The Scientific Method in Bigfoot Research: Citizen Science in Action!

Hello Bigfoot enthusiasts got here from Squatch America and Hannah domestic goddess chief cook and doggie mama in the paddy wagon with you today I said that way slower You did we're coming to you live live via Memorex You were that commercial yeah, or is it memory this is definitely Memorex So as we discovered sitting here, we're still at like Medina Lake in Lake Hills, Texas and just or Elon just has not mastered the whole satellite placement in this area well, actually he has it's just that we're in a We we can't find the sky where we're at. We're in a juniper for a juniper forest So it cuts out every once in a while. So we decided to go ahead and record it No way, we upload it and there'll be no interruptions in the live stream. Yeah, so with that Oh I was gonna talk. Oh, I was just gonna say welcome to tonight's show and You know, it's been a while since we've had any guests on I think we should I think we should troll the Bigfoot groups Which we honestly we both belong to several Bigfoot groups and on Facebook hardly ever participate in any of them But that's where a lot of the other shows get their guests. But hey, who do you want to have a song? That was an English who if you have any ideas about who we should bring on to interview Let us know we would love to connect with them. But in the meantime, you know Just coming up with content can be kind of a game and kind of a challenge on our end So I asked a question this morning. Hey, how much? Do we actually use the the real? Scientific method in Bigfoot research and did you know? That there's been a lot of very credible evidence that has come forth not just using the scientific method but from citizen scientists not professional in the lab Whoop-dee-lah Bigfoot errs and we know who they are, but just average Joe people out there doing the work Yep, and then that's what we're gonna talk about tonight We're gonna we're gonna explain the scientific method and the importance of it I know a lot of people kind of you know, poopoo Education and stuff. I'm one of them Yeah, but there is there is some good in the scientific method and the purpose of it and What it is and we're gonna get into talking about that tonight Yes, and how the scientific method and citizen science are tightly tightly interconnected so What what really excites me is that? You know a lot of people Not necessarily such as yourselves because y'all are more in the know than most people But a lot of people think that you know, I am nobody I there's you know There's nothing I can contribute to the field of Bigfoot research and the point is is that Using the scientific method anybody can can contribute so This excites me because it opens the door for everyone to be a Bigfoot researcher Yeah, so but before we get started hit the like button subscribe share this video out into the YouTube algorithm Okay, there we go. So Here we go. The scientific method simple simplified Is that a word? Okay? Yeah What is it and why it matters? So let's go down the list of actually what I actually have the list So the scientific method actually is a step-by-step process it is it's a step-by-step guide on how to gather evidence Evidence evidence. Oh my gosh words are not working for me today Evidence how to process evidence how to study evidence and how to get your conclusions for your evidence and So we're gonna start with the number one observation Mm-hmm. So what's what's the technical thing for that right there? observation, so the scientific method is a structured way to Investigate and understand the world. That's that's the whole point of the method. It's not just watching and observing and Babbling about it. There's an actual structured way You know to organize how you're observing and what you're saying about it. So so observation, it's just that it's observing something unusual or interesting and What are examples of unusual or interesting things in the Bigfoot well in the Bigfoot world you've got What is considered the big three, you know? footprints Sounds and Tree structures in the woods That's the big three that that we have for the scientific method that we can grab on to in the Bigfoot world, so So here's how let's say we find a footprint Okay, and we find footprints a lot, you know Those are probably what we've run across the most. Yes Weird print. What is this? Yeah, in fact out of Bigfoot evidence in the world Footprints are the most prevalent. I mean people find footprints all the time. There's probably hundreds of casts made Around the United States a year if not more. Yep. So so so here's an exam Here's like a play-by-play Howie how how we would approach a footprint the first thing is an observation We observe a footprint and then we ask the question could this footprint possibly belong to Bigfoot and that's where a little bit of education comes in but You know Cliff Bergman has a cool saying and and I totally agree with it is a Cast it Cast everything Batman keeps the plaster business in in business. Yeah, he pays he pays plaster of Paris's light bill I swear they just throws plaster on everything. I'm gonna cast everything. Yeah. Well, it's important to