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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 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 tailgate. I

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Speaker 1: think I got a thing or two to teach you

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Speaker 1: know your trees. Tree identification is more important than maybe

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Speaker 1: some folks think, and being able to tell the difference

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Speaker 1: between a red oak and a white oak could be

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Speaker 1: the difference in going hungry or coming home with a

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Speaker 1: sackful of supper. Trees on the landscape tell a story.

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Speaker 1: It's never too late to learn the difference, says, and

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Speaker 1: it's never been easier to do it right now. Why

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Speaker 1: it's easy right now because right now is when we're

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Speaker 1: talking about it, and the amount of information available has

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Speaker 1: never been greater. I'm challenging you to know the woods

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Speaker 1: you're rambling around in. The more you know, the better

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Speaker 1: it's going to help you in every pursuit that you

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Speaker 1: have that takes place in the woods. No, you trees

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Speaker 1: us up next. But first I'm going to tell you

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Speaker 1: a story. In high school at Warren, Arkansas, I took

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Speaker 1: a two year forestry class at the Votech campus along

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Speaker 1: with my old watermelon stealing buddy Greg Hayes. I'm starting

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Speaker 1: to think this guy may have been a bad influence.

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Speaker 1: But our teacher was a bona fide of registered forester

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Speaker 1: and his name was Fred Burnett. It's still Fred Burnett anyway.

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Speaker 1: The Warren Votech took students from all over southeast Arkansas

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Speaker 1: and offered welding, construction, trade, nursing, business courses, and forestry.

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Speaker 1: The forestry class was absolutely outstanding. It was also hard.

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Speaker 1: We had to learn to identify seventy five different species

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Speaker 1: of trees that grew in Arkansas along with their scientific names,

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Speaker 1: and be able to identify them by their leaves and

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Speaker 1: the characteristics of their bark, limbs, and twigs. I loved

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Speaker 1: it and everything about it. The majority of the instruction

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Speaker 1: weather permitting was always outside, which is where I wanted

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Speaker 1: to be anyway. There were around on fifteen of us

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Speaker 1: I guess in the class from four different area high schools,

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Speaker 1: and like little Turkey polts following a mother hen we

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Speaker 1: trailed mister Burnett all over the school campus learned about

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Speaker 1: all the aspects of trees and where they grew. I

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Speaker 1: remember exactly where we were standing a week into school

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Speaker 1: when he looked at me and told me to identify

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Speaker 1: a tree and give him the scientific name. We had

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Speaker 1: just are studying this stuff, and we were at the

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Speaker 1: south entrance to the school campus that doesn't even exist anymore.

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Speaker 1: Beside the driveway where the votech bus was parked was

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Speaker 1: a tree, and everyone in the class was waiting for

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Speaker 1: me to screw it up when I said American sweet

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Speaker 1: gum liquid AMBARSTI rest of Fleua, correct, said mister Burnett.

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Speaker 1: And that was forty one years ago, and I remember

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Speaker 1: it like it was this morning. Lucky for me, it

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Speaker 1: was also the first one that I had learned. I

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Speaker 1: could tell you about ten different trees before I started

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Speaker 1: that class, but the scientific names, and that was the

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Speaker 1: gravy of the tree ied game. We were also blessed

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Speaker 1: to have a school forest about fifteen acres of mixed

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Speaker 1: pine and hardwood, and that was our real classroom. That's

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Speaker 1: where we made money to finance school projects and trips.

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Speaker 1: Those woods are gone now and have been for quite

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Speaker 1: a long time, but back then, selling firewood was our mission.

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Speaker 1: I can't imagine this kind of curriculum in schools now.

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Speaker 1: Maybe I'm wrong, but we had chainsaws and we used them.

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Speaker 1: A lot of us had used them at home before

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Speaker 1: we ever got to high school, and those that hadn't,

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Speaker 1: mister Burnette taught him how to do it. We'd take

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Speaker 1: turns notching and cutting trees, trimming the limbs, cutting the

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Speaker 1: log into firewood links, and then take a bolting axe

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Speaker 1: or splitting them all, whatever you want to call it,

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Speaker 1: and split the wood for stacking. At school. Chainsaws, bolton axes,

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Speaker 1: sledge hammers, steel wedges, single and double bit axes were

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Speaker 1: all at our disposal. It looked like a children's prison

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Speaker 1: gang out there, and mister Burnett was the warden. Now.

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Speaker 1: Having kids from different schools, especially those from rival schools,

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Speaker 1: always put an extra dynamic of competition amongst the students.

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Speaker 1: Terry was a guy from just such a school. He

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Speaker 1: was a good guy, a good athlete, but always competitive.

