Using Flesh-Eating Beetles: Kate Craig's Unique Path

Rich Bennett 0:00
So I put a poster on for candidate of Incom. Actually, no, not on the website, on the Facebook page, looking for artists. And this young lady contacted me, and then when I looked at her art, I was blown away. I've never seen anything like this. But then when I looked at her bio and she said that she's a military Army veteran. Right. Army veteran mother. Yes. Artist. God only knows what else is out. Okay, I got to get her on the podcast. So I actually have Caitlin. I said Caitlin. Anyways, but Caitlin Craig with me. So how are you doing? Caitlin First of all, doing great. 

Kate Craig 0:45
How are you? 

Rich Bennett 0:45
I'm doing good. All right. So what did I miss there? What else? What else do are have you done? 

Kate Craig 0:54
You hit the major parts. 

Rich Bennett 0:55
Okay. 

Kate Craig 0:55
Like these days. I am an artist, a self-made artist. I'm a mother of a four year old boy whose name is Lucas. 

Rich Bennett 1:03
I love that name. 

Kate Craig 1:04
I know I do, too. 

Yeah. He's my pride and joy over anything else. But, you know, Army veteran, I started as a mechanic for one enlistment, got out, and now I'm working at APD as a combat vehicle tester. 

Rich Bennett 1:18
Why? So you get to drive like the new things. Mm hmm. Yeah. I always thought that was the active duty that did that. 

Kate Craig 1:29
No, no. It goes through a rigorous testing process before it goes to the end user. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 1:34
Really? All right. I got to ask Nate. What's the. Are you allowed to say? 

Kate Craig 1:39
So answer some things to the best of my ability. 

Rich Bennett 1:41
Okay. Yeah. So what's the, 

um. I guess the most fun thing that you've driven so far that you can talk about? 

Kate Craig 1:51
Mm hmm. Probably the. 

Rich Bennett 1:53
Even if while you were in, probably. 

Kate Craig 1:56
It's called the NPF. No. Worked at Mobile Protected Firepower. It's a it's a mini Abrams, basically. 

Rich Bennett 2:01
Okay. 

Kate Craig 2:02
But my heart is with the Bradleys. The Bradley fighting vehicles. That's the Bradley fighting vehicles. Oh, yeah. Smaller tanks. Yeah. Not really a tank, but, you know. Well, that's that's my that's my lawbreakers, Bradley. But I have had fun on a bunch of other platforms. 

Rich Bennett 2:18
When I was in what was the big one that we had? It was we always called it a turtle because it looked like a turtle, but it was it was some type of levee, but it had the huge tires and it looked like an upside down turtle. But I had the top and I'll never get my bear and then run the boat or not see the storm. Anyways. They were fun. They were fun to drive. That was at the Naval station. Okay, so you did six years in the Army? Yep. If you don't mind me asking why? Because a lot of people, after six years, I mean, I was the same way I wanted to make a career out of it, but they didn't want to give me what I wanted. Was it your plan to make your career originally? 

Kate Craig 3:00
Originally, yes. The Army was very different than I had anticipated when I went in. Right. There's a lot of politics and modes of operation that I don't agree with. 

Rich Bennett 3:10
No 

politics in the military. Yeah, right. All right. 

Kate Craig 3:17
Yeah, but I got a boys club kind of stuff, like it was. It was. It was an easy decision to walk away By the very end of it. I even walked away from a promotion that was offered to me like, three months before I got out. And I really. I can't do this. Like, I can't even stand the thought of another year in order to take this promotion. Like, I'm not doing it. 

Rich Bennett 3:36
As a non-commissioned officer. Yeah. Okay, so six years in, and that was the whole six years you weren't at APD, right? 

Kate Craig 3:44
No, no, I wasn't APD at all, actually. Oh, yeah. I went to basic at Fort Sill, got out, came back here. 

I'm sorry. I went from Fort Sill to Fort Lee and then back here in Maryland to serve in the National Guard. 

Rich Bennett 4:00
Okay. 

Kate Craig 4:01
So I got bounce all over. I know. That's. That's Air Force. Well, yeah. 

Rich Bennett 4:05
But. 

Kate Craig 4:06
But there's there's a few Army National Guard stations all throughout Maryland. I, I did some time and I. 

Rich Bennett 4:14
Didn't realize I thought Army was at Martins as well. 

Kate Craig 4:17
There might be, but nothing that I'm aware of. 

Rich Bennett 4:19
Huh. I'll be doing well. That's what I get for not served in a national war. Yeah. And you said you're self made artist, but your art is different than anything I've seen. Explained everybody what it is that you actually do. 

Kate Craig 4:35
So I started kind of getting into a realm of taxidermy, but I didn't want to do traditional taxidermy. 

Rich Bennett 4:42
Okay. 

Kate Craig 4:43
I started I started out actually doing like, I don't know if you know what you're about as. 

Rich Bennett 4:48
No, I know. You're going to tell me. Yeah. 

Kate Craig 4:51
So European about if you've ever seen the, you know, like a deer skull on like a black background like hanging on some of these wall. 

Rich Bennett 4:58
Or so, like the actual skull, Not. The skull. Not that. Yeah, That's your. Paint a. 

Kate Craig 5:02
Lot. Yeah, that's a European now. So I got into processing those a couple of years ago during hunting season. So I got a colony of domestic beetles and those are flesh eating beetles. I put them in a tank, made a little environment for them where I would then introduce these skulls that hunters would give me and the beetles and clean off the skull. I would decrease them, whiten them, mount them, and then give them back to the hunters. 

Rich Bennett 5:29
All right, wait a minute. I'll. All right. Number one. Are you a hunter? I am. You are. Okay. 

Where in the hell did you find out about these beetles? And where do you get them from? 

Kate Craig 5:40
Google is a wonderful thing. 

Rich Bennett 5:43
I should have. Known, right? Oh, God. 

Kate Craig 5:46
They're like. I mean, there's a ton of different ways to clean the flesh off of a skull, right? There's nature cleaning, which takes forever, burying it underground, which takes less time. But it's harder to clean when you pull it out. You know, there's maceration which is boiling it. And that now. 

Rich Bennett 6:01
I mean, you know. 

Kate Craig 6:03
So I was like, okay, what's most effective? And then I think I was on Tik-Tok or something, and I seen a video of these beetles like swarming on a skull, cleaning it off in like two days. And I was like, Oh, I want that instant gratification, quick turnaround. Like it's an upfront investment, but it's totally worth it, right? So I went ahead and I did that and then they put in work. 

Rich Bennett 6:27
Where'd you. Find them? 

Kate Craig 6:29
Google ended up leading me down some rabbit hole and found some online store. A guy that sold like theater and sex and stuff like that for reptiles, he also had beetles. No, no, actually, he shipped them to me. 

Rich Bennett 6:40
No, I mean, or to beetles. Are they exotic or something? 

Kate Craig 6:44
Oh, no, they're not exotic. Yeah, you can find them. If you walk up to roadkill right now, you'll be able to find some on there. 

Rich Bennett 6:50
Oh, yeah, They're. 

Kate Craig 6:51
It's. Yeah, it's. 

Rich Bennett 6:52
Gross. All right. How many of these beetles do you have? 

