Speaker 1: Welcome to This Country Life. I'm your host, Brent Rieves
Speaker 1: from coon hunting to trot lining and just general country living.
Speaker 1: I want you to stay a while as I share
Speaker 1: my stories and the country skills that will help you
Speaker 1: beat the system. This Country Life is proudly presented as
Speaker 1: part of Meat Eaters Podcast Network, bringing you the best
Speaker 1: outdoor podcast the airways have to offer. All right, friends,
Speaker 1: pull you up a chair or drop that tailgate. I
Speaker 1: think I got a thing or two. The teacher the
Speaker 1: gift of time. Time is a precious gift and one
Speaker 1: that shouldn't be taken or given lightly. I've only got
Speaker 1: so much of it. Time is a blessing and a thief,
Speaker 1: and I'm going to talk about that today. I've got
Speaker 1: a special announcement coming up at the end of this episode,
Speaker 1: so be sure to hang around at the ends. First,
Speaker 1: I'm going to tell you a story. Nine years, eleven months,
Speaker 1: and five days ago, my brother Tim and I were
Speaker 1: in Kansas turkey hunting at my friend Clayton Dick's place
Speaker 1: up in northeast Kansas. Now, Clayton is a code hunter
Speaker 1: and hunting with my dad here in Arkansas, along with
Speaker 1: a lot of other folks, and Clayton had invited me
Speaker 1: to come up and hunt on his land and said
Speaker 1: it was covered up in turkeys. It was a heck
Speaker 1: of a drive up there, and I didn't want to
Speaker 1: drive it by myself. It took several attempts, but finally,
Speaker 1: after buying his license and tagged, my brother Tim agreed
Speaker 1: to go with me. Now, if you're a new listener
Speaker 1: to this country life, Tim was my older brother. If
Speaker 1: you're a regular listener to this country life, you should
Speaker 1: know that among all the wonderful qualities my partner in buffoonery,
Speaker 1: mentor and hero possesses, being away from home one of them.
Speaker 1: He's a lot like our dad was. He likes to
Speaker 1: go and do stuff, but at bedtime he prefers to
Speaker 1: be at home, and bedtime for him is usually not
Speaker 1: long after dark. He likes things the same way all
Speaker 1: the time. No deviation is his policy. He goes to
Speaker 1: bed early, He reads for a while before cutting out
Speaker 1: the light and going to sleep, regardless of the outside
Speaker 1: temperature or time of the year. He keeps a window.
Speaker 1: He keeps a window cracked, a fan blowing, and both
Speaker 1: of his feet sticking out the bottom of the covers.
Speaker 1: For the rest of his sleeping habits. You can refer
Speaker 1: back to episode one, nineteen of Duck Camp Etiquette of
Speaker 1: This Country Life anyway. Fact, Tim doesn't like to travel.
Speaker 1: He wants to be somewhere and do whatever he does there,
Speaker 1: but then he wants to be home. Nothing wrong with that,
Speaker 1: but for a cameraman trying to make his mark in
Speaker 1: the outdoor business, I needed someone to film, and I
Speaker 1: didn't want just anybody. I wanted Tim, so I bribed
Speaker 1: him with his turkey tags and the romance of traveling
Speaker 1: out of state to hunt a turkey. We were going
Speaker 1: on safari all the way to Kansas. After almost twelve
Speaker 1: hours of driving, of which Tim did zero, we finally
Speaker 1: pulled into Clayton's house. He got us lined out for
Speaker 1: the next morning's hunting. By daylight. The next morning we
Speaker 1: were listening to turkeys blowing the bark off of trees
Speaker 1: and watching them straight away in the distance with a
Speaker 1: harem of hens. Set up. After setup had us on turkeys,
Speaker 1: and we weren't lacking for finding them. They were everywhere.
Speaker 1: Clayton was right, his property was covered up in them.
Speaker 1: And those gobblers, man, they were covered up with hens.
Speaker 1: No big deal. With that much action going on, it
Speaker 1: was only a matter of time before we accidentally sat
Speaker 1: down in front of a bunch of turkeys that were
Speaker 1: walking in our direction rather than away from it. We
Speaker 1: were driving around glass and fields and prairie for groups
Speaker 1: of turkeys and spotted a group of a dozen or
Speaker 1: more a mile or more away that had several strutting
Speaker 1: turkeys in it. We studied them the terrain that they
Speaker 1: were moving across in the direction they were traveling with
Speaker 1: my camera and a little known mapping app that had
Speaker 1: just come out the year before called onex. That would
Speaker 1: be the first time I would use it to get
Speaker 1: in front of a turkey. We had to plan. Loaded
Speaker 1: up in the truck and started easing that way down
Speaker 1: Tumbleweed Road in the middle of Clawhammer, Kansas. I was
Speaker 1: driving in the middle of this gravel road, taking my
Speaker 1: time and looking at the map for the place we'd
Speaker 1: planned to park to get after those turkeys, and we
Speaker 1: met a couple of cars and moved over, and we
Speaker 1: were getting close to where we were going to make
Speaker 1: our play when Tim said there's a car coming up
Speaker 1: behind us. I lasked in my rearview mirror and I
Speaker 1: saw the weirdest contraption I'd ever seen. It was a
Speaker 1: little car with a periscope looking deal mounted to the roof,
Speaker 1: and as it got closer I saw it it was
Speaker 1: a Google Maps car coming up behind us. I moved
Speaker 1: over and Tim and I did our dead level best
Speaker 1: to show the world through Google Maps that we're a
Speaker 1: couple of clowns. We were waving our arms out the
Speaker 1: windows like we were karate fighting swarm of yellow jackets.
