (18:07.564)
Yeah. Still wild animals that you're trying to tame for society, right?
Nick Otto (18:13.254)
absolutely. It's yes, we have the hair downright savages. I wouldn't want it any other way. Cause I don't know. I roll with the punches with them. It's really fun. You could have put some of like the comedic clown type music on the small game hunt that we just did this past weekend. I mean, we had, I mean, we had kids all over the place. mean, I my three boys with me.
Dan Johnson (18:18.232)
Savages, yep.
Nick Otto (18:41.702)
Each two of them had a firearm. The one was just with the backpack. so I was constantly just checking barrels, which inevitably we go over a log and both barrels end up into the dirt clogged up with snow and ice immediately. So I got to get a stick and we got it, you know, take them apart, clean them all out. And when we go along, the dog wants to come along with us. The dog finds a shot deer. it was a low shot wounded, doe.
Dan Johnson (18:53.932)
Yeah.
Nick Otto (19:10.92)
I didn't bring buckshot with me. All I had was a birdshot for if we got a squirrel or a bunny, like that's all I had with. So I'm like, I'm not going to shoot this thing with birdshot. And so now the dog is chasing this thing that it's not, it's not slowed down a lot, but it definitely doesn't want to move. So it keeps squaring off with the dog. And I'm like, please like, whop it in its head. Like I'm trying to catch up with these things and it feels like I'm standing still. can't catch up with the dog. I can't get them away from the deer.
Dan Johnson (19:29.678)
Mm-hmm.
Dan Johnson (19:38.099)
I'm
Nick Otto (19:40.764)
I want the deer to just smack him on the nose, you know, give them the front paw hoof and it just wouldn't happen. So I'm chasing this dog all over tarnation. I left two kids in the woods and then I had to finally collect myself, get them back in and you know, I finally get in the house after like an hour and a half of running around the woods and the wife was like, how'd it go? I want to talk about it. Just, yeah, I'm going to go take a nap. That's my lesson I think from
Dan Johnson (20:04.322)
Peachy.
Dan Johnson (20:07.95)
You
Nick Otto (20:10.192)
All this as we were going along, as I just tell that story and hearing reminiscing on your end too, where kids are going to listen, but at the same time, it's not about me anymore. That's been my biggest lesson that I've taken is now that they're out, now that they're joining in with the hunt and they're looking for me for instruction, they're looking for me on what to do, there will still be an opportunity that I get to go and hunt on my own.
Dan Johnson (20:26.318)
absolutely.
Dan Johnson (20:34.904)
Mm-hmm.
Nick Otto (20:39.632)
on occasion, but the solo hunt of me right now for 2025 is going to be few and far between. is, that's going to be a big focus on, on where I'm going is it's going to be kids in the woods with me all 25. So that's where we're at.
Dan Johnson (20:53.422)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I I've kind of gone over that too, man. This year I had a, or this in 2024, I had a little scenario play out where I didn't think it was going to happen, but I drew two out of state tags. I hunted Iowa, of course, right where I live. But then I also drew Kansas and, um, South Dakota and I was successful in South Dakota and I was successful in Kansas and.
Iowa didn't play out, but it was the time. Right. So I had like a little over four weeks out in the field. Right. had basically when I go on a hunt, I do like an eight day trip, right? A day for driving six days of hunting and then another day for driving. And that's typically how I do my, non-resident hunt. Yep. Playing it out. And so I was gone for 16 days just on those two trips. And then I, you know, I'm in Iowa and I put in another like,
Nick Otto (21:42.644)
how you've planned it out.
Dan Johnson (21:52.462)
I went for three days, I came home and then I went for another four or five days and then I came home. And then right before I left for Kansas, I came back to one of my farms for three days and then left straight from that farm to Kansas. so I would, man, I don't want to say I hit 30 days this year, but I'm guessing somewhere between, I don't know, 23 and 28 days of hunting this year.
And I can't do, like, I don't know if I can do that again, just from, just from the family schedule. Like, could I do it? Absolutely. But the family schedule is interrupted when dad's gone. And, it's not, it's not the same when dad's gone. I'll just be honest.
Nick Otto (22:23.796)
Right.
Nick Otto (22:36.786)
Yep, yep. Because not only that, you're working from home primarily. Wife is the one who goes to work. So that really does. That's the day-to-day stuff that really gets interrupted when you're gone.
Dan Johnson (22:50.966)
Yep, absolutely, absolutely.
Nick Otto (22:53.64)
Gotcha. We're going to come back to that a little bit. We're going to talk about those bucks that you got out of state. But I want to take a quick rabbit trail in talking a little bit about the end of season. We are here in Michigan, I think, well, at the time of the release of this, we will be done with the marathon that is whitetail season in Michigan. We've got our little extended extra
Dan Johnson (23:08.257)
Okay.
Nick Otto (23:22.014)
to the 12th where we can try to take antlerless deer. People are still trying to do that, take advantage of that. But at the time of this airing, it's gonna be done. So Iowa, Iowa's completed. Am I correct or is there still some muzzleloader going on? Is there still some late season antlerless?
Dan Johnson (23:23.95)
Thank
Dan Johnson (23:41.728)
Yeah, it's late season right now. So you can, we are recording this on a Thursday. Tomorrow is Friday and tomorrow is the last day, January 10th of the Iowa hunting season. I don't believe there's any more antlerless seasons right now that are happening, but, you know, there's, there's less than 48 hours left in the, the,
Nick Otto (23:54.312)
Gotcha.
Dan Johnson (24:06.09)
Iowa hunting season. And so if I really wanted to get out, I could go, fill my archery tag that I didn't fill, or I can go buy a muzzleloader tag still. So that's, that's all that's left and then we're done.
Nick Otto (24:18.216)
Gotcha. Now that you're done, essentially, we're down into 48 hours. Like you said, what, what is the mindset? What is the thoughts going through Dan Johnson? Is this a somber time that we're feeling, or is this like the end of a, like an end of a marathon where there's almost a celebration now getting to the end. When you get to the end of a season,
What are you feeling,
Dan Johnson (24:52.386)
This goes back to just being a dad and a husband type deal because I don't think those anything really like my life is, my life is so busy where I'm, I was done hunting the moment I got back from Kansas in late November. I didn't go hunting at all in December. Well, just because I don't shotgun hunt and I had goals that maybe I could fill all four of my deer tags this year.