Kate Craig 6:56
I just started a new colony. I started with 700 of them, but they multiply very quickly, 

so it'll be in the thousands. It's not uncommon for a taxidermist to have 20, 30,000 of these beetles in a day. 

Rich Bennett 7:11
And you doing this at your house? 

Kate Craig 7:14
Yeah, they're in a they're actually in an old chest freezer. 

Rich Bennett 7:17
So it's. 

Kate Craig 7:18
Sealed. 

Rich Bennett 7:20
The beetles. 

Kate Craig 7:20
Are. Yeah, they're in an old chest freezer. It's not plugged in or anything. 

Rich Bennett 7:24
Oh, okay. Wow. Okay. 

Kate Craig 7:27
So it's a very it's kind of like a reclaimed chest freezer. There's a ventilation hole to relieve negative pressure, and there's a computer fan pushing the smell outside. And it's. It's a whole thing. It's a it is a please. 

Rich Bennett 7:40
So you've got a big house. It's. 

Kate Craig 7:42
It's good. Get enough. 

Rich Bennett 7:43
This is a townhouse. 

Kate Craig 7:45
It's a townhouse. 

Rich Bennett 7:46
You're in a town. And none of the neighbors have complained. 

Kate Craig 7:50
No, actually, because the smell really isn't that bad. They clean the flat, and, like, the flush is really what makes it smell so bad. And they. They rip that off so quick. You, you know, you can't even blink and you'll miss it. 

Rich Bennett 8:00
All right. I take it you got this set up downstairs. 

Kate Craig 8:03
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 8:04
Okay, so the Beatles are in this chest freezer, which is not plugged in. 

Kate Craig 8:10
It's not what this conversation would take is serious. 

Rich Bennett 8:13
It's not repaired. I. This just blows me away. So when you get the head. Because they're not giving you the skull, you're getting the whole head, right? Yeah. 

Kate Craig 8:24
Usually they'll do some prep work for it to make it a little bit easier. But. 

Rich Bennett 8:28
Yeah. So what do you put the head in before you put the Beatles in with the head. 

Kate Craig 8:33
I the the head. Just go straight in with the Beatles. Oh it goes straight into the chest freezer. Yeah. You just drop it straight in there. 

Rich Bennett 8:41
But then you, but you got to because you said the Beatles are in a jar, right. Or in a container. 

Kate Craig 8:47
Oh, no. They're. They're in the freezer. Like they're in a it's a big tote that sits it's the same size as the inside of the freezer. And you just put. 

Rich Bennett 8:54
The don't any of them escape? 

Kate Craig 8:56
No, not at all. No, they don't fly unless it's super hot for one thing, they can't climb smooth sides. So that's that's not a concern. And as long as there's food, they're not going anywhere. They're actually very easy to maintain. 

Rich Bennett 9:11
What would your son think of this? 

Kate Craig 9:13
He thinks it's the coolest thing. He really does. He loves to go down. Like when he gets there. 

Rich Bennett 9:18
He wants to be a taxidermist when he gets older, maybe. 

Kate Craig 9:20
I don't know, man. Like, he'll come home from school and he'll go right to the freezer and open it up and look inside and be like, Oh, look at them go. 

Rich Bennett 9:28
It's funny, though, right? 

Kate Craig 9:29
He's four. Yeah, he's four and a half. 

Rich Bennett 9:30
Yeah. Okay. So he's at the perfect age where he can learn it. 

Kate Craig 9:34
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 9:36
Wow. Okay. Yeah. 

Kate Craig 9:37
I definitely don't censor anything from him. Just like. Yeah, buddy, this is a this is a dead deer. This is the Beatles are going to eat the dead deer and we're going to clean the deer up and we're going to give it back to Mr. or Mrs. So-and-so. And he's very involved in the process. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 9:52
All right. So now the Beatles cleaned is dead. That is just so funny. So the Beatles clean the head, and now you have just the skull. They see everything. 

Kate Craig 10:06
Yeah. They'll clean off everything. 

Rich Bennett 10:08
Eyes, the brain. 

Kate Craig 10:09
Oh, yeah, Everything. 

Rich Bennett 10:10
Kit. Have it here. 

Kate Craig 10:11
Yep. 

Rich Bennett 10:11
They in two days. 

Kate Craig 10:14
Depends on your colony size, but yes. 

Rich Bennett 10:15
It's a deer heads. Pretty big, isn't it? Mm hmm. All right. What's the this is going to sound so freaking weird. What's the. What's the biggest type of head you've ever done? 

Kate Craig 10:27
A cow. 

Rich Bennett 10:28
They're huge. I know. Our day, like two or three basketballs. There, but. Yeah, those are. Those are huge. 

Kate Craig 10:37
They're. They're enormous. 

Rich Bennett 10:38
Yeah, Well, that now that explains why you had to get another colony. 

Kate Craig 10:41
Yeah. So the first colony. Wow. Actually, my first colony got completely. I don't know what happened with them completely. 

Rich Bennett 10:49
I like to do that. Right. 

Kate Craig 10:53
Well, they were doing fine until I. So I was going to do a snakehead skeleton like re articulating no snakehead fish. 

Rich Bennett 11:02
Yeah. 

Kate Craig 11:02
I was going to re articulate one of those skeletons pro-bono because I wanted to learn how to put together a fish skeleton. But I was like, Hey, this might not come out very well or it might take me forever, so I'm not going to charge you for it. I'm taking it for the learning experience. You might get a skeleton out of it. 

Rich Bennett 11:14
Did they at least give you the meat? 

Kate Craig 11:17
No, but I have enough of that myself. 

Rich Bennett 11:19
Oh, so I could. Yeah. Oh, yeah, that's good. 

Kate Craig 11:22
It is good to eat. Yeah. So I introduced the fish to the beetle tank, and within a couple of days it was infested with fruit flies. And at this point, it wasn't a it wasn't a chest freezer. At this point, it was actually like an old aquarium, Right. With some heating set up and everything. And they, they ate everything. But there was fruit flies everywhere, like infested in this tank. And it at some point just completely eliminated the colony. They were all dead. 

Rich Bennett 11:52
The fruit flies did. 

Kate Craig 11:53
Yeah. I don't know how it like I don't know if it was eggs or like I have no idea what took them out, but it killed my entire colony, so I'm just getting started with it again. I've been focusing more on the art side for the last six months or so, and now I'm getting back into the actual bone processing part of it. Since we're going into hunting season. 

Rich Bennett 12:11
How long ago did you start doing this? The art. 

Kate Craig 12:14
The art part? Probably two years ago. Really. I mean, I've been I've been an artist for a long time, but actually starting with this medium, probably about two years ago. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 12:23
So what type of art were you doing before multimedia? 

Kate Craig 12:26
I mean, I did all kinds of stuff. I was a painter sketch, digital art, all that kind of stuff. 

Rich Bennett 12:32
It's Do you ever mix it with well, I know you can't mixed a digital art with the skulls. Well, actually, when you actually. 