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Speaker 1: Everything was a competition to him. Terry told me that

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Speaker 1: while I was pretty good with a chainsaw, that there

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Speaker 1: wasn't a cut off section of wood that he couldn't

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Speaker 1: split with a double bit axe. He then proceeded to

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Speaker 1: demonstrate it by easily splitting a cut red oak and

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Speaker 1: the pieces ready for the fireplace. Terry was a show off,

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Speaker 1: but Brent was diabolical, and when he said there ain't

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Speaker 1: a cut off piece of wood out here that I

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Speaker 1: can't split, being at my limit of having to listen

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Speaker 1: to him say how good he was at everything, I

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Speaker 1: accepted his challenge and rolled him up a two foot

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Speaker 1: in diameter and beautifully round cut of sweet coat. Now,

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Speaker 1: anyone who knows anything about splitting wood and burning wood

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Speaker 1: knows that oak cut offs split good when they're green,

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Speaker 1: and great when they've been put up to dry. Sweet gum,

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Speaker 1: on the other hand, do not. The twisted woven grain

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Speaker 1: of the sweet gum is terrible for splitting, and it's

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Speaker 1: basically useless as firewood. Whoever cut it down that day

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Speaker 1: must have just been practicing, because I can assure you

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Speaker 1: mister Burnett wasn't about to have us split it up

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Speaker 1: and stack it for sale. But that wasn't Terry's challenge.

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Speaker 1: He said there wasn't a cutoff out there that he

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Speaker 1: couldn't split with a double bit axe. Well, remember Greg Hayes,

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Speaker 1: my partner in Watermelon Crime, my lifelong to this very

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Speaker 1: day friend, that's more like a brother. That guy, Well,

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Speaker 1: I blame him for what happened next, because he should

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Speaker 1: have stopped me. He knew just as well as I

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Speaker 1: did that he wasn't going to be able to split that,

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Speaker 1: especially with an axe. You could have loaded that thing

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Speaker 1: up in a cannon and shot it through a fire

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Speaker 1: truck and not knocked the bark off of it. Sweet

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Speaker 1: gum doesn't split well. But Terry, he was a competitor.

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Speaker 1: He knew the challenge that lay before him, and he

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Speaker 1: walked around that end table size cut off, sizing it

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Speaker 1: up and looking for a weak spot. He was toting

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Speaker 1: that double bit axe like thor toased his hammer as

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Speaker 1: he tried to stare it down. He stopped and looked

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Speaker 1: up at each of us like he knew something we didn't,

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Speaker 1: and he grinned and he spit on that cutoff, marking

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Speaker 1: his spot. I looked at Gregg and we smiled. Then

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Speaker 1: that cat slowly raised that axe above his head and

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Speaker 1: with one mighty stroke, he landed that axe blade precisely

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Speaker 1: where he'd planned, and was as surprised as that both

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Speaker 1: of us when the axe bounced straight back, hitting him

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Speaker 1: with the opposite side blade on the forehead above his

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Speaker 1: left eye. It was a bang bang play. None of

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Speaker 1: us had time to react. Before the love of humanity,

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Speaker 1: I wasn't trying to kill him. The amount of litigation

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Speaker 1: that would take place in these times makes me shudder

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Speaker 1: to imagine what would happen. But those times were different.

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Speaker 1: He had a two hitch cut on his head that

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Speaker 1: bled pretty good for a few minutes. Mister Burnett applied

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Speaker 1: some galls from the first daid kit that he kept

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Speaker 1: with us and took him to the school nurse and

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Speaker 1: the nursing students got to work on a real live

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Speaker 1: dummy instead of a plastic one. He came out of

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Speaker 1: there smiling after having all those gals fussing over him

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Speaker 1: and wrapped up like he been loaded in a cannon

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Speaker 1: and shot through a fire truck. But that was all.

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Speaker 1: No one got sued, No one got in trouble, not

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Speaker 1: bad trouble. Anyway, mister Burnett had what I'd call a

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Speaker 1: meaningful exchange of ideas with all three of us, and

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Speaker 1: that was it. This wouldn't be the last adventure in

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Speaker 1: that class, but that's for another time. But before someone

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Speaker 1: writes in it says anything negative about the supervision or

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Speaker 1: that there was a lack of it, let me remind

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Speaker 1: you that we had all gone through safety training and

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Speaker 1: chose to ignore what we knew were tried and true

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Speaker 1: practices of safety in that setting, Mister Burnett couldn't be

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Speaker 1: everywhere at once to keep idiots from causing their own calamity,

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Speaker 1: just like a coach can't be to prevent an athlete

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Speaker 1: from injuring themselves, or or my high school a teacher

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Speaker 1: at the time. I filled a pipe full of stlene

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Speaker 1: stuffed full of wet paper towels, lit it and shot

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Speaker 1: them across the shop and agg class like a Roman candle.