Nick Otto (25:00.445)
Yeah
Dan Johnson (25:20.63)
that didn't happen because Iowa was rough this year, far as the rut felt like it was in glue this year. And I just didn't, passed some good deer, but didn't get into, but didn't, you know, some, some things went right. Some things went wrong, just like any typical hunting season. And I celebrated hard because in October this year, I shot my very first mule deer with a bow.
And when I, yeah, yeah, six years of trying to get a mule there spot in stock. And so that's how long I've been going to South Dakota. And on the sixth year, I got the job done. Now, the second that happened, my season was a 10, 10 out of 10, because I had been wanting to be multi-species for so long that
Nick Otto (25:50.356)
Congratulations, by the way. know it's long, long delayed. Congratulations.
Dan Johnson (26:17.742)
I wanted to shoot another big game animal with my bow. That wasn't a white tail. I got the job done. And from that point, Kansas, the buck I shot in Kansas is just the cherry on top. Iowa. It didn't happen in Iowa this year. I was looking for something, you know, decent and it never happened. And I'm 100 % okay with how the rest of the season played out. So I celebrated my season the first weekend in October.
once I checked that mule deer box and then everything that happened after that was just, dude, whatever happens happens. And I was completely okay with it. So now that the season is wrapping up and it's over, the only thing that I'm thinking about is getting my kids in the wood to go turkey hunting. That's it.
Nick Otto (27:03.86)
Gotcha. So the celebration, like you said, is done more with the goals that you have set, not necessarily the date on the calendar, where some individuals would say, hey, you know what? You know, we've gotten into January now and some people are going out with different implements. know myself, implement doesn't really mean a lot to me. So I kind of lived on that calendar side where I'm getting into this last week of
Dan Johnson (27:14.584)
Right.
Nick Otto (27:31.966)
having the opportunity to harvest a white tailed deer. And it's kind of one of those, I'm definitely not in the somber side, but I also am very reflective of what that is. And it's neat to see where yours difference and it's more into, you've set out goals of what you want to achieve, realistic goals of being a multi-species successful with your bow and being able to do that in that month. That's where that.
Dan Johnson (27:42.755)
Mm-hmm.
Dan Johnson (27:58.082)
you
Nick Otto (28:00.498)
that celebration has come about. With some time now, again, we're into January and you've got a chance to take that mule deer to the taxidermist. I'm sure it's definitely not back yet. They've got a lot of work to do on that. Have thoughts gone into 25 now for goals? Are we extending? Are we going further down this multi-species track? What are you thinking?
Dan Johnson (28:27.906)
Yeah. So absolutely. Absolutely. Both my, both my, so I only went Euro mount. So I don't have enough room in my house to just shoulder mount everything. So I think what I'm going to do is I'm only going to shoulder mount my bigger Iowa bucks from here on out. And then just Euro mount anything outside of Iowa. And so I only did Euro mounts this year for my, my Kansas buck and my South Dakota mule deer buck.
so they're, they were gone and now they're back and now they're hanging on my wall. So another check, you know, like celebrating that. then, 2025 is going to be different for me. I think I am going right. This is, this is what I'm thinking right now. I'm thinking I'm going to actually pull back and only hunt Iowa and try to fill.
Nick Otto (29:02.63)
Excellent.
Dan Johnson (29:27.884)
to Iowa tags this year. I don't think I'm going to try to do an out of state hunt. That might change, you know, because I have, I have an opera. have more opportunities in other States like South Dakota has gone to a draw, but I've been lucky enough to draw all those years, but the.
Nick Otto (29:40.052)
Mm-hmm.
Dan Johnson (29:52.738)
But then what you have have happened is a scenario where I didn't think I was going to draw South Dakota this year. And I put in for both and I got both. So what I'm going to start doing now, I think is trying to line up. Cause I have a lot of preference points for Wyoming, for Antelope, deer and elk. And so now it becomes more of about a planning where I'm going to do, I'm going to try to do one out of state hunt and start to stagger those so that I can draw like.
Cause it takes me three months or three years to get Kansas. And then it takes me prop. It's probably going to take me every other to get South Dakota moving forward. So the goal is to go like South Dakota, Kansas, South Dakota, Kansas, Wyoming, South Dakota, Kansas, you know, like go back and forth and burn some of those preference points that I've, that I've built up. And then the other thing that I really want to do is there's a lot of really good deer hunting in.
Nick Otto (30:25.716)
Mm-hmm.
Dan Johnson (30:52.896)
In my neighboring states that I've never taken advantage of, know, we got Southeast Minnesota. got Southwest Wisconsin. We got Western Illinois. got North, Northeast and Northern Missouri, all within like a three hour drive of where I live, four hour drive. And I feel like I've been neglecting opportunities that are right in front of me. So there might be an opportunity where if I tag out this year early in.
I might just like over the Wisconsin's over the counter, Minnesota's over the counter, Missouri's over the counter. I believe Illinois is even over the counter for, for white tail tags. And so I might just. Yep. Three days, you know, three or four days, go, go see what I can, what I can shoot and try that, you know, like, I don't know, but I feel like there's closer opportunities than Kansas and, and South Dakota. And that way there's more hunting, less traveling.
and I can be more efficient with my time.
Nick Otto (31:55.666)
Absolutely, absolutely. My goodness. It's as much as you got to be proficient in the woods, you almost have to be proficient at Excel or being an accountant when it comes to using these points and lining that up. So 2025 sounds like a very busy year for you as well. Even though you're not going anywhere, it's still trying to lay things out on paper. You mentioned just a little bit ago too, that as you're packing,
Dan Johnson (32:05.198)
Right. Yeah.
Nick Otto (32:26.472)
deer stuff away now, big game stuff is getting, going to get packed up, cleaned up, put to the sides of the garage. Your next big push is going to be Turkey. Not a whole lot this winter that is, that it's grabbing your attention as far as like small game, ice fishing. It's your hell bent on going for those spring gobblers.
Dan Johnson (32:49.43)
Man, my life with kids and kids activities. I wish that I could do this. Like, we got to take the, I'll tell you this, Nick. I wish you could go downstairs and look at the January calendar. All right. There are 30 days, whatever in January and every single one of them has two events on them. One for each kid.