Kate Craig 12:40
Again, you you get it printed, you take your designs and put it on transfer paper and you can put it on a skull that way. That way you don't need to actually sit there and hand paint it on a skull, which takes forever. It's less, you know, you want like a 

you know, like a t t set, like a ceramic kind of like appeal to it. You can absolutely transfer the image from your drawing on your tablet or whatever you're using, put it on transfer paper and basically decoupage it onto the onto the skull itself. And it actually looks like ceramic when you're done with it, if you put a gloss over it. So there's there's all kinds of mixed media in the artwork that I do. 

Rich Bennett 13:16
Now, all. 

Kate Craig 13:16
Kinds of Are. 

Rich Bennett 13:17
You still doing all types of art or okay, so back to the. Skulls. Yeah. So, yeah, the thing's cleaned, right? What's the next step after that? 

Kate Craig 13:26
I decrease it. It depends on. 

Rich Bennett 13:28
Degrees. It. 

Kate Craig 13:29
Mm hmm. Yeah. So there's all, there's a bunch of, like, grease and fat cells that are still kind of all throughout that can't get eaten. It's in the pores of the calcium that make up the bone. So what you have to do is basically take either some kind of detergent onto. So something like that, scrub it down really good, soak it in a bucket for I usually do for about a month, but I change out the water as soon as it gets cloudy. And that leaves you a nice, like sparkling white skull. Because the thing is, if you leave the grease in there, it'll kind of come through it. It'll stain through the whiten, Right. And, you know, grease stains, really stains, you know. Yeah. So that has to be taken care of. And then after that I whiten it using a peroxide solution. 

Rich Bennett 14:08
All right, So then after you're finished whiten whitening, what's the next step after that? I guess it all depends on what the what the customer wants or whatever. 

Kate Craig 14:21
My goblin brain is going to run off with. 

Rich Bennett 14:27
I like that. You're really fun during Halloween. Oh, yeah. 

Kate Craig 14:32
I mean it. There's been times at 1030 at night where an idea hit me. How's it going? I got to get it started. Like I wound up and started running with it because I had such a fresh idea and just ran with it. 

But yeah, it's there's all kinds of different types of artwork that I've done with these skulls. Some of them are more kind of sculpture oriented, some of them are hand-painted, some of them are more that take style, like I was telling earlier, gold plating. Like there's there's all kinds of stuff that I've done. 

Rich Bennett 15:02
Gold plating. 

Kate Craig 15:04
You know, with like gold leaf, not actual like plating, but yeah. 

Rich Bennett 15:09
So what's the strangest one you've ever done? 

Kate Craig 15:13
Oh, jeez, 

that's tough to answer. I think my brain is immediately going to one of the most challenging pieces I've done. 

I had a woman approach me online saying that she wanted something that kind of was reminiscent of the Egyptian goddess segment, who is the Egyptian goddess of war. 

So she is symbolized by wings. 

She was a lion headed woman. So you know how like the Egyptian gods and goddesses have some animal head and then their body. So she had the head of a lion. She had this like kind of beat it had piece like a lot of and a cobra crown kind of thing. And she wanted me to make that into a skull and, well, I knew nothing about Egyptian mythology whatsoever. So I did a ton of research and wanted to not insult the culture, insult the religion. And so, you know, I usually try to be very respectful of those things. And I don't want to just appropriate something and put it into a piece right? So I did a ton of research and I was going back and forth with her, sending her progress photos and everything like that. I ended up going because, I mean, obviously a lion skull wasn't going to happen. So I actually found a cougar skull that was like a resin cast and she had a lower budget. So I ended up settling on a realistic resin cast that I ended up using a torch to kind of like burn some of the Browns into it and stuff, hand-painted to make it look more realistic, you know, And it ended up coming out pretty well. Wow. The issues that I ran into was that I was trying to be 

respectful of this culture and there was a lot of changes and adaptation to the piece to kind of fit her like preferences more. But also stay within a budget. And it I had to jump to like do a lot of mental gymnastics to get right with it. 

So I think that it's probably like weird is a weird classification, like it's probably the strangest piece of time. So yeah, there was a whole, there was a lot of mental gymnastics going on there and, you know, trying to balance between respect, keeping the customer happy and not putting myself underwater. Right, is, you know, that was a difficult couple plates to spend. You know. 

But beyond that. 

Rich Bennett 17:47
How long did that one take you? 

Kate Craig 17:50
Probably three weeks or so. 

Rich Bennett 17:52
That's it? Yeah. Is that have you had any that has taken longer to do. 

Kate Craig 17:57
Oh yes. Okay. Yeah. There was a piece that I did for a tattoo artist in the UK that actually is one of my. 

Rich Bennett 18:04
Favorite pieces of art. Yeah. Mm hmm. First of all, how do they find out about you? 

Kate Craig 18:10
Social media? I guess he found my tech talking to originally because he reached out to me on there and then he reached out to me on Instagram. So. 

Rich Bennett 18:16
Wow. Okay. 

Kate Craig 18:18
So he reached out to me wanting a piece done with a bare skull that was kind of timeless, like, not quite steampunk, but sort of like, you know, this artifact that was dug up in the woods after sitting there for a hundred years. I was like, Look, I can do. 

Rich Bennett 18:35
A bigger skull, a. 

Kate Craig 18:35
Bare skull. 

Rich Bennett 18:38
Wow. Okay. 

Yeah. It's. 

Kate Craig 18:43
You know, like, all this seems totally normal to me when I'm working on it. And then I go and actually talk to people about it. I'm just like, Oh, yeah, this is weird, isn't it? 

Rich Bennett 18:51
But here's it's not. Here's the thing. I think once people see your art, they won't consider it weird because when I saw it, it's like I was blown away. I mean, it's beautiful stuff that you do. 

Kate Craig 19:03
Thank you. 

Rich Bennett 19:04
And I think, yeah, it sounds weird. Especially the Beatles, right? It's a. Point. I'm sure your neighbors would be upset if you kept digging holes in your back, your buried skulls. You probably have the FBI knocking on your door. Yeah, We got to report that you're burying bodies back here, which would not be a good. Thing, right? That's. Wow. Plus, you'd have to call Miss Utility. You're, of course, right. That could be a pain in the ass. 

Kate Craig 19:29
I feel like it would, too. 

Rich Bennett 19:30
So, how many do you figure of these things do you do? I don't know. Because you've been doing it for two years, right? So how many figured you do in a year? 

Kate Craig 19:42
In a year? And so I've been doing this pretty solidly for about two years now. I would say I've probably put out about 120 pieces. Really? Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 19:55
So you just got it down to a science. 

Kate Craig 19:58
It's like it's a hobby 

now. 

Rich Bennett 20:01
So you've had people as far as the UK, so you've had customers from everywhere. 

Kate Craig 20:07
You have UK, Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii are all. 

I think I'm missing one actually, 

maybe one in the Ukraine or somewhere in that region. But I've had a few international and outside of the United States. 

Rich Bennett 20:27
So is there any animal that you haven't done yet that you want to do? 

Kate Craig 20:30
Hmm. Yes, actually, but I just got a contact for it. I'm super excited about it. I don't know if you know the Jacob Sheep is. 

Rich Bennett 20:40
A Jacob. 

Kate Craig 20:40
Sheep. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 20:42
I would say a sheep named Jacob. I have no idea. 

