Hayduke, he doesn't want any...
When our Airstream Adventure brought us from Joshua Tree to the San Diego area, we were
beyond excited to learn that only 30 minutes outside of the city in Alpine, California
lives a local business that is one of the only places in the country where you can take
a class on the sport of the Lords and Barons, falconry.
Step one, find a local coffee shop. In addition to amazing coffee, they also make homemade
bread. With coffee on board, it was time for Seli AKA our Ford F-250 to make the dirt road
drive up the mountains of Alpine to Sky Falconry, to experience one of the world's oldest hunting
traditions.
Oh, sorry, left hand. He's one of our male Harris's Hawks, is going to be the star of
the hour today.
That is very funny.
It's all about Hayduke, we work for him here at Sky Falconry.
Today, we're going to be playing with falcons.
So how old are these?
This ones 11 and then the other one is nine.
So we have a lot more fun stuff to teach you guys, we're going to invite you to come over.
The class began with some basic education about these beautiful birds of prey. First,
they have crazy amazing eyesight and can see up to eight times more clearly than we can
as humans. And they have insanely strong talons, which can have a grip pressure as high as
400 pounds per square inch. Daniel decided he'd be brave and give our new hot friend
Hayduke, his arm first. What a gentleman.
Hayduke!
That's one of his favorite hunting perches, over there so if you guys want to watch this
flight you guys are welcome to come around and catch it.
I know right?
Hayduke, one, two, three.
Get out of the way babe.
Then let's just do a little flight to her.
Okay, good.
Hayduke. Hayduke, are you ready?
Thought bout it.
So we're going to get out.
Oh yeah, this is perfect.
All right, Hayduke.
You got it, buddy.
Oh look I'm going to take this one for myself.
Oh, that's so cool! Thankfully, he did me a favor and decided to find a tree for a potty
break before coming back to hanging out again, but we basically became best friends.
Duke.
Duke, come on. Duke!
Duke come on bud!
There he is, there he is.
Let's get out of this area.
Okay yeah, we'll walk and then we'll call him more and when he...
Okay cool.
Sage and there could be a skunk yeah, all right let me get him a drink.
I love him! Before long we were back to where we started and Hayduke was ready to chill,
but we were excited to talk to his mommy, Denise, about her and her partner's very special,
small business.
My partner and I opened Sky Falconry eight years ago, we both had a shared passion for
the ancient art of falconry and preserving that sport as well as conservation. Birds
of prey are so incredibly important to our environment, having an interactive hands-on
experience with birds of prey really inspires people to want to conserve and protect them.
So a lot of us think it's okay to throw biodegradable things out our car window, right? Like an
apple core or a banana peel. You're actually drawing what Raptors hunt to the roadside,
perpetuating that cycle of them hunting there and getting hit. So I feel like there's a
lot of things we can do, just making small changes, right?
Yeah.
That have a pretty big impact on the environment.
After being super inspired by our Hawk walk with Hayduke and his parents, we had worked
up an appetite. And luck just so happened to have it that one of the top local breweries
in the United States, just happens to be at the base of the Alpine mountains. So, you
know a visit was a must. Welcome, to Alpine Beer Company.
What's a beer that's on tap right now that I just wouldn't want to miss?
Give me a kind of go-to for you or a style you like.
IPA's and Stouts.
Little hot for Stouts right now.
I agree.
I would go in that case the One in Eight is a hazy India Pale Lager which you don't see
those every day.
Okay.
And did I mention they have pizza?
This is the Margarita pizza, check out these garlic cloves. Those are whole garlic cloves,
wow! I'm from New York, so of course, that means I fold my pizza in half. That garlic
is amazing. What's better than beer and awesome pizza? This beer is called Pure Hoppiness,
and it's a West Coast Style Double IPA. You love hops, this is definitely a beer you want
to check out, Pure Hoppiness.
I swear Daniel has only had one beer. But this place really is fantastic. In 2020, it
was rated the 36th brewer in the world by what is it? [inaudible 00:07:13] By ratebeer.com,
which is really impressive, and the quality shows.
After demolishing that entire pizza, it was time to head back to the Airstream at Sandy
Lake Preserve because we've got some seriously important work to do. In our next video, we're
teaming up with a professional organizer and Airstreamer; CiCi and her team at Lilly's
Organizing to completely gut our Airstream and turn her into a well-organized Pinterest-worthy,
tiny home. So if you haven't already, smash that like button and subscribe to our channel,
so you don't miss our organizing extravaganza. Until next time my friend, make sure to wanderlocal
this week it's good for the soul.