Saturdays and Sundays even have wrestling tournaments, have birthday parties, have soccer practices, you know, throughout the week then we're sitting, obviously we have school and then we got wrestling. got baseball. It's January baseball starting back up. got dance. We have soccer. It's just like, my God. And so it's just, that's why I don't ever like I'm,
Nick Otto (33:34.356)
Isn't that incredible?
Dan Johnson (33:45.856)
I am not, I do not have the ability anymore to just be like, you know what? I'm going hunting tonight. I, everything in my life has to be planned out on a calendar in order for me to go, go and do it. So, and that's where I stack my chips. Right. So in order for me to do the out of the eight day out of state hunt, that means I got to stack my chips in that timeframe. And I'm not doing the other stuff. That's not near.
It's fun, but not near as important to me. Like I would love to trap, but there's a giant, time suck for trapping. I would love to go. Maybe grab a beagle or some kind of dog and chase rabbits or something like that. You know, again, time sucks. Right. And so my, my schedule is so tight throughout the week that it's hard for me to fit any of that stuff in. So I have to, I have all my moves are big.
Nick Otto (34:22.142)
Mm-hmm.
Dan Johnson (34:42.434)
Right. They're big and they're calculated and they're scheduled so that I can involve my kids around it. like, I have no problem with pulling my kids out of school to take them turkey hunting in the spring. Right. Usually what happens is we skip school. Like last year we skipped school on a Friday and then we did the youth season weekend that started before the first, the first season shotgun. And so I took my, I took my, son, my oldest son and my daughter out.
of school and it was scheduled though. So it's all about finding the time, putting the activity down in it and then implement like just going for it.
Nick Otto (35:25.746)
Yes. Half the listeners that are listening to this right now are going to be saying amen. They're probably going through the same scenario that you are that, you know what, you're not short on money. You're not short on energy. are short on time. So I'm yes. It's, it's nice to hear though, that you're, you're two steps ahead of it. You're playing chess with this. That if I stay on top of it, you know, things are going to open up. You're going to have those abilities to pull the kids out of school, head out for turkeys.
Dan Johnson (35:40.312)
time.
Nick Otto (35:55.56)
That's the great mindset to do that. So I probably, that's probably my biggest thing is I got to look out past my nose. If I do see an open dot or an open spot on that calendar, I'm, I'm more like a thief in the night. I'm really like a raccoon. will just take advantage of, of that, even though there might be something else that my, my wife wants us to do. Like if I can pull the kids and we go run around on a Sunday afternoon outside, I'm going to take the kids with me and we're going to go have a blast. So.
Dan Johnson (35:56.32)
Yeah. Yeah.
Dan Johnson (36:11.523)
Mm-hmm.
Nick Otto (36:23.976)
Dad's going to be the one that throws the wrench into the schedule. But if I go, it's yes, it's going to be taking others, others down with me. If I want to be right about that, that's what our ice fishing is. It's merely a time to go play on the ice, drill a hole and jig around for a little bit, burn some time. And then yeah, come back, you know, for a good night's sleep. Cause at that point kids are going to be toast, fresh air, lugging stuff on the ice. That's, that's what we're looking forward to this year.
fingers crossed if we keep on developing hard ice out there.
Dan Johnson (36:57.31)
Absolutely. Absolutely.
Nick Otto (37:00.744)
Well, hey, circling back on this rabbit trail, man, we went way off on the side. Let's get back talking to those bucks that you got. got two out of state bucks. Congratulations on those. And especially the one, the mule deer that you got. My, my intrigue revolves around, you got to get those things processed. You got to get those things. You're, you are not in your element at that point. are hours away from home.
Dan Johnson (37:09.582)
Mm-hmm.
Nick Otto (37:29.876)
You know, it could be a full day that you were saying that I am, I took a whole day to travel. That was a whole day to travel back. have this animal now. Are you processing that in the state that you get it? As in, are you spending time to look ahead and research where you're going to drop this deer off to get it processed? Or are you quartering it yourself, bringing it back to Iowa to your home processor?
that can take care of that. When you're on the road, when you're traveling, and I'm sure there's gonna be a little bit of, depends on what's going on, you gotta play it by the fly, but how do you handle now having that animal and to get it to the process?
Dan Johnson (38:15.298)
Hey man, it's just being prepared with an extra cooler or two in the back of your truck. Really is what it is. And sometimes they get used and sometimes they don't. But for me, my mule deer, I shot it on day four, I believe out of maybe a six day hunt. And so I had time, I de-boned it in the field, right? So all I took off of it was we did the gutless method on that. So we didn't have to mess with any of that.
The first time I've ever done the gutless method and I had a guy who had done that before, like kind of helped walk me through it. And that was awesome. And you're not carrying all the extra weight of the bone. And then I dropped it off at a processor in South Dakota and he goes, give me, give me 24 hours. And so I, and then, you know, I packed it in ice and then
While they were working on it, I went out hunting with the other guy in hopes that he could get, uh, on, know, on another mule there. And then I got a call the next, it was either the next day or the next day. can't remember how long it took. Um, but I dropped it off. Maybe it took a day, maybe it took a day and a half or something like that. And he ended up, uh, pack, like grinding it, packing it, like making, uh, uh, he took the backstraps and made stakes out of them and.
All I had to do was pack it in my ice and then transfer it to the freezer when I got home. So that that's one scenario. Now, the other one was was my uncle. Now, my uncle has everything set up in Kansas. He's got an entire garage and then a shed dedicated to deer hunting. OK, so he has the pulley system. He's got the knives. So we pulled the buck off of.
You know, we pulled the buck off of the, the ranch, put it in the back of his truck, took it to, you know, took it to his garage, hung it up overnight. The next morning we processed it, you know, took the Cape off, cut the head off. we ended up, we even went as far as to take the fur off the head and remove the bottom jaw and try to cut as much meat off of that as possible. and then.
Dan Johnson (40:35.606)
We quartered everything and chunked everything there. So then what I did was I packed all that on ice and then I went to, I dropped it off at a neighboring town processor. Now you're going to get a kick out of this. I didn't look at prices when I, when I placed my order, had 47 pounds of meat off this whitetail buck that I got.
