Canines are our passion.
They are our addiction.
They are our way of life right down to the very core and without them we would be lost.
The canines of this world really are something to behold.
They assist us at work, they accompany us at home, and they perform for us in the field.
No matter where we go, they are by our side.
Canines really are a ride or die, and for that we are grateful.
This podcast will showcase working canines of various breeds and disciplines as we search
for those canines and their handlers who are always striving to be the best at what they
do.
Those who are always grinding.
Those who are always pushing the limits.
Those who are always dogging.
Join us on our adventures as it is sure to be a wild ride.
I'm your host, Bryce Matthews.
And I'm your co-host, Stephen Basham.
And this, this is Semper Doggin.
Welcome welcome welcome to another episode of Semper Doggin.
Guys, I am your host Bryce Matthews and today we are joined as always by Mr. Stephen Basham.
How are you buddy?
I'm making it.
How about yourself, Bob?
Well, I'm doing a little bit better than you are.
Just a little bit.
I would say so.
But you're doing better than the guests that we were supposed to have on here.
At least you've got a little bit of power.
Our guest, guys, we're not going to spoil it.
We're going to have him on here another time.
But he was supposed to join us from down in Virginia and he ain't got nothing.
He's no power, no nothing.
The ice and snowstorm hit them and wiped them out.
Man, you would think him being him.
I mean, I don't have nothing.
And yet I have something because I refuse to live with nothing.
Yeah.
So I got enough ingenuity that right now we have no power.
But I have my whole house operational.
You do.
And we're going to talk about that a little bit.
So like, guys, this is going to be just right off the bat.
Like I said, our guest that we had tonight got hit by the storms.
He's out.
So we're going to do a little improvising here.
We're going to talk some dogs.
But we're also going to talk just a little bit of life lessons because Basham has taught
me something here in the last day.
And I think it's cool to talk about and learn and maybe somebody else can benefit from it
one day.
But yeah.
All right.
So fill me in on what you've been doing the last couple of weeks because we know it's
been a while since we've had a Semper Dog an episode.
We had the new year.
We had Christmas.
We had the New Year's.
We had everything going on.
It's been a while since you and I have talked on here.
So fill me in.
What's happening?
First and foremost, hey, happy one year anniversary for us.
Hey, yes, sir.
One year anniversary for Semper Dog.
And hey, guys, we appreciate you guys tuning in everywhere I go.
I actually went to a doubleheader down in Morgantown on Saturday and a guy showed up
from Russellville and didn't know him from Adam.
And we were sitting there signing up and he said, hey, man, I really want to tell you
how much I enjoy yours and Bryce's podcast.
He said, he said, I'm usually in the truck about two to three hours a day.
And he said, every chance I get, I'm turning on your podcast and listening to it.
And so everywhere I go, we're getting, you know, people are liking it.
They're liking the content.
What most people tell me they like about it is the raw, how we just it's just two buddies
just sitting on here talking with, you know, there's no script.
We're just like any other smo Joe out there, you know, smo Joe, huh?
A smo Joe.
What about a Joe smo?
No, no.
My granny used to call it a smo Joe.
My granny called it smo Joe.
So in my life, that's what I call it.
But you know, you got to keep those traditions going.
But yeah, I think I want to thank Bryce.
He kind of does a lot more with this simple dog than I do just from the technical aspect
of it.
When we record, he's the one that edited it.
He's the one that gets it put on.
So he kind of not just sit here and talk and that's about it.
But he's the man behind the scenes that kind of edits everything.
So big shout out to you, Bryce.
Thank you, bud.
And definitely as far as goals for Semper Doggen, you know, I'd like to and I know that
you're on this too.
Because me and Bryce have just been slammed lately.
But I'd like to reinvigorate ourselves, get motivated again about it and to really hash
out some good podcasts.
My goal for this year is kind of like what I told you before.
I really want to get to those clubs.
I kind of mentioned it on Dog and Tuesday that I jumped on real quick, not very long.
I really want to get to the clubs this year and I want to record those untold stories
from the older generation and really record those, really get down and dirty with those.
And so that's my personal goal for Semper Doggen this year.
What's yours?
Man, I would like to tell some of those stories too.
And I don't know.
I don't know the best way to do it.
I've got a couple ideas, but I guess like the number one goal would be and some people
are going to love this and some people are going to hate it.
But I want to step away from the coon hunting a little bit, like branch out.
I've got a couple people that I've talked to lined up that are super cool individuals.
They do some really cool things with their dogs.
We've gotten to where we're comfortable with the coon hounds and even the guest that we
had scheduled for tonight, he said, are people even going to listen to me talk since you're
a coon hunting podcast?
I said, we're not.
I said, we've fallen into the trap.
I said, we said from the very beginning, we wanted to be diverse and talk about all dog
sports, like all dog breeds.
And I want to get back to that root and that foundation because we have got kind of comfortable
and just went down the coon hound path.
So my goal for 2025 is to branch out more, learn a little bit more, and hopefully other
people will just be exposed to other things.
I was sitting, I went and checked some traps with my father-in-law earlier tonight before
we did this.
And he was telling me some stories of the winter classic back in like way back in the
day.
And I was, we're just driving down the road in the dark in his truck.
And he's telling me these stories.
I'm like, man, I need a microphone.
I hooked up to this man right now.
You know, it's like, it's those untold stories, you know, and I, it would be cool to do that.
So yeah, those would be the two goals.
Try to get some more of those stories and also to branch out from coon hunting just
a little bit.
And I think, I think we could really, I think we could really maximize it by doing those
short little segments and we could call it the untold stories at Simpertoggin.
You know, just, it doesn't even have to be like 20, 30 minutes.
You know, I think, like I said, I think what I'm going to do is, is I'm going to pack
my pod track around and just, even if it's a good five, 10 minutes, you know, just a
quick little segment, just to record real quick.
And then we could take, you know, maybe once every couple of months or maybe once a month,
we can release a untold stories.
And then, you know, something like that.
And so guys, as you can see, this is raw, me and Bryce just kind of sitting here brainstorming,
that's definitely my thoughts on it.
And being that this is our, you know, our first year, I think we started out really,
really strong, really proud of how we started out.
And then as things got more difficult, as you started your farm stuff up and just, just
life in general, as things got crazy, Simpertoggin just kind of got put on the back burner.
