Gastro Gnome - Eat Better Wherever

5 things about you.

1. Met a girl at 15, who I later married at 19, and we are about to celebrate our 22nd wedding anniversary in a few weeks

2. Basically taught myself to hunt, even though I have loved to hunt since I can remember. My dad rarely took me, and he didn’t know how to hunt very well himself either. He credits me and my brother for teaching him to hunt. Didn’t kill my first deer until I was 15, killed my second 3yr later, and didn’t kill my first buck until I was 25. I’ve now killed over 100 deer, as best as I can remember (I don’t keep a spreadsheet :D )

3. Killed a bull elk on public land early my first afternoon ever hunting elk. My only elk hunt so far.

4. Guided my daughter to her first antelope buck kill on public land, during our first morning, during my first ever pursuit of antelope. That night we got snowed into Gillette and couldn’t leave for another 3 days

5. Have coached multiple 4H shooting teams to state titles, then subsequent nationals match appearances. Both of my daughters have placed #1 overall individually in the state during different years, and I have had multiple top-ten individual finishers in the state every year that I’ve coached except for 1.
 
1) I was the star of my college volleyball team.
2) I have worked for both Citigroup and Goldman Sachs
3) My grandparents survived the holocaust.
4) I lost 4 employees to the Pulse nightclub shooting.
5) I was definitely not EVER a drag queen in Brazil!


Imagine him and Uncle Joe sharing a bottle of whiskey and telling stories about the past....
 
1. Attended a Super Bowl, and watched my team win!
2. Attended a concert at the Budakan, Japan
3. Had an assault style rifle pointed at me when I was 16yrs old working the drive-thru window at a Wendy's.
4. Built my own house in 1yr, while also working full-time job (Aug. 2019 - Aug. 2020, still recovering lol).
5. Seconds from nearly drowning (bachelor party, alcohol, boats, fully clothed, pitch dark, all don't mix well). Been in water, am scuba certified, owned boats and pools my whole life. Took a year to venture out of the 3ft shallow end of my own in-ground pool after that incident. Still haunts me when I think about it.
 
I was running a habitat restoration project on a coastal stream with the CCC's. The crew foreman & I knew each other well and had done a lot of projects. Sitting in my truck eating lunch we were talking about the project and the crew.
He said some might become something, a few will be lucky to make it a day.
Just then one of the kids was filling a fuel tank on a chainsaw and spilled some on his pants. He took out a bic and lit it on fire...we just looked at each other.
I was a YCC workleader @ Blue Mesa/Curecanti NRA one season. Most of my kids were hapless but 3 stayed buddies for decades. 1st job my crew had was cleaning soot off the interior walls of of a 2 story metal building. To use up budget NPS built this building in December, then poured the concrete floor inside it and tried to heat the interior enough w diesel space heaters for the crete to cure. You can imagine the temperatures beside Blue Mesa reservoir in December. Of course the heaters kept going out and covering the walls w soot. My kiddie conservationists (and I) spent a month moving stored stuff to one side of the shed, power washing and handwashing the soot off the metal walls, then moving everything back and scrubbing the other half. 40x60 building. You could barely see through the skylights for the greasy soot. After that we did trail work, much better.
 
1. Caught a state record goldeye when I was 4 years old.
2. Broke my own record from #1 6 days later.
3. Was in sports illustrated ‘faces in the crowd’.
4. Was a guest on the David Letterman late night show.
5. Won a mountain goat tag in a raffle.

The first 4 are all because my dad had the patience to drag my ass along when fishing. Life’s rough when you peak at 4 years old!
Peaked? You forgot my favorite “shot a legit 200” plus muley in Montana in the last five years”

one in a million or worse odds on that one
 
What a cool thread. The experiences and accomplishments from A LOT of you guys are humbling. Pretty tall order to pick out the moments that are defining yet also somewhat unique. I’ll give it a shot.

• Got clean and sober when I was 29. Firmly believe that all good things in my life are only possible as a result of remaining that way.

• Was threatened at knife-point by an elderly woman while backpacking through Chilean Patagonia because I mistakenly pooped in her bathroom.

• To my complete and utter shock, I was voted Prom King of my large, Southern California high school. (Kept waiting for the pig blood to be dumped on my head, but it never happened.)

• Have close to 100 letters and emails from former students telling me how my class changed their lives for the better.

• Am currently working on a prototype for a machine that my kids (four and six) invented that can make you a super hero and changes your body to suit your personality. Like for example, if you’re a really sweet person, the machine will turn your blood into cake frosting and you’ll be able to shoot sugar out of your eyes.