Nick Otto (40:52.788)
you
Dan Johnson (41:04.074)
And I went in and I started dedicating, right? So they have these, they, okay, if you want breakfast sausages, it's so 10 pounds of this is going to get you 30 pounds of this, right? And then they add maybe some pork to it, or maybe they add, you know, their flavors or their beef tallow or whatever, know, whatever it is that you're ordering, they add stuff to it to make it what it is. Right. And so I said, and I didn't even check prices.
Nick Otto (41:24.66)
Mm-hmm.
Dan Johnson (41:30.668)
So I might, when they call me to go pick up my stuff, I might be dropping like 1500 bucks on processing fees for, for what I ordered. mean, I ordered sticks. ordered breast breakfast, sausages. ordered salami. I had a couple, you know, I had some ground and then I ordered, I can't remember what else I ordered. It might've been like burgers or shit. I don't even know. There's 10 pounds. Yeah. I can't like,
Nick Otto (41:56.197)
Patty's already made? Yeah.
Dan Johnson (42:00.138)
I can't recall 10 pounds of meat that I gave to them, but it was like 20 bucks here, 40 bucks here, know, 30 bucks here. Plus the, plus the processing fee to do that. so I don't know what I got coming. They said it'll probably be done in February. Come pick it up. Could be $10,000. And then I'd be, I'd be broke.
Nick Otto (42:28.08)
Right, right. gotta take it, yeah, gotta take a loan out on something you're gonna end up throwing in a skillet.
Dan Johnson (42:33.934)
Yeah, exactly. Exactly. You know, I'm guessing it'll be somewhere around a thousand dollars or something like that, but, I haven't done that in a long time. Usually it's just ground and backstrap. Like, so I got the backstrap off. got the back straps and the belly loins and the, the neck loins off of the, or what's the, is it, are they neck loins?
What's the, there's some, people don't even take them off the deer. Those are the, those are the belly loins, but then up in the neck, in the neck cavity, way upfront, there's some smaller ones too, right?
Nick Otto (43:15.506)
Yeah. If we're talking about the same one, it's almost, it's the continuation of the backstrap as it works, as it finally finds tunes down into the neck. they take them on lamb a lot. I've taken them off my deer. Now I call them neck fillets. that's what I refer to them as, but you know, a neck loin you're talking about. Yeah. It's just a, you know, a tender piece of meat that works its way up through the neck, being able to pull that out. So you got those out of there. Good. Very nice.
Dan Johnson (43:24.749)
Yeah.
Dan Johnson (43:30.508)
neck fillets, okay.
Dan Johnson (43:42.338)
Yep. So we used almost all the, like we got, we got everything off of that deer, right? Like we were, we were Indians. We were like, used everything. Right. And it was just piles of bones when we were done with it. And so that was, that was pretty cool. And so that, so I kept the back straps. I didn't take any of that to get processed. I did the, so what I do is I'll rinse them off and make sure they're clean and then pat them down.
Nick Otto (43:50.9)
Yeah.
Dan Johnson (44:11.584)
and then I'll put the back straps right in the freezer. And so then when I thaw them out before I don't clean them up first, I clean them up before I eat them. So I'll, I'll just let the back strap de-thaw and then I'll start cutting silver skin off and fat and all that other, all the, all the waste, I guess off of that. And that's how I do it. I don't do it beforehand.
Nick Otto (44:22.377)
Gotcha.
Nick Otto (44:35.848)
Gotcha. Gotcha. I, I love where you've come in. Like a basic cut is, something that you've traditionally gone with. You're like, you know what? Give me my roast, give me my, my stakes and give me my ground. And that's, that's pretty, you know, the, basic cut and to then get that, you know, that wild hair and be like, I really want some of those hot sticks. I really want some of those. And you went in and just got 10 pounds of this, 10 pounds of that, 10 pounds of this.
Dan Johnson (44:58.763)
yeah.
Nick Otto (45:05.458)
I've got, I've got friends who really enjoy that, the meat treat side of it. where it's, they do get a good portion of their deer cut up into summer sausage, or they get it into sticks because they do like to take those for lunches. They do like to share those. My one's a salesman. So shoot, he's got a cooler in his truck and every client he talks to, mean, he's, he's pulling out hot sticks all the time, trying to sweeten the deal on that.
or meat treats a big deal in your house where you're going to take a little time to, know, to get some of those done. Like you said, it's been a while. Is this kind of like a really big treat now where you're really excited about the summer sausage?
Dan Johnson (45:44.547)
Yeah.
Dan Johnson (45:48.248)
Yeah.
Yeah. So the first things first, my kids absolutely love ground ground deer meat now. And my wife has now started to accept it. So for me, it's kind of, motivating to me to want to go shoot another deer or even an extra deer and just maybe throw it all into grind because we use it in replace of beef quite a bit in our household. Like last night we had mule deer spaghetti, right?
Nick Otto (45:57.748)
Mm-hmm.
Dan Johnson (46:20.704)
And so we, we, we did it right. that's, that's, we, do the re the replacement. then we also, like for me the other day, I finally pulled my heart out and I had heart fajitas. Right. And then I also had, then I cooked up, some of those mule deer filets that I got, like the back straps that were cut up into stakes and they were
They were butterflied up and they were absolutely delicious. Just eat them with some rice at lunch. Pretty, you know, real healthy meal. and so, excuse me, it's the basics that get like that. I enjoy the most because dude, let's not, let's not kid ourselves. You cook a backstrap the right way. I don't care what kind of salami or sticks you got. You're not going to be the perfect seasoned, perfectly cooked medium backstrap, dude.
Maybe, maybe you did it on a grill. Maybe you did it the way I like to do it. And you use that Rosemary and you use that melted butter and then you get that meat thermometer in there to check it. And then you're, you're a basting that with that garlic Rosemary butter over top of it. And when you do that, right, holy shit, dude, that like, that makes me smile. That I'll tell you what that does. That makes me want to go down after this podcast.
and go start thawing out my backstrap for tomorrow. Tomorrow's lunch.
