Speaker 1: Welcome to This Country Life. I'm your host, Brent Reeves.
Speaker 1: From coon hunting to trot lining and just general country living.
Speaker 1: I want you to stay a while as I share
Speaker 1: my experiences in life lessons. This Country Life is presented
Speaker 1: by Case Knives on Meat Eaters Podcast Network, bringing you
Speaker 1: the best outdoor podcast the airwaves have to offer. All right, friends,
Speaker 1: grab a chair or drop that tailgate. I've got some
Speaker 1: stories to share. Weston one, Bob Zero. I hope you
Speaker 1: all have enjoyed the last few episodes about turkey hunting,
Speaker 1: because you're in for some more. I may have to
Speaker 1: change the title of this show to This Turkey Life.
Speaker 1: But for those that don't care about hearing about turkey hunting,
Speaker 1: next week's shows about making quilts, ain't. We're gonna be
Speaker 1: talking turkey hunting then too. I have had a great
Speaker 1: spring and I've got a lot to talk about. As
Speaker 1: a matter of fact, I can't wait any longer, so
Speaker 1: let's get to it. This story comes from This Country
Speaker 1: Life listener Garrett Baker. Garrett is from Smithport, Pennsylvania, which
Speaker 1: is twenty miles from the happiest place on earth, the
Speaker 1: Case Knife Factory in Bradford. I actually met Garrett and
Speaker 1: his son Wes when I was in Bradford last summer
Speaker 1: tour in the factory, visiting with all my case family,
Speaker 1: John Pantuso, Tom Taylor, Fred Fener, Marissa McGary and all
Speaker 1: the other Case faithful. We had a good visit and
Speaker 1: Wes walked away with a pocket knife courtesy of John.
Speaker 1: Now Garrett's talking about smashing turkeys, and if someone's willing
Speaker 1: to share a good gobbler beat down, I'm willing to listen.
Speaker 1: So in Garrett's words and my voice, here we go.
Speaker 1: Wake up, buddy, it's time to go find you a turkey.
Speaker 1: Wes jumped out of bed like he'd never been asleep.
Speaker 1: The excitement had been pouring out of him. In anticipation
Speaker 1: of the Youth Turkey Open. He spent just as much
Speaker 1: time as most adults scouting and working on his calling,
Speaker 1: and testing different turkey loads and sighting in the red
Speaker 1: dot on his Mossburg four ten. Now that's not bad
Speaker 1: for a six year old. The twenty three to twenty
Speaker 1: four season had already been good to him. Here in Pennsylvania,
Speaker 1: we bagged his first squirrels, and he helped me trap
Speaker 1: some beavers. Turkeys were next on his list, and that
Speaker 1: boy was bound and determined to get one. We headed
Speaker 1: down to our friend Treys, and Trey and I grew
Speaker 1: up together spend the most of our time chasing any
Speaker 1: sort of game that was in season. Trey had more
Speaker 1: experience in the turkey woods of me and was, in
Speaker 1: Weston's mind, the golden ticket to him getting a turkey.
Speaker 1: Now we had permission to hunt a farm on the
Speaker 1: edge of town that consisted of a few fields there
Speaker 1: in the bottom of a steep valley with a good
Speaker 1: ridge line all around the top. This valley is full
Speaker 1: of soft and hard mass crops and a stream running
Speaker 1: through the center and logging roads branching upward that the
Speaker 1: birds really like to travel. Every day we'd see him
Speaker 1: come out to mill around in the field. Tray's dad, Bill,
Speaker 1: a retiree, gets his kicks out of sitting in his
Speaker 1: truck and watching these turkeys every morning. So we had
Speaker 1: a daily turkey report that kept us excited well before
Speaker 1: the season. It makes me wonder how I'll burn time
Speaker 1: off the clock at the end of my career and
Speaker 1: I can enjoy the simple things in life. I guess
Speaker 1: there's worse things that a person can do besides watching
Speaker 1: turkeys to pass the time. We were in the blind
Speaker 1: as the sun started to creep over the hill and
Speaker 1: Tray's al Hooton had a turkey goblin. Soon after, it
Speaker 1: was finally daylight and our turkey callar let out some
Speaker 1: soft yelps, and immediately we had an answer. West's eyes
Speaker 1: lit up. Did you hear that, Dad? Yeah, I heard it, bud.