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Speaker 1: That was all on us, nobody else. Mister Burnett will

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Speaker 1: go on to become the forester at a Central Arkansas

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Speaker 1: military base and eventually retire as the fire management officer

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Speaker 1: for the Arkansas Forestry Commission. You don't rise to those

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Speaker 1: positions being inattentive or characters. He's a grandpa now, and

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Speaker 1: a good man and a great influence on me, And

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Speaker 1: that's just how that happened. It's been said the best

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Speaker 1: deer killers probably don't know what kind of tree they're

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Speaker 1: sitting in, So why does it matter. It matters because

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Speaker 1: all animals operate on the three necessities of life, food, water,

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Speaker 1: and shelter. Food and shelter can be provided by trees

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Speaker 1: and water. Well that can be located by the types

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Speaker 1: of trees that you observe. Trees are also a static

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Speaker 1: identifier for a whole bunch of stuff. They'll tell you

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Speaker 1: the potential wildlife that lives there. They can tell the

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Speaker 1: air you're entering or leaving as different species grow in

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Speaker 1: different terrain types. They can tell you the general health

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Speaker 1: of the ecosystem you're operating in, and possibly be a

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Speaker 1: barometer for your potential success in that space, or at

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Speaker 1: least the opportunity for success. Healthy trees usually dictate healthy wildlife,

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Speaker 1: but not for all wildlife. Sometimes the absence of trees

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Speaker 1: is even more beneficial, or at least in that same area.

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Speaker 1: And stay with me, there's no one that likes an

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Speaker 1: open hardwood bottom more than me. Seeing that grand overstory

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Speaker 1: of giant oak trees is both peaceful and nostalgic. It's

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Speaker 1: our nature to love things and to have order, and

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Speaker 1: the neat defined contrast between an open hardwood flat and

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Speaker 1: a briar laden thicket is a prime example of how

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Speaker 1: predators in prey coexist in the same space. One time,

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Speaker 1: my dad and I was squirrel hunting and sleaning over

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Speaker 1: bottoms where I grew up. Peanup was treated, and we

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Speaker 1: were going to him by cutting across a thicket from

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Speaker 1: one spot of timber to the next. I was sitting

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Speaker 1: behind him on our big buckskin horse with the toes

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Speaker 1: of my boots dug in behind the bend of his knees,

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Speaker 1: and my hands were running deep in his pockets of

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Speaker 1: his old army green hunting coat, and I was squeezing

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Speaker 1: him as hard as I could to hang on with

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Speaker 1: my face buried in the middle of his back, as

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Speaker 1: we rode through a patch of briers so thick a

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Speaker 1: rabbit would have had the toe to hatchet with him

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Speaker 1: to get around in. We busted out on the other

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Speaker 1: side and I could relax and look around. I remember

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Speaker 1: telling him how much I hated those thickets, and that

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Speaker 1: I wished all of it could look like the open

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Speaker 1: timber we were riding in now. And I never will

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Speaker 1: forget how he described it looking when he was a kid.

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Speaker 1: He's just something. When I was your age, I could

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Speaker 1: run barefoot from Mount Eby to the Califorard. Y'all just

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Speaker 1: gonna have to trust me on that one. That's a

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Speaker 1: long way from down the river through the woods from

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Speaker 1: those two places. But he said, I didn't have to

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Speaker 1: worry about stepping on briars, getting hung up in BlackBerry thickets,

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Speaker 1: or even slowing down to look at deer tracks. When

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Speaker 1: I asked why he wouldn't slow down to look at

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Speaker 1: deer tracks, he said, because there wasn't any deer in

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Speaker 1: here to make them. Now, don't get me wrong. They

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Speaker 1: were deer in Arkansas way before my dad was a

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Speaker 1: little boy. Fernando de Soto was trapsing around here for

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Speaker 1: about a year starting in fifteen forty one, and he

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Speaker 1: was trading goods and visiting with the Caddo Indians who

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Speaker 1: were wearing buckskins that came from here, and the meat

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Speaker 1: that they ate was a large part of their diet,

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Speaker 1: and I can dig it. Less than an hour ago.

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Speaker 1: Alexis had me lay out a package of burger to

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Speaker 1: throw out for supper tonight. Those folks knew what was good,

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Speaker 1: and we do too. His point to why of the woods,

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Speaker 1: the open woods looked so good to me was because

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Speaker 1: we were out there to catch stuff and eat it.

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Speaker 1: Now here's another side note. He was making a point

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Speaker 1: about predators. But don't anyone think for a minute that

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Speaker 1: he was about to eat one of the squirrels we'd

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Speaker 1: kill that day or any other day. He wouldn't at

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Speaker 1: one if he'd have been starving, slapped to death. He'd

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Speaker 1: help me skin them and even cook them for me,

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Speaker 1: but eat them, not buddy reeves, and not for any

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Speaker 1: amount of money. He gave them away to neighbors, traded

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Speaker 1: them to a man down the road for snake bite medicine,

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Speaker 1: and anyone that wanted them. But he wouldn't eat one.