do so then you have your Tangible in your hand not going to go away unless you drop it and then you still glue it back together, but Evidence so when in doubt cast it and then you can you got all the time in the world later We'll get to that part. So of the scientific method later, but If it looks like a print Cast it cast it Let me so Because not everybody's gonna walk around with gallon bags full of plaster and bottles of water There is this awesome little app called Here it is this last this app called See that scannivers scannivers Scannivers and what this app does and by the way scannivers if you want to sponsors, please Scannivers It's hard to Demonstrate it because I have nothing I have What this says this is a 3d scanner for your phone and it is free It is a free app and if you just don't happen to have you know Like you didn't go to ace hardware on your way You know into the forest and didn't you know, you don't have your buckets and all that stuff you can actually use this phone app to 3d scan the print and and Even if you don't have the cast you have a 3d Rendition of it on your phone. So here's a quick and easy one. I'm going to show This is actually the cast. This is actually a scan of a cast But the cool thing with scannivers is It'll actually tag effect if I oops, I messed it up I always mess things up it's because you just click and zoom and then you And then when you turn the phone around you click and zoom again without meaning to yeah, I meant to click on it to show One just did it on me. Oh Here you go. So when you scan with scannivers, it'll actually tag. Oh, yeah, if I can get the it'll tag your location So this was scanned in Medellin Falls, Washington It'll have the date and all that yeah on it But the cool thing is is you can stay scan the print but the print is kind of cool because you can It gives you that 3d You can you can rotate it you can yeah, you can rotate it you can Anyway you can Zoom in on it. You can zoom out of it But you can actually get this cool 3d Look of the whole thing and you can do the same thing with the footprint. Here's a footprint that we scanned you can actually This is in the dirt You can zoom in on it you can look at It at any angle. Yeah, so if you see this one here If you can see the details It's a little hard in the camera a little hard in the camera, but on the phone I can Scan you're even you're even seeing like the the flora and fauna and foliage surrounding the print Yeah, but which which is cool. You can see the mid tarsal break right here Yeah in it you can see this whole this is a footprint we found last year Yeah, um, in fact, it probably should tell me. Oh look There's the GPS location. Oops. You didn't get to see it But anyway You can see we got this one July 15th 2024 at 509 p.m Which means that was right when you were deploying operation pond scum this was right exactly when we were deploying Operation pond scum we found this track here. Okay. Yeah, so so So you've got your observation and then you've asked the question now there's where it gets this is where people kind of get bogged down and things because The whole point of the scientific method is not just asking a question and then finding answers you want to test you want to test it and so an important feature of the scientific method is forming your hypothesis and what a hypothesis is is an educated guess or an Explanation that you can test All right, so your question is could this footprint belong to Bigfoot and your hypothesis would be this footprint could belong to a large bipedal creature and And then your tests are going to either prove that Hopefully prove that true or false and I'll get to the rest of that later, but that is That is probably the the quality of your hypothesis statement is really what's going to Make or break your investigation and I think a lot of bigfooters go out there and they really don't have a hypothesis They're working with right Because you've got to be able to test it. So and the testing is the experiment. We're going to experiment. We're going to We're going to throw everything at this to either prove or disprove What our educated guess is so talk to us about What we do because you're that guy the experimental part. I'm the big word gal. He's Okay, so the experimental part is is one we want to Measure everything. I meant the scan things pretty cool But it doesn't give you measurements, I think it might but I don't know how to work that The best thing is to measure it first. I carry a little But I have a little tiny probably in your pocket in your pants, yeah a tape measure I keep in my pants With me all the time just a little it's a little like 12-foot Tape measure a lot of people carry those like cloth ones or they make they make a little tiny Retractable one in a little plastic case Anything that'll measure is fine Go to your local dollar store and get one of those little sewing kits for a dollar a dollar 25, whatever They will all come with like a waterproof tape But well, some of them are just some of them are paper, but but those will work, right? But most of them are plastic. Yeah, I know and and they work fine like the sewing ones Then you can just stuff that in your pocket