Nick Otto (47:49.55)
Absolutely. You, I know this lunch because so we get, you know, we were trying to meal plan. We're trying to think ahead. We were like, Hey, jaw or January, you know, resol, you know, family resolutions, new year's resolutions. We're, we're not going to, we're to have lunches already pre-packed. We're going to have those ready to go. Like leftovers go right into, we got the little glass, we're upgraded to glass Tupperware now.
so we can take those for lunches. So whatever we have for dinner gets packed up and yes. And well, anyway, we, we had a, we made a chicken, roasted the whole chicken. had that for dinner. We had leftovers. So we made two batches. had a dark meat, lunch and we had a breast in, in for one of the lunches. However, when my wife left before I did, she took the dark meat one and that was really the one that I wanted. I wanted the thigh and I wanted the drumstick and I was left.
with the breast. And I was gonna eat every bit of it, cause I was starving. I mean, I had broccoli and I had carrots in there with it, but it was just white chicken breast. And you know, I sit down at my lunch and I warm it up and I happened to flip up to the nine finger Chronicles. He's got a, he's got a story on Instagram. And I watched that and I'm watching mule dare filets get fileted up. And what I was chewing on was not.
mule deer full of the soul. No, no. That's what I was just gonna say. My lunch was seasoned with backstabbing, with jealousy, and I wanted that so bad and the salt and pepper on that breast was not cutting it.
Dan Johnson (49:16.75)
It did not compare. You got a little food jealousy.
Dan Johnson (49:26.958)
You
Dan Johnson (49:36.854)
Right, right.
Nick Otto (49:38.654)
But one heck of a lunch, I guess that's the perk of not having to be in an office is that you have full access to your kitchen and to your wild game. It's only a door away and a few hours on the counter.
Dan Johnson (49:53.25)
Well, the thing about it is, depending like the best cuts right now, like another thing I really like to do is smoke, the, backstraps or any type of meat on the grill or on my smoker, right? That takes a long time, but just like a crock pot, you can walk away from it for a while. You can get some stuff done, but if you want to cook a good backstrap on a skillet, dude, it doesn't take too terribly long to do that. You have your heat, right? Right.
It doesn't take like, can cook a really good wild game lunch, whether those I have those filets and it's a smaller cut. You know, those are smaller cuts. They're butterflied. So it doesn't take so long to cook to medium, right? A minute, a minute you're done. Now a bigger backstrap piece might take a little longer, but I mean, still you can cook it. can make a backstrap taste really good on a skillet within, you know, 10 minutes of cooking it.
And parrot was like, for me, I'm trying to eat as healthy as possible. So pretty much it's just it's meat and rice. Maybe like, uh, the, the Instagram story that you saw, had a leftover onion and a leftover, uh, bell pepper from, uh, the week before. And so I was like, Hey, I'm going to use this. And it just, you know, it adds to that flavor. And it took me a total of maybe 10 minutes to whip that meal up another 20 minutes to eat it. And.
Now it's cleanup time. I mean, you can do all of that in like a 30 minute period. It's a, it's a no brainer, man. And plus it's just so good.
Nick Otto (51:32.134)
It is so good off of one pot too, or off one pan. You did all that in one pan. The rice, think was like the minute rice you threw in the microwave. one, like one pan dishes are quintessential when it comes to being a family man, being a family, like anything you can do in one pan or one pot, that's what's gonna make life manageable.
Dan Johnson (51:37.006)
Yep, one pan.
Dan Johnson (51:42.302)
Throw in the microwave. Yep.
Dan Johnson (51:59.416)
Do you remember that hot blonde from the Food Network? Her name was Sandra Lee. Do you remember her at all?
Nick Otto (52:08.912)
I do, I do remember Sandra Lee. Where are we going?
Dan Johnson (52:11.734)
Yeah. Okay. So she's just listen, listen, the, the reason you stop flipping through the channels is because she's gorgeous. Okay. The re the, the reason that I stopped and started listening to her was because her meals, what she called semi homemade. Okay. Meaning you add in the rice that's out of a container that you can use a microwave shortcut for.
Nick Otto (52:21.065)
That's true.
Nick Otto (52:37.831)
Mm-hmm.
Dan Johnson (52:40.492)
Right? doesn't have like cooking doesn't always have to be a gigantic production. You can get really good flavor out of your wild game with very simple recipes too. And so what I'm getting at is I take those shortcuts to, to make the meal prep more efficient for me and the family with our busy schedule. And so like the other day, right? I, I fried up
two pounds of ground and it sat in the refrigerator until it was time to use it. Right? Very simple. Right? We're having, we're having a spaghetti. Boom. I used the other half for a burger rice. What's that called? A sweet chili sauce lunch, by the way, delicious and simple, right? Very simple. So I really enjoy those types of meals where you want something, you want to eat it, but you don't have the time to cook it.
There's a lot of options out there for this semi homemade type meals as well. And those are the ones that I cook the most often.
Nick Otto (53:44.702)
Good, good. Not as attractive as Sandra Lee, but David Chang. Yeah, me, us either, but David Chang, he's a big restaurateur. His favorite appliance happens to be the microwave. And it's because of what you just said. I think, yeah, they're on the same wavelength, but yeah, I think I would listen to Sandra before I would listen to David.
Dan Johnson (53:47.808)
Not as attractive. Absolutely not as attractive.
Dan Johnson (54:07.534)
You're not listening, bud. You're looking.
Nick Otto (54:16.254)
So you were saying too, like with those one pot meals and trying to get things all together, has your family graduated to the now two pound ground scenario where if it's taco night, you need two packages or if it's spaghetti night and you're making the meat sauce, have you gone to the two packages for making that?
Dan Johnson (54:32.487)
yeah.
Dan Johnson (54:38.774)
Yeah, dude. mean, we get to the point where like spaghetti is no longer one pack of one pack of spaghetti, one package of ground and one can of sauce or one jar of sauce. is two of all those things. And then, but again, whatever we don't eat, put in the, we put into the refrigerator and we just eat it the next day or the day after or whatever the case is. And so like,
Nick Otto (54:56.058)
Yes.
Dan Johnson (55:08.214)
Last night, my son ate a bowl of spaghetti, clean it up, put it away, comes home from wrestling. Dad, I'm starving. need a fee. He said, these are his, his exact words were I need a feast. I don't need a snack. I need a feast. And I said, well, we got extra spaghetti. want some spaghetti? He's like, yeah. He's like, dad, I might even need more. And I said, okay, well you eat this spaghetti first and then we'll see where you're at.
Nick Otto (55:17.64)
Second dinner. Yep.
Dan Johnson (55:34.304)
And so at eight o'clock at night, after wrestling, he ate another entire bowl of spaghetti. And, and so, you know, I don't know. Like it's crazy. I, he's so skinny. Like I was never that skinny. He's so skinny. And the amount that he eats is ridiculous. Like he just, his body just must be vibrating all day long to burn all that off. So, but yes, we are.
