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Speaker 1: Welcome to This Country Life. I'm your host, Brent Rieves

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Speaker 1: from coon hunting to trot lining and just general country living.

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Speaker 1: I want you to stay a while as I share

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Speaker 1: my stories and the country skills that will help you

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Speaker 1: beat the system. This Country Life is proudly presented as

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Speaker 1: part of Meat Eaters Podcast Network, bringing you the best

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Speaker 1: outdoor podcast the airways have to offer. All right, friends,

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Speaker 1: pull you up a chair or drop that tail gate.

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Speaker 1: I think I got a thing or two and teaching

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Speaker 1: hunting heritage. I went coon hunting with some folks last week,

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Speaker 1: and just like every other coon hunt I go on,

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Speaker 1: I spend the next few days going over in my

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Speaker 1: head how my dog Whaling did and analyzing his performance

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Speaker 1: against my expectations the terrible weather looming in front of us.

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Speaker 1: What I expected was nothing short were terrible. What I

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Speaker 1: got was nothing less than spectacling. I'm going to tell

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Speaker 1: you all about it, but first I'm going to tell

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Speaker 1: you a story. Papa All builds me a boat. This

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Speaker 1: episode is about hunting heritage. This story recalls a time

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Speaker 1: and an event that was more related to fishing. The

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Speaker 1: heritage link is on the land in which it happened

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Speaker 1: and my maternal grandfather is the protagonist in this story,

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Speaker 1: a man who didn't hunt. The location and farm had

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Speaker 1: been in my mother's family since sometime either before or

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Speaker 1: just after the War between the States. That's how it

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Speaker 1: relates here. And with that said, here we go. When

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Speaker 1: I was in high school, my maternal grandparents, Finest and

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Speaker 1: Buless Life, were the only grandparents that I had that

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Speaker 1: were living. My grandfather on my dad's side had been

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Speaker 1: killed while working in a shipyard in California during World

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Speaker 1: War Two, and my grandmother on that side died in

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Speaker 1: nineteen eighty three. So my only set of living grandparents

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Speaker 1: were Mama Sly and Papa That's what we called them.

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Speaker 1: That's what everyone called them, even my friends. Mama Sly

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Speaker 1: liked to brimfish and liked to eat fish as well

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Speaker 1: as anyone. Every Friday night was automatic we were going

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Speaker 1: somewhere to eat fish. And I stayed with them a lot,

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Speaker 1: and we'd had to Monticella, Arkansas, all to a fish

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Speaker 1: place over there, or out to Ann's restaurant and warned

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Speaker 1: to eat. They had good fish at Ann's, but I'd

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Speaker 1: rob a bank this very second to have one of

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Speaker 1: their chicken fried steaks. I done got off track thinking

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Speaker 1: about victuals. Anyway, Mama sly liked fish. Papall worked on

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Speaker 1: the farm and didn't hunt or fish much at all.

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Speaker 1: Matter of fact, I don't ever remember him doing either

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Speaker 1: to amount to anything. He wasn't against it, he just

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Speaker 1: didn't have the patience for it. He liked farming and

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Speaker 1: everything that went with it. He was always fixing or

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Speaker 1: building something to make life easier on the farm. He

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Speaker 1: was a voracious reader. He read national geographics from cover

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Speaker 1: to cover, Western novels by Zane Gray and Louis Lamore,

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Speaker 1: and popular mechanics. He was highly intelligent and mostly self educated.

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Speaker 1: They bought their first VCR player that they or I

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Speaker 1: ever saw, and it looked as big as a bathtub.

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Speaker 1: You could load a tape in there and it sounded

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Speaker 1: like you were slamming a bank vault shut well. They

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Speaker 1: quit working one time and Papa took it apart and

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Speaker 1: fixed it. It looked like someone had taken a sledgehammer

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Speaker 1: to it. It was in a billion pieces on the

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Speaker 1: kitchen table. Tiny screws, gears and parts were laying everywhere.

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Speaker 1: No manual, no instructions, no Google, no YouTube, no help desk,

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Speaker 1: but last, and not least no training in VC or repair,

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Speaker 1: just brain power. I was grown and married, living on

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Speaker 1: my own and didn't have enough sense to set the

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Speaker 1: clock on one. It worked, but that flashing digital twelve

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Speaker 1: still haunts me. I done got off track again. Papall

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Speaker 1: read every night after supper and TV before he went

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Speaker 1: to bed. Now, one evening he read an article in

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Speaker 1: Popular Mechanics that described how to build a one man

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Speaker 1: fishing boat using rudimentary materials. He loved building stuff and

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Speaker 1: was assault after tablemaker and craftsmen. During his retired years.