Kate Craig 20:45
I so a Jacob sheep is, you know, just picture your standard ram that's got the, you know, horns a kind of wrap around. But they also have the horns that come out on top here that. 

Rich Bennett 20:56
They got such a horns. 

Kate Craig 20:57
Yeah, it's a very, very cool looking. The skull especially, is a very cool looking skull. 

Rich Bennett 21:03
And I had. 

Kate Craig 21:04
A there's a guy that lives in have a degree that has. 

Rich Bennett 21:08
Them, you know. 

Kate Craig 21:09
You're not kidding. 

I didn't think it was a thing either. I thought they were super hard to come by because, you know, some of my skulls I will ethically source online from other, you know, either other taxidermists or other hunters or whatever. Right. Farmers so on. Well, 

you know, I've been looking for one of these calls for ever. And there he. 

Rich Bennett 21:31
Is, right? 

Kate Craig 21:32
Yeah, right. And they're they're so expensive because they are such a unique looking skull and they're such a rare type of livestock to keep. 

Rich Bennett 21:39
Right. 

Kate Craig 21:40
That I just went ahead and put feelers out. And it's a, you know, one of those like third person like three times removed like contacts that you're just like, okay, I'll just roll with this. I guess so, yeah. It was actually last weekend of the weekend before we went down there and took a look and they had two that they had sent off already and they have their Rams sold there. And we worked a deal out with the two skulls that are there. I clean one for them, one up for me and it'll be even Steven. 

Rich Bennett 22:13
And this guy. 

Kate Craig 22:13
Racism shirts for one. Yeah, him and his wife. To be honest, I don't know if they do it for meat or what. Like I know they have they have a whole. 

Rich Bennett 22:23
As we say, they have the wool like regular sheep or. 

Kate Craig 22:27
Oh yeah, I mean they're sheep. They're okay. Yeah. They're, I don't know enough about them on the livestock side. I don't want to like speak ignorantly. 

Rich Bennett 22:34
Right. So wow. 

Kate Craig 22:37
But yeah, it's a very cool looking animal and you know, the gentleman that I talked to is also very cool. Him, his wife, all their kids live there. It's it was actually a very like, humbling experience to walk out there and see them, like while they're still alive. You know, I see a lot of dead things. But, you know, to actually see them while they're still alive before I eventually will process their skulls was actually a really cool, really humbling experience. And I appreciated the ability to be there and experience that. 

Rich Bennett 23:08
And now I'm going to have to look this thing up because I got to go see One Life right there. 

Kate Craig 23:13
I actually have a final. 

Rich Bennett 23:15
I'll get to see. Oh, I was going to say, you probably won't get a signal in here. 

Kate Craig 23:19
Yeah, there's. 

Rich Bennett 23:19
A Jacob Sheep. 

Kate Craig 23:22
Yeah, they're a 

pretty neat looking animals. There you go. 

Rich Bennett 23:31
What the. Hell? Yeah, 

that. Ooh, 

I try to expand it too much and he's giving me copyright or trouble. That is pretty wild. 

Kate Craig 23:44
Yeah, they're. They're a cool looking animal. They really are. 

Rich Bennett 23:47
So now, have you put any of your art in any of the local art shoes or anything? 

Kate Craig 23:51
I'm actually about to do my first August 26th become a better motorcycle association. Parkrun is on August 26th on Saturday, and I'm actually she reached out to me and asked me to run for them and it blew me away. I was just like, Yes, I can absolutely do that. So I've been like stockpiling inventory. 

Rich Bennett 24:10
Declare. Combat veteran poker. 

Kate Craig 24:13
Run the Combat Veteran Motorcycle Association. 

Rich Bennett 24:16
Yeah, I never. 

Kate Craig 24:16
Heard of them. Oh, really? Yeah. There's a huge, huge chapter out in Northeast. 

Rich Bennett 24:20
Oh, really? Okay. From up there, I the only thing I've heard of, I think, is Leatherneck Nation. 

Kate Craig 24:25
Oh, okay. 

Rich Bennett 24:26
The Combat Veteran Motorcycle Association. 

Kate Craig 24:29
Yep. They have chapters all over the Army North. 

Rich Bennett 24:33
Yeah. Okay, check them out. I've heard of Legion riders and all that. Yeah. No, I'm now going to have to look into them, even though I don't ride anymore. So I see. Now you're. You're. Well, that's not really an to audition that right. 

Kate Craig 24:46
You're just a no that's not like an art show craft show kind of thing. They just have different vendors come out there. Okay, So I'm not sure what the spread is going to be as far as vendors go. But I mean, when you consider a bunch of bikers and likely their wives, they're going to see this, you know, this. 

Rich Bennett 25:04
Oh, they're going to snatch up on the. 

Kate Craig 25:05
Stuff. I hope so. That's what I'm hoping. I mean, like if all the demographics that I appeal to, which is a very that's a limited thing as it is. Right. Something is the issues like bikers, which tend to have more alternative, you know, kind of style, alternative lifestyle, alternative beliefs like they are probably my target audience, you know what I mean? 

So it'll be it'll be very cool to. 

Rich Bennett 25:30
I have to put you in touch with some other groups. Yeah. That'd be great. Yes, I should say. Wow, that's pretty wild. So it sounds like most of your stuff that you get is orders. People order them ahead of time. Do you have stuff some more? See yourself? Do you have art on hand to wear? You know, you can just sell it from your website or whatever. Yeah. Or Oh, you do? Yes, I do. 

Kate Craig 25:57
And I try to keep a balance of like maintaining some things for stock. Right. And just, you know, I want to make this thing I don't know who wants it, but I know somebody will buy it. Yeah, it goes in its own little doing pile and then I take commissions on the side. If I get overwhelmed with the commissions all kind of shut them down after I get caught up, go back to building stuff for stock and the cycle just kind of keeps on going. 

Rich Bennett 26:19
Katy, we got to get you involved in some of these archers now, I guarantee you take your because you it's one of a kind. I don't see any I've been to a lot of artist shows, a lot of archers and crafters. I've never seen anything like this. And like I said before, what you do is beautiful. Thank you. I know people would snatch it up in a heartbeat. In a heartbeat. Some? Yeah. I'll have to put you in contact with some of these places. That would. 

Kate Craig 26:48
Be awesome. 

Rich Bennett 26:50
So 

with these, 

I. I'm. I'm still just. It's the Beatles that are so good. I just can't. I've never I've heard people having an art form in their house. 

Kate Craig 27:07
Sure. 

Rich Bennett 27:07
Which I thought was probably the strangest thing. But, you know, you got a freezer for this. Yeah. Flesh eating beetles. 

Kate Craig 27:16
Well, when you put. 

Rich Bennett 27:17
It sounds like a freakin horror. Movie. Just waiting to be made. 

Kate Craig 27:21
Dude, it looks like a horror movie. 

Rich Bennett 27:22
I mean, it just. 

Kate Craig 27:24
You open that, there's a skull and there's beetles and, you know, lava coral and crawling all over. 

Rich Bennett 27:28
It is a hard scene. It's a horror. 

Kate Craig 27:31
Scene. Like you're. It's not for the faint of heart. 