Speaker 1: Let's hope he decides to tell us a visit. The
Speaker 1: time for turkeys to come into the field came and went,
Speaker 1: with sporadic gobbling taking place. Said it started to rain,
Speaker 1: and West recalled that turkeys like to hang out in
Speaker 1: the fields during the rain. Maybe this will make the
Speaker 1: turkeys come out of the woods. Not long after, Trey
Speaker 1: called and a turkey replied, right up the hill from us,
Speaker 1: and he was close. We couldn't see him with the
Speaker 1: roll of the field above us, but from his cause
Speaker 1: we could tell he was moving down through that field.
Speaker 1: We watched it rain and waited until we could see
Speaker 1: eleven turkeys headed towards us and our decoys, now one
Speaker 1: after the other. Their heads started popping up like periscopes
Speaker 1: when they saw our decoys. They stopped for a a
Speaker 1: few minutes, slowly turned and they started walking away, gobbling occasionally,
Speaker 1: making us wonder what we'd done wrong? Why are they leaving? Well,
Speaker 1: because their turkeys, and they made zero sense. Turkeys had
Speaker 1: walked back up the hill out of sight. Trey contended
Speaker 1: his calling when we looked across the valley to see
Speaker 1: four more making their way down the hill. They were
Speaker 1: four hundred yards out and they still had a creek
Speaker 1: barbed wire fence in the dirt road across before they
Speaker 1: got to where we were, and Trey said, if they
Speaker 1: crossed that creek, they're coming in. And just like that,
Speaker 1: down the bank, under the fence and across the road
Speaker 1: they came, game on until they hit the spot where
Speaker 1: the other turkeys had turned around, and they followed suit,
Speaker 1: going out of sight. Now by now it was eleven o'clock,
Speaker 1: and I was impressed that Wes had even stuck it out,
Speaker 1: this long, good thing he did, because just then a
Speaker 1: big old redhead popped up a by one hundred yards
Speaker 1: in front of us, then another one right behind it.
Speaker 1: Those birds had meandered at a snail's pace, and it
Speaker 1: seemed like they would never get there. Tracy, I don't
Speaker 1: know if I'm nervous or cold, but I'm shaking like crazy.
Speaker 1: Wes said, I was shaking the gun with my shivering.
Speaker 1: I had never been more excited for someone else to
Speaker 1: succeed at hunting in all my life. The turkeys made
Speaker 1: their way down to forty five yards and I told
Speaker 1: Wes we needed to get one within thirty before he
Speaker 1: could shoot. The thirty yard ring of death was marked
Speaker 1: with sticks and ribbons all around the blind for reference.
Speaker 1: When it was okay for him to shoot, and just
Speaker 1: like turkeys do, they did something unexpected. They turned around
Speaker 1: to look back the way they came, and now what
Speaker 1: are they doing? That's when the whole flock crested the nole,
Speaker 1: going as fast as a group of turkeys could run.
Speaker 1: We all started laughing at the sight of these turkeys
Speaker 1: jiggling their way towards like bags of feathered jello. The
Speaker 1: mood quickly turned the panic as the turkeys got together
Speaker 1: caused him to join the galloping gobblers with a full
Speaker 1: head of steam and started running right by our blind
Speaker 1: within twenty yards with no sign to stop. And it
Speaker 1: was a turkey stampede. Wes was trying his best to
Speaker 1: get his red dot on a red head tray. You
Speaker 1: gotta get one of those birds to stop. I'm trying. Then,
Speaker 1: in a last ditch effort, Trace took his head out
Speaker 1: of the blind and let out of Hay. The last
Speaker 1: turkey in the group stopped and stared at us at
Speaker 1: about forty yards of young Jake, as confused as we were,
Speaker 1: was giving us a chance. He was right on the
Speaker 1: edge of what I wanted, and I told Wes to
Speaker 1: put it on his head and shoot. That turkey rolled
Speaker 1: backers and jumped back up and ran away. He was
Speaker 1: gone in the woods a couple of hundred yards. We
Speaker 1: walked all over. We looked for sign we wanted to
Speaker 1: heal for hours, even going home to grab the dogs
Speaker 1: to see if they could find them. Nothing, not even
Speaker 1: a feather on the ground. I hadn't made a bad
Speaker 1: choice to stretch out what I felt was close enough
Speaker 1: and came up short with the possibility of a wounded turkey.