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Speaker 1: He built all his grandson's gun cabinets, and we all

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Speaker 1: still have them. He made them out of oak and

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Speaker 1: they are tremendously heavy and built to last. He loved

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Speaker 1: building things for his grandkids, for babies, furniture, toys, whatever

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Speaker 1: he took a notion to make, he'd make it, and

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Speaker 1: not only would it work, but it would work well

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Speaker 1: and better than anything that was commercially available. Now, this

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Speaker 1: one man fishing boat he made for me. He surprised

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Speaker 1: me with it one day when he drove up to

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Speaker 1: the house. Come out here, son, I got something I

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Speaker 1: think you're gonna like. Well. Ibou took the doors off

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Speaker 1: the hinges getting outside to see what he'd made for me.

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Speaker 1: I didn't have a clue what it could be, but

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Speaker 1: if Papa had made it for me, it was going

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Speaker 1: to be cool and one of a kind. We had

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Speaker 1: a two acre pond less than one hundred yards from

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Speaker 1: the house. It was full of fish, a big bass,

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Speaker 1: brim and catfish and crappie, also bull frogs and snakes.

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Speaker 1: It was a good place to fish, and I have

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Speaker 1: a ton of memories catching fish, snakes, and gigging frogs

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Speaker 1: there all year long. That pond was the focus of

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Speaker 1: some type of activity for me, my brothers, and my friends.

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Speaker 1: That day, however, it would be the launch pad from

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Speaker 1: my grandpa's latest feet of engineering and the first ship

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Speaker 1: in his fleet homemade boats. Y'all get you imaginary pencil

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Speaker 1: sharpened and draw this out on your brain while I

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Speaker 1: describe it to you. He had a big interview from

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Speaker 1: one of our tractor tires inflated and two tuberfoes laying

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Speaker 1: parallel to each other along the top. The boards were

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Speaker 1: wide enough apart to attach a square milk crate that

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Speaker 1: sat down in the doughnut hole of the inner two.

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Speaker 1: He had one eighth inch plywood as decon screwed in

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Speaker 1: place across the top of the tuberfores. The decon was

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Speaker 1: less than three feet wide and about five and a

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Speaker 1: half feet long. Now, inside that milk crate, he had

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Speaker 1: a car battery and it was wired to a troller

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Speaker 1: motor that he'd mounted to the front of the plywood deck.

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Speaker 1: Mean you following me? I hope you are, because the

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Speaker 1: best part is coming right now. Centered directly above that

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Speaker 1: hole in the enter tube that housed a milk crate

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Speaker 1: was a folding lawn chair. It was the old kind,

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Speaker 1: with a woven synthetic webon for seating, and the legs

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Speaker 1: were fashioned from U shaped pieces of aluminum stay women. Now,

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Speaker 1: the rear legs were held in place using electrical conduit

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Speaker 1: fasteners screwed to the decad. The front legs were free,

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Speaker 1: allowing the chair to be folded down when in transport. Now,

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Speaker 1: that's assuming that you'd want to take this little beauty

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Speaker 1: out on the road, and who wouldn't. I could already

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Speaker 1: see myself loading this unit into the back of my

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Speaker 1: truck and launching my one man battleship down at Crane's

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Speaker 1: Lake and getting back into places we couldn't get dads

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Speaker 1: or TEMs. Illuminum boat in I would be a brim

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Speaker 1: fishing ninja. A fly rod would be my semuraized sword,

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Speaker 1: and crickets would be my throwing stars. And this boat

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Speaker 1: my Papa built for me would be my trusty steed

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Speaker 1: on which I would ride into battle. Tim lived right

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Speaker 1: up the road and came down to watch the launch.

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Speaker 1: Mama had walked outside and stood by my mama's sly

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Speaker 1: and watched A Me and Papau unloaded it from his truck,

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Speaker 1: hooked the battery cables to the terminals, and sat the

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Speaker 1: whole contraption gingerly down on the surface of our pond.

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Speaker 1: I unfolded the lawn chair, dropped the trolling motor into

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Speaker 1: the water, and climbed aboard my ship. I knew what

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Speaker 1: Neil Armstrong must have felt like when he climbed into

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Speaker 1: the Apollo spacecraft flight of the Moon. I knew what

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Speaker 1: Columbus must have felt like when he set out on

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Speaker 1: his voice to the New World. I knew what Captain

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Speaker 1: they Have must have felt like when that big white

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Speaker 1: Well did a tomahawk chop to the middle of the peak.