But so measurements are so important measure everything The width the toe size the length the Heel width The depth all that stuff measure everything you possibly can and take pictures of it everything you possibly every angle every angle And then and then cast it but get all your measurements and stuff first and the best thing to do is keep a little Pad of paper with you like those little spiral notebooks that you can stick in your pocket and write it down don't try to remember it and because you might forget a Picture you might forget Or you might be it all the picture was blurry. I can't read the tape measure Write everything down That's one of the most important things when you're doing the experimental part is you got to have the information to experiment with So measure all that and you want to write it down because human memory changes Yeah, it does and another thing too about you know, this footprint that we got here is We found more than one we found a track way so we were able to measure Not this footprint, but the next footprint and how far they part I usually measure them from the heel of the Heel to heel that gives you a good distance because sometimes the toes spread and The tip or the toes don't pick up or they you know, they might have the toes curled but to get a good measurement of step length the stride is Heel to heel because they're usually really definite so I always measure heel to heel All right. So so that's the first part of Experimentation and then the next part now remember especially like with us and anyone that we train to do this What's our tagline? We investigate the unexplained we don't explain the uninvestigated and when we in our investigating the unexplained And and our friend Nikki Cologne loves this and she should Our goal is to prove ourselves wrong. Exactly So you want to take this track now or this Evan, you know, we're using a track for example compared to every Possible known other creature in the area, right? So does this look like a rabbit track? Oh, yeah or a bear bears the most common by the way, yeah That people mistake for Bigfoot tracks because they've got funky round feet. Yeah They step them together their front paw will step in the rear paw will step into the track of the front paw and make it Look longer than it really and it makes it look like it has a mid-tarsal break. Yeah, it does and But if you're really careful when you see these prints if the back half is kind of off like that That's usually the bear print. But another thing is look in front of the toes and you will always find claw marks. Mm-hmm, but Generally always find call marks because they got they got little scratchers. So you got to compare these with known prints and That's why I have two bins in the front of our Trailer here in the garage. We have Two big bins just full of known Bigfoot tracks. I got all the Patterson ones. I got all the Freeman ones I'm working on collecting other ones, but So you we you can compare it with those Okay so another thing you can do is to Set up trail cameras in the area after that to kind of if you have if you have Of course we know that cameras are worthless, you know, well, yeah and and honestly if so We were on we were on or we were watching Nikki Cologne Sasquatch secrets the other day and someone asked Are they doing any is anyone doing anything different in Bigfoot research then? hasn't if it's Anything different than what's been done in the last 60 years and the overall answer is mmm No, not much because they're there. I mean, I mean, I've come up with a couple ideas for More extensive data gathering stuff You know, we talked about our operation pond scum was it last week or the week before I don't we talked about a lot But we really we did it last week. Yes. Yeah, so we talked about that There's an upcoming Footprint Friday Probably in three or four weeks There's an upcoming footprint Friday that we're starting a new project that we're going to be doing this But we're gathering the evidence But the thing the thing with the operation pond scum is still utilize trail cameras and trail cameras historically have not yielded Anything and so the question remains Do we want to continue using trail cameras? Is there a point using trail cameras when? They're really good at capturing deer and bears and ducks and bunnies But even the ones that aren't IR you don't tend to capture a Bigfoot So that tells me there's a degree of awareness that they have it other creatures Don't but so, you know sound recorders actually I think would be more beneficial But anyway, so that's the experimental phase and as long I think it's a good spot to break and and We're gonna give our kudos to Elon anyway Imagine having high-speed internet no matter where you are With Starlink that dream is now reality. No more buffering lag or limited access Starlink connects you to ultra fast reliable internet anywhere on earth from seamless streaming to intense gaming and productivity Starlink empowers you to do it all Here's the best part Sign up using our exclusive link and get your first month free Don't miss out on the future of Internet. Click the link in our description to get started today Starlink revolutionizing