Rich Bennett 27:36
And you're still hunting. You still go hunting? 

Kate Craig 27:38
Yep. 

Rich Bennett 27:39
How often do you go hunting? 

Kate Craig 27:41
As often as I can during season. 

Rich Bennett 27:42
Which beau rifle. 

Kate Craig 27:46
About? I muzzle loader season, rifle season, postseason. 

Rich Bennett 27:50
So what's what's what's the main thing that you like to go hunting for? 

Kate Craig 27:54
Oh wait. Tell what whitetail white tailed deer 

for Jessica. If I had a spot out there, I would out on the Eastern shore. If I had a spot that I could hunt for Zach I absolutely would. 

Rich Bennett 28:08
Terry, if you're listening to this, get in touch with her. Oh, actually, I think he got rid of his property. 

Kate Craig 28:13
And then. 

Rich Bennett 28:14
One neighbor. 

Kate Craig 28:15
Oh, yeah, What a bummer. 

Rich Bennett 28:16
Oh, my God. That is in good taste. 

Kate Craig 28:18
And that's the whole animal is tenderloin. 

Rich Bennett 28:21
Is he? I never heard of it. And then my neighbor brought some because we're constantly growing it. And he said, Here, try this. And I threw it on the grill. 

Kate Craig 28:31
It is insanely tender, isn't it? 

Rich Bennett 28:33
Oh. 

Kate Craig 28:36
It's like, No, it's a filet mignon on hooks. 

Rich Bennett 28:38
Yeah. It's very good. I mean, I have. What about Bear? 

Kate Craig 28:44
I've never hunted bear. No, I wouldn't turn it down, but I have never hunted Bear. 

Rich Bennett 28:50
Good. I thought it was good. 

Kate Craig 28:52
That's what I hear. I don't know if you watch any Meat Eater Stephen or Elmo's podcast or anything. So they went on a bear hunt. I can't remember where what state. But you know, he at the end of every episode, like he takes their harvest back and we'll make a meal out of it for the entire crew and they'll just sit there and pick out it looks like it seems like it has a very just from what I've heard, it's got a very good like red meat flavor on like a more intense flavor than, say, like beef or something like that. But with a little bit of game gaming us roped in. Actually me, I don't mind. I feel like I would tear up some beer. 

Rich Bennett 29:31
I would. And that's one of the things that always cracks me up because people like with White Tail, people say it tastes too gamey within your cooking. 

Kate Craig 29:40
You know, I was going to say. 

Rich Bennett 29:41
You're not making it. You're doing it wrong. You're preparing it wrong because you've heard a lot of people say, well, and it depends on what you cut, right? Anything like the steaks at the bone in it that's going to have a more gamey taste. A lot of people say the surrogate in buttermilk. 

Kate Craig 29:56
I know I've never had a look. Good luck with that. But Salt Ryan is usually what I. 

Rich Bennett 30:01
That's how it was, I think. Salt and vinegar, apple cider vinegar. 

Kate Craig 30:05
I've seen people do that, too. 

Rich Bennett 30:06
And then I just season it like regular steak and. 

Kate Craig 30:10
Yeah, you really don't need to do a whole lot of 

elaborate seasoning with good salt pepper, just like a regular steak as. 

Rich Bennett 30:18
Pig. That's it. 

Kate Craig 30:19
Let that let that natural flavor shine. You know, that is so unique. Nothing else tastes like it. You know what I mean? It's it is delicious. And I will take that over cow any day. 

Rich Bennett 30:32
So I take it you love to cook what you may or I do. 

Kate Craig 30:35
I do. Yeah. You can have that to the list. I love to. 

Rich Bennett 30:38
Cook. 

Kate Craig 30:39
I love to cook. I love to bake. 

Rich Bennett 30:41
So far when it comes to game, is whitetail your because you really haven't been able to find like kill a bear or anything else. 

Kate Craig 30:48
Now. 

Rich Bennett 30:49
Has Whitetail been your favorite team? Yes. 

Kate Craig 30:52
I would say so. Okay. Yeah. I mean, like if I had regular access to Syria, then my answer is very different. 

Rich Bennett 30:59
But have you tried wild boar? 

Kate Craig 31:01
I have. I have had boar. I didn't hunt them myself, but. Okay. A friend of mine, we're really talking to a morbid friend of mine that brought him back from Tennessee and just did one of those helicopter hunts. You know what I mean? Like you sit in a helicopter and mark them from the sky. So he brought home a bunch of meat and gave me a couple pounds of it. And it was it was very good. 

Rich Bennett 31:23
So where's your where's your dream or dream place to go hunting that you haven't been to yet? 

Kate Craig 31:30
Like Montana. 

Rich Bennett 31:31
Montana. 

Kate Craig 31:32
Yeah. Probably Montana. 

Rich Bennett 31:35
And hunt for what. 

Kate Craig 31:36
Any, any big game, any big game out there would be amazing that mountainside hunt long distance on long distance shooting is kind of a passion of mine. Anything, precision rifle, anything would be amazing. 

If. If it doesn't need a Creedmoor, it's too small. 

Rich Bennett 31:55
Yeah. 

Kate Craig 31:56
I'll put it that way. So would love like Bear or something like that out there? It would be like that would be so awesome. 

Rich Bennett 32:04
Mike Scott If you're listening, you got to hook up. 

Kate Craig 32:07
You know everybody, don't you? 

Rich Bennett 32:08
Because 

he, he, he used to 

were you, I guess, guide him. He would take people out on hunting trips. I mean, that's cool. Celebrities and all that, right? I think he's retired now. Who knows? But fishing and everything. It's his 

grandfather. My uncle taught him a lot about animals, right? When it comes to fly fishing, he will always make his own flies and everything. But. Yeah, yeah, he's. I forget the name. He I think he does do something with some archery company now. I don't know. I can't remember. He's always pushing stuff but he, he has two girls and so he taught them how to hunt. That's awesome. Yeah. And I remember he posted but he's been, I think to Africa hunting as well. 

Kate Craig 33:00
I was going to mention is still the same I recently bumped into a coworker. I didn't even know that we were coworkers. When he first reached out to me on Instagram, he just was like, Hey, check out all of this taxidermy from all these hunts that I have. And after that I, from all these hunts that I took in Africa and he sent me all these different pictures, all these different hides and skulls, and I was like, Oh my God, it was so cool. And I was just like, Man, that's awesome. Like, you know, we started talking whitetail hunting and stuff like that, and he was just like, Yeah, this is from a deer that I shot on post like so many years ago. And I was just like, Yeah, some of my biggest have been on posts. Like, that's pretty crazy. And he was just like, Are you veteran? You know, somehow it came out that I worked on APJ Mm hmm. And he was like, I work on RPG. Turns out this guy works in the same building as my bosses. Really? Yeah. And I had not met him. I'd heard his name, but I hadn't met him. And he just said that his first name was Chris. He didn't tell me what his full name was, so I'd never piece it together until he was just like, Wait, you work out here? And I was like, You work out here like, What's going on? I ended up buying a kayak off, and long story short, went to his house. He his whole basement, like wall to wall and some other spot like some other spots of his house. Every possible. Like you have the encyclopedia of African Fauna. 