Here’s the mock-up of what my daughter said it would turn her brother into:

View attachment 261751
I thought it was going to be dickhead instead of butthead lol. I wish there were more teachers like you. While that's not gonna be the case all the time I hope my kids have at least 1 or 2...nothing like somebody doing there job for the right reasons. I thank you for that.
 
@kwyeewyk wildlife ones.
1. Kicked a cougar in self defense
2. Been flogged by a wild turkey
3. Had a black bear press his nose into my tent <1' above my face.
4. Repeatedly punched two baby mountain goats in wack-a-mole fashion as they tried to play king of the mountain on my tent while I tried to sleep.
5. Had to fend off repeated attacks(?) from a large bull sea lion with my kayak paddle off Vancouver Island.
Really, really? No mention of this?

Thread 'There's a marmot in my truck' https://www.hunttalk.com/threads/theres-a-marmot-in-my-truck.298720/
 
I thought it was going to be dickhead instead of butthead lol. I wish there were more teachers like you. While that's not gonna be the case all the time I hope my kids have at least 1 or 2...nothing like somebody doing there job for the right reasons. I thank you for that.
I could have gone deep. Instead I listened to Mom, Grandpa, Uncle Dave and a cop buddy. Can pass a lifescan.
But I could be a real dick if you were and I had my badge on. I still can...LOL
 
1. Attended a Super Bowl, and watched my team win!
2. Attended a concert at the Budakan, Japan
3. Had an assault style rifle pointed at me when I was 16yrs old working the drive-thru window at a Wendy's.
4. Built my own house in 1yr, while also working full-time job (Aug. 2019 - Aug. 2020, still recovering lol).
5. Seconds from nearly drowning (bachelor party, alcohol, boats, fully clothed, pitch dark, all don't mix well). Been in water, am scuba certified, owned boats and pools my whole life. Took a year to venture out of the 3ft shallow end of my own in-ground pool after that incident. Still haunts me when I think about it.

Packing your mule deer and your bear out of Galena didn’t make the lifetime achievement list? 😏

That mule deer still ranks #1 as my all time most miserable pack out.
 
1. Got to see Mount Everest at about 70 miles away from a mountain in India.
2. Been charged by a grizzly bear with @theat. Thankfully a bluff charge. Must not have learned our lesson because we took back an elk I had killed that a grizzly had claimed a few years later.
3. My family’s transportation was a horse and buggy until I was 10 years old.
4. First time I met @Big Fin was on the side of a mountain on @Randy11’s mountain goat hunt. I came stumbling out of my tent where I had been sleeping off the effects of elevation sickness and puking up a Backpackers Pantry Mexico Enchilada.
5. I have five great children, one granddaughter and son-in-law and have been married 20 years to the first and only woman I made love to.
 
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1. Lived in a cave at 15.
2. Flew a jet (Morane-Saulnier MA 760).
3. High school drop out with Masters in mechanical engineering from Georgia Tech.
4. Camped for weeks at a time dredging gold on the Mokelumne River when I was 14.
5. Helped put out a hotel fire in Rome and was immediately arrested by the Carabinieri and interagated (for arsen) in a secret Roman prison. Getting released involved the Police Commissioner of Rome, a priest from Clay Bank Scotland (who vouched for my location at a rooftop party when the fire started), and the chief of sonar from my submarine. When I finally made it back to the hotel the next morning, my bags were neatly piled out front, as I was no longer welcome. My guess is that I foiled an attempted insurance fraud. :)
 
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I guess I should finish mine

I’ve seen the northern lights in Canada and utah

I lived in a tent for 5 months when I was 23

I’ve been to the top of kings peak, the highest point in Utah, and black mesa, the highest point in Oklahoma.

I’ve got three children in their thirties who’ve grown to be productive members of society, and the fourth is well on his way in his early 20s. Both of these groups are who they are in no small part because of their mother(s), but I like to think I’ve been a positive influence as well.
 
1. Never drank, smoked or chewed.
2. Taught myself to bowhunt took me 3 years to kill a deer I think... can't remember forsure..
3. Have worked the slaughter floor in our custom meat shop since I was out of school.
4. Bought my own house and land at 21. Ready built home and 10 acres.
5. Love all types of food will try all kinds of things.
 
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1. Never drank, smoked or chewed.
2. Taught myself to bowhunt took me 3 years to kill a deer I think... can't remember forsure..
3. Have worked slaughter floor in our custom meat shop since I was out of school.
4. Bought my own house and land at 21. Ready built home and 10 acres.
5. Love all types of food will try all kinds of things.
If I'd have followed your #1 when I was young I would be so much further in life it wouldn't even be funny.
 

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