Internet one connection at a time join now Just don't put your Starlink in a juniper forest. Yeah That's just a little tip and trick right there Yeah, we haven't we even have a pole and I can't get it up over the trees That's the problem if you don't know what a juniper forest looks like Well, you know those ugly those ugly juniper bushes from the 70s that we've all pulled out from in front of our house Yeah, just imagine a forest of those and there you go in there There and yeah, and they're actually they're beautiful trees, but boy, yeah, yeah, we can't see the sky at all Anyway, so we've talked about evidence in data collection The more data you can collect the better when I was when I was working on one of my master's theses the data collection was actually the hardest part of the whole process because when you collect data You want to collect enough to have a really good sample to support the testing process so for instance if you have a footprint and You compare it to well, it's definitely not a coyote. So it must be a Bigfoot That's not gonna cut it. You need lots and lots of corroborating data to to determine whether or not you're you're you're Educated guess is more correct than not. So after you collect the data then it's my most unfavorite part Analysis. Yes, you want to know secret everyone? So I've got a I've got a published master's thesis and it is it is actually a pretty significant part of the social science research community and I get notified multiple times a day of different people that are using my Thesis for their own research. So yeah, so I know how to do research Let me tell you but little known dirty little secret from my from my master's things. Yeah, I I'm not a math person and I Love data analysis because I love where it leads you I love the interpretation of it and the answers that get to you but the actual analysis part It makes me cry and it makes my head hurt and my My research professor did all my analysis. He was so excited about what I was writing about that He he started helping me do my data analysis And then he got so excited that he just kept doing it and I just said Okay, you just do And by the time the class was over that day Run all of my data analysis and I could just go back to what I loved which is interpreting it Yeah, so anyway, so don't give me anything Matthew to do because I'll just I'll just farm it out someone else Anyway, so the analysis is where you see what the data tells you. What is this telling you? so so and To give you guys another thing. I don't know if I have that on my phone. I had it I don't know if I still have it One of the things you can do is There is a couple apps and There's an identifier and I can't remember where it's called but I have like this one here it's called bird net and What it does as started with corn Come on There you go. So one that says bird net right there. He's got a bird identifier and a plants identifier and an animal identifier And what those are is if you're doing the recordings and you get a recording you can play that into the bird identifier And it'll say oh, that's this bird. That's where we discovered that my jabberwocky bird was actually called a Carolina So And then there's one that has animal sounds too that you can play into and that'll help you do that analysis really quick So you don't have to like shop it around and say hey I don't know what this animal is and that one's pretty good at it. So There's that yeah, so So your analysis is where you're really studying the data, right? And the other thing too is you don't have to do it yourself The analysis like Hannah just described you can find someone to cheat for you Like one of the things I said like I have all these footprint casts I have oh, I also have the ones from the London trackway and I have some of my I have ours from the London our London trackway that we found and I have some eclipse from the ones he found and so I have What we still have Tobes, oh and I have Tobes from the London trackway. Yeah, Tobe Johnson's. So sorry, Tobe We just haven't been able to meet up We're keeping it very very padded and safe. Yes. I have his original one from that. Yeah, so so If you send me your photos and stuff I'm pretty good at looking at them and I can compare them to the ones I have and get back to you and say hey Okay, and this is my hypothesis This is my based on no actually it's a based on your hypothesis. This is my analysis. Okay And so did did is the footprint Too big too small. Does it match another animal? Yeah Do your sounds are your sounds consistent with other wildlife in the area or are they absolutely different? And then based on that this is where this is where it all comes down to based on your analysis does Does the evidence support your hypothesis after doing all that Does it support the statement this print could belong to a large bipedal creature? Yes, or no based on the evidence. Is it? Yes, and yes in research means probably More than likely or is it a is it a clear? No and The other thing that this fails to take into consideration is a true mark of the scientific method at work is that It can be repeated So for instance London trackway, we've got those tracks 12 years later