We've still been dedicated here the last couple of weeks, we've kind of fallen off, but obviously
I want to get re-motivated, get focused again on our content.
And then, so that's, that's kind of my view from the past and the future of Simpertoggin.
What was, what would, what would have been your favorite since this is the one year anniversary?
What is your favorite episode of all the ones that we've done?
Man, I would, we didn't even script this stuff out, we didn't even talk about it, you're
putting me on the spot.
I know it.
I would say the written Houndsman with Lauren Brown was probably my favorite.
There was a little bit more involvement as far as the production went.
You know, we really thought that one out, like talk to her, wanted her to tell that
story of, or the short story that she wrote.
We wanted her to read that before the podcast, we put some music behind it.
Went through the story with her and just her whole process of becoming a houndswoman and
you know, her love for dogs and moving out west and coming back home and you know, the
dog that was like her forever dog got real sick on her and she's like, I'll never be
able to replace that dog.
And another dog that she had, it was just kind of on the back burner, like stepped up
and man, it was just really, really cool.
And it was a heartfelt episode.
There was, there was no BS to it.
There was no sugar coating.
Like it was raw, you know, and I had a couple of people even messaged me like, dude, like
that podcast brought me to tears.
I'm like, yeah, I mean, it was, it was an emotional podcast.
So I would say that the written Houndsman, if you guys haven't heard that one, go back
and check that one out.
Definitely.
I think, I think from an emotional standpoint, I think that's probably one of my favorite.
I think from a knowledge standpoint, there's two that really stand out.
And that's the one that we did with Brandon White from Next Level Performance Dog Food
and Hannah Falling.
Yeah, just the knowledge.
So, I mean, guys, I mean, I mean, I'm not trying to go there, but you're talking about
two guys that are sitting here telling you that two of their favorite podcasts were the
female hunters that we brought on this podcast.
So I mean, me and Bryce are no BS whenever we tell you that we are out to give credit
and give the knowledge or give the credit to the people that have the knowledge to share
everybody.
Yeah, absolutely.
I'm going to actually pull up some analytics here while we're talking.
So tell me about Buzz.
Let's hear a little bit about where Buzz is at.
And then we're going to go back to some maybe some little analytics here for our first year.
Okay.
Well, to kind of not to shy away from the Buzz thing real quick, but you asked me a
few minutes ago and we'll get to Buzz in a minute.
You asked me a few minutes ago what I've been doing.
So you know, we really haven't talked a lot since Christmas.
So we had, you know, obviously had our Christmas, had my birthday, you know, here at the house
got slammed by that ice storm that we talked about.
So did a little bit of hunting, which kind of I guess Buzz falls right into.
So I'll just jump right into it then.
Buzz.
I got Buzz from Darren Wiseman.
He's off of Rocky Pieces, female.
And which female?
Somewhere.
You had to ask me.
I think it's, it might be Diva.
Okay.
I think it's Diva and somewhere stylish coma.
Okay.
And I got him from Darren Wiseman March of last year.
And Darren called me up and said, Hey, I got this young pup.
I don't really know what he is.
And would you hunt him for me?
I've hunted a lot of dogs for Darren.
So I said, I was down at E down at E town and I said, no.
So I really don't have the space or anything like that.
And we got to talking and he convinced me, you know, Hey, just take me up there for a
week or two.
He said, I trust your opinion on the dog.
So I brought him up to the, up to E town, got him a place up there and started hunting.
And right off the bat, he was just kind of what a normal pup is, you know, one that's
not really been pushed too hard.
He'd go out, he'd come back.
He tree a cone.
He'd make a few slicks.
He tree a possum.
He'd run.
He'd come back.
He'd make a tree.
He'd leave and come to me and then go back to the tree.
So just puppy-ness.
And I told Darren, I said Darren, cause here we are, we're talking March and spring one
year olds was April.
So I told Darren, I said Darren, he's not, I mean, you didn't get hurt by no means, but
he's nowhere near ready to, um, compete at super stakes.
So I ended up, um, me and Darren worked out a deal and he ended up at my house and I was
hunting him and man, me and him has been through the ups and downs.
I mean, all the way from the point of training two and three possums a night to, um, you
know, train a few cones here and there.
One thing I liked about the dog is you've ever, you ever had that dog that he just,
even on his bad nights, it's like, man, there's just something about this dog that I like.
Like I like this dog.
Like he's your buddy.
You know, he's just, he's smart, but in the woods he'll pee you off.
But outside the woods, you're like, man, this, this little dog is my buddy.
Like he's, he's my friend.
And um, I mean, heck Gordon, I got him from Gordon.
Um, how do you pronounce his last name?
Dan Eric.
Yeah, there you go.
I never can pronounce his last name.
So I got him from Gordon and Gordon taught him to sit.
And so I'm not joking with you.
The picture you seen of Adrian and buzz that's, I told him, I said, but sit, he sit right
down and took that picture.
But uh, he's just smart.
Like I don't have to put it.
I don't have to put a leash on him.
Like he's just, he's just a lovable dog.
And you know, me, I get frustrated with young dogs sometimes not as bad as you, but as far
as to the point of, you know, whenever it comes to hunting ability.
So it really shocked me that this dog was so inconsistent.
And I was still willing to put the time in.
Usually I ship them down the road, but just something just kept telling me.
I mean, he moved around perfect tight on the ground, but when he treed, he either had a
possum or a cane.
I mean, there was, there was not much slick training going on and we went through a spell.
We went through a spell where it was a lot of possums.
I mean, there was one point where I, I swear I had the possum world champion.
I'm not even joking.
I wouldn't be making a post about that.
Yeah.
I even made posts about it.
So one thing led to another.
And like all my young dogs come time, I was like, you know what?
I'm going to put buzz up for sale.
We had prior arrangements.
I won't go into those, but we had prior ranges arrangements, but they fell through.
And so I said, you know what?
I'm just going to put him up for sale.
If he sales, I'll sell him.
If not, whatever.
I ain't worried about it.
I put him up for sale and a gentleman called me the very next day and said, I've been waiting
on you to put that dog up for sale.
And I said, what do you mean?
He said, buddy, I've watched you ever since you got the dog.
I've watched him tree all those possums and I want that dog.
I said, so, you know, all about him, tree and all these possums and you still want him?
He said, yep.
He said, I like that dog.
He said, I want him.