Nick Otto (55:59.592)
Yes.
Dan Johnson (56:04.108)
We are a family that consumes. but here's the thing. Like we really do watch what our family eats. Like I do not allow. Like just straight trash every morning. Now this isn't necessarily while game related. It will be when I get all my breakfast sausages back from the processor, but
Nick Otto (56:24.116)
Yes, the gold packages.
Dan Johnson (56:28.34)
Exactly. But sausage, eggs, maybe some oatmeal, maybe some toast, right? We don't do cereal. We don't do pop tarts. We don't do heavy sugar breakfasts, right? And I think that's something that we try hard to do. Now, don't get us wrong. Maybe once a month we'll have a donut breakfast where, you know, we stop and get some donut holes or we'll get some of that stuff. And then like
Nick Otto (56:52.137)
Mm-hmm.
Dan Johnson (56:58.398)
One thing that I'm trying to do as a 44, you know, what, how old am I? I'll turn, I'm 44 and I'm trying to eat as much protein as possible these days. And I'm trying not to eat so much sugar. I try not to drink as much and all that stuff. So to me it's protein. And that's what I'm trying to accomplish is to try to eat as much protein as possible. And I'm just so happy that I got some in my freezer.
Nick Otto (57:26.426)
Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. That's a chapter two that, you know, I mean, I haven't, it's been hitting me square in the face and I need to address it as well. But like you said, like the amount of protein that, that I need is going to be way better than the amount of carbohydrates or the amount of fats that I want to put in. Because I mean, I can put the carbohydrates, hydrates, I can put the fat away easy. And I, probably should be lowering myself on those.
Dan Johnson (57:44.355)
Yes.
Nick Otto (57:54.504)
I'm not 44 by am approaching that big 40 mark, come here in May. So things, you know, I can still take a hit. It's the getting back up that, it's the problem. takes me a little bit longer to get back up. And if I wait a little less, that might also help it. So that anyway, that's, that's hitting us in the face too. With lean meat that we acquire ourselves. can't think of anything better than being a backstrap.
Dan Johnson (58:10.84)
Yeah.
Dan Johnson (58:14.146)
help. Yep.
Dan Johnson (58:21.132)
Yep.
Nick Otto (58:23.998)
be it something you put in the slow cooker from the shoulder or in the high leg. I think we are, we're blessed with the lifestyle that we're trying to leave and early. Can you, can you agree with that?
Dan Johnson (58:34.996)
Absolutely can. Absolutely. I mean, there's no better feeling to me whenever I sit down, whether it's a semi homemade meal or it's a backstrap or, or it's a production for wild game. Whenever I cook it, I feel good knowing that the only person who touched this meat, some of it anyway, was me or maybe another person helping me process it. Really? mean, how many hands go through a pack of ground beef?
At the store or a chicken breast, like how many people do you think touch that or surfaces that it that touched that I used to work for a company that, um, we were a sanitation contractor. Right. And do you want to hear, do you want to hear a crazy story?
Nick Otto (59:23.856)
As a guy who grew up on a poultry farm, I'm very interested.
Dan Johnson (59:28.429)
Okay.
I hope this doesn't like gross people out from the standpoint of the food industry. Okay. So for a while I worked in a, a factory that processed turkeys, the white turkeys that live in barns their whole life. know what I mean? And so here I'm sitting in this, I'm sitting in this factory and I'm watching how a turkey.
They pull them out of the semi. There's these calip calipers. They throw their feet into the caliber and then they there. It's like a conveyor belt, right? That's all on a conveyor belt. And then they run them through what was called the blood room. Okay. The blood room is a small room where there's a pitching wheel. It almost looks like a pitching machine, but one end.
has a razor blade on it. Okay. So in this little device where it'll catch their head and then it it's angled down. then it stretches their neck out. It runs their head and neck through this pitching wheel with the razor blade on it. And what it's meant to do is cut all of their junk off, like cut their throat. And then the birds go crazy and they're flapping like this and blood is just
Misting and spraying all over the place. Okay Not not something you like you can just sit and watch for a while it's it's pretty gruesome, okay then the next room they go into is a scalding hot bath of water, it's boiling water and then that conveyor belt drops down and it Submerges them in boiling water for a couple minutes
Nick Otto (01:01:08.884)
correct.
Dan Johnson (01:01:28.012)
Like it's like a long narrow bath and then it comes up and what now we're starting the process of getting all the feathers off the birds. Okay. The next machine that they run these birds through is it looks like two basketballs. Okay. And on these basketballs, it looks like big rubber dildos. Okay. They're just flop in there, but when they turn this machine on,
Nick Otto (01:01:52.916)
Yep.
Dan Johnson (01:01:57.994)
It runs them through this machine and those dildo looking rubber things beat, basically beat the feathers off of them. Okay. Just beats the feathers off of them with all that said, sometimes the Turkey is still alive after going through that entire process right there. It's it's nuts. It's nuts. Okay. So the next thing they go into another room, it's a vacuum. Okay.
Nick Otto (01:02:16.185)
my goodness. Yeah.
Nick Otto (01:02:27.38)
Mm-hmm.
Dan Johnson (01:02:28.33)
They take that vacuum and they stuff it right up their butt and it sucks all the guts out. It sucks all the, all the stuff out. And then they go in there and they collect the heart. They collect the gizzard. They collect the, the lungs and some of the other entrails that you'll see in like a Thanksgiving Turkey, right? Right. Like that. And so then they'll cut the neck and then they'll package that and they'll stuff it in. And then, you know, it goes into a chilling.
pool where it will, it will cool down the meat. It'll come back out and then it goes into a packaging and then it goes into freezing. so after watching that, because my job was to clean, like I ran a crew that cleaned those types of facilities. Okay. USDA says you gotta, you gotta clean it, but right there alone, you're looking at through that entire process. There's four or five people that touch.
Nick Otto (01:03:19.486)
Mm-hmm.
Dan Johnson (01:03:25.506)
maybe six even that touched that bird before it's even packaged, right? Maybe even more. And so you look at that and then you look at the meat that you harvested and yeah, it was out in the woods and you had to cut it up and maybe there's some grass on it or maybe, you like maybe you didn't do the best job.