We ran the same scientific method with them compared and compared them to the last ones and and actually the The results were the same inconclusive Inconclusive we don't know definitely not a person don't know if it's a squatch but you know, there there are some limitations to the scientific method when you don't have a clear a clearly classified right speed being but but Anyway, but that's where the scientific I think that's where a lot of people actually They forget that the end result of the scientific method is that do not be attached to the outcome because When you're employing the scientific method, are you trying to prove yourself? Correct? No, you're trying to prove yourself wrong or yeah and and and I think what happens a lot of times is people get so invested in the process and They're so excited about having found something that they become married to the idea that that their initial observation and Conclusion is the right one and then when they're proven wrong or someone suggests they might be wrong Then we get all the drama Yeah, and you get you get this this school of Bigfoot errs against this school of Bigfoot errs And then it becomes this really political and emotional mess rather than a purely Scientific shared endeavor, right? Janice I hope you enjoyed Janice knows why we're talking about Yeah And don't say to yourself that you don't have any skills. I don't have any good skills What do you mean? You know like? nunchuck skills bow hunting skills computer hacking skills My you just wanted to play that. I did my point in this is Tesla didn't have any skills or he had skills, but he didn't have any education He didn't have any formal exactly You know so a lot of in fact Almost all the greatest scientific achievements have been happened by Just normal folks They haven't been these big huge educated people and one of the things I can I want to point this out in the anthropological world and archaeological world That I lived in for a while 90% of the findings the ones that really made changes to this world Were immediately dismissed by the academics right away and and Then it took years and years and years later and people finding other things and putting them together They found out oh man that guy was right that guy who found that skull and you know so What you might find may be the thing that breaks this whole Bigfoot thing wide open But it may be poo-pooed for 12 years before Somebody comes to the conclusion that oh That is the thing that just broke the whole thing open so yeah And so so I think one of the biggest lessons that one of the biggest things that if followed correctly the scientific method can Support and can help us with is to not be emotional about What we're finding about what we're thinking so, you know if someone proves For instance, I'm just to say this if someone proves someday that I am wrong about humanity being The Bigfoot ancient alien hybrid It's not gonna break my heart, right? I mean now until someone can demonstrate that I Stand by what what I have concluded, but if someone can prove me wrong. Hey more power to them. I'm open I'm not gonna I'm not gonna get all boohoo II because I'm not really a pleiadian offspring All right, so why does it matter why does it matter You wanna you want me to just read it? Yeah, okay This is the cool part. All right I'm gonna stay in the camera The scientific method ensures that we are not just jumping to conclusions It keeps our research credible and helps separate real evidence from misunderstandings or hoaxes Even if your results don't prove Bigfoot's existence They still add to our knowledge of the natural world when I was in grad school that was that was the thing that and I want to just give kudos my favorite professor in My first round of grad school was dr. John Garcia. He was our research professor And he said the most important part of research is not whether you are right or wrong It's not about right or wrong. It's I wish people would stop texting me it was to add to the knowledge base because Even things that are wrong Wrong add to the knowledge base like wasn't it Edison who said was it Edison? No, it was Ford Was it Edison or I think it was Edison. He had how many failures? That's right. He's something like he found out a hundred and some odd times how not to make a light bulb Yeah, and so, you know if you have discovered 50 prints that weren't Bigfoot. You are really good at Identifying what is not a Bigfoot and that is very very important in this work. So anyway, so With that do we have any more things we can share before we go to our next section? Yep At Squatch America, we're not just searching for Bigfoot. We are giving back to those who serve every donation through YouTube and patreon helps us to support the fallen outdoors a Veterans led organization who takes heroes out hunting fishing and camping, but that's not all We take veterans on real Bigfoot research expeditions Where they can enjoy the great outdoors and maybe just maybe discover something Legendary join us in giving back support Squatch America today for the adventure for the veterans and for the wild So so next section yes parts you All right, and of course, you know what even though