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Speaker 1: And why he wouldn't eat one, that's a whole other story. Anyway,

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Speaker 1: He told me, the better that we could see, the

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Speaker 1: better chance we had of slipping around and getting close

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Speaker 1: enough to something to catch it. It worked the same

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Speaker 1: way with animals, And while that didn't endear me the thickets,

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Speaker 1: it did make me realize that, you know, they were important.

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Speaker 1: It's one of the necessities of life. We talked about shelter.

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Speaker 1: Those thickets are where deer lay up to have their

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Speaker 1: phones hidden from any and everything that was running around

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Speaker 1: trying to make a bamb sandwich out of them. They

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Speaker 1: also hold the brows and a million other goodies and

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Speaker 1: reasons why they're beneficials to a multitude of animals found

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Speaker 1: in and around them. Maybe we'll talk about thickets one day,

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Speaker 1: but this day ain't it. We're talking about trees and

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Speaker 1: importance of knowing the difference. You don't have to know

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Speaker 1: the scientific names of trees, but it's important. It's hunters

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Speaker 1: and observers, the wildlife that we understand as best we can,

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Speaker 1: the environment that we find ourselves operating in. Being able

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Speaker 1: to tell the difference in mass producing trees, evergreens and

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Speaker 1: decideous trees that's the ones that lose their leaves in

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Speaker 1: the fall is one of the best eras in your quiver.

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Speaker 1: And not all decidus trees lose their leaves at the

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Speaker 1: same rate or begin at the same time. If your

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Speaker 1: summer scouting and you looking to hang a stand in

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Speaker 1: that perfect spot where trails come together, and you want

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00:14:52,080 --> 00:14:55,200
Speaker 1: to be there for an October bow hunt in Arkansas,

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Speaker 1: and you choose a tree with limbs that come out

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Speaker 1: at a ninety degree angle with great leaf cover, you'll

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Speaker 1: be shining like a diamond and a coach. But by

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Speaker 1: the time that October gets here, because the tree you

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Speaker 1: select is more than likely a black gum. Now that's

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Speaker 1: Nissa silvatica. It's one of the first trees in the

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Speaker 1: woods to lose its leaves, and usually by October it's

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Speaker 1: as barren as a ten year old dough. However, the

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Speaker 1: fruit of a black gum can be made into jelly

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Speaker 1: for us to eat, and animals from turkeys to songbirds.

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Speaker 1: The coons, bears and squirrels and a bunch of others

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Speaker 1: love them. Deer not so much. They'll feed on the

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Speaker 1: seedlings and the leaves up to a point. Then, as

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Speaker 1: the sample of matures the leaves lose they're attraction, the

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Speaker 1: deer bove on to something else, and the other animals

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Speaker 1: I mentioned take advantage of what the deer crossed off

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Speaker 1: their menu. Also, the black gum tree is very susceptible

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Speaker 1: to heart rots, which can cause them to become hollow

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Speaker 1: over time, but with there wood being so strong, they

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Speaker 1: can still live for a long long time. This creates

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Speaker 1: shelter and dens for mammals, birds, tree dwelling critters, bats,

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Speaker 1: and spaces for honey bee hives. All of that in

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Speaker 1: one tree. That's just one of more than one hundred

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Speaker 1: different species of trees that are native to Arkansas. In

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Speaker 1: Louisiana and Kansas, you're looking at about the same number. Well,

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Speaker 1: you say to yourself, I hunt out west, and there

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00:16:21,600 --> 00:16:24,880
Speaker 1: ain't many trees out there anyway, and thanks, you ain't

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Speaker 1: enough to make a different to any kind of plans

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Speaker 1: that I'm going to make when I hunt out there.

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00:16:29,320 --> 00:16:32,480
Speaker 1: Well guess what it should make a difference. Because New

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Speaker 1: Mexico and Arizona they sport over one hundred and thirty

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Speaker 1: different species. In Utah that's close to two hundred and fifty. Obviously,

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Speaker 1: all of them ain't providing food for game. But you

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Speaker 1: have to remember that shelter is just as important, and

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Speaker 1: it's one of those three basic requirements for life. So

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Speaker 1: keep that in mind. Speaking of shelter, my friend MARAE. Means,

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Speaker 1: who is the Large Carnivore Program Coordinator for the Arkansas

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Speaker 1: Game and Fish he told me once when they were

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Speaker 1: due and some bearden studies now bearding studies, when they