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Speaker 1: Wuad because only seconds after settling into the captain's chair

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Speaker 1: of the USS. Papa, I was upside down in the pond,

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Speaker 1: looking up at the surface of the water and on

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Speaker 1: the bank. I could see my mama and my mama,

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Speaker 1: my brother Tim, and my Papa all looking for me,

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Speaker 1: like I just disappeared in a magic show. Why did

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Speaker 1: Tim have to be here? I would never hear the

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Speaker 1: end of this. Weighing my options a ridicule against just

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Speaker 1: staying on the bottom of the pond. I let the

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Speaker 1: lack of auxyens down there make my decision for me,

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Speaker 1: and I surf as much to the delight of everyone.

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Speaker 1: My boat floating aimlessly upside down, just off the bank

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Speaker 1: with the troller motor buzzing like I saw with the

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Speaker 1: lumber man. Papa waited out to get me, But like

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Speaker 1: the rest of the onlookers, he was laughing so hearty

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Speaker 1: he hardly catch his breath. Son, he said, between laughing

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Speaker 1: and trying to breathe, our center of gravity was off.

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Speaker 1: I know how to fix it, no, sir, not for me.

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna swim out there and get this thing back

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Speaker 1: for you, and I'm gonna help you load it up.

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Speaker 1: But I have sat in the last in or two

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Speaker 1: boat I will ever sit in That was forty years

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Speaker 1: ago and I still haven't. And that's just how that happened.

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Speaker 1: Hunting Heritage. You know, I can make this whole podcast

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Speaker 1: about hunting heritage, and maybe in a way I already

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Speaker 1: have to a certain extent, But this week it really

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Speaker 1: came home to me in a special way. You hear

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Speaker 1: me talking each week about stories and events that evolved

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Speaker 1: me and my family and friends, and this week will

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Speaker 1: be no different for you. But it was for me,

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Speaker 1: and at the time I didn't even realize it. My

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Speaker 1: friend Brad Clark called me. He lives in Mississippi, and

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Speaker 1: you heard me talk about him when I was doing

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Speaker 1: my duck hunting episodes. You also heard me talk about

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Speaker 1: his lifelong friend, Randall Widmore, who you didn't hear me

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Speaker 1: mention was Randall's younger brother, Wade. Now Randall and Wade

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Speaker 1: are the sons of the late Dick Widmore, all from Tennessee,

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Speaker 1: but Wade now lives in Texas. Their father, Dick Widmore,

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Speaker 1: is a legend in places where folks put importance on

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Speaker 1: good dogs and more so revere good men, and mister

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Speaker 1: Widmore was placed highly in both categories by those who

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Speaker 1: knew him. Now back to the phone call from Brad.

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Speaker 1: He wanted to know if my fellow coon hunting added

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Speaker 1: coonhound trainer, CEO Sunspot Hunting Lights and part time spiritual

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Speaker 1: advisor Michael Roseman could take Brad, Randall and Wade coon

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Speaker 1: hunting on Michael's lease when Wade came up for a

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Speaker 1: duck hunt. What make a plan and commit ourselves to

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Speaker 1: go on coon hunting? You bet we can. They didn't

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Speaker 1: actually need me for any of it. Michael's got one

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Speaker 1: of the best dogs around and it's his lease. Pretty

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Speaker 1: sure they keep me around in case they need to

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Speaker 1: blame something on somebody or comic relief. Regardless, I was

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Speaker 1: happy to be in the mix and was looking forward

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Speaker 1: to going coon hunting with the boys. Randall and Brad

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Speaker 1: are partners on a coon hound and they can hunt anywhere.

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Speaker 1: But where Michael hunts now was for years mister Whidmore's

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Speaker 1: coon hunting lees. All three of those guys grew up

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Speaker 1: hunting with mister Whitmore, and it's a great place to

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Speaker 1: train young dogs because of all the coons that are there.

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Speaker 1: I know I've talked about it before on here and

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Speaker 1: I'm sure I will in the future. But that's what

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Speaker 1: I'm talking about this week, Hunting heritage. That's the binder

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Speaker 1: and the thread that keeps the tapestry going is we

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Speaker 1: knit out, living our lives and sharing our experiences. Every

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Speaker 1: person adds a thread of experience or a memory to

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Speaker 1: the never ending project that tells the story of that

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Speaker 1: place and those people. Michael and I hunt a lot

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Speaker 1: by ourselves on that property. Normally it's just me and

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Speaker 1: Michael and our dogs wailing and Heck, yes, this dog's

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Speaker 1: name is Heck. It's a long story anyway, regardless of

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Speaker 1: who's there or who isn't, and it's just me and Michael.