And so me and him worked out a deal and Fred tennis bought buzz, worked out a deal.
He's going to stay here until super stakes.
And who knows?
I don't know how long or how far that'll go outside of that.
But me and Fred talk about every other day and seems like a really, I've never met him,
but it seems like a really fantastic guy, a hardworking guy just likes to coon hunt.
And like I said, he really enjoys seeing buzz on those live videos and getting to see him
go.
So, you know, you know, as well as I do, I get a lot of flack from people with how much
live videos I post.
And there's a reason behind it.
One, there's always guys out there watching.
And the minute I put one up for sale, they've already seen the dog go 50, 60 times.
Two, a lot of those older guys that can't coon hunt no more.
It's kind of like, have you, if you join Hopkins County Coon Club, which I'm going to give
them a shout out.
Kevin Purdy and Daniel Nelson have created a club hunt down there that is that it's 16
dogs.
It's just like March Madness, one on one.
And so they have a dog of the month or November, December, January and February.
And what they, well, actually December, January, February, March, because they didn't, the
first month they did, it was December.
And so it's a hundred dollars and the winner gets 1200.
All right.
Yeah.
So, fabulous, fabulous way that they're putting on that hunt.
I really, really enjoy it.
And so one thing that's really nice about the way they're doing is every single hunt,
they go live.
Okay.
And those older guys that are not able to get out there and walk all the time, they
absolutely love it.
They're on there watching every single match.
I mean, they just love it.
So I really like making the content.
And you know, yes, there is benefit for myself.
People see me hunting dogs.
They want me to hunt their dog, blah, blah, blah.
So yes, there is benefit for me.
But also on top of that is, is the older generation gets to see some action, gets to still live
what they used to that they can't do no more.
So like I said, Oh, Buzz went to a Fred tennis bot buzz.
And so now we'll see where it goes.
I mean, I think if he continues the growth, I don't know, I have a hard time because
I think if anybody else owned him, he'd done been in three or four or five, six, seven
big hunts.
And I'm just that type of guy.
Like when are they ready to go to the big hunts?
Never now.
I mean, I mean, you, but, but, you know, as well as I do, you watch these play by place,
you you hunt with some of the biggest named dogs.
Yep.
I mean, not throwing any names out there, but I hunted with the dog on, on a Monday
night and buzz tree three and that dog tree none.
And that weekend he won $20,000.
That's interesting because I saw a Facebook post of platinum ridge today talking about
all they have is platinum's.
And I chuckle, I chuckle and it's all in good fun because literally you can make a dog platinum
champion in one night nowadays.
And that's what happened with him.
I know it is what happened with, I know that's why I laughed.
I just chuckled.
My thing with that though is, is it's also, it's also about an entry fee.
I mean, really that's what it's about.
And that's my problem is I've, you know, if I called, I guarantee you if I called Fred
right now, I said, Hey Fred, that a hundred thousand dollars down in, um, down in Mississippi,
I want an early and I want to like, I guarantee you he'd buy it.
I guarantee you he'd buy it.
I guess I'm to the point of at what point is buzz ready?
He's never going to be ready.
You're never going to say that ready.
I know.
And I mean, I took him, I took him this past weekend and, uh, we went five for five and
PKC hunts.
Yeah.
That's awesome.
I mean, and, and look good doing it.
I mean, there was only one cast late round.
Um, there was only one cast late round Saturday night.
Um, I actually, and I've never won a cast like this before.
I actually won never getting struck in.
Oh really?
That's interesting.
It was just one of those nights.
It was one of those nights.
It was right before this snow and ice hit late round.
Nothing was moving.
Um, actually, um, the two dogs, the other two dogs that I was hunting against, they
struck 175, six caught them.
They restruck in and nothing happened.
Was got a 1.4 or five behind the heel and I couldn't hear him.
Uh, he was treated, went in there and had a big ass dent tree.
So I mean, if I needed a fan, I wouldn't have won, but I mean, I didn't, I didn't even get
struck in.
Yeah.
Hmm.
And I mean, I ended up, so you still have to make a score tree though, right?
No, no.
That's UKC.
You got to score a tree with plus.
No, with plus.
No.
So it, so it is PKC.
Okay.
It is PKC.
So had one of those dogs and made a circle tree, they could have had 600 minus and they
still beat me because they made a scoreable tree.
Okay.
But because no dog made a tree, that's why, you know, that's why I was, that's why I won
that one.
So like I said, I mean, do I think that we're eventually just going to go?
Yeah, probably.
Um, and who knows?
Um, there may be a, uh, room for another dog.
It just needs a little bit to make platinum.
Um, it's going to make a comeback.
Might make a comeback.
Watch out.
You heard it here first on Semper dogging.
We'll see.
There might be a special guest appearance at the Basham kennel.
Yeah, that'd be nice.
Yeah.
I, I do may talk about platinum's.
I literally, I sat here eating dinner or right before I ate dinner earlier and I just, I
shook my head and I chuckled cause I'm like, you can make a dog platinum champion in one
night these days.
Like it's all that.
That's it.
You have to pay to play.
You've got to pay that entry fee, but when one hunt split the late round, bam platinum,
you know, like what's the difference in winning the $30, $35 hunt?
That's just the entry fee, you know, now granted they're probably a more consistent line of
better dogs that are entered in the hunt.
I understand that, but man, like there's just something about that, that to me it takes
the word platinum champion and does not, I've never owned one.
So y'all don't burn me at the stake.
I've never made one, never earned one, but it doesn't seem that special anymore.
You know?
Yeah.
But and I get it.
It's kind of twofold.
So you can sit here and say, well, the guys back in the day, they ran up and down the
roads and they made theirs.
Why can't you do it now?
I'm going to tell y'all if you've ever been, if you go to the open hunts religiously now,
you're going to drive to just as many that don't have enough dogs or that is canceled.
Then you will.
They have even enough dogs to hunt in.
Like I'm going to tell you.
So I won a few, right?
And so in my head, I'm like, you know what I'm thinking?
The old mentality of truck hunt, truck hunt.
You know what I mean?
So I get on PKC and I'm like, where's the hunts at?
Where's the hunts at?
Guess what?
I got one.
There isn't any anymore around me.
There's not.
Grandview don't have them.
Tell City don't have them.
Princeton for some reason don't have them for a couple of months.
Yeah.