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Speaker 1: locate a breeding age seals that have been radio collared

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00:17:07,280 --> 00:17:09,600
Speaker 1: and they hit them with the old razzle dazzle knockout

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00:17:09,640 --> 00:17:12,760
Speaker 1: shot and get all the biological data they can muster

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Speaker 1: from her in any cubs she may have betta and

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00:17:15,960 --> 00:17:18,199
Speaker 1: I went on one this past March, and man, what

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00:17:18,280 --> 00:17:22,040
Speaker 1: an experience it was. Anyway, Myron and his merry band

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00:17:22,080 --> 00:17:26,000
Speaker 1: of biologists, veterinarians, and technicians tracked a collared sound down

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Speaker 1: in South Arkansas, where it's common for mama bears to

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00:17:29,520 --> 00:17:32,479
Speaker 1: use tree cavities to den in since the areas are

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Speaker 1: prone to flood. I guess this old gal was prepping

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Speaker 1: for the big one, because Myron said she was located

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Speaker 1: over eighty feet high in a huge bald cypress tree.

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Speaker 1: That's tax odium to stitch them for you folks keeping score,

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Speaker 1: and just some more gibbers for those that ain't. But

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Speaker 1: bears are funny creatures and I dig them. Now. I

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Speaker 1: can't speak much about the trees out west, but I

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Speaker 1: can talk about those I find here. Orcus alba, the

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Speaker 1: white oak Man. It's a blessing and a curse all

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Speaker 1: rolled up in one. Now. How could something that produces

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Speaker 1: nature's best acorn, preferred by animals and humans alike be

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Speaker 1: a curse. Wait a minute, did I say humans? I

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Speaker 1: sure did. I mentioned the Caddo Indians earlier. Well, that's

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Speaker 1: just one tribe of Native Americans that were trading deerskins

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00:18:23,320 --> 00:18:25,840
Speaker 1: and others such plunder to the Sodo and his crew

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00:18:26,480 --> 00:18:29,400
Speaker 1: while towding a lunch bucket full of acorn based groceries

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Speaker 1: to the meet and greet. My friend Rick Spicer is

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Speaker 1: a flint napping, acorn eating bushcraft teaching guru. If there

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Speaker 1: was such a thing as a human Swiss Army knife,

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Speaker 1: mine would have a Rick Spicer blade in it. Y'all

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00:18:43,840 --> 00:18:48,440
Speaker 1: check out Rick's Instagram page at packrat Bushcraft and give

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Speaker 1: it a fallow. I'll share a link to it on

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Speaker 1: mine and post up his step by step method in

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Speaker 1: the recipe he uses to make cinnamon acorn bread Cinnamon

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Speaker 1: acren bread. Y'all know I'm gonna try tow, so you

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00:19:00,600 --> 00:19:03,240
Speaker 1: might as well join me, all right. The Curse of

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00:19:03,280 --> 00:19:06,280
Speaker 1: the White Oak Acorn is mainly to bear hunters hunting

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Speaker 1: over bait. I don't have the energy to fuss with

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00:19:09,160 --> 00:19:11,320
Speaker 1: folks about baiting or not baiting. I ain't what we're

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00:19:11,320 --> 00:19:14,879
Speaker 1: talking about. Save it for another day and somebody else

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00:19:15,440 --> 00:19:18,080
Speaker 1: what I'm talking about is how white oak acorns can

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00:19:18,119 --> 00:19:21,639
Speaker 1: absolutely ruin a baited bear hunt. Simply put, when they

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00:19:21,680 --> 00:19:24,480
Speaker 1: start falling, a black bear will crawl over a mountain

341
00:19:24,520 --> 00:19:28,000
Speaker 1: of doughnuts to eat one acre. Your bait will die

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00:19:28,080 --> 00:19:32,040
Speaker 1: deader than disco literally overnight. Knowing the trees in your

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Speaker 1: bear hunt area is crucial. If the acrons start falling early,

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00:19:36,400 --> 00:19:38,600
Speaker 1: you may have to swap it up and change up

345
00:19:38,600 --> 00:19:41,200
Speaker 1: your tactics from standing hunting to more of a spot

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00:19:41,280 --> 00:19:45,280
Speaker 1: and stalk. By knowing tree I D. Knowing your trees,

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00:19:45,359 --> 00:19:47,760
Speaker 1: you can look for a stand of white oaks, check

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00:19:47,800 --> 00:19:52,000
Speaker 1: for bear sign, focus your efforts where you're likely to

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00:19:52,160 --> 00:19:55,439
Speaker 1: cross paths with the bear or the bears that have

350
00:19:55,520 --> 00:19:58,960
Speaker 1: abandoned your bait. Now, I know I've been talking about

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00:19:59,000 --> 00:20:02,480
Speaker 1: bears and and white oaks, but that's only example. Your