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Speaker 1: He'll tell a story of another time when he was

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Speaker 1: hunting there with other people or even mister Widmore. Some

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Speaker 1: of them I've heard before, but I always enjoy hearing again.

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Speaker 1: Some are new to me, but they all make me

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Speaker 1: feel closer to that land and closer to the people

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Speaker 1: he's talking about by hearing the stories from someone who

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Speaker 1: was there. Here's a case in point from my family.

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Speaker 1: My great grandfather on my father's side died in nineteen

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Speaker 1: sixty four, that's two years before I was born, but

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Speaker 1: my dad told the story that my brother Tim reminded

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Speaker 1: me of today when we were visiting on the phone.

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Speaker 1: In October. Every year when all the crops were in, Grandpa,

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Speaker 1: Uncle Ev, Uncle Dob, and Uncle Bob and I'm sure

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Speaker 1: a laundry list of others at different times would go

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Speaker 1: down to the Saline River and have squirrel camp. So

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Speaker 1: they didn't have a tent, so they fashioned a camp

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Speaker 1: out of tar paper and they'd stay for several days.

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Speaker 1: Dad's first recollection of being involved was when he was

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Speaker 1: ten or eleven years old, and they wouldn't allow him

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Speaker 1: to go because he was in school. But what he

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Speaker 1: did have to do was to hitch a waggon up

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Speaker 1: to the mule and ride it several miles down where

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Speaker 1: they were camped to pick up the squirrels and all

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Speaker 1: the other game that they killed and skin out to

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Speaker 1: be taken back home to put in the family freezer.

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Speaker 1: He said he had to make that trip three or

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Speaker 1: four times during the week, depending on how long they

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Speaker 1: were staying down there and how good the hunt was.

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Speaker 1: Now I know where that spot is where they camp.

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Speaker 1: My brother knows where that spot is. I will never

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Speaker 1: go by there or talk about that place without seeing

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Speaker 1: my dad as a little kid driving a mule drawn

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Speaker 1: wagging down the dirt road by himself, going to see

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Speaker 1: what the men folks had got on their hunt, then

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Speaker 1: making that sad trip back home with all the game

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Speaker 1: because he had to go to school the next day.

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Speaker 1: And in my mind, I could see my great grandpa

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Speaker 1: standing beside that tarpa for camp and his coat and overalls,

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Speaker 1: a fire crackling in the background, watching my dad drive

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Speaker 1: away while checking his pocket watch and figuring the time

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Speaker 1: in his head when that boy ought to be getting home. Now,

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Speaker 1: I don't know if that happened, but I know that

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Speaker 1: that's what I'd have been doing if i'd have been

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Speaker 1: to him. Heck, if i'd have been him, i'd probably

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Speaker 1: let him lay out of school. I used to take

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Speaker 1: my son hunter with me for a week every year

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Speaker 1: in Missouri to turkey hunt. He'd do his lessons every

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Speaker 1: day in the afternoon once we came in from hunting.

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Speaker 1: Then the school put an end to that, wouldn't excuse

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Speaker 1: him anymore for missing school. But I never go there

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Speaker 1: that I don't think about something that he said or

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Speaker 1: did when we were there together. And I've been going

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Speaker 1: every year for over twenty years or better, and hunter

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Speaker 1: hadn't been back in ten. But just like that place

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Speaker 1: in the Saline River Bottoms and in Missouri, I'm connected

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Speaker 1: to that place and that heritage by the first hand

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Speaker 1: experience and the stories of the places I've seen. And

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Speaker 1: I say all of that because a heritage of hunting

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Speaker 1: is connected to the land and to its people, my ancestors,

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Speaker 1: and the Saline River Bottoms, my son, and my friends

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Speaker 1: in Missouri, Michael, mister Whitmore, Brad, Randa Wade, and a

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Speaker 1: coon hunting who's who of others have hunted that property

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Speaker 1: along the White River that we were hunting that night.

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Speaker 1: Michael's nephew r Jay was riding with us the other

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Speaker 1: night when we met Brad and Wade at the legendary

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Speaker 1: Dick Whitmore camp on the Cash Bio near Augusta, Arkansas.