this is recorded Go ahead and put your questions in the comments because we read all the comments We respond to all of your comments and this is going to be a premiere. So this is a premiere as they're watching Yeah, this is a premiere. So we're in the chat with you. Yeah, and so just yet be yackety-yack and along with us We're fine. So why is this important especially we want to talk about? The reason we're presenting this to you is because you all are what we refer to as Citizen scientists and yes, we stole that from Cliff. Mm-hmm It's been around Okay, Cliff is just he English as well So anyway, I saw it from Cliff anyway, so why is citizen science so important? The the first and I think the most glaringly obvious Reason citizen science is so important. It's so important is because mainstream science does not support this at all So, you know, we don't have crypto zoology departments at state universities or private universities So if they're not doing it who's going to do the research? We got to yeah, you've got to so grassroots average Joe blow people Are the ones doing the work? Yep so So let's talk about it who have made significant. Let's talk about the most famous famous Bigfoot find of all time when that has been Never never I mean it stands head and shoulders above all of them Which one is that the most famous the most significant was that the Patterson film the Patterson? Tell me was Roger Patterson a scientist. Nope. He was a cowboy. How about Bob Gimlin? He was a cowboy too. And in fact, I think They weren't they both or I think I know Roger was a roofer a roofer and a cowboy and a cowboy I don't know what else Bob did but Yeah, and back to actually Roger Patterson live his ranch was on the same street where I lived as a little girl. Mm-hmm, so Yeah, there was absolutely they were not scientists at all in fact I've yet to see the most famous scientists in The Bigfoot community, of course is dr. Jeffrey Meldrum And there are several others, you know that are considered real science Scientists and and none of them have been able to produce evidence as significant as Roger Patterson and Bob Gimlin produced so So there you go To rough and tumble cowboys from Yakima, Washington can go make the biggest break in the Bigfoot research ever made You know There we are. So what was homeboys my Anyway, yeah from my from my stomping grounds So who else has made significant discoveries in the Bigfoot world? It's not Probably Paul Freeman Paul Freeman was not a scientist. He was of course of a forest ranger. Well, yeah Sorta he was He was actually hired as a kind of like I forgot what it was called There's a name for it, but his job was just a patrol areas to keep people out. Yeah So here's a forestry bouncer. Yeah and So so there's that you know He he did not have any special training to be a Bigfoot er and What about audio recordings Ron Morehead was not it's not a scientist No now that doesn't mean that once you have these experiences, you don't start studying all that stuff And a crazy thing too about Ron Morehead. He owned a restaurant in Mariposa, California While we lived there while we lived there. We didn't even know who he was Great restaurant to the miners miners in great greatest Cobb salad on the planet And so You know after all these things, you know people dive into it and of course Ron Morehead has really gotten into the field of quantum physics and all that which Totally I'm down with that You're not so much down with that so much. You got your Newtonians and you got your quantum physicists. So So now how does citizen science though align with the scientific method? How can regular people not trained in research because I'm trained in research. You're trained in research both been Formally educated in science in the scientific method, but how can someone like like Colin? You know 16 year old Colin. I think Colin just got his driver's How can how can young Colin in Oregon who's definitely not a scientist yet But who is totally down with Bigfoot stuff or any other just average person How can they use the scientific method to to guide their efforts They can use it as a guide to guide their efforts. Oh, that was All right, so observation question hypothesis experiment data collection analysis conclusion and Share your findings. We didn't get to that part, but that's it. There's eight things On the list You can go back and rewind this and keep playing it So if you want to write them down, maybe I'll make an infographic and you can sign up for our email It's to get a free download. How about that? There we go But it's not you don't have to have a Month-long course on how to do the scientific method. It's a list of things to do. That's all it is And if you and if you check the boxes and do the list then you have conducted research according to The scientific method, you know, we don't have to say everything together. It's yes we do All right, so it makes me sound smarter Okay, and so sharing your research, how do you do that You should be set up to share our website screen We mean, can you share can you do a live share while we're recording of our website? Possibility keep talking. All right, because we want to show you exactly how