352
00:20:02,560 --> 00:20:05,920
Speaker 1: target species could be focusing on the acorns of red oaks,

353
00:20:06,000 --> 00:20:11,800
Speaker 1: pinoaks for salmon fruit, or beech tree masts whatever. Late winter,

354
00:20:11,840 --> 00:20:14,399
Speaker 1: when the acorns are all but gone and there's no

355
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Speaker 1: frogs or crawfish or bugs around for coons to eat,

356
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Speaker 1: we'll go to areas where we know there are groups

357
00:20:21,760 --> 00:20:26,800
Speaker 1: of deciduous holly trees. That one's called alex decidua. Some

358
00:20:26,840 --> 00:20:31,560
Speaker 1: folks call it apossum haul or a winterberry tree. That's

359
00:20:31,560 --> 00:20:33,879
Speaker 1: probably the best name for it, because they'll have fruit

360
00:20:33,920 --> 00:20:36,960
Speaker 1: when everything else is gone, and when that's the case,

361
00:20:37,320 --> 00:20:39,920
Speaker 1: we'll be treating in those spots on a regular basis.

362
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Speaker 1: A lot of you may know that before I turned

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Speaker 1: to a life of fighting crime that I worked in

364
00:20:45,400 --> 00:20:49,320
Speaker 1: the woods managing timber. For those that didn't, I used

365
00:20:49,359 --> 00:20:52,919
Speaker 1: to work in the woods managing timber. Tree I d

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00:20:53,160 --> 00:20:56,639
Speaker 1: was crucial and allowed me to do my job cruising timber,

367
00:20:56,680 --> 00:21:00,280
Speaker 1: which is taking a survey of the mertionable timber on

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Speaker 1: a particular property, either by measuring every tree on it

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00:21:04,080 --> 00:21:08,639
Speaker 1: or through a measured sampling of designated intervals. Required me

370
00:21:08,840 --> 00:21:11,560
Speaker 1: to tally the different types of trees to estimate the

371
00:21:11,640 --> 00:21:14,800
Speaker 1: value of the timber on that land. You should be

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00:21:14,840 --> 00:21:17,879
Speaker 1: doing the same now every time you hit the woods,

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00:21:18,000 --> 00:21:20,920
Speaker 1: but not for removing timber, but for removing whatever you're

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00:21:21,000 --> 00:21:24,280
Speaker 1: chasing out there, or at least finding what you're looking for.

375
00:21:24,960 --> 00:21:28,239
Speaker 1: Everyone I hunt with is always looking for sign, and

376
00:21:28,280 --> 00:21:31,080
Speaker 1: I'm the same. But maybe just as important as a

377
00:21:31,119 --> 00:21:34,720
Speaker 1: sign you're seeing is where it's located and what's around it.

378
00:21:35,440 --> 00:21:38,199
Speaker 1: Are they just passing through to get to an area

379
00:21:38,240 --> 00:21:41,399
Speaker 1: of food or shelter. The shelter doesn't have to be

380
00:21:41,480 --> 00:21:44,800
Speaker 1: a place where they sleep. Shelter can be described as

381
00:21:45,160 --> 00:21:48,440
Speaker 1: a secure place in which you know they breed or

382
00:21:48,520 --> 00:21:51,320
Speaker 1: they rest. How about a like a big oak flat

383
00:21:51,440 --> 00:21:54,160
Speaker 1: or a pine ridge where a gobbler has a strutting

384
00:21:54,240 --> 00:21:57,520
Speaker 1: zone or white tails bed during the middle of the day.

385
00:21:58,080 --> 00:22:00,840
Speaker 1: Of course, you can substitute elk and deer or whatever

386
00:22:00,840 --> 00:22:03,840
Speaker 1: you're after. All I'm saying is to observe the terrain,

387
00:22:04,280 --> 00:22:07,919
Speaker 1: what's growing there, the environment, the wind, everything that you

388
00:22:08,000 --> 00:22:10,880
Speaker 1: can file in the old noodle data bank for retrieval

389
00:22:10,880 --> 00:22:13,280
Speaker 1: when you run across it again, you know somewhere else.