Speaker 1: The little car shot on past us. I told Tim
Speaker 1: too bad that joker didn't come by thirty minutes from now,
Speaker 1: and he asked me why. I said, because it could
Speaker 1: take a picture of the turkey you were about to kill.
Speaker 1: We laughed. Twenty eight minutes later, Tim pulled the trigger
Speaker 1: on the first and only turkey he's ever taken out
Speaker 1: of the state of Arkansas. Plus, we just had our
Speaker 1: picture taken by the Google car and that's just how
Speaker 1: that happened. But wait, there's more. You didn't think that's
Speaker 1: how this story would end, did you, with some anti
Speaker 1: climactic ending. Come on, man, y'all know me better than that.
Speaker 1: I've given you every clue you need to win a
Speaker 1: brand new case pocket knife that I will send to
Speaker 1: you from my personal collection for the first person to
Speaker 1: find mine and Tim's picture on the hunt I just
Speaker 1: told you about, and send it to the email address
Speaker 1: I'm going to give you at the end of this episode.
Speaker 1: Don't send it to me, send it to the one
Speaker 1: that I give you at the end of the show.
Speaker 1: Screenshot it and send it in with your information. First
Speaker 1: person that does it wins the knife. Trust me, it's there.
Speaker 1: I just looked at it. The gift of time. Inviting
Speaker 1: someone on an adventure can mean a lot of things
Speaker 1: and encompass a whole lot of different opportunities. It can
Speaker 1: be as little as offering a seat to tag along,
Speaker 1: paying for a hunt or a fishing trip to go
Speaker 1: with a guide, or maybe working on a strategy yourself
Speaker 1: to set someone up for success running trail cameras or
Speaker 1: baiting a bear, scouting online on foot, getting permission, planting
Speaker 1: food plots, brushing blinds, hanging stands, whatever the case may
Speaker 1: be that has you doing all the legwork, only to
Speaker 1: hand it over to someone else to reap all the
Speaker 1: benefits of your labor. Giving anyone anything shouldn't be done lightly,
Speaker 1: and in return, the person receiving it shouldn't take it
Speaker 1: for granted either. I know there's not a lot of
Speaker 1: thought that goes into saying, hey, want to go fishing,
Speaker 1: if fishing for you is walking out behind the barn
Speaker 1: to the pond, and I'm not trying to make more
Speaker 1: out of something that isn't there. I know my way
Speaker 1: of thinking probably is at mainstream, and I may put
Speaker 1: too much emphasis on the invitation, But consider this, vast
Speaker 1: majority of the memories that I've related on this show
Speaker 1: have culminated from an impromptu opportunity to share the wilderness
Speaker 1: with someone. That got me to thinking about the importance
Speaker 1: and the value of giving someone an outdoor experience and
Speaker 1: how it's received. Now, these thoughts wouldn't have entered my
Speaker 1: mind a few years ago, and I catch myself now
Speaker 1: thinking back to times when I should have asked someone
Speaker 1: to go with me. I always talk about the joy
Speaker 1: of shared experiences being multiplied, and I firmly believe that's true.
Speaker 1: But in the early stages of my outdoor life, the
Speaker 1: outcome of that trip was what I based my success around.
Speaker 1: I actually had to wait until it was over to
Speaker 1: know whether I'd enjoyed myself. My value was placed on
Speaker 1: the contents of my game bag or the fishing crib.
Speaker 1: I think back now on times when I was a
Speaker 1: kid and even a young adult hunt with my dad,
Speaker 1: family and friends, and nine times out of ten, the
Speaker 1: harvest is a little foggy, but the interaction with them
Speaker 1: or what is crystal clear. A couple of weeks ago,
Speaker 1: I was in Mississippi turkey hunting with my friend Jordan Blissed.
Speaker 1: Jordan and I had been burning gas and boot leather
Speaker 1: looking for turkeys that had a chronic case of the lockjaw.
Speaker 1: We couldn't find a golden turkey with a search warrant.
Speaker 1: Sometimes it be that way, but it certainly wasn't for
Speaker 1: a lack of trying. And we found a little comfort
Speaker 1: in that no one else was here in turkeys either
Speaker 1: where we were. Misery loves company, and there were seven
Speaker 1: of us in camp. We were all suffering together. And
Speaker 1: then Keith Pope called Jordan and said, I heard three
Speaker 1: this morning. You and Brent, come on, man. He didn't
Speaker 1: have to tell us twice. After two and a half
Speaker 1: days of listening, walking, calling, driving, and peating it over
Speaker 1: and over again, Keith had thrown us a rope before
Speaker 1: we drowned. In a sea of despair and disappointment. We
Speaker 1: met Keith at the appointed rally point after some highly
Speaker 1: original navigation by Jordan. We were six minutes late. That
Speaker 1: has nothing to do with the story. Just thought i'd
Speaker 1: throw that in there for Jordane's benefit. Anyway, I jumped
Speaker 1: in the truck with Keith and away we went, Jordan
Speaker 1: falling close behind. Soon we were all standing together. After
Speaker 1: slipping behind Keith to a point of an old ridge
Speaker 1: facing north and waiting for gobling time, they commenced to hooton,
Speaker 1: and soon enough we heard a turkey. I dang there,
Speaker 1: gobbