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

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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 experiences in life lessons. This Country Life is presented

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Speaker 1: by Case Knives on Meat Eaters Podcast Network, bringing you

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

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Speaker 1: grab a chair or drop that tailgate. I've got some

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Speaker 1: stories to share. Measuring success. There's a lot of ways

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Speaker 1: you can measure success and money in the banking material

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Speaker 1: possessions are only two. I'm going to talk about one

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Speaker 1: way that I've learned to calculate it. But first, I'm

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Speaker 1: going to tell you a story. I know it's like

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Speaker 1: three weeks past Christmas, but I had to get a

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Speaker 1: bunch of episodes ahead so our favorite sound engineer and

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Speaker 1: doer of all things related to the intelligence side of

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Speaker 1: This Country Life, Reva Hansen, could go home to see

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Speaker 1: her folks over the holidays. I didn't do a dedicated

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Speaker 1: Christmas episode because I wasn't really sure in what order

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Speaker 1: they'd be posted, so I filed this listener story to

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Speaker 1: be told next year. But it correlates to measuring success.

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Speaker 1: This week's theme and I can't wait a year to

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Speaker 1: tell it. It's too good. And it comes from this

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Speaker 1: Country life listener, Oklahoma's own Dane Fuller. And in Dane's

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Speaker 1: words and my voice, here we go. Growing up, Christmas

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Speaker 1: Eve meant one thing, ma'am. I own Papov's house. It

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Speaker 1: was a tradition of the Fullers dating back to I

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Speaker 1: believe three days after dirt was invented. RC and Edith

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Speaker 1: Gert Fuller had a pretty big family, five boys and

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Speaker 1: one girl. Eventually, as kids back them did, they all

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Speaker 1: left home to start families of their own, and soon

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Speaker 1: they began bringing them back for the holidays. Not only

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Speaker 1: kids and grandkids were there, but great aunts and uncles,

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Speaker 1: second cousins, and so forth. By the nineteen seventies, there

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Speaker 1: was approximately four hundred and ninety seven men, women and

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Speaker 1: children cramed to that old house out in the sticks

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Speaker 1: of Muskogee County in northeastern Oklahoma every Christmas Eve. Not

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Speaker 1: really that many, but it sure seemed like it. One

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Speaker 1: particular December twenty fourth, the house was filled to capacity.

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Speaker 1: We had all eaten supper and everyone was gathered in

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Speaker 1: the front room. All of us grandkids were excited because

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Speaker 1: Pap had finally said we could open presents. Our grandparents

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Speaker 1: weren't rich, In fact, they had very little. Somehow though

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Speaker 1: every year they managed to get us off something. This

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Speaker 1: year times must have been a little tougher than normal,

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Speaker 1: because instead of buying a tree, Pap had gone up

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Speaker 1: the hill with his double bit axe and chopped down

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Speaker 1: a cedar tree a few weeks earlier, and by the

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Speaker 1: time the festivities rolled around, that cedar tree had turned

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Speaker 1: into the color of a brown paper bag. Christmas lights

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Speaker 1: back in the seventies were of the variety that could

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Speaker 1: rival the temperature of the sun. Twinkle lights weren't anywhere

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Speaker 1: close to happening, being as how the tree had morphed

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Speaker 1: into something akin to napalm. The adults in the room

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Speaker 1: had decided that no string of Christmas lights would be

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Speaker 1: plugged in. The grandkids tried their cow eyed angel face

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Speaker 1: best to talk Papa into plugging them in, but he

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Speaker 1: wouldn't budge. All of us tried, except for one, Scott cousin.

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Speaker 1: Scott was born in the middle third of the order

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Speaker 1: as far as grandkid ages went. However, he was lead

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Speaker 1: off on the kind of kid that when his dad

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Speaker 1: said not to do something or he'd get a whooping.

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Speaker 1: Scott would ask how much of a woman? It was

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Speaker 1: awesome being Scott's cousin back then, I could tear the

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Speaker 1: barn down, and if he was there, I'd never get

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Speaker 1: so much as looked at. Everybody just knew Scott did

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Speaker 1: it anyway. He was seated next to me that night.