I mean, I talked, I was talking to, I was talking to Dick brothers there tonight and
we were hunting and I asked him, I said, Dick, I said, what to you would, would be, it was
a two part question.
What to you would be more special?
A platinum champion or a hall of fame champion?
And he said platinum champion.
I said, all right.
Why he said, I had something about saying that your dog won $20,000.
You know, that, that would feel special.
I said, okay, I can get behind that.
I said, which one of those is harder to do?
He said hall of fame champion all day long because you know, in UKC to make hall and
I'm just, this is just talking points, you know, in UKC to make a hall of fame champion.
You have to win 50 casts, five zero casts.
It don't matter what they're for.
The dog has to be entered 50 times to make and win to be hall of fame and a platinum.
You can go in room one time when you're 20,000 you're done.
Yeah.
So here's what I'll tell you about that though.
Not, and not throwing any shade, but it is what it is.
I know of certain clubs that have, I want to say you're allowed to have six or seven.
Let's just say seven UKC hunts, right?
Double headers like per year, per month.
What are you talking about?
Per year, per year.
Okay.
Per year.
So that's seven at their club.
So that's 14 hunts, right?
And they don't draw anybody.
So one dog, you enter one dog and what's that dog automatically get?
We know what they're supposed to do.
Right.
They're supposed to go out and drink home.
Right.
But we also ain't stupid.
I mean, we all know what happens.
So that's 14.
Let's say someone shows up half the time.
I mean, you get where I'm coming from, right?
You literally, and a lot of those, you literally don't have to beat anybody and you get a win.
So even if you did it at 14 hunts a year, a year, it would take you three and a half
years to make a platinum champion.
That's just, that's just that home club.
That's if you don't go nowhere.
Yeah, I'm telling you that's all you went.
Yeah.
I don't know.
It's a interesting talking point.
Like it'd be interesting to know what everybody else thinks because I don't know.
And here's, here's, I guess here's, it's a caveat.
It's a, it's kind of a catch 22.
Cause if you took your entry fees for 50 hunts or however, cause you're not winning them
all right.
No, you're not.
If you kept up with how much the entry fee was for those 50 hunts and how much the gas
was, what kind of entry fee could you have bought?
Let's put that dog in.
Let's just do the math and let's just say that you've won every hunt you entered.
No, if you win 50%, you're doing great.
So you're a $30, $35 hunt.
You're at $3,500 entry fees.
And let's just say $50 a hunt or, um, well, no, no, no, 25 a hunt because a lot of those
are going to be double headers.
So let's just say 25 a hunt for gas.
You're at 6,000 for an entry fee total.
So you go to a $6,500 hunt.
Yep.
So I guess, I guess I kind of persuaded myself back to, I guess it is, I guess it's easier.
You are right to do the platinum just because of the longevity part.
Right.
I think competition wise, it's easier to get hall of fame because tell me this, do you
know any hunting hall of fame dogs?
Yes.
Would you pay the $6,500 to put them in a hunt?
At their age right now?
No.
Back in the day, I think you would have had a chance.
But you get where I'm coming from.
I do.
Yeah.
I think the dog was like nine years old now.
Just turned platinum or just turned to hall of fame.
How many of those hall of fame dogs, not going to say could compete because man, you know,
as well as I do, I'm not saying because the same dogs, I mean the dogs, it, right.
That run the circuit, they're coon dogs.
Right.
I mean, there ain't no, if they are, for sure.
You miss a coon and you're done.
I mean, but we've also seen it to where somebody go by a three year old that's never been in
a hunt, somebody that's willing to push one and boom, they go on a roll and they win 30,
40, 50,000 with the dog.
And where's the dog been?
He's been back behind the barn and, or, you know, not being hunted.
Yeah.
And then all of a sudden, boom, boom, boom, boom.
I mean, I'll give you an example.
And she done plenty of winning.
Don't get me wrong.
The dog that I'm about to mention, she did plenty of winning in UKC and a little bit
when they would take her in PKC.
But look at Anne when JR great had her.
Yeah.
I mean, don't get me wrong.
She did quite a bit of winning, but she didn't do the money winning.
Well, she wasn't entered in the same, like the big hunts that she is now.
And then, and then Strickland gets her and then now, you know, truck winner, this winner,
that winner.
I mean, it's just, the dogs gotta be given the opportunity.
And I think you'll agree.
I mean, it's kind of like for me, the buddy dog that I run.
If I had unlimited funds pushing that dog, there's no doubt in my mind, he'd be over
a hundred thousand earnings.
Right.
I mean, no doubt in my mind, he'd be over a hundred thousand earnings.
Easy.
If I was able to go to any, any hunt I wanted to go to easy over a hundred thousand dollar
earnings.
Yep.
And he's sitting at, he's sitting at 19 and all we've ever went to is three and $400,
$500 broke last year.
You hit one good lick.
Yeah, I hit one good lick.
I did.
I forgot the very first one.
Yep.
I hit one.
I hit one good.
I hit a $5,000.
Like we went to that first hundred thousand dollar hunt.
Yep.
But so 14,000, 14,000 of his 19 has come from the small pro classics.
Right.
And then, and then he's won, I think 8,000 in pro sport and all of those were from three
and $500 pro classics too.
Yeah.
So, and I know you feel the same way about wheels.
I do.
You know what I mean?
I tell people all the time I wish that I could afford to give him the opportunity that he
deserves, you know, and, and it's a catch 22.
It's like, okay, man, I love that dog.
Like I love him to death.
He's my buddy, like coon tree and fool.
But man, I'd love to see the dog get an opportunity to go, you know, I'd love to see him get a
chance to be pushed.
It's not going to happen to my house.
You know, I am not paying those entry fees.
I don't have the funds to do it.
I am not.
And, but I also know that if I don't, if I weren't to sell him, like all he's going to
be is the dog that goes to the a hundred, $250 hunts, you know, uh, the dogs never that
I've never put him in a hunt over $150.
I lied.
I put him in one $500 pro sport hunt.
It was paying out 25,000 and we got caught in a monsoon and we stood in the same place
for two hours and nobody moved.
We had a dead cast.
That was the one time I come off some money and put him in a, you didn't have a dead do
what you didn't have a dead cast.
No, we got scratched.
Our cast never made it back in time for deadline.
Nobody treated coon.
Nobody could catch their dogs.
We didn't have nothing.
Who was the winner?
His, his face and his name's right there.
I know.
I just can't, I've seen the guy somewhere and he told me, he said, yeah, I'm the one
that won that cast.
Nobody won my cast.
Nobody won.
They just didn't make it back to the club in time.
The guy who was hunting Tia was on the cast.
We won autumn Oaks.
It wasn't Cody Sipes.
I had Cody Sipes and Levi Espostee and I forget who the fourth dog was, but dude, I'm telling
you, we never treated coon.
We didn't do nothing.
Levi made two circle trees and then they got,
Levi won the cast, didn't he?
I guess I would, I would drew.
I don't know.
Yeah.
Levi, that's who it was.
That's what I, I stayed with him up at the AKC world.
That's now it's all coming back to me.
And he told me that he won that cast, but he didn't make it back by deadline.
It was pouring rain sideways.
You couldn't see that it was flooded on the road.
I mean, we literally, they cut the dogs loose.
I was, I was like, I'm out of this.
Like y'all have fun.
But they, they cut the dog across the field and it was flooding.
They were swimming, bringing that night up.
But that night we seen 13 coons sitting up and we didn't tree a single one.
That's terrible.
Yeah, that's rough.
That's rough.
But going back to what you were saying, I mean, I know that you hunt with some dogs
that have over a hundred, $200,000 in earnings all the time.
Yup.
But you get to hunt wheels against those, that caliber of dog.
And I'm not saying that, you know, Oh, wheels is going to go in there and you know, he's
going to win, you know, even 60% of his gas.
But to think that wheels couldn't go in there, slide into a $6,500 hunt and win a night or
two, you know, if you, if he was given the opportunity, I mean, I think he's got all
the capabilities in the world.
Yeah, he does.
And, and I do.
And I get to hunt with some really, really nice dogs up here that are getting pushed
all over the country and wheels is competitive.
You know, I mean, he holds his own.
Don't get me wrong.
There's nights where he gets throttled and there's nights where he does the throttling.
Like it's just the back and forth, you know, but the perfect example is like our buddy
Colton Britton, you know, he took that Owen dog out a little money and he got a wild hair
up his butt and he got a $6,500 entry fee.
And he said, all right, I'm going.
He got Kai Roberts to handling.
And guess what?
He got in one night, you know, like, okay, good for him.
Yeah.
And that's just a dog who doesn't go to very many big hunts.
It's just not.
So it can be done.
I mean, anybody can do it.
If you, I mean, if you want to gamble, that's what it is.
It's a gamble.
I'm just not into it, but Hey, let's, let's go back to some analytics here.
I got the top three podcasts from our first year pulled up.
Can you name any of the top three?
Oh, so I'm going to say that none of the top, none of the ones that we said were top three.
So no, the closest one, the closest one that I said the written Houndsman is one, two,
three, four, five, six.
Sixth on the list is the written Houndsman.
What about I'm going to, I'm going to go out on a limb and say, what about the?
The battle of the brides with Wayne Leaver.
Yes.
So that is titled huge pro sport announcement, moon pies and chicken thighs.
Yes, sir.
What numbers that that is number one.
Can you guess numbers?
Can you guess numbers two and three?
I doubt it, but the top, okay.
The top three episodes are separated only by 20 downloads.
Let's see here.
So if moon pies and chicken thighs was number one, would number two, I'm just going to,
I'm just going to roll right on.
Would number two be the, um, the follow-up?
It was not, uh, whenever we, when we announced the big dog.
Nope.
All right.
One more, one more, one more.
Hmm.
I ain't got one in my mind.
Okay.
Shoot.
Number two was Jason Hines and Chad Spradlin national champs, autumn Oaks and split tree
and trigger was the episode.
I forgot about that one.
Okay.
I will say the episode for our first year that slides into number three and all time
downloads comes as, comes as a surprise to me.
I will say that I did not expect this to be at the top.
It is the episode titled Chad McCoyne, black river, black and tans.
Okay.
So there's only 20, 20 downloads separate number one and number three.
I thought those are interesting statistics.
And like I said, I did not expect the Chad McCoyne episode to be number three, but black
dog was slid in.
I wouldn't have either.
I wouldn't either just because, you know, just because the reason why I think that the
moon pies and chicken thighs really one was, you know, uh, the following that lane gets,
but also because it was a announcement for pro sport.
Yep.
So I think that really, I think that really helped.
Um, and then also with trigger being a national champion, you know, that helped push him up.
But I would agree.
The, the one with Chad McCoyne, just because it's not a, it's not a, there's, you're not
talking about a specific huge win or a huge event.
Right.
It's literally just showcasing his line of dogs.
There's a line of black dogs.
Yeah.
Yes.
So I agree.
That's a big shout out to Chad and everything that he's accomplished, you know, with his
line of dogs is that he's, you know, just talking about him and his line of dogs, you
know, he's third on the, uh, on the analytics.
So that's pretty, that's pretty cool.
It is cool.
Man.
I really wish my kids would quit running in and out of here and shutting that door.
That's driving me crazy.
All right.
Let's talk a couple other things coming up.
The PKC world qualifiers that are coming up.
Yes, sir.
I got me a hired handler for the first time.
Look out guys.
And let me tell you, let me tell you something.
I called PKC yesterday and confirmed that entry and Brandy Fields goes, Oh boy, you're
scraping the bottom of the barrel there.
So my buddy, Bryce, my buddy, Bryce called me up and he said, I've got a dilemma.
I said, what is it?
He said, I am flying to Florida to be in a wedding.
The weekend of, of, um, PKC world qualifiers.
He said, what are you hunting?
And I said, I mean, take your pit.
I mean, I've got buddy.
I can hunt.
I've got spot.
I can hunt.
I mean, buzz.
I can hunt.
I mean, no buzz.
I can't hunt.
Uh, cause I didn't, I didn't win nothing last year with him.
Um, so I just, Bryce has always been there for me whenever I needed him to handle a dog
specifically, um, Friday night of autumn Oaks.
Um, he let Nikki, uh, handle wheels and he took old spot out and handled.
So, you know, it's always been in my head that, you know, obviously we're not friends
that we need to repay each other.
But, um, I told him, I said, you know what?
I kind of worked out perfect because he's going to be flying out of Evansville.
So he's, you know, that's the only thing I told him.
I said, man, if we did do this, how the heck would I even get the dog?
And he said, would you know it?
I'm actually flying out of Evansville.
So I've got to drive down there anyways.
And then I'm leaving on Sunday to go home.
And so it just, it works perfect.
He's coming down anyways.
So I said, go ahead, bring wheels down.
Um, and I will take him to junction Illinois on Friday and Saturday.
And hopefully it's just Friday and we can double up and then, um, move him on to Friday
night at the world.
Absolutely, man.
Like that, that's super exciting for me.
Like obviously I'd love to hunt the dog myself, but to know that he's not going to get it,
he's not going to have to sit out, you know, like it's nice.
Like you said, we're not friends that has to repay each other for nothing.
It never has been, never will be like that.
But it's like, it was so nice to be able to call you and be like, Hey, I'm in a dilemma.
Can you help?
And it's like, yep, sure can.
You know, cause I actually triple booked myself for that weekend and how I did that, I don't
know.
I got the wedding.
I'm in in Florida, the PKC world qualifiers and then how's that supposed to work a trade
show for work in Indianapolis that weekend.
I've triple booked.
I'm like, Oh boy.
Like I'm in a mess.
So man, I'm pumped though, because here, here's where I'm hoping.
Hold up, hold up real quick.
So this was told to me, this was told to me one day, a while ago might've been or might
have not have been Thanksgiving night that I needed to get with your secretary prior
to the events and make sure that I booked going hunting on Thanksgiving night that I
didn't get with your secretary long enough.
So I think because you triple book, I think your secretary needs fired.
I agree.
She probably does 100%.
We're going to, we're going to do that after this pocket and go ahead and go fire her.
Let me know how that goes.
I'm sure, I'm sure there'll be a grievance filed immediately.
Absolutely.
She'll go find her committee men.
No, but so what I, what I was getting at with like the pain each other back, like I'm hoping
that karma just go ahead, goes ahead and does it for us.
You know, the last time you asked me to hunt a dog, not the last time.
Oh, here we go.
You know, the last time Basham said, Hey, like I got too many dogs to hunt.
Like can you, can you please help me out in a pinch?
I'm struggling to find somebody to handle the dog.
I was like, you know what, Basham we're good buddies and I will do that for you.
I will hunt a dog for you.
And wouldn't you know it?
We went on and got fifth in the world that year.
So I'm hoping Basham that not only will you have the same good karma and fortune that
I was blessed with, I'm hoping that it, it, it rains down on you and you succeed and do
better than I did.
Cause that's the kind of friend that I am for you.
I want you to do better than me.
I never saw that dog again.
He, uh, he went on the, he went on the four cell block.
Oh my goodness gracious.
He went on the four cell block and now he's, he's on platinum ridge.
Now he's 145, 150,000.
It's wild.
Isn't it?
Wow.
I remember that pup when he was 12 months old.
It's so wild.
I hated that dog.
Yeah.
But like I said, I hate all of them that age.
I'm just, I'm just that kind of guy and that kind of friend.
I'm hoping you all, all the fame, fortune and good blessings that can come your way.
And see that's, that's always my dilemma is for me, it's not even just that hunt.
You know, it's super stagy Nash.
No super stakes.
Uh, actually I helped myself out.
Star got sold.
So now all I've got now, all I've got is buzz.
Gotcha.
So, so that kind of helped me out with, you know, you, you already know my dilemma.
My dilemma is, is I've got two dogs and I'll tell anybody and it don't matter.
Uh, Bryce knows me.
I'm pretty confident in my dog's ability.
I'll put, I mean, spot and buddy both can go to any hunt tonight and win any hunt.
It's just, I mean, that's just what it is.
Um, they're proven both of them, either one of them.
I'm not saying they're the best.
I'm saying that either one of them can go to any hunt and compete and win any hunt that
you put them in.
Right.
And so, uh, giving them that opportunity, it's kind of the ones that really stink is
like Friday night at autumn Oaks where they both have to hunt.
Yep.
Cause the problem is, and Bryce will attest to this and hopefully wheels is not like this,
but spot does not handle for brought for anybody right now.
And I'm not saying he couldn't.
I think it would take someone taking spot and hunting him and getting him used to same
way with buddy.
Buddy just doesn't, he doesn't act the same like Mark hunted him and don't get me wrong.
Mark done a great job with him, but you know, it's like having wheels.
Wheels will hunt for anybody, but he will give an extra or you.
Right.
And it's been a while since he's hunted for anybody other than me.
You know?
I mean, between me and Nikki and Colton, like anybody other than our family, he hasn't been
shipped around a bunch.
You know, he had that little, he had that one little stint there where he went to cost
them for a week.
You know, Brandon loved him the first three nights that he had him and hated him the last
three that he had him.
So is what it is.
We'll find out.
So we'll see.
But that's what I'm getting at is for me, the bigger hunts are just kind of, it's kind
of a dilemma because I've got a couple of different dogs that I could push, but back
to their original thing at hand, you know, Bryce called me and there was no question.
You know, it's something I know that during the week long world hunt, I can find a way
to get over there and hunt and hunt the two that I have.
So me thinking numbers wise, if I give wheels two nights, give spot two nights and buddy
two nights, they all get the same amount of opportunity.
That's a fair shake for everybody.
So that's kind of my plan, but kind of going full circle since we've kind of rambled on
pretty nice on this one.
Bryce called me.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Let's let's talk about this.
Let's talk about, hold on, hold on before I call it.
Let's talk about the situation that you're currently in.
I mean, you're bashings in the middle of a gosh darn ice storm.
Nope, no power.
But he's sitting here recording a podcast with power and I was mind blown by this.
Everybody on my road has power.
Everybody I will not have power for a very long time.
A limb fell on my.
So for those that are in the electrical field and asked me how come your electric line is
still overhead and not ran underground like everybody else is, it's because the electric
company that I belong to will not allow me to go under because my transformer for my
house is across the road and because of the trees, it literally sits right on the road.
And so there's they don't want to go into trying to bore under the road because they
would have to get out of way because underneath the asphalt, you it's not straight down.
The road doesn't go straight down the asphalt.
It kind of goes out, right?
Builds up.
And so they would what I was told is they would have to go out at least eight to 10
foot and you can't because there's an embankment on the other side with trees and everything
else.
So they told me that boring under the road and bring the power underground is not an
option for me.
Lucky me.
So during this ice storm, a limb fell.
It ripped the neutral out of the transformer and a phase off of my line.