Speaker 1: Wess and I talked the rest of the day about it,
Speaker 1: how much we wished we had found them well. Later
Speaker 1: I received a text from Bill, who'd gone back up
Speaker 1: there to see if the turkeys were back. All the
Speaker 1: turkeys in that flock had returned with the luckiest jake
Speaker 1: in the county, with him in his spot bringing up
Speaker 1: the rear. Now Wess and I'd be hunting the next
Speaker 1: weekend in a new spot, but this time I'd be
Speaker 1: doing all the calling. That Saturday was much hotter than
Speaker 1: the weekend before, and as we drove past Trey's house,
Speaker 1: I heard Wes say I wish Trey was coming with us. Well,
Speaker 1: me too, but we'll have fun and hopefully we'll get
Speaker 1: to send him a picture of a gobbler. We walked
Speaker 1: a few yards and crawled in the blind that we
Speaker 1: set up earlier in the week. When I set out
Speaker 1: the decoys, did my best used my mouth call throughout
Speaker 1: the morning, and one gobbler was answering how on the
Speaker 1: hill do I write, but not making any moves. He
Speaker 1: stopped answering, and I chalked it off to him just
Speaker 1: going silent. Second gobbler was answering from a neighbor and
Speaker 1: properly straight out in front of us. Now he said
Speaker 1: it was much more interested. This was on long enough
Speaker 1: to get us excited, making me wonder if I should
Speaker 1: get Wes out of the blind and try to move
Speaker 1: in on that turkey. I talked myself into stay and put.
Speaker 1: It's hard enough to not get busted by a gobbler
Speaker 1: and a blind with a six year old, let alone
Speaker 1: keeping him still by a tree in the open. As
Speaker 1: quick as our excitement came on, though it was squashed,
Speaker 1: what I thought was going to be Wes's first turkey
Speaker 1: was slowly coming closer by the minute went bam, somebody shot,
Speaker 1: and it was all over. They had gotten between us
Speaker 1: and him on the other property. Well, excitement led to frustration,
Speaker 1: with me thinking that our day had come to an end.
Speaker 1: West didn't seem to mind. He had little debies to
Speaker 1: keep him entertained. He just had to wait for dear
Speaker 1: old dad to call him in another turkey, No big deal.
Speaker 1: I kept it by routine for another hour or so,
Speaker 1: calling occasionally hoping that something would show up or answer
Speaker 1: with a gobble. Then two hundred yards in front, I
Speaker 1: caught movement. Three black blobs were running down the edge
Speaker 1: of the brush line, straight towards us. West didn't get ready, Bud,
Speaker 1: here comes some turkeys. I got him on my knee
Speaker 1: in a shotgun on our wrist. We had the same
Speaker 1: thirty yard ring of death set up. However, West came
Speaker 1: with more firefire. This time Trey let him borrow his
Speaker 1: twenty gage, and in his mind there was no turkey.
Speaker 1: They could get away now. They came in on a rope,
Speaker 1: three jakes, and they came within ten yards of the blind,
Speaker 1: black beady eyes that seemed to be looking right at
Speaker 1: us and West showing signs of turkey fevers, shaking and breathing.
Speaker 1: Ard just put the dot on ahead and squeezed the trigger.
Speaker 1: Fuddy Wes took his time, and that jake started to
Speaker 1: get atty and began walking away. We got to shoot soon, Wes.
Speaker 1: They got the thirty five yards. When Wes let the
Speaker 1: bismus fly fam a turkey in the back of the
Speaker 1: group hit the ground. I grabbed the blind and flipped
Speaker 1: it backwards. I got it, Dad, I shot my first turkey.
Speaker 1: We both ran over that bird and hugged and high
Speaker 1: five and took fischers to send the tray and everyone
Speaker 1: else that we knew. With a cell phone, Weston retold
Speaker 1: his side of the story, and I watched the adrenaline
Speaker 1: pump through him as he did. The excitement we both
Speaker 1: shared is something neither of us ever forget. A great day,
Speaker 1: made even sweeter by the craziness that we'd endure it.
Speaker 1: This will always be one of my most cherished memories,
Speaker 1: and I hope it will be one of Weston's, and,
Speaker 1: according to Garrett and Wes Baker, of almost the happiest
Speaker 1: place on earth. That's just how that happened. Now. I
Speaker 1: love a good turkey killing story, Garrett, and any that
Speaker 1: involved family, especially youngins. I'm all in my man, thanks
Speaker 1: for sending it in. Let's slip back about twenty years
Speaker 1: to a farm in Missouri. I was just getting into
Speaker 1: filming and the man that taught me the most about
Speaker 1: running a camera was meeting me there to hunt for
Speaker 1: a few days. He shuns the spotlight like he's in
Speaker 1: the Witness Protection program and is happy just playing music
Speaker 1: and enjoys the semi off grid living out towards the
Speaker 1: East Coast. So to honor his wishes of anonymity, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna call him Bob. Bob and I hard every morning
Speaker 1: right up until the midday cutoff in Missouri on the
Speaker 1: second of the last day of our trip, I had
Speaker 1: killed a monster. To this day is still the biggest
Speaker 1: turkey I ever killed. But that's a story for another day.
Speaker 1: This story is about getting the cameraman in front of
Speaker 1: the camera, and I talked him into it. We were
Speaker 1: on the back patio bawl and crawfish for a dozen
Speaker 1: kin folks and neighbors of our hosts when I convinced
Speaker 1: him to buy his non resident license and let me
Speaker 1: do the filming. The following morning, we had one day
Speaker 1: to hunt, and he'd been filming me shoot turkeys for
Speaker 1: a couple of years, along with a host of other
Speaker 1: folks too. He'd watched more turkeys die in the last
Speaker 1: five years than most will see in a lifetime, but
Speaker 1: none of them he could put a tag on. He
Speaker 1: was like an umpire watching a battery head a walk
Speaker 1: off Grand Slam to win the World Series, always close,
Speaker 1: yet so far away. While he caught and played my suggestion,
Speaker 1: he had Toby and Mary's big old Conway in his lap.
Speaker 1: They'd become fast friends, as Conway had shown a special
Speaker 1: interest in Bob everywhere he went from the moment we arrived.
Speaker 1: You didn't see one without the other around the house
Speaker 1: any time when we were outside, and they both seemed
Speaker 1: to enjoy each other's attention. I don't know Brenton you
Speaker 1: still got a tag left, and I'd hate to not
Speaker 1: be filming as something truly incredible happened. Now I knew
Speaker 1: what he meant without him just coming right out and
Speaker 1: saying that he was a legitimate tier one outdoor cameraman,
Speaker 1: what we would call a cinematographer these days. He was
Speaker 1: an absolute perfectionist on framing, shutter speed, and white balance,
Speaker 1: and always shot on manual everything. I was a student,
Speaker 1: and he was a tyrant of a micro manager when
Speaker 1: it came to filming, not in a route or a
Speaker 1: mean way. He just knew what worked and I didn't.
Speaker 1: A secondary objective of our hunt was for me to
Speaker 1: get some behind the camera time for him to critique.
Speaker 1: But what we planned to do was after I had
Speaker 1: tagged out, we could just sit and call in turkeys
Speaker 1: and he could watch what I was doing over my shoulder.