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Speaker 1: Next to him was the television. Behind it was the

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Speaker 1: outlet that would have had the plugs that were all

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Speaker 1: lying on the floor going to the lights that were

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Speaker 1: still draped on the Christmas tree. The duty of passing

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Speaker 1: out presence this night had fallen to Aint Judy, the

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Speaker 1: lone girl of the Fuller kids. Being a girl with

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Speaker 1: five brothers, Judy had put up with a lot in

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Speaker 1: her day, not enough, though, to have obtained a calm

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Speaker 1: demeanor capable of taking on anything. To say that she

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Speaker 1: is easily frazzled is an understatement. After the first twenty

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Speaker 1: or so kids had gotten their presence, Judy was nearing

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Speaker 1: the end of her rope. The sound of shredding wrapping paper,

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Speaker 1: squeals of delight, and parents yelling at the kids to

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Speaker 1: wait their turn and taking its toll on Judy. It

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Speaker 1: was at this precise moment Scott made his mood. Without

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Speaker 1: tapping my knee or giving me so much as hey,

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Speaker 1: watch this, he slithered behind the TV and picked up

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Speaker 1: the light stream plug, eager to see the lights and

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Speaker 1: maybe get him the busting of his life. I didn't

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Speaker 1: say a word. He gave me a look, and with

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Speaker 1: a crooked smile, he plugged into the lights. Oh what

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Speaker 1: a glorious sight. The reds, greens, blues, and orange bulls

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Speaker 1: came to life. Nobody noticed except for me, Scott's sister Charmon,

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Speaker 1: and my sister Karen. The adults were too busy breaking

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Speaker 1: up fights over cap pistols and baby dolls. They had

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Speaker 1: no idea of the coup that Scott had pulled off.

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Speaker 1: For about two seconds, almost as suddenly as the light

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Speaker 1: has appeared, they were being put to shame by the

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Speaker 1: flame shooting out from that long dead cedar tree. Everyone

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Speaker 1: noticed now. Uncle pee Wee grabbed the cord and tried

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Speaker 1: to yank it out of the socket, and doing so

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Speaker 1: he knocked over the infire older that was once considered

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Speaker 1: a Christmas tree. Things sort of got blurry after that.

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Speaker 1: The house was full of smoke. Dad's grabbed kids and

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Speaker 1: started litterly throwing toward the back door. Moms had to

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Speaker 1: run in the kitchen to ketch him before any bones

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Speaker 1: were broken. By this time, Uncle Rudy had waded through

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Speaker 1: the sea of kids wrapping paper and toys and made

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Speaker 1: it to the tree. He began trying to stump the

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Speaker 1: fire out. Somebody no one knows who got the front

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Speaker 1: door open, the very door that hadn't been opened for

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Speaker 1: years because ma'ama didn't want it to wear a hole

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Speaker 1: in her carpet. Terrified me because I was sitting next

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Speaker 1: to the door and had been threatened with a switch

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Speaker 1: for even acting like I might open it. I knew

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Speaker 1: without aut I would get busted for snagging the carpet,

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Speaker 1: no matter the black hole that had just been burned

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Speaker 1: in it. Uncle Tuffy, Scott's dad, grabbed the steel burning

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Speaker 1: torch of a tree, knocked me out of the way,

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Speaker 1: and threw it in the front yard. Amidst the chaos,

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Speaker 1: the screams, and the smoke, still in the center of

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Speaker 1: the room was Judy running for her life with her

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Speaker 1: hands clasping a frace and she was screaming, oh my, gosh,

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Speaker 1: oh my gosh, oh my gosh over and over and over,

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Speaker 1: trying desperately to get herself and her kids out of life.

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Speaker 1: She never made it one edge farther from the tree

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Speaker 1: than she was at the moment of combustion. She was

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Speaker 1: literally running in circles. Pap had never made it out

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Speaker 1: of the cliner, Dad had never made it off the couch.

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Speaker 1: Both were laughing as hard as I had ever seen

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Speaker 1: anyone laugh. By now Scott had made it out from

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Speaker 1: behind the RC eight. He probably knew that he should

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Speaker 1: run while he was still label, but he was too busy,

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Speaker 1: enjoined the fruits of his labor, enamored by the sights

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Speaker 1: of all the carnage, he never noticed his dad reaching

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Speaker 1: for him. No one knows exactly what happened to Scott

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Speaker 1: once his dad pulled him away, but after the tears

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Speaker 1: dried up, he was as quiet as a church mouse

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Speaker 1: for the rest of the night. Christis averted. It wasn't

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Speaker 1: long until all the windows and the doors in the

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Speaker 1: house were opened to let the smoke down. Everyone had

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Speaker 1: resumed their positions, though wearing their coach. Now what was

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Speaker 1: left of the presence was handed out in Scott and

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Speaker 1: never sat next to that old TV again. And according

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Speaker 1: to DAMEE Fuller, Native Oklahoma, now spying on the Texans

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Speaker 1: down in childish, that's just how that happened. Now, this is,

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Speaker 1: without a doubt, the best submission amongst the sea of

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Speaker 1: great ones that have ever been sent in by you.

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Speaker 1: Stories like this will always find a way to the top.

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Speaker 1: Y'all keep them coming, Thank you, Dame. Measuring success any

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Speaker 1: purposeful experience we have where we hope to gain something

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Speaker 1: from the endeavor, whether it's knowledge, a new skill, or

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Speaker 1: something tangible. Once it's over, we have a reckoning of

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Speaker 1: how successful or unsuccessful that struggle was. Was what we

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Speaker 1: gathered from that exercise worth what we sacrifice for the

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Speaker 1: end goal? And that's a question we can all relate

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Speaker 1: to now. Every day lies from getting up and going

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Speaker 1: to work, buying groceries, or for our leisurely pursuits. It's

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Speaker 1: easy to get discouraged after a trip to the grocery

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Speaker 1: store when you compare what you paid for for what

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Speaker 1: you brought home. Soon you have to go back and

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Speaker 1: do it all over again. The one way to deal

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Speaker 1: with that is to grow your own, which requires effort

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Speaker 1: on your part. Once you start down that road to

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Speaker 1: do it right, it requires daily attention to reap the

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Speaker 1: best rewards. Now that's an investment in time and effort

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Speaker 1: versus the rewards and the literal fruit and vegetables of

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Speaker 1: your labors. The end of the growing season dictates if

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Speaker 1: the effort was outweighed by the rewards. I liked farming

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Speaker 1: growing up, but I was not a fan of gardening.

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Speaker 1: Farming was different in that it was tractors and implements,

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Speaker 1: and garden was me on the ignorant end of a

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Speaker 1: whole stooped over with a bucket, picking tomatoes and beans

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Speaker 1: and peas. It was always what stood between me and

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Speaker 1: the things I wanted to do. I'm going fishing in

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Speaker 1: the morning. I'll be leaving before breakfast, to which my

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Speaker 1: mother would respond, we're picking peas in the morning. You

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Speaker 1: can go after that's done. A fooled again. Now, I

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Speaker 1: didn't mind ripping the rewards from those forced efforts when

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Speaker 1: the time came to mash a double handful of him

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Speaker 1: into a piece of hot buttered corn bread. But as

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Speaker 1: a young man with fishing on his mind, breaking the

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Speaker 1: sweat while bent over in a pea patch trying to

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Speaker 1: fill a five gallon bucket was the farthest thing from

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Speaker 1: a plate full of goodness that you could get now

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Speaker 1: later on, had you asked me if it was worth

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Speaker 1: the trouble at the sibber table after my first bite

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Speaker 1: of peas and corn bread, and the Andrew would have

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Speaker 1: been an emphatic yes, Yes it was. But this is

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Speaker 1: the magic of the passage of time, both in the

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Speaker 1: measure of success and the maturity of a person. I

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Speaker 1: find it a lot easier to recognize where my efforts

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Speaker 1: are heading with each passing birthday, something I couldn't see

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Speaker 1: past where I was standing earlier in my life. I

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Speaker 1: tended to live my life for the here and now,

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Speaker 1: never thinking beyond tomorrow, because tomorrow was a long way away.

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Speaker 1: But before I knew it, tomorrow was today. Spent several

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Speaker 1: days with some folks in Kansas last week at one

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Speaker 1: of the Meat Eatter Experience events, the lat Vin Eagle himself,

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Speaker 1: Joannis Vitellius, and I gathered up with nine folks from

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Speaker 1: all walks of life in all parts of the country

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Speaker 1: to hunt ducks and geese in central Kansas with a

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Speaker 1: folks at foul Planes Waterfowl Outfitters. My colleague Michael Reetveil

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Speaker 1: from first light was there and organizing the whole affair

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Speaker 1: from the admin's side of things, and had everything squared

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Speaker 1: away from the moment Jannis and I got there. As

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Speaker 1: I stumbled my way through this life of mine, I

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Speaker 1: find it interest in how uncommonly common it is for

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Speaker 1: me to run into someone that I know or have

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Speaker 1: a connection with in the most random of places. I

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Speaker 1: take away the many people I run into airports and

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Speaker 1: restaurants that follow this show and others I've been blessed

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Speaker 1: to be a part of, and focus on the ones

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Speaker 1: that I run into that I actually know or have

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Speaker 1: been acquainted with, and it never ceases to amaze me.

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Speaker 1: Michael met Joannis and I and showed us inside, and

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Speaker 1: shortly thereafter introduced us to one of the owners of

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Speaker 1: Foul Planes, Chase White, a strapping lad with a beard

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Speaker 1: long enough to call him esthetically to play with zz

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Speaker 1: top now. I shook his hand and introduced my my

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Speaker 1: He said, I think I met you about ten years ago.

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Speaker 1: Immediately I started thumbing through my minds antiquated roller decks

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Speaker 1: that loses more index cards with each passing day, trying

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Speaker 1: to figure out where I could have met someone that

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Speaker 1: was running a duck hunting operation and a part of

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Speaker 1: Kansas that I'd never been in before. I wasn't having

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Speaker 1: any luck. Oh oh, was it in my other career,

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Speaker 1: the law enforcement one? Then Chase said, I was got

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Speaker 1: deer hunters down in southeast Candace and met you. I

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Speaker 1: imagined him without the beard, and I remembered him immediately. Well,

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Speaker 1: I remember the day that what you were doing, Chase.

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Speaker 1: You were in a farm shop building ground blinds out

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Speaker 1: of cattle panels and camo tarps. He started laughing, and

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Speaker 1: we reminisced about the people that we knew in common,

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Speaker 1: Max Griffin and Ethan Bennington, who were guiding for the

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Speaker 1: same concern back then. It's always funny to me to

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Speaker 1: have those experience and have it bring to mind a

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Speaker 1: million things that I wouldn't have ordinarily thought about without

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Speaker 1: some sort of trigger. Chasing his family live in Virginia,

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Speaker 1: and he and his business partner, Cody Crook, a native Kansas,

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Speaker 1: own and operate foul planes in the central part of

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Speaker 1: the state. Now, when Chase comes out to Kansas to

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Speaker 1: gad he brings his wife, Megan and their little boy

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Speaker 1: on the annual pilgrimage. A short time later, John Johnny, Sean, Phil, Jim,

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Speaker 1: Carry Brent, not this Brnt, the other Brint, as I

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Speaker 1: would refer to him throughout our state. Michelle and Jason

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Speaker 1: walked through the door and our camp was complete. The

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Speaker 1: Foul Plane staff worked feverously behind the scenes as we

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Speaker 1: all got better acquainted with each other. An the collected

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Speaker 1: group of humans from Michigan, North Dakota, Missouri, Virginia, Montana, Idaho, Kansas,

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Speaker 1: and Arkansas would share a common space for the next

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Speaker 1: three days, all seeking the opportunity to bag limits of

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Speaker 1: ducks and geese and the company of strangers. I talked

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Speaker 1: about how to be a guest at a duck and

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Speaker 1: way back on This Country Life episode one nineteen entitled

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Speaker 1: Duck Camp Etiquette. Now han't been a waterfowl guide myself

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Speaker 1: for twenty six years, I have a pretty good idea

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Speaker 1: on what all it entails to put on a hunt

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Speaker 1: for clients and what hunters like to know to make

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Speaker 1: them more confident guides than the opportunity to be successful,

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Speaker 1: I draw all guides can't control the weather or the animals.