Nick Otto (01:03:29.468)
Absolutely.
Dan Johnson (01:03:47.724)
removing the anus out of the buck or whatever the case is, and maybe a little turd falls on it or you know what I mean? Like that kind of stuff. Yeah, exactly. Wipe it off. just wipe it off. Maybe, maybe you rinse it off. Maybe you don't pat it dry, freeze it. And now you know that you are the only person who touched that meat. And that's pretty rewarding, dude. I think that's pretty cool.
Nick Otto (01:03:54.866)
I'll take a pellet over all those hands touching my meat.
Nick Otto (01:04:13.864)
Yes. What a very descriptive way to go ahead and just say everybody that is listening, they're like, you know what? We're going to get another deer this year. We are not going to the store.
Dan Johnson (01:04:18.6)
hahahahah
Dan Johnson (01:04:27.306)
Exactly. If you want a turkey for Thanksgiving, dude, just go shoot one. Yeah.
Nick Otto (01:04:31.271)
Right.
Well, Dan, this has been a great hour. just, I've been fun to just connect with you both talking about how, how the end of your season was the, the, celebrations that you had the looking forward into the next year, our chat about our kids. mean, as much as we love hunting and we love being in the outdoors, I would say that my heart is even getting even bigger for just being with my kids and being able to share the outdoors with them.
Dan Johnson (01:04:58.904)
Mm-hmm. Yep.
Nick Otto (01:05:04.082)
because they're going to go on adventures that I only wish that I could go on. I think there's going to be some great plans for, your kids here in the future. As my listeners are, you know, tuning in and they're wanting to check more out from you. I'm sure they probably know who you are, but, where can we find you on the interwebs? Where can they connect more with you?
Dan Johnson (01:05:23.648)
Hey, one second, Nick. got to, we got to talk about something real quick though. Okay. Yay. Give me a minute here. All right. The taste between mule deer and whitetail. Okay.
Nick Otto (01:05:27.855)
I fast-forwarded, my bad.
Nick Otto (01:05:38.029)
this is an exclusive here. We got to know the difference between mule deer and, and whitetail.
Dan Johnson (01:05:42.72)
Here's what I'm saying. Mule deer. Man. It's so good. I like mule deer. The mule deer that I have is a just a, it's a, it's, it's like a sweeter meat. It's a little sweeter and it is so damn good. Like I like it better than whitetail. It's so, it's so good.
Nick Otto (01:06:11.356)
So good.
Dan Johnson (01:06:11.404)
And I'm not sure why I'm guessing it's the, the grasses that they eat and less corn and mast that, know, like your, your white tail might eat. but, I believe I read somewhere where a mule deer can consume 480 different varieties of vegetation and a white tail can only consume like 250 or something like that. Right. So the amount of food options.
that a mule deer can eat are more than what a whitetail can. So I don't know what it, you know, this was a South Dakota plains, rolling hills, grassland type of buck. And so I don't necessarily, I'm guessing it was just a lot of grasses, but it was sweet. It's a little sweeter and it actually doesn't have what some people might consider, you know, like the uninitiated.
Nick Otto (01:07:07.251)
Mm-hmm.
Dan Johnson (01:07:07.374)
may call something gamey, right? The stuff that the flavor that me and you probably really like, right? Some people would call that gamey that I don't get the feeling of that from this mule deer. get a, I get a sweeter taste. And I mean, you pair that, you pair that with like a red wine, dude, you're in business, man. It's, it's so good. It's so good.
Nick Otto (01:07:13.818)
yeah.
Nick Otto (01:07:33.118)
Mm-hmm.
I'm gonna, I'm gonna go on this as well, is it's also in the eye of the beholder.
Dan Johnson (01:07:42.477)
Yes it is.
Nick Otto (01:07:43.849)
That mule deer, you know why it tastes so sweet? A part of what you are saying as well. When you age an animal, you intensify the flavor. You're, you're allowing water to, evaporate from the muscle tissue. It wasn't the muscle tissue that we're talking about. The aging here was in you pursuing that animal. It's been aging for six years.
Dan Johnson (01:07:47.757)
Why is that?
Nick Otto (01:08:14.132)
in your head. This has been a backstrap that has been an idea in your head and it is now in front of you. No, no, if I taste it, I, I, there will be probably points that I can say, yes, it is sweeter. get notes of more sage. I get notes of this and that, but for you as a
goal-driven individual as a hunter who has proclaimed himself as, am going to go after specific animals. I think it's 10 times as sweet to you because the blood, the sweat, the tears, the drive homes with empty, with, with empty coolers. That I think is what made it sweet. think it's there six years of age on that, on that deer.
Dan Johnson (01:08:55.233)
you
Dan Johnson (01:09:05.39)
There you go. Well, that could be, man. That could be. It's all like in my head. Like I could be eating just raw shit and I'm like, at least I worked for it, you know.
Nick Otto (01:09:22.132)
So as much as yes, you do have very good points. And I, I, one day I would definitely love to put the side by side on a mule and a white tail, but I'm also like, I know how hard you've been working for that buck and to get it and to then be able to come home with that backstrap. think right now you relive that hunt with every, every bite that you took of it, you're reliving it all. So no, enjoy that. Absolutely. Absolutely.
Dan Johnson (01:09:36.152)
Yeah.
Dan Johnson (01:09:47.106)
Yep. Yep.
Nick Otto (01:09:51.058)
I think we also, had this discussion too. I'm a Pinot noir when it comes to wine and venison. think, are you still a cab sav guy? You like to go the driest and the heaviest?
Dan Johnson (01:10:01.27)
Okay, I like a good cab, right? Don't get me wrong, but it's not my favorite red. My favorite red is a,
Nick Otto (01:10:05.63)
Mm-hmm.
Nick Otto (01:10:09.14)
Okay.
Dan Johnson (01:10:15.768)
Holy cow, I'm having the biggest brain fart right now and I cannot believe it.
Nick Otto (01:10:18.676)
It was a hard switch. That is my bad. That is my bad.
Dan Johnson (01:10:23.411)
my God. my God. This is embarrassing because it, just, I just picked up a bottle of it.
It's not a Pinot Noir. It's its own grape variety. It's a standalone grape. It's a red wine. It's not as popular as a Pinot Noir or as a Cabernet Sauvignon. It's shit. No, it's not a blanc. It's not a blend.