Speaker 1: But I hadn't filled my last tag and we only
Speaker 1: had one day left. My argument for him to be
Speaker 1: the shooter was how incredibly good the footage of my
Speaker 1: hunt had gone. We had absolute gold in the can,
Speaker 1: as they say, so anything else was just gonna be
Speaker 1: gravy on the cat had biscuit we'd already served up,
Speaker 1: Bob looked down at Conway and said, Conrad. I'm not
Speaker 1: sure why he called him Conrad, but he never called
Speaker 1: him by his actual name. It also didn't seem to
Speaker 1: bother Conway, but he said, Conrad, what do you think
Speaker 1: should I let Brent film me in the morning. Beagle
Speaker 1: just looked up at Bob as he pettied him. He
Speaker 1: didn't say no, Bob. Bob nodded his head and said
Speaker 1: all right, let's go get some license and off the
Speaker 1: town we went. And when we got back later that afternoon,
Speaker 1: Toby told us about here in a turkey gobling across
Speaker 1: the road right in front of his house. Well, can
Speaker 1: we hunt over there? Yep, I have full permission from
Speaker 1: me and anyone I want to go. Well, that's all
Speaker 1: we needed to hear. We'd been driving forty five minutes
Speaker 1: away from the house to hunt a different farm, always
Speaker 1: being extra early to account for dealing with cameras and tripods,
Speaker 1: external monitors and everything else that went with how we
Speaker 1: did it back then getting up later and walking across
Speaker 1: the road the next morning was going to be a
Speaker 1: real treat. We set out on the front porch Saturday evening,
Speaker 1: me Toby Bob and Bob's pale Conway, we heard the
Speaker 1: turkey Goblin right before roosting time. Toby told us exactly
Speaker 1: how the land laid, where he'd roosted, and where we
Speaker 1: should start out the next morning. I couldn't wait to
Speaker 1: punch record, and Bob couldn't wait to punch that turkey.
Speaker 1: Even Conway was fired up his tail just to blurz.
Speaker 1: He sensed Bob's in all our excitement for what we
Speaker 1: knew was going to be an epic hunt. The next morning,
Speaker 1: hopped out of bed as quiet as I could, and
Speaker 1: Toby and Mary and the girls who were still in
Speaker 1: elementary school were still fast asleep. Bob tiptoed out of
Speaker 1: his room and we met up in the kitchen, where
Speaker 1: the coffee had just finished brewing. Mary had set it
Speaker 1: up for us the night before that lady is a saint.
Speaker 1: We each pored a cup and out the door we went.
Speaker 1: Accessing the property was literally as easy as crossing the road,
Speaker 1: and when we did we didn't have to use a light.
Speaker 1: The full moon was bright, the grass and the leaves
Speaker 1: were damp, and the whipper wheels helped to mask what
Speaker 1: little sound we made as we slipped across the pasture
Speaker 1: to the edge of the woods three hundred yards away.
Speaker 1: Toby is a contractor by trade, but he should be
Speaker 1: a turkey guide. He had told us exactly where he
Speaker 1: thought that turkey would roost and where we should set
Speaker 1: up and listen, and we walked straight to it without
Speaker 1: the aid of a light. Thirty minutes early, right on time,
Speaker 1: Bob pulled a jacket out of his turkey vest and
Speaker 1: draped it over both of us and the camera that
Speaker 1: sat on the tripod. Bob's small red led light directed
Speaker 1: my attention to camera settings and filters and switches that
Speaker 1: I'd be using, and the jacket kept us hidden from
Speaker 1: spooking any roost of turkeys that might see us. Felt
Speaker 1: like I was making one last predonn map survey before
Speaker 1: we attack the enemy. Bob was as excited as I'd
Speaker 1: ever seen him. He loves the turkey hunt in his
Speaker 1: dang Goodwin and was satisfied up to that point of
Speaker 1: bagging his turkey, so to speak, by being in control
Speaker 1: and the one who said shoot to whoever he was
Speaker 1: filming when it was time. I watched him get emotional
Speaker 1: when my son killed a big gobbler on camera the
Speaker 1: year before, by how good the footage was, and how
Speaker 1: happy he was to have shared that with the two
Speaker 1: of us. It was a special moment this morning, though
Speaker 1: he was on another level. I could hear it in
Speaker 1: his whisper and see the red lid smile on his
Speaker 1: face as he pointed to this and that on the
Speaker 1: cameras we stood there under that jacket. I did my
Speaker 1: best to pay attention, but I was distracted by how
Speaker 1: much fun he was having, and it was still fifteen
Speaker 1: minutes before gobbling time. For the next ten minutes, we
Speaker 1: stood silent and motionless, listening to the world as it
Speaker 1: started to wake up. The eastern sky started to glow,
Speaker 1: and a nearby whipper will continued its incessant singing. To
Speaker 1: the point of irritation. I whispered to Bob, I wish
Speaker 1: that joker would bust wide open now. He muffled a
Speaker 1: laugh as best as he could, but was cut off
Speaker 1: by a gobble hundred yards away. We looked at each
Speaker 1: other and pointed at the same time, an automated response,
Speaker 1: but was totally unnecessary. How could we not know where
Speaker 1: he was? Toby had told us the night before, and
Speaker 1: the Turkey had just proven, We slipped without making a
Speaker 1: sound twenty yards closer, and Bob sat down against a big,
Speaker 1: white old tree on the edge of a neglected cow pasture.