So I've got one it's still as of right now, it's still hot.
A vehicle can literally on my side of the road drive and their antenna, their radio
antenna would hit the wire.
That's like I'll post some pictures in a little bit.
Me and Jocelyn were out cleaning up.
It literally looks like a tornado went through my yard.
We spent about five hours drag and I'm not talking one by one.
I'd roll up with a full wheeler, which I ran her over with a full wheeler.
Good job, dad.
So this will go all into my current situation.
So we went without power.
So I've never been one to get a generator where I live at.
I live close enough to town.
We're probably in zone one of the substation zone too, because we literally never lose
power.
I mean, we just don't.
It's like right now, like I said, everybody on my road has power.
So we don't, I just live close enough to town and close enough to the substation that we
just don't lose power.
So I don't ever have a generator.
We lost power from a tornado this past year for like maybe four or five hours.
So this is a part that fascinates Bryce guys.
It does a hundred percent.
Listen up now, take notes.
So at the time, Bryce called me and he said, Hey, what's going on?
Haven't talked to you, blah, blah, blah.
And I told him, Oh, you know, just trying to keep the house up and warm since we don't
have power.
He said, crap.
And he said, you ain't got power.
He said, it's going to get cold.
I said, no, I'm still running my heater.
And he goes, well, how you run your heater if you don't have power?
And I told him, I said, well, actually I'm running it off of my truck.
Hold on.
No, no, no, no.
He said, don't you know, son?
I'm an electrician.
I make power.
I told him, I said, I'm an electrician.
I make power.
And he said, well, how did you make power?
And I said, well, I'm running my house off my truck.
And he said, now what?
And he did like a double take.
Like he even had to go get his dad so he could have a witness.
I did.
So what I was about to say.
Yeah.
My parents were up here.
We had just got back from Grand American.
They'd watched the kids for five days for us.
So my parents were staying one more night up here.
I said, dad, I said, you got it.
I said, hold on.
I said, listen to this.
I said, Bats was talking crazy.
So I'll tell everybody what I did was a while back, I went to O'Reilly's and I bought me
a 4,000 watt inverter.
And all an inverter is, is it takes direct current and turns it into alternating current
AC.
AC turns it into AC.
So this, the one that I have is a big one.
It's got four, 110 outlets.
It's got double power negative cables.
So what you do is start your truck up and you put your negatives on your negatives.
You put your pot, which I'm different.
And for those out there that don't know when you jump a vehicle, you're not supposed to
put the black on the negative of the battery.
You put it on the ground post of your vehicle where it's grounded, not on the battery.
So I took my black, put it on the ground post, put my positive.
Now, now I'm pushing power to my inverter and I ran.
I take took a number eight.
No, that's number 10.
I took a number 10 heavy duty extension cord and I cut the female end off of it.
So I wired a male end onto it.
So now I've got a 40 foot number 10 heavy duty extension cord with two male ends.
I plug one male in into the inverter and I run the extension cord through the window.
And here's the part that Bryce was like, what?
I plug it in to a receptacle in the kitchen.
So if you're thinking about it in layman's terms, now before you put it on, hold on,
hold on before you plug it in, you got to have all your breakers in your main turned
off, right?
Yeah, I'll get to that point.
So in layman's terms, regular power, think of it like this power comes from the pole
outside your house, comes into your house, into your panel box, through your main down
in two.
It's got two buses down into your panel and each bus in your panel, it feeds whatever
breakers you have, right?
Yep.
So what we're going to do guys is we're going to go backwards.
Now do not do this unless you call somebody and know what you're doing because you literally,
one, you can burn your house down to, and this is the most important, you can kill somebody.
You can kill, kill alignment if you don't do it correctly.
Because when you're pushing that voltage back, if you do not have the main shut off and that
lineman goes and climbs up that pole and you're pushing power backwards, what's going to happen?
Zap, zap.
Yes.
And if he's that far up in the air, who knows, he falls.
Cause I mean, 110 is not going to kill you, but you just never know.
You just never know.
So I'm telling you guys what I did, do not take it upon yourself to do what I did without
knowing what you're doing.
So what I did was I went to my panel, I shut off the main, I undid the neutral, taped it
up because anybody that knows the breaker does not cut the neutral.
It just cuts the hot feed coming into your panel.
So I took the neutral out.
So now I've got a extension cord that has a male end that is plugged into my inverter.
So now my inverter is my source of power.
I bring it in through the window.
I plug it into the receptacle.
When I plug it into that receptacle, think of just breaking it down Barney style.
If I plug it into a receptacle, everything that that receptacle is connected to now has
power.
So it runs all the way back to the panel and whatever side bus, whatever side that breaker
is on, all of the breakers that are on that face, that bus is going to have the same power.
So I shut all my breakers off, everything.
I turn on the breaker for the receptacle that I'm plugged into.
So what does that allow it to do?
It's just like a light switch.
I've got power coming into the breaker and it stops because I've got that breaker turned
off.
I turn that breaker on and now that powers on that bus.
So I turn that breaker on and I turn my furnace breaker on because I am lucky.
I have gas heat.
All I need to do is run the blower for the gas furnace.
That's all I need to do, the controls and the burner, which is 15 amps.
That's all I need to run.
So I turn the furnace on and I turn the receptacle, the ones that I have on.
Well 4,000 watts.
I mean you're only looking at 110.
You're only looking at like 25, 30 amps.
So me being an electrician, I know, hey, you know what, I still got quite a few amps that
I can use.
So basically what I did is minimum is what I did was I ran my refrigerator.
I ran my furnace.
I ran the living room and the kitchen lights and that's all I turned on.
And so for the first day or two, we ran the, that's what we ran off of my truck.
I thought that was so cool.
Literally powering the house with the truck.
I mean, don't get me wrong.
I'm burning gas because your truck's got to stay running because the alternator is the
one doing the job.
And yes, it is harder on your alternator, but in a pinch, which I was in because we're
talking 20 degree weather, you know, I don't want my kids to freeze.
I don't want the house to freeze.
So in a pinch, I said, you know what, this is what we're going to do.
Well now that, now that we are, and there's two different ways you can do what I'm about
to tell you to do.
Now that I know that we're going to be a little bit more longevity in this, I went out and
purchased a generator.
Now there's two ways you can do this.
You can either, well, there's three ways you can do it.