Nick Otto (01:10:51.252)
Is it Blanc? Is it one of those?
Dan Johnson (01:11:00.012)
My God, I have to find it. Now I have to do it. Hang on one second. We're doing this right now. Please be patient with me. Okay. Red.
Nick Otto (01:11:06.366)
Gotcha. Absolutely. Folks on the hunt for so sorry that we have to look up the, the style and a great variety of our wines that we pair with our wild game. And I feel it's important. Here we go. He's got it. Leaning dry.
Dan Johnson (01:11:19.214)
Okay. Red wine variety chart right here. Okay.
Dan Johnson (01:11:28.652)
I do like them all back. will say that.
Nick Otto (01:11:30.74)
Mm-hmm.
Dan Johnson (01:11:37.294)
It's a petite something.
Dan Johnson (01:11:42.434)
Not a petite Sarah. It's a petite. my God, this is stupid. It's, it's a petite something. It's a petite, petite, petite. It's not a petite Sarah. It's a petite. No, it's not a petite noir. one second, one second, one second. Hey, I got it. It's a petite Virdo.
Nick Otto (01:11:58.964)
You are?
Nick Otto (01:12:09.972)
There you go.
Dan Johnson (01:12:11.244)
Dude, my favorite wine with wild game. It's a petite Verdeau. There it is. Got it. We got it. Sorry to the listeners who are like, Jesus, let's end this. Let's end this. This is ridiculous. But you got to fact check it. had to say it. Petite Verdeau is my favorite red wine. Yep.
Nick Otto (01:12:19.006)
There it is.
Nick Otto (01:12:32.116)
Perfect. And that goes with Mule, and I would assume it would also go with the less sweet White Tip.
Dan Johnson (01:12:39.436)
Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. But don't get me wrong. I like a cab with all that stuff because they're easier to get.
Nick Otto (01:12:42.078)
Perfect.
Nick Otto (01:12:46.632)
Yep. Yep. You can get off on any shelf that you need to. So Dan, where can we find you?
Dan Johnson (01:12:49.75)
Yep, absolutely.
Dude, I don't even want to talk about me. I, all I want to do is say, dude, Nick, what you're doing here. I wish more people understood to be honest with you. Like, I think you're doing an amazing job at the, at, with Hunter for dude, like straight up. Like you're, you're this, this podcast is literally one of my favorites and you've been on for on the network now for how many years did we, because we had to talk a while. How many years have you been on? Have you had this?
Nick Otto (01:13:21.364)
Yeah, I think we're, we're five on the network. Cause I am six. I started in 2018 and yeah, I think it was 2019. You, uh, which is one of my favorite moments. Uh, you got a hold of me and you said, you don't sound like dog shit. I have worn that badge. That is a direct quote that you gave me. And I was like, I took it and ran. I'm like, Dan Johnson said, I don't sound like dog shit. So that's been my badge of honor.
Dan Johnson (01:13:24.792)
Yeah.
Dan Johnson (01:13:36.204)
Hahaha
Nick Otto (01:13:50.674)
And that was, yeah, that was five years ago.
Dan Johnson (01:13:53.272)
So you've been doing it for a while and man, I tell you what this, this culinary side to the hunt is a very important side of the hunt because the goal isn't just bone on the wall. It's to use every part of the animal that we possibly can and to turn it into something like I like the fact that, you have this heavy focus on this portion of it. It's obviously a niche and there's a lot more people out there.
that are concerned about how to get the deer and not as much concerned of what to do with the deer when you've gotten it. And I think, dude, this balances out the chaos of the other side.
Nick Otto (01:14:36.826)
Absolutely. Absolutely. It, I know. Yes. And I, I'm so honored to be able to have this platform to be able to do this because there's a day where me myself have to own up to the activities that I do. It's it's it. I just had this conversation with another person and just keeps hitting me as I'm interacting more people who are giving me hard questions about being a meat eater.
Dan Johnson (01:14:39.682)
So thank you is what I'm getting at.
Nick Otto (01:15:05.778)
And they're like, you literally eat the flesh of other creatures. And to answer them straight blankly, you'd be like, yes, unapologetically I do. But look at the effort that I go into doing that. Look at the impact that I have by making my own choices, by pursuing the animals that I then eat. I eat them in their entirety. I'm not just taking the backstrap. I'm not just ordering steaks and then not worrying about the rest of the animal.
Dan Johnson (01:15:06.136)
Mm-hmm.
Dan Johnson (01:15:12.738)
Mm-hmm.
Dan Johnson (01:15:18.071)
Absolutely.
Nick Otto (01:15:33.992)
You know, you, there's only so many rib eyes on beef. Do I love a rib eye? Absolutely. But the same time that whole steer needs to be used and needs to be consumed. So that's where we get our ground. That's where you get your, your sausage. That's where you get all these different other elements and to basically own that up and show like this process isn't a blood thirsty endeavor while, you know, the level of people who are going to need to be fed going to need to be eat going to eat meat.
Dan Johnson (01:15:36.557)
Mm-hmm.
Nick Otto (01:16:03.646)
We're going to have meat plants that are like one that you thoroughly described. We're going to have that to feed how many people are here. But if we as hunters can take one extra step and be like, Hey, I'm not going to have a meal from that particular factory. I'm going to go and get my own. That gives us a little bit of reprieve. That's one less bird that may have to go through that factory. And that's one more deer that may get to be on the hoof for a year until we take it again next year.
So in a nutshell, that's where it's at.
Dan Johnson (01:16:36.68)
Absolutely. Absolutely.
Nick Otto (01:16:39.816)
Well, hey, I'm let my listeners on out Dan. So hold on for just a second. Folks, I've hope you have a great time on this conversation. We have been on all edges of the world on this hunt. We talked about mule deer. We talked about how are we getting those critters back on such long adventures? We're, saying that a basic pack and grind and getting some of those just unaltered pieces of meat.
can still flourish and be amazing in a pan. They can sit right alongside with some of that summer sausage and some of those sticks. We even started talking about our kids and we've talked about wine on this podcast. So if you were looking for variety, you got it today. So folks, as you take off and go through the rest of your week, if you're taking apart an animal yourself that you acquired, or whether it's just making a meal that you're also using that microwave to throw the rice in, make sure the knife that you are using.
is very sharp.