Speaker 1: I sat down against a smaller one just behind him,
Speaker 1: allowing me full coverage of water. Was about to happen.
Speaker 1: There hadn't been a cow grazing on this property for years,
Speaker 1: and juniper Us virginiana, the eastern red cedar, had taken
Speaker 1: the opportunity to move in. Cattle farmers hate them because
Speaker 1: they compete with grazing by taking up space where grass
Speaker 1: could grow and soaking up water that the grass could
Speaker 1: be drinking. Not to us, at that moment in time,
Speaker 1: those cedars were worth their weight in gold. Grass was
Speaker 1: still short in that old pasture, and the random placement
Speaker 1: of the cedars was going to keep us out of
Speaker 1: sight of that gobbler, forcing him to come all the
Speaker 1: way to us. Before realizing the yelps he was hearing
Speaker 1: was from a dude, holdless god gun and not a
Speaker 1: gal looking for a fellow. He was gobbling to the
Speaker 1: world that he was the king of spring, and off
Speaker 1: in the distance we heard a few faint responses, but
Speaker 1: they didn't dare challenge his authority, and he didn't slack
Speaker 1: up Goblin when he hit the ground either. Bob had
Speaker 1: yet to make a sound. The turkey had seemingly dropped
Speaker 1: off his roots, straight down to the base of his tree,
Speaker 1: and gobbled. When he did. Bob sent three of the
Speaker 1: softest yelps from a slate call I think I've ever heard.
Speaker 1: The response was immediate and forceful. For the next ten
Speaker 1: minutes that gobler stood his ground, gobbling every minute or so,
Speaker 1: demanding that we walked the eighty yards to him like
Speaker 1: nature intended. During that time, Bob squeaked out one more
Speaker 1: set of purs and clucks and laid down his call,
Speaker 1: picking up his shotgun and resting it on his knee.
Speaker 1: Three minutes passed and he gobbled again, and this time
Speaker 1: he was closer. He continued gobling, and we could tell
Speaker 1: he was incrementally moving towards us, ever so slowly, as
Speaker 1: he drummed between gobbles, letting us know he was strutting
Speaker 1: all the way. Ah the God. My eyes were darting
Speaker 1: back and forth like a metal man in a shooting gallery,
Speaker 1: checking the monitor, the sentence on the camera, the framing,
Speaker 1: being careful not to squeeze the camera arm and shake
Speaker 1: the camera. The red light is on. I'm recording Furst.
Speaker 1: Thing I can see in my monitor is in focus,
Speaker 1: good ind filter is set where Bob said it should be.