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Speaker 1: The best part of that recent coon hunt was the

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Speaker 1: addition to Cooper Wade's six year old son No. Coop

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Speaker 1: had been on a coon hunt recently with his daddy,

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Speaker 1: Brad and Randall, but he'd never been on that property

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Speaker 1: where his grandfather had hosted so many people for so

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Speaker 1: many years and hunted some of the best dogs in

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Speaker 1: the country. It's pretty cold that night, and if we

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Speaker 1: hadn't already had the hunt set up to take Wade

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Speaker 1: on his visit up from Texas, we may not even win.

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Speaker 1: They say the worst day fishing beats the best day working,

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Speaker 1: and I can't argue with that. But the worst night

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Speaker 1: hunting in bitter cold will never beat a good night's

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Speaker 1: sleep in a warm bed. Luckily for us, this wasn't

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Speaker 1: going to be the worst night hunting. I told Michael

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Speaker 1: when we popped up on the levee, and it's side

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Speaker 1: beside with RJ in the middle and the dogs in

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Speaker 1: the box and Brad, Wade and Coop falling behind us.

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Speaker 1: And there's that if we could see one coon tonight

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Speaker 1: on the outside of a tree, we'd be successful. Coons

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Speaker 1: down here don't stir around much when the high temps

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Speaker 1: dipped below freezing. Our frigid weather doesn't usually last more

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Speaker 1: than a few days, and the coons pretty well lay

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Speaker 1: up in the dens and waited out. Now they'll come

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Speaker 1: out to eat a little or get a drink, but

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Speaker 1: they don't ramble far from the den trees, So that's

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Speaker 1: where we normally tree when it gets real cold. Is

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Speaker 1: in a den. If you can't see all the way

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Speaker 1: up in the hole, then you can't see the coon.

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Speaker 1: And seeing the coon is what we're that's what we're

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Speaker 1: out here for. So, like a lot of my efforts

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Speaker 1: over the last fifty seven years, I expected the whole

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Speaker 1: hunt to be mostly an exercise in freezing futility with

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Speaker 1: occasional bouts of despair. But I also like to have fun,

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Speaker 1: and being outside is fun to me. Being with my

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Speaker 1: friends is even better. Throw in a pack of coon

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Speaker 1: hounds and a kid, and that'll make even the worst

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Speaker 1: of times good. I still live by the motto my

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Speaker 1: dad told me when I was a kid, if you're

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Speaker 1: doing something that ain't fun, you make it fun. So,

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Speaker 1: in spite of everything that was working against us weather wise,

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Speaker 1: I was determined to have a good time, which, if

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Speaker 1: you know me, is what I'm always trying to do.

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Speaker 1: We treat a couple den trees and Whaling bade one

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Speaker 1: in a hole. Then Whaling and Heck we both treed

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Speaker 1: one each on the outside of the trees where we could

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Speaker 1: see him, and Hex's coon was in a good spot.

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Speaker 1: It was easy to see and to shoot out and

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Speaker 1: to bring home, so we waited for Brad, Wade and

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Speaker 1: Cooper to get there before we did, and I watched

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Speaker 1: as we all shined our lights and Wade showed his

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Speaker 1: son Cooper the coon that was fueling Hext's excitement. RJ

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Speaker 1: knocked that coon out of the tree with a brand

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Speaker 1: new twenty two rifle that Michael had given him for Christmas.

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Speaker 1: He made a good shot and we were all proud

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Speaker 1: of him for it. Then we all walked over and

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Speaker 1: Wade picked up that coon and he showed it to Cooper.

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Speaker 1: It wasn't the first coon that Coop had ever seen,

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Speaker 1: but it was the first one he'd seen in that

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Speaker 1: place where his grandfather had hunted. And this hunt was

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Speaker 1: the first time Wade had been back on that property

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Speaker 1: since mister Whidmore passed away a little over six years ago,

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Speaker 1: which coincidentally is just how old Cooper is. There's a

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Speaker 1: lot there in that story, and heritage is just part

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Speaker 1: of it. Thank y'all so much for listening and being

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Speaker 1: a part of this country life family. And it is

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Speaker 1: a family. Someone called me everyone's favorite uncle the other day.

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Speaker 1: I like that and it made me smile. Hold on

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Speaker 1: to your memories and the folks and the places they're

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Speaker 1: made from. That's the fabric of life's quilt that we're

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Speaker 1: constantly sewing. The more folks you let add to it,

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Speaker 1: warmer it gets. That's where the heritage lives until next week.

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Speaker 1: This is Brent Reeves signing off. Y'all be careful to

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Speaker 1: be done anything enter