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Speaker 1: What they can do is provide a clean, comfortable place

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Speaker 1: to stay, good food, and communicate them with their guests

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Speaker 1: now keeping their hunters up to speed on what's going

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Speaker 1: on as far as what's expected of them, where they'll

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Speaker 1: be hunting, the environmental conditions they can expect to encounter,

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Speaker 1: and the equipment they'll need to keep them comfortable and

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Speaker 1: it's important. These were all things that my brother Tim

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Speaker 1: and I focused on when we were guiding it. It

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Speaker 1: made for a more relaxed atmosphere in camp when the

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Speaker 1: only questions left unanswered. We're controlled by mother nature chasing.

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Speaker 1: This crew did an excellent job of explaining it all

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Speaker 1: in great detail. They also had a grease board posted

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Speaker 1: in the mudroom. Now on the grease board all the

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Speaker 1: pertinent information for the next day's hunt was posted, what

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Speaker 1: time we were leaving, how far we were going, if

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Speaker 1: we were hunting ducks, geese or both. Another time that

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Speaker 1: was posted would allow you to roll out early with

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Speaker 1: the guide crew if you wanted to help set up now.

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Speaker 1: For those not versed in what goes into prepping a

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Speaker 1: spot for ducks and geese, is a fun way to

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Speaker 1: learn the dues and don'ts of decoy placement, the number

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Speaker 1: of decoys used, why you use that number, and the

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Speaker 1: rest of the ingredients that go into the mix of

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Speaker 1: having a safe and successful hunt. When there's nothing left

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Speaker 1: to question, all that's left is to get to know

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Speaker 1: one another. Where else could such a diversely located group

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Speaker 1: of people whose main similarity is a love for the

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Speaker 1: outdoors gather together to celebrate a com and passion. It's

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Speaker 1: the main investment in measuring the success of the hunt.

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Speaker 1: It can't all be about how many ducks and geese

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Speaker 1: you bring back to camp. Now, there was a time

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Speaker 1: when it was for me, just like some of the

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Speaker 1: folks that I visited with in Kansas. Another commonality is

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Speaker 1: that with age and maturity comes the peace that goes

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Speaker 1: beyond the ducks and geese we bring home. I've seen

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Speaker 1: it a million times in people I've guided for who

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Speaker 1: bring their sons and daughters and younger family members. The

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Speaker 1: youngsters are chomping at the bit to get to the trigger,

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Speaker 1: while the older folks kind of set back and enjoy

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Speaker 1: the riot. I learned that lesson from a client of

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Speaker 1: hours that I only had the pleasure of honting with

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Speaker 1: once early in my guiding career. He was from Pennsylvania

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Speaker 1: and asked me questions about everything we saw that day. Trees, bushes,

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Speaker 1: farm crops, birds, bugs. Everything that he was hearing and

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Speaker 1: seeing that he didn't have back in Pennsylvania was of

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Speaker 1: interest to it. I didn't know half of what he

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Speaker 1: was asking any He seemed a little disappointed that I didn't.

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Speaker 1: There were no apps or cell phones then that could

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Speaker 1: give you the answers. I was supposed to be his

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Speaker 1: Google for Arkansas, and I had failed him miserably. He

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Speaker 1: was an older gentleman who, while I only hunted with

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Speaker 1: him a few days, he made a lasting impression on me.

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Speaker 1: He was confessing more into this hunting trip than just

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Speaker 1: how many ducks he could choose. He wanted to know

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Speaker 1: how I grew up, what it was like living here

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Speaker 1: at anything he could about everything I didn't know. It

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Speaker 1: made me see value in my place like I'd never

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Speaker 1: seen before, Even though there was no other place on

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Speaker 1: this planet that I wanted to be than right there

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Speaker 1: where I was, standing beside him in flooded green timber,

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Speaker 1: ignorant of the majority of my surroundings. I felt guilty

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Speaker 1: for not being able to answer him. I vowed to

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Speaker 1: myself to learn more about the things I took for

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Speaker 1: granted that nours so important to me. Yet at the