to share your stuff with us and please our most unfavorite method of you sharing stuff with us is well comments or Facebook messenger and all of a sudden we have a novel in Facebook messenger. That's not a good way emails. Okay If you just out of the blue send me a Facebook message and especially if you're not my friend And even if you are I have 5,000 people on Facebook this they don't all send me messages, but we get messages Gets lost and I can't and then I'm like, oh I remember that story. I needed to get back to that person sir and that's how How do I get back to him I don't did they send it to me in Facebook do they send it to me I don't remember. I don't remember their name and now I gotta look through everything to try to find their messages. So That's so we want to walk you hard problem for me. Yeah, it's a hard problem for anyone So we have got an actual method by which people can share Their stuff with us and we're going to show you how to get there. I Gotta keep talking go to Squatch America calm. I know pipe Squatch America You got well you had you had that we had the tab right there No, I didn't X out of that Now go back in. Yeah, it's at the top. Oh My goodness, you're you're all over the place. I just got us out of the show There we go, all right Okay, see Squatch America. That's all that's patreon. Okay. I told you type. All right squad. See I'm always right Except when you're wrong All right, so we're going to show this to you on our screen right now Okay, here's our website This is the final bidding budding so if you go to our website at Squatch America calm, you can scroll down and We have three buttons here. The first one says what click here to submit your report and That will take you. Did you see a Bigfoot? Submit your way, would you get back up there? I'm reading submit your report right here. Even if you're not sure what you saw heard or felt your experience is valuable We want to hear about it Maybe in fall even follow up with you to get more info fill out each blank as best you can and submit and that is like did you see a Bigfoot or a print or a tree structure or smell a smell any kind of Information you can provide this is where you submit your report When you fill all that out you click the submit button and we will get back to you There is no place on this to attach your pictures and all that but that's what happens in the afterwards in the next step Yeah, so there's our there is our Bigfoot experience encounter citing Report form that anyone can use and that way we have got a detailed Documented digital record of who sent us what when and and then we start the communication process Okay So I thought that was valuable for this part It it really is so All right so That's how you share your data with Squatch America now We also want to talk about I don't know why this is here But this is the part where we tell you how awesome it is to research and to be in the wilderness mm-hmm, so What's your favorite part about going big footing? Just being in the woods Hearing the birds and the squirrels cussing me out and they do that Walking through the woods the fresh air Lack of human being like a human beings that sort of thing. That's one of the my favorite part Eating MREs. Yeah But I I do love being in nature and and actually this part of my story Years ago when we first started down this road I found that being in nature as much as we were Healed a lot of the wounds that I had gotten in the first 50 years of my life just by being a human being so So nature will heal you if you allow her to anyway, so What about the thrill of discovery tell us about your thrill of discovery? so having Been in the woods looking for Bigfoot for decades decades When I finally saw one and It took decades and and I count myself extremely lucky because most people go their whole lives without seeing them When I had my first visual sighting It changed my life it Well put me down a path a rabbit hole never climb out of which is fine you mean Bigfoot stole your soul at that point, but You know, I was already down the rabbit hole that just took me down to the basement, you know, so that was Incredibly thrilling have I had other thrilling things happen? Yes footprints every time if I footprints every time I Get a sound recording or hear something in the woods that I can't explain Every time he sees his city girl wife squat to take a pee It's not that exciting But yes, but you never thought you'd live to see the day yeah, so it's it's kind of cool to be able to Have that excitement it's very rare to by the way We spend a stupid amount of time in the woods, but and we may find the footprints once a year or so That's because we spend a stupid amount of time in the woods and we actually look for them A lot of people don't look for them You know the guys said well I've been a logger I've been a hunter my whole life, you know hunting seasons one month a year And if you're hunting multiple things, maybe you're in the woods Three or four weeks a year and think about this and you're not looking for footprints Looking for deer prints. You're looking for stuff when you see other footprints And why on God's green earth would an intelligent creature be hanging