Speaker 1: All I had to do was keep the framing in
Speaker 1: the thirds, give the turkey space to walk on the
Speaker 1: screen when he appeared, and if possible, get Bob and
Speaker 1: him in the frame when the moment the truth arrived,
Speaker 1: when that gobling beast stepped out from behind that cedar
Speaker 1: tree that was twenty yards in front of us and
Speaker 1: directly between us and him, go God, gobble, gobble, drum drum,
Speaker 1: over and over. I glanced over the monitor a definite
Speaker 1: no no, perb Bob's instructions, and saw him tighten his
Speaker 1: grip on his shotgun. Don't ever take your eyes off
Speaker 1: that monitor, he told me. You're running a camera to film,
Speaker 1: not sitting in the audience watching. You can do that
Speaker 1: after the edit. I'd never forgotten that, and it served
Speaker 1: me well a few years ago, when Clay Bow and
Speaker 1: I had the famous barrier on a stick in the
Speaker 1: blind with us in the Saskatchewan, this wasn't a bear,
Speaker 1: it was a turkey. And now he was no more
Speaker 1: than five yards on the other side of that seater,
Speaker 1: drumming like a wild man. If the cedar limbs hadn't
Speaker 1: gone all the way to the ground, we would have
Speaker 1: been able to see his feet. Now, that's how sure
Speaker 1: what the grass was, and how close he was to us.
Speaker 1: It was just a matter of time before he steps
Speaker 1: out on the right side of the cedar and Bob
Speaker 1: punches him in the mouth. Then the drumming stopped, and
Speaker 1: the goblin stock and for thirty seconds it was like
Speaker 1: we were on a worldwide time out. I didn't hear
Speaker 1: a bird of any kind. A million things ran through
Speaker 1: my mind. Had he sent us no, no way he
Speaker 1: could have seen us. Then Bob moved, and now I
Speaker 1: was watching him on the monitor. He was rock solid.
Speaker 1: Then a cedar limb moved toward the base of the tree.
Speaker 1: This turkey crawled on the tree, coming to us. This
Speaker 1: is going to be some national geographic footage and the
Speaker 1: Eastern wild turkey emerging from the base of a cedar
Speaker 1: tree like a phoenix rising from the ashes. I saw
Speaker 1: Bob shift his aim towards where that limb was moving
Speaker 1: and waited on that gobbler to step out and get smoked.
Speaker 1: When in his place. Conway appeared out of thin air,
Speaker 1: trotting over to Bob, climbing U up in his lap
Speaker 1: and with his tail beating out a Morse code of
Speaker 1: hay path, I've been missing you. Bob slowly turned his
Speaker 1: head back over his shoulder and he looked at me
Speaker 1: with the saddest eyes on a man I may have
Speaker 1: ever saw. He looked back down at that dog, put
Speaker 1: his hand on his head and said, hey, Conrad, oh
Speaker 1: my gosh, turkeys drive me crazy, and add beagles to
Speaker 1: the list. We never did get Bob a turkey on
Speaker 1: that trip or any other one after that. We did
Speaker 1: keep a valuable friendship, and he taught me what little
Speaker 1: I know about running a camera on a hunt, the
Speaker 1: biggest lesson of which helped me to get where I
Speaker 1: am sitting right now talking to you, Missouri. Turkey, beagle
Speaker 1: and a friend from the Carolina's prepping me for a
Speaker 1: moment in time that wouldn't take place for another decade
Speaker 1: with an old bear in Saskatchewan. Thank y'all so much
Speaker 1: for listening to all of us here on the Bear
Speaker 1: Grease Channel. Playboy and I appreciate it very much. If
Speaker 1: you like history and you want to learn some really
Speaker 1: interesting stuff. Check out Dan Flore's new podcast called The
Speaker 1: American West. It just came out. I love it, y'all
Speaker 1: know I wouldn't steer you wrong. Now next week Monday,
Speaker 1: Monday following this Friday, me and Tony Peterson got some
Speaker 1: dog stuff appearing right here, an extra drop on this
Speaker 1: country life. I think you'll like that too. Man. We've
Speaker 1: got some really special stuff coming up in June, and
Speaker 1: it's really sharp. I know you're gonna like it. And
Speaker 1: that's all they gonna let me say about that right now.
Speaker 1: But stay tuned. We'll be making the announcement very soon.
Speaker 1: Till next week. This is Brent Reid, sign it off. Y'all,
Speaker 1: be careful anything