390
00:22:14,560 --> 00:22:18,399
Speaker 1: Being able to easily identify the trees and what uses

391
00:22:18,440 --> 00:22:22,440
Speaker 1: them will make your scouting quicker and more effective. When

392
00:22:22,480 --> 00:22:24,560
Speaker 1: all things are the same, it may be the difference

393
00:22:24,560 --> 00:22:27,240
Speaker 1: in setting up in a sweet gum grove or a

394
00:22:27,240 --> 00:22:36,399
Speaker 1: bunch of white oaks. Now, I'll close out with this

395
00:22:36,520 --> 00:22:39,600
Speaker 1: story here that demonstrates the necessity of tree I d

396
00:22:41,440 --> 00:22:43,879
Speaker 1: Back in my timber management days, me and mister Leon

397
00:22:43,960 --> 00:22:46,439
Speaker 1: were marking timber to be cut and We're half a

398
00:22:46,480 --> 00:22:49,840
Speaker 1: mile from the truck when I found a forty pound

399
00:22:49,920 --> 00:22:54,680
Speaker 1: pine knot covered in dried gray mud. For those unfamiliar

400
00:22:54,680 --> 00:22:57,640
Speaker 1: with a pine knot, it's the rich heart or sapwood

401
00:22:57,680 --> 00:23:00,840
Speaker 1: of a pine tree. Some folks call a lighter fine.

402
00:23:01,800 --> 00:23:04,399
Speaker 1: It's used for killing and starting fires. And where I

403
00:23:04,440 --> 00:23:08,000
Speaker 1: grew up it was gold. Everyone that had a fireplace

404
00:23:08,080 --> 00:23:10,720
Speaker 1: picked it up all year long, regardless of where they were.

405
00:23:11,280 --> 00:23:13,720
Speaker 1: See a pine knot, pick up a pine knot and

406
00:23:13,800 --> 00:23:17,480
Speaker 1: told it home. It was common practice and basically the

407
00:23:17,560 --> 00:23:20,240
Speaker 1: law of the land. A man with a fireplace or

408
00:23:20,640 --> 00:23:23,080
Speaker 1: any reason to build a fire was judged by the

409
00:23:23,080 --> 00:23:25,400
Speaker 1: amount of pine knots that he had piled up at home.

410
00:23:26,760 --> 00:23:29,520
Speaker 1: This one was a monster, and it was all mine.

411
00:23:30,520 --> 00:23:32,560
Speaker 1: Mister Leon had eyes like a hawk when it came

412
00:23:32,600 --> 00:23:34,840
Speaker 1: to find the pine knots, and it was like he

413
00:23:34,880 --> 00:23:37,840
Speaker 1: had a radar. He'd find them, and I'd wind up

414
00:23:37,920 --> 00:23:39,560
Speaker 1: being the one that towed them back to the truck

415
00:23:39,600 --> 00:23:42,280
Speaker 1: for him. After all, I was the youngster and the crew,

416
00:23:42,800 --> 00:23:45,040
Speaker 1: and I respected him for his age and his service

417
00:23:45,080 --> 00:23:48,639
Speaker 1: in World War Two. This day, it was hot, and

418
00:23:48,680 --> 00:23:51,600
Speaker 1: we'd been in the woods all day long. We were

419
00:23:51,640 --> 00:23:54,000
Speaker 1: still a half a mile walk through a sea of

420
00:23:54,000 --> 00:23:57,639
Speaker 1: briars from the truck. I'd taken the lead shot in

421
00:23:57,680 --> 00:24:00,720
Speaker 1: the asthmus with my compass and was breaking a trail

422
00:24:00,840 --> 00:24:03,159
Speaker 1: for both of us when I spied the end of

423
00:24:03,200 --> 00:24:05,439
Speaker 1: the mother of all pine knots poking up from a

424
00:24:05,480 --> 00:24:09,119
Speaker 1: patch of green briars. Mister Leon saw me pull it

425
00:24:09,240 --> 00:24:12,719
Speaker 1: up and throw it over my shoulder. We'd walked from

426
00:24:12,800 --> 00:24:15,040
Speaker 1: minute or two when he stopped whistling and said, what

427
00:24:15,160 --> 00:24:18,440
Speaker 1: you got there, son. Luckily he was behind me and

428
00:24:18,440 --> 00:24:20,920
Speaker 1: couldn't see me rolling my eyes and making a face

429
00:24:20,960 --> 00:24:23,320
Speaker 1: at the dumbest question I was going to hear all day,

430
00:24:24,400 --> 00:24:29,520
Speaker 1: my pine knot? Oh? Is that right? With a hen sarcasm,

431
00:24:29,600 --> 00:24:32,600
Speaker 1: I said, I believe it is, and I wanted to

432
00:24:32,680 --> 00:24:37,400
Speaker 1: end that with old man, but I didn't. He started

433
00:24:37,400 --> 00:24:40,720
Speaker 1: back whistling, and we kept walking and fighting through the

434
00:24:40,760 --> 00:24:44,160
Speaker 1: briers and the heat toward the truck. Now, I got

435
00:24:44,200 --> 00:24:46,879
Speaker 1: to tell you that pine knot was killing me. I

436
00:24:46,960 --> 00:24:49,600
Speaker 1: was swapping shoulders more than I was walking. It was

437
00:24:49,640 --> 00:24:52,480
Speaker 1: over one hundred degrees in that thicket, and the only

438
00:24:52,560 --> 00:24:55,600
Speaker 1: air turning in there was when I was walking, swapping

439
00:24:55,640 --> 00:24:59,720
Speaker 1: shoulders with my prize or mister Leon's whistling. I wanted

440
00:24:59,720 --> 00:25:02,479
Speaker 1: to check, but I knew he'd pick it up and

441
00:25:02,520 --> 00:25:05,280
Speaker 1: told it about fifty yards before my conscience made me

442
00:25:05,520 --> 00:25:07,680
Speaker 1: take it away from him and told it for him anyway.