around where everything's being hunted Yeah, so you're not gonna find Bigfoot anything during hunting season Here's a question I have got a different story about the thrill of discovery My thrill of discovery is pulling me into the camera We're at a weird angle My thrill of discovery comes from discovering that I love to be in nature Because that was completely foreign to me. I was not a nature girl and So discovering that there was this whole part of me That was unknown to me until we went down this path was amazing Were you at all moved by your wife's transformation from a city lover to a forest dweller? Oh, yeah I was I'm thrilled about that Because because you lied to me when we met That's because dating and courtship is all one great big lie It's true it is So that's another story for another Okay, but that's been but but it has been for me and I don't know about you but for me the whole thrill of nature discovery has been a whole journey of self-discovery for me and Has brought me to actually a place of being a better human being than I was before so and what about what about the bond that we share with other people like us who We all share a love of research and a love of nature That's the fantastic thing is is the community of explorers I have met some of my best friends in life now through Bigfoot stuff And and I gotta say something about those best friends. A lot of them are Completely different from us in every other way Different different spiritual views. I mean most of you figured out that we're somewhat a religious But we've got people with differing religious and spiritual views different political views different cultures but we all unite around this love of Science and research. All right If you see little glitches once in a while, that's when the internet messed up and that's why we're going to edit this You're seeing an edited version of it You know, like I was trying to think some of the some of our really good friends we've ran into through the Bigfoot world Ben Janice Donna Scott Goble, it's probably my best friend You know, I think Janice and I are pretty close to best yeah, you know and so Got reacquainted with some old friends to Renee doesn't there's one Through the bed she's like up there with bestie for me too. Yeah, which is weird So, you know stuff like that. It's it's been a fantastic ride this last What five years five years? So That's one of the thing we have a community and a community that with a shared goal and That's one of the best things about this being a citizen scientist and doing the scientific method together and actually I Honestly think that citizen scientists make a better community then formal sciences Yeah, because formal scientists are not But it's weird because they're like doing the same goal. They're trying to come up with the same The same end result and results, but they don't want the other guy to do it first And and and with us and I'm totally the different I don't I would like somebody else to do it first, you know Yeah, and and I wanted to I wanted to say maybe this is a personal judgment but if you run into people that care more about their conclusion and they do about the Process and the method and where it leads them if they if they are more attached to the conclusion They've come to than the process of truth-finding. I would back off because those are the people that That cause division in The research field and you know, we got in that division in the world. We don't need it here so One of the things that I think that we strive to really And we are about the process. We are not about An attachment to an outcome. Yeah, just remember this. This is my favorite saying Mongo only pawn in game of life Yeah, I like being Mongo Go watch that show If you don't know what it is you can private message Yeah, I think if we say the name of that movie we might be But those of you who are of a certain age know exactly what that was Anyway, so I think that brings us to the end of our pre-recorded show. Yeah, so Just remember you we will have another one of these next week. What is our topic next week? I thought was going to talk about being citizen scientists, but we kind of covered it today covered all that today. So It's fine. We'll have something amazing for you next week next week We'll also be pre-recorded because we will not have left this place yet but then The following week we should be back on live. Yeah, and I think I know the next one we're going to talk about is Well, I might we might do a little more pre-recording on that one and we're going to talk about our new idea for finding Bigfoot We're going we're don't don't steal your thunder I'm not my new my new invention You remind me of that guy in the old Walt Disney Babes in Toyland You know Mr. Toymaker, mr. Toymaker, look what I invented. It's a ray gun to make toys With that said our job at scratch America is to investigate the unexplained not to explain the Uninvestigated so until next week. Thank you so much for being with us for watching for being part of our research community and remember to Like subscribe and share and So You keep watching. We'll keep squatching now go out and find Bigfoot. Bye. Bye that damn Sasquatch