Rich Bennett 34:16
Yeah. 

Kate Craig 34:17
And just stick it all over this dude's walls. It's insane because this guy has stories like you wouldn't believe, and he's just. He has been doing it right. He's been living his life. And that is I respected so much and he has so much respect for the animals and everything like that, too. Like ethics are very important here. He didn't just do it for the trophy you know, like there was there's a whole like respect process there. And it was just a very cool experience to see that I've never been up close to any kind of mount like that. You know what I mean? 

Rich Bennett 34:49
Look like something out of the movie Road House. Yeah, the one hand. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's kind of similar. See this big bear falling on 

it? 

Kate Craig 34:59
Like he's the only person I know that has an alligator skin draped over the back of his couch. 

Rich Bennett 35:02
Like. An alligator. So a. 

Kate Craig 35:05
Whole. Yeah, Like, wow. Higher length of the animal's draped over the back of his couch. 

Rich Bennett 35:09
That's what I want, right? Well, not a foot. I mean, not too big. I want an alligator that I can fit on. My smoker. Yes, Gator. 

Kate Craig 35:18
Oh, my God. Now you're make me hungry. 

Rich Bennett 35:20
Come on. Before lunch time. Right. I'm sorry I didn't so. Well, that's all right. We're still to talk about food. How old were you when you actually started hunting and what made you get into it? 

Kate Craig 35:32
I was young. I don't remember how old exactly. 

Rich Bennett 35:36
But did you get in Reisterstown? Mm hmm. Yeah. And like, you were on the former. 

Kate Craig 35:42
No, no, not at all. But Carroll County. So in certain way. So, yeah, I don't remember. I was I was pretty young, though. 

Rich Bennett 35:50
When I. 

Kate Craig 35:51
Was like 12. Keep in mind, my dad lived in Kent County also at the time. My parents had split up by this point. So my dad lived out in Kent County. So I did some out there. 

Rich Bennett 36:05
So about 12 years old. 

Kate Craig 36:07
Yeah, about and probably around that. At least that's when I remember getting my first right. I don't remember how long it was before that. 

Rich Bennett 36:15
Has your son? Well, he's only four boys. 

Kate Craig 36:17
Yeah, I haven't taken him out yet. He's been grandma coming with me. That's about. 

Rich Bennett 36:21
It. Oh. Oh, we on post. 

Kate Craig 36:25
I know. Well, I guess. 

Rich Bennett 36:27
You can post. Can you. 

Kate Craig 36:28
You can. Course. You have to jump through a lot of hoops. But yeah. So my son, I took him out to a farm that belonged to my buddy's family. Mm hmm. And he watched me take the shot, watch me harvest it. I took the. I kept the hide. I kept a couple of the ties and backdrops and stuff because she was a good size groundhog. So, like, I learned. 

Rich Bennett 36:50
It. 

Kate Craig 36:52
And we ate it. 

Rich Bennett 36:53
It's not bad. 

Kate Craig 36:54
It's not. It's really not. You know, you want to season that a little bit more? 

Rich Bennett 36:58
Yeah. Yeah, I needed that. 

I always heard that an animal that crawls closer to the ground that it's more gamey 

attracts. 

Kate Craig 37:10
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 37:10
I mean, I don't know. You're not wrong. I mean I'm thinking. About All right, I think I've had groundhog. Mm. I've never had squirrel yet. 

Kate Craig 37:17
Oh really. Oh yeah. Have you had Rabbit. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 37:20
Have you. Oh yeah, I've had rabbit. 

Kate Craig 37:21
It's kind of similar. Kind of chicken. Yeah. Um, but not quite. It's a lot chewier than chicken, you know what I mean? Yeah, it does have like a little bit of game and stuff, but it's good that. 

Rich Bennett 37:32
The squirrels chewier than the rabbit. 

Kate Craig 37:35
The squirrel shooter in chicken. Oh, the chicken. Because I would say. 

Rich Bennett 37:38
It's kind of chewy. Yeah. 

Kate Craig 37:39
Both rabbit and squirrel. I would kind of put them on the same level. Playing field actually makes sense. 

Rich Bennett 37:43
They both play in my yard. 

Kate Craig 37:47
Yeah. I would say they're both probably equally gamy, like the same texture. 

Rich Bennett 37:55
Yeah. Interesting. 

Kate Craig 37:57
It's like Tiny rabbit. 

Rich Bennett 37:59
So. All right, so when you're cooking, are you cooking mostly game or lately? 

Kate Craig 38:05
Actually, yes. Um. 

Rich Bennett 38:07
I can't really, because I don't have a freezer now. Because it's got beetles in it. I mean. 

Kate Craig 38:15
That's what the other freezers for. 

Yeah. Going been trying to go through a lot of snake had caught a lot of snake out on 4th of July trying to blow through that. 

Rich Bennett 38:26
Now you're looking to make. 

Kate Craig 38:30
So. 

Rich Bennett 38:30
I was dying to get more snake head. 

Kate Craig 38:33
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 38:34
Yes I I've been fishing in years but my one buddy who I told you bet that Robin is sick of deer. Right? So how Halloween. I think he brought me, like £5 of snakehead. And I grilled that up. And of course, it goes. 

Kate Craig 38:47
It goes away, like. But yeah, so we're going. 

Rich Bennett 38:51
To do snakehead fish on. 

Kate Craig 38:52
Thursday. 

Rich Bennett 38:53
On post. Now, are you doing bow fishing or. 

Kate Craig 38:56
No. No you can't. You actually can't put fish on post. So. Yep, I'm just using a regular bait Castor Old-Fashioned Way for Fishing. 

Rich Bennett 39:03
And you mentioned earlier you have a kayak. 

Kate Craig 39:05
Yes. 

Rich Bennett 39:06
Yeah. 

Kate Craig 39:07
I have one on the kayak yet. I haven't been out that many times on the kayak, but I have not, I. I think I bought the kayak during their first season, so they were not interested in anything. And I was throwing a bunch of top water, which I have not had any luck on this year. I started throwing an inline spinner and I started having luck. 

Rich Bennett 39:25
Really? Yeah. So you keep you keep saying eight edge. Which side are Aberdeen Side. 

Kate Craig 39:31
Aberdeen. 

Rich Bennett 39:32
Averages. Okay so you, you got Mariner point apparently they've been. I've heard. 

Kate Craig 39:37
That. Yeah I, I know that. 

Rich Bennett 39:40
And have. 

Kate Craig 39:40
Fishermen. Yeah but the fishermen have been absolutely decimating. 

Rich Bennett 39:44
Now what about what's the other invasive one Blue cat have you hit any of them. 

Kate Craig 39:48
You have. Yeah. Put a 14 or £17. I can't remember 19 or 17 when we hit the Susquehanna Flats a couple months ago. Now, I think it was like Memorial Day weekend or something for like a 14 or £17 blue cat out near. 

Rich Bennett 40:03
That because I mean, Channel cats, one of my favorite fish besides snakehead, right. But has the blue cat to eat the good. 