443
00:25:08,760 --> 00:25:11,000
Speaker 1: Still a quarter from the truck, he stopped whistling again.

444
00:25:11,080 --> 00:25:14,800
Speaker 1: He said, you really gonna tote that all the way out? Now?

445
00:25:14,840 --> 00:25:17,639
Speaker 1: Did he think I couldn't do it? I'll tell you what.

446
00:25:18,040 --> 00:25:20,520
Speaker 1: As bad as I wanted to fling that pine knot

447
00:25:20,600 --> 00:25:24,719
Speaker 1: past his ear and almost miss him, I was bound

448
00:25:24,720 --> 00:25:26,800
Speaker 1: and determined to have it at the truck. When I

449
00:25:26,840 --> 00:25:30,159
Speaker 1: got there. The last one hundred yards was the worst.

450
00:25:30,320 --> 00:25:33,200
Speaker 1: I'm telling you. Rain would have had a problem hitting

451
00:25:33,200 --> 00:25:36,000
Speaker 1: the ground in there, it was so thick. But we

452
00:25:36,040 --> 00:25:38,640
Speaker 1: broke out of it right beside the truck, and I

453
00:25:38,640 --> 00:25:42,280
Speaker 1: immediately dropped that pine knot. He stopped whistling and said,

454
00:25:42,280 --> 00:25:45,119
Speaker 1: you run a good line back to the truck. Soh

455
00:25:45,520 --> 00:25:49,480
Speaker 1: nob he had to say that. Mister Leon wasn't very

456
00:25:49,480 --> 00:25:54,960
Speaker 1: complimentary to anyone about anything. His usual response to a

457
00:25:55,040 --> 00:25:59,920
Speaker 1: question or observation was usually negative. But I always tried

458
00:25:59,920 --> 00:26:02,560
Speaker 1: to look past that because of all that he'd been

459
00:26:02,600 --> 00:26:05,560
Speaker 1: through in the war. He was a genuine hero to me,

460
00:26:05,680 --> 00:26:08,480
Speaker 1: and all of a sudden I felt real bad about

461
00:26:08,480 --> 00:26:11,360
Speaker 1: the way I'd been thinking and acting. As we walked out,

462
00:26:11,400 --> 00:26:14,160
Speaker 1: even though he couldn't see it, he poured and handed

463
00:26:14,200 --> 00:26:17,320
Speaker 1: me the first drink from our water keg. I looked

464
00:26:17,320 --> 00:26:21,239
Speaker 1: at him and said, mister Leon, do you want this

465
00:26:21,320 --> 00:26:25,160
Speaker 1: pine knot? He took a big long drink of water

466
00:26:25,240 --> 00:26:27,840
Speaker 1: and he filled his cup again. He drank it down.

467
00:26:29,119 --> 00:26:31,240
Speaker 1: He turned away from me and chunked it back over

468
00:26:31,280 --> 00:26:33,720
Speaker 1: his shoulder, hitting me dead in the chest with a

469
00:26:33,800 --> 00:26:36,920
Speaker 1: watered up paper cup, and said, that ain't no pine knot.

470
00:26:37,560 --> 00:26:40,000
Speaker 1: That's a big red oak. Lim turn it over and

471
00:26:40,000 --> 00:26:41,399
Speaker 1: look at the bark that was on the end you

472
00:26:41,480 --> 00:26:44,800
Speaker 1: had pointing towards me. He was whistling again when he

473
00:26:44,840 --> 00:26:48,080
Speaker 1: sat down in the cab of the truck. It pays

474
00:26:48,320 --> 00:26:52,600
Speaker 1: to know your trees. Thank y'all so much for listening.

475
00:26:52,760 --> 00:26:55,840
Speaker 1: I truly appreciate you allowed me a little time to

476
00:26:55,880 --> 00:26:58,720
Speaker 1: run around in your head. Every week, I promised to

477
00:26:58,760 --> 00:27:01,720
Speaker 1: do my dead level best not step on anything import

478
00:27:02,920 --> 00:27:06,480
Speaker 1: This is Brent Reeves, sign it all. I'll be careful