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Speaker 1: time were of little consequence. With each trip outside, I

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Speaker 1: took note of more of the little things. I looked

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Speaker 1: them up, and I asked other folks I was with,

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Speaker 1: and I tried to learn something every day. Still do

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Speaker 1: that yankee from Pennsylvania taught me to be more invested

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Speaker 1: in whatever I was doing, and my returns grew way

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Speaker 1: beyond what I brought home to skin and eat. Jannis

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Speaker 1: and Chase played ping pong, and the rest of us

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Speaker 1: cheered and jeered to the monotonous tone of the back

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Speaker 1: and forth between them. And during that hypnotic demonstration of

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Speaker 1: hand eye coordination, I learned that I was sitting in

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Speaker 1: the company of medical professionals, veterans, and engineers, amongst others.

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Speaker 1: Three sets of married folks, a father and a son,

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Speaker 1: and one flying solo, all happy to be there, all

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Speaker 1: with humility, in varied levels of duck hunting experience, ranging

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Speaker 1: from veteran waterfowlers to novices. They shared a genuine interest

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Speaker 1: in what mine Giannis's job entailed and asked questions with enthusiasm.

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Speaker 1: They all reminded me, every one one of them, with

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Speaker 1: a man from Pennsylvania that I'd taken hunting almost forty

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Speaker 1: years ago. They wanted to learn everything, and they weren't

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Speaker 1: afraid or too vain to ask questions about things they

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Speaker 1: didn't know. They were educating themselves to better understand the

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Speaker 1: environment in which they were now operating, and in doing so,

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Speaker 1: they would see the bigger picture beyond the end of

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Speaker 1: their shotgun and what was really going on. People like

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Speaker 1: that are my kind of people, regardless of their level

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Speaker 1: of ability in anything, but especially the outdoors. Some of

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Speaker 1: them could have taken my place in the hosting duties

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Speaker 1: and been better at it, I'm sure than I was.

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Speaker 1: Always looked for a common denominator when I'm talking to

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Speaker 1: a group of folks, but the only one a parent

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Speaker 1: it first was I respect for the wild things, And

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Speaker 1: once we started talking, all the others rose to the surface,

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Speaker 1: and there was a lot of them, a notable difference

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Speaker 1: from the eclectic group of folks I sat with for

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Speaker 1: three hours in the Dallas Fort Worth Airport, all of

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Speaker 1: them close enough to talk, but miles away on their

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Speaker 1: phones and laptops. I got home and I unpacked, getting

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Speaker 1: my stuff cleaned, washed, and ready to leave again for

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Speaker 1: a film we're shooting in a few days. When I

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Speaker 1: laid down last night after saying my prayers, my thoughts

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Speaker 1: drifted back a day to the new friends I had

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Speaker 1: made and wondered if they'd all gotten home yet. I'd

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Speaker 1: only known them for a little over seventy two hours,

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Speaker 1: but in that time I'd invested in them as much

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Speaker 1: and more than they'd invested in me. I knew their kids' names,

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Speaker 1: where they went to church, and much of the day

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Speaker 1: to day things that make up their lives. Things like

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Speaker 1: that matter, and that matter because we each asked the

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Speaker 1: other a question, and instead of marking time until we

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Speaker 1: could speak again, we listened to the answer. I couldn't

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Speaker 1: tell you how many ducks and geese we shot over

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Speaker 1: those three days. It wasn't a limit every day, but

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Speaker 1: we didn't get skumped by any means, and had we

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Speaker 1: been hunting for the skillet, we'd have all went to

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Speaker 1: bed foot at night. A year from now, I doubt

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Speaker 1: I could pick out the places we hunted have shown

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Speaker 1: a picture of them among three others. I guarantee you

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Speaker 1: that I'll remember the people, and when I do, I'm

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Speaker 1: gonna smile, and that's how I measure success. I can

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Speaker 1: only hope that they do the same thank out so

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Speaker 1: much for listening to me and my partner, Clay Bowl

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Speaker 1: and the Old Bear Grease Channel. And until next week,

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Speaker 1: this is Brent Reeves, Sign it off. Y'all be careful,