Kate Craig 40:10
I mean it's a catfish. Yeah. It's very meaty like very, very like substantial and meaty. It's not like the catfish you can pick up in the grocery store. It is not the same, but it's very dense meat. Makes good catfish nuggets. If you're a catfish nugget person 

and I've made a couple filets up with it. But yeah, I mean, it's it's just a meaty fish. 

Rich Bennett 40:36
All right. So I tell you, growing up, you were always into cooking. 

Have you ever thought about because I haven't really seen many doing a cookbook. As for Game and Fish. 

Kate Craig 40:48
I'm actually working on one. 

Rich Bennett 40:49
Yeah, there Are you? Yeah, I. 

Kate Craig 40:52
Got some recipes just, like, written on, like, scraps of paper and stuff that I've just been stowing away and I have not. I have all these little side projects, right? Like, right, I, I have this laughing fox bone work stuff I've got working full time. There's Mom's full time, and, you know, like, I have all these little side things going. I'm still working on building the website and still haven't completely worked out the bugs on that. 

Rich Bennett 41:15
But you got the domain name, right? Yes, which is important. 

Kate Craig 41:18
Yeah. So we have that down just working on like some formatting, mostly like the mobile stuff because nobody's on desktop anymore. So working through that kind of stuff, I have a million Little sidebar things going on, plus, you know, my regular hobbies like wanting to go out and fish or go to the ranger, whatever. I wasn't making time to find. 

Rich Bennett 41:41
Time for yourself. 

Kate Craig 41:41
I don't 

I don't I work until I'm like, just sitting on the couch like a zombie at 1130 at night going, I need to go to bed. 

Rich Bennett 41:52
Oh, so you work at night? 

Kate Craig 41:53
No, no, no. Like I'm saying, like, when I'm working on, like, whatever I'm working on, right? 

Rich Bennett 41:57
I'm like. 

Kate Craig 41:58
Yeah. As I get home from work at, like, five, you know, like five, five, 15. And then I have until I hit the eject button. 

Rich Bennett 42:08
For a couple of. 

Kate Craig 42:09
Hours. 

Rich Bennett 42:11
Like that. The eject button. Huh? So what's the domain? Because I have a funny that you're going to have the website done soon. 

Kate Craig 42:18
Yeah, it's a laugh. And fox van works dot com. 

Rich Bennett 42:20
I actually. What do you do? What do you do on the website on WordPress. WordPress. Okay. Are you, are you using just regular WordPress? Are you using divvy element mentor, anything inside? 

Kate Craig 42:31
No, just using WordPress right now. Okay. I'm I, I'm taking some advice from a couple sorry. 

Rich Bennett 42:37
Nerds like. 

Kate Craig 42:39
To kind of get. 

Rich Bennett 42:42
You know, before I started this I was in the computer field doing web design. Thanks for calling. Me. 

Kate Craig 42:47
And there's nothing wrong with being a nerd. 

Rich Bennett 42:51
But. 

Kate Craig 42:52
Just not the computer type of nerd. 

Look, we. 

Rich Bennett 42:55
Come in all kinds. 

Kate Craig 42:56
Of shapes, sizes, flavors and colors. 

Rich Bennett 42:58
This is. It's okay. This is. True. 

Kate Craig 43:02
Yeah. Trust me, It's. It's just as bad for me. Just in other fields. Like I have beetles in my basement. You have the ultimate trump card. Oh. 

Rich Bennett 43:08
I wouldn't call that nerdy. I would call. I would call that scary. You know. 

Kate Craig 43:14
You're not wrong. 

Rich Bennett 43:16
I could see you're married, right? 

Kate Craig 43:18
A divorced. 

Rich Bennett 43:19
Divorce. Okay, I can see it now. The first time you bring a date back to your. Hey, you want to see beetles? It'd be like, Would they be? Hi. Tell me they're perma single. 

Kate Craig 43:33
I'm kidding. I actually. I actually. I'm seeing someone. He's actually okay with it, which is surprising. 

Rich Bennett 43:40
Because he's. School is so. Gothic. Oh, you're going to throw him in the freezer? 

Probably. Yeah. Sorry. I forgot what we're talking about now. 

Kate Craig 43:54
I don't even remember how we got here. 

Rich Bennett 43:55
Oh. It was the cookbook you said you were doing. 

Kate Craig 43:58
Yeah. Just how much you were asking about the domain. 

Rich Bennett 44:02
Oh, yeah. The website. 

Kate Craig 44:03
Yes, Quantum mechanics. I'm putting into the website. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 44:06
No, but you said you have somebody help you with the website. 

Kate Craig 44:09
Yeah. It's kind of like sending me advice. I might hire maybe a professional if I can't get this person to like, if I can't pay them to do it, I'm going to hire a professional to kind of do all the fine tuning. You don't think so? 

Rich Bennett 44:19
No. Because if you hire a professional, they're going to charge you normally. 

Kate Craig 44:23
Yeah, I do know that. So when I first was starting to build it, I was quoted like 600 and something on dollars. And with access to the CMS. And I was like, I, yeah, I don't know about that. Like, yeah. 

Rich Bennett 44:34
We'll talk. 

Kate Craig 44:34
Afterwards. Okay. 

Rich Bennett 44:35
Yeah, it's the good thing. I mean, I, when I started doing web design back in 2000, I like a lot in 2000, of course there was no such thing as WordPress. It was you either wrote the code, right, or you use Dreamweaver or something like that. Right? Right. I do use some code that WordPress came along, which is a godsend. Right, for people. Very friendly. Yeah, it's very yeah, it's because and thank God for YouTube because there's so many different Yeah. 

Kate Craig 45:05
There's a ton of there is a lot of information here. 

Rich Bennett 45:08
But I'm glad you went to WordPress way and not the other ways I think some people use Was it Wix or Squarespace. 

Kate Craig 45:14
Oh yeah. 

Rich Bennett 45:14
Which I found are not very SEO friendly and for some reason I've seen this happen a lot. They're not why a lot of so is it's like these those already put these social media icon on there and if you don't realize that if somebody is on your website and clicks on the Facebook logo or whatever, it's taking you right to Whitney's Facebook page. 

Kate Craig 45:38
Of course. 

Rich Bennett 45:39
Yeah. 

Kate Craig 45:39
So, yeah, I'm not doing that now. 

Rich Bennett 45:42
We'll talk afterwards. Okay. If the other guy doesn't pan out. 

Kate Craig 45:45
Right. Okay. 

Rich Bennett 45:46
But where can people find you on Facebook or. 

Kate Craig 45:49
I'm on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. It's all the same user. It's just laughing. Fox Boom works all one word, no underscores or anything like that. 

Rich Bennett 45:58
What made you come up with that name? 

Kate Craig 46:01
So I love foxes, my favorite animal, 

and I am always a kind of like jokester or prankster, like I'm the person that so someone's car with ball pit balls at work, like pop. It was like, you know, a little plastic. Yeah I a known can I cause. 

Rich Bennett 46:23
You good. 

Kate Craig 46:23
I'm a known starter. 

Rich Bennett 46:25
Like with. 

Kate Craig 46:26
With bragging and stuff like that. 

Rich Bennett 46:28
So I guess these are my cars being filled with beetles. Oh, no, no. They're way. 

Kate Craig 46:33
Too expensive. 