You can do it the a hundred percent right way, which is, you know, a disconnect, blah,
blah, blah, a transfer switch.
So you can do it the right way or there's two other ways you can do it.
It kind of is all depending on the layout of your electrical box.
It just so happens that my electrical box is right in front of the meter, which is right
next to my house.
And I've already got a, a condolet, which is a box coming out of the meter because it
runs electric down to my dog kennels.
So all I did was, is I just opened up the cover, brought the wire from the generator
into my electrical panel, unhooked my 30 amp double pole breaker for my AC plugged in my
generator, which my main and my neutrals already shut off and unplugged turn on that.
And now because that one is 75,000 or 7,500 Watts, I'm literally running my whole house.
Like the wife just cooked on the stove.
I've got hot water.
We just ran the dryer.
Like I mean, we're other than hearing the buzzing in the background.
I mean, don't get me wrong.
If I tried to run everything at once, it wouldn't do it.
But as long as I have it in my head, Hey, we're running the stove.
We can't run the hot water or Hey, we're running the hot water.
We can't run the dryer.
And I just keep, you know, Hey, if she says, Hey, I need to run the dryer.
I'll go over to the breaker box and I know what we need to run.
But another way that you can do it is you put the twist lock to 240 plug on it, plug
it into the generator.
On the other end of it, you put a dryer plug.
Put that plug, unplug your dryer, put that plug into the dryer plug, go to your panel,
shut everything off, turn on your dryer breaker box or turn on your dryer breaker and that
produces 240 to the whole panel.
So now you can pick and choose which, what you want to run on that generator.
Yeah, that's pretty sweet.
And all you're doing is just backfeeding into the house.
Yeah, I just thought it.
I mean, you know, like my grandma, she's got to generate at the house or something goes
wrong.
Just plug the generator in, fire it up.
Good to go.
You know, that's great.
But I've never thought about using your vehicle as a generator.
I'm like, man, that's pretty slick in a pinch.
So in a pinch, in a pinch, you can literally now here's where I would have been screwed.
If I had an electric heat, it wouldn't have worked.
Right.
You need about a 10,000 watt, even the one I have right now probably wouldn't work on
an electric furnace.
You need about nine or 10,000 watt generator to run an electric furnace.
Yeah.
But I mean, you know, somebody can plug in a couple of space heaters and stuff and stay,
you know, stay not maybe not comfortable, but you ain't gonna freeze to death.
For me, if, if I was in a pinch, um, rather than use space heaters, this is just me.
And I understand they do put off a little bit of a smell, but if it was me, I would
run everything else that I need.
A hot water, everything else.
And I would use kerosene heaters in a pitch because I'm telling you those electric space
heaters, man, they draw.
It's like a big hairdryer.
And if you know anything about hairdryers, they'll be the first thing to pop an outlet.
Yep.
They'll be the first thing to pop a receptacle, a breaker.
You have to go to the dang breaker box and flip a, because the wife done tried to use
a curling iron and a, and a freaking hairdryer all at the same time while she's trying to
microwave and it pops a breaker happens all the darn time because they pull so many amps
and those space heaters, they're about, they're not much better.
So for me, I like to do, if I was in a pinch, I would do a kerosene.
Yep.
Is what I would do.
Yep.
All right, buddy.
Well, Hey, like I said, this has been fun.
I, uh, I've appreciated this last year, man.
It's been a good time.
I'm ready to see what 2025 has in store.
Yeah.
Like I said, you know, just getting back at it.
You going to winter classic?
I am.
Yep.
Be down there, baseball, Mississippi.
I'll be there.
I'm not sure.
I have not thought that far.
Um, I would say it would not surprise me if I was at the a hundred thousand dollar hunt,
but right now I can't see past tomorrow because of that, you know, because of everything going
on in my life right now.
I hear you.
Uh, I don't really know.
I don't really know what next week holds.
So we're just trying to take it one day at a time and hopefully that we'll get power
back on and we can start the cleanup.
As you'll see, I'm on post pictures in a little bit.
Man Jocelyn worked for like four or five hours and we didn't even make a dent.
Yeah, man.
That's rough, but it's going to be, it's going to be a big cleanup, but I appreciate you,
bud.
Appreciate all your hard work, all your dedication.
I appreciate your friendship.
Um, great, great in my opinion.
Uh, I guess maybe monetarily I could have thought of us going a lot further, you know,
as far as making it a business, but from a friendship side of it, I don't think this
podcast could have went any better.
No, no, absolutely not.
You know, and we, we, we, we left ourselves with some pretty lofty goals there whenever
we first started.
And like you said, I mean, we, but we said from the beginning, this, this whole thing
was just two guys having fun, you know, talking dogs and that's what we've done.
You know, we've held true to that.
Um, could we have pushed it a little harder, done some more things to make it more professional
in business?
Like, absolutely.
We could have, is that out of the question down the road?
No, it's not.
But you know, right now, this is, this is fun what we're doing.
And you know, some people say, we just get on here and ramble back and forth.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
That's fine.
My wife says the same thing, but some people really enjoy it, you know?
And uh, so that's, that's where it's at for me.
I really enjoy the dog and Tuesdays.
Those are fun.
Uh, I've just had, had a lot of, had a lot of fun doing this.
So you know, always dog and simple dog.
And it means, it means a lot to both of us.
Definitely.
All right, buddy.
Well, I'm going to wrap this thing up and I'm going to go take care of my farm animals
cause uh, it's 19 degrees pitch black dark outside and I still got chores to do.
So yeah, I took care of all of mine.
That's why I was a little bit late getting on here.
Yeah.
I still got goats to feed and cows to water and all that good stuff.
So I'm going to go get that done and get me some, get me some sleep.
I'm going to get me some dinner.
10 four buddy.
All right.
Well guys, from bash when I hear a simple dog and we appreciate everything you guys do
for us.
We appreciate all you listeners tuning in here every other week and joining us on the
dog and Tuesdays over on Facebook live.
Thanks for letting, letting us ramble on here a little bit today.
Talk about our year in review.
Uh, tell you a little bit about how to, how to save yourself in a pinch.
Uh, all here from simple dog and a full disclosures.
Don't do anything crazy that you shouldn't do.
We are not responsible for any of your actions.
So with that, thank you for that.
With that, we are off of here.
We'll see you guys later.
Hey, let's go, come on in.
you