Rich Bennett 46:34
For that. So. 

Kate Craig 46:37
But like, yeah, like barbecue balls are, like, wrapping someone's office up in Saran Wrap or, you know, just. I just. 

Rich Bennett 46:44
You mean a cubicle? 

Kate Craig 46:45
I get bored. Yeah. Okay. Well, it's someone's actual, like, office. Like I wrapped up their chair, their desk, everything on their desk. That was where. 

Rich Bennett 46:54
You work at now. Oh, I got to give you some other ones, too. 

Kate Craig 47:00
I have a I have hit a slew of things, actually. My one my one lead a couple of years ago, I had I had a 200 pack of, like, plastic, realistic looking roaches. 

God, I had one a day in his office or in his stuff. One a day for 200 straight business days. 

Rich Bennett 47:20
He had to be freaking out at first. 

Kate Craig 47:23
At first, he was the very first one. I tied on some fishing line and type of fishing line to the chair. So in a pool chair house? 

Rich Bennett 47:30
Yeah. 

Kate Craig 47:33
His one time he was in his truck and wasn't paying attention. I ended up slipping one of them into the sun visor so that when we went to a post on visor down, it fell into his lap and he freaked out about that. That was hilarious. 

Rich Bennett 47:46
I hope he wasn't driving at the time. 

Kate Craig 47:47
He wasn't driving now. He was taking he was taking a nap over lunch and then put the visor down because this you know, the sun's directly overhead. So he's opens it up and it just dropped into his lap and he freaked. 

Rich Bennett 47:59
I So at the office, do they have dark colored chairs? Cushiony chairs. Yep. Have you done the water thing? 

Kate Craig 48:07
The water thing. 

Rich Bennett 48:08
Oh, yeah. Well, I used to sell cars. We used to do this a lot. You take a you know, the big what was it, 32 and 64 and a cup of water. Fill it with water then if you pour it on the chair on the seat part, it blends in and then when I sit down it's just like just a wet spot. Oh. Oh, you can hear it. Yeah. Oh, man. Oh, yeah. It's it's. 

Kate Craig 48:30
That's a good idea. 

Rich Bennett 48:31
It's Nice that. 

Kate Craig 48:32
That part out so people don't know what's coming. 

Rich Bennett 48:34
What else. Oh. For cars like put Vaseline under. 

Kate Craig 48:38
Oh yeah. Under the door. Have you done that or on. 

Rich Bennett 48:41
No, no. How many cars have manuals. Well, they're still on the. 

Kate Craig 48:45
Yeah, they're still. 

Rich Bennett 48:46
Just. Our column on the floor but on. Oh yeah. Yeah. What is the other one I saw. I haven't tried this. We put like a balloon on the tailpipe. 

Kate Craig 48:56
Oh. 

Rich Bennett 48:56
We cut the end off. 

Kate Craig 48:58
Yeah. Yeah. You've done that. 

Rich Bennett 49:01
What haven't you done besides the water thing? 

Kate Craig 49:04
Uh, 

there's not much. 

Rich Bennett 49:09
I can't think of. 

Kate Craig 49:09
Anything is usually as soon as the good idea, very pops into my head. It's. It's on. I've zip tied a harmonica to guys and take before. 

Rich Bennett 49:20
It was. 

Kate Craig 49:21
As funny as you think it was. 

Rich Bennett 49:23
It Sure you. You can hear. 

Kate Craig 49:26
Driving out the whole way. 

Rich Bennett 49:29
This. 

Oh. 

Kate Craig 49:32
My God. I thought I was going to. Oh, I thought I was going to be. 

Rich Bennett 49:36
Away. From skulls to put the harmonica on somebody and intake. Wow. That is not. Yeah, it is not. 

Kate Craig 49:45
So that's where laughing Fox comes from. 

Rich Bennett 49:50
You said Fox is your favorite animal. You read the Red Fox or Silver Oak Ridge? Red Fox or Fox. Gray Fox. 

Kate Craig 49:59
Arctic Fox. 

Rich Bennett 50:00
Article Access to or around here, I think is the red fox and the. 

Kate Craig 50:04
The grapevine. 

Rich Bennett 50:04
Gray fox which and actually I think the grey ones are actually pretty rare. 

Kate Craig 50:08
Yeah I haven't I honestly I've never seen one like in the wild out in person right in my entire life. 

Yeah it's all been red foxes. 

Rich Bennett 50:17
As you working at EPG, are there any animals out there that you've seen that you never thought would have been there other year. Not that night. 

Kate Craig 50:26
Now. But they come out during the day, they're busy. 

Rich Bennett 50:29
The coyotes. 

Kate Craig 50:29
And there's coyotes. Red foxes, turkeys. 

Rich Bennett 50:34
Turkeys. Hmm. That's good eating there too. Well, turkey, just me. All right. 

Definitely the groundhogs. 

Kate Craig 50:43
Oh, yeah. A ton of groundhogs out there. Beavers, otters, 

Turtles galore. 

Rich Bennett 50:50
Yeah. 

Kate Craig 50:54
Yeah, that's the story. 

Rich Bennett 50:56
No bear that I know. And it had a complicated in. So we had a couple of years. I think it was What's the up in Aberdeen that goes into a jpg What's that word is a 22. 

Kate Craig 51:11
Yeah. There's 22 and some 15 you. 

Rich Bennett 51:13
Had, you had the bear. They fell at the gate. 

Kate Craig 51:15
Mm hmm. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 51:16
The black bear. 

Kate Craig 51:16
That's right. Yeah, we. I forgot about that. 

Rich Bennett 51:19
Yeah, sometimes. Well, I mean, do they follow water? So. Yeah. Be building somewhere. Who knows? 

Kate Craig 51:26
You know? Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 51:27
Is there anything you like to add 

besides get out there and, Buy your stuff I said you did there by your art. And if you want something made, even if you're not a hunter, get a hold of Kate and say, I need this. I have a rhinoceros head. Maybe the beavers would have a hard time with that. I reckon that would fit in my day. 

You 

know what I mean? With that? Brought it back from Africa. Well, yeah, I guess they are legal. I don't know. I have no idea. Well, actually, what's the smallest thing you've done? 

Kate Craig 52:04
Smaller skull of a rat. 

Rich Bennett 52:07
But who in the hell wants a rat head? 

Kate Craig 52:11
It was actually. It was actually kind of sweet. It was their pet that had passed away, and they kind of in memoriam sort of thing. So sent me the remains. I processed the animal, saved the skull. I actually put a tiny little violet flower right in it because its name was Violet. 

So I put the violet on the head and sent it back to. 

Rich Bennett 52:36
Their pet rat. Yeah, because my first thought was why a. 

Kate Craig 52:41
Man, I just went down to Baltimore with a shovel and was like, Come on, now, come on, man. I'm standards. 

Rich Bennett 52:50
Oh, Lord. This this this episode has gone a bunch of different ways that I was not expecting, which I love it. So I want to thank you so much. It's been a true pleasure and oh God, I will definitely talk to you afterwards. But the door's open. Do anytime you want to come back on because I know you got more stories. Oh. Yeah, I just. These beetles got to. So those of you, be careful If you ever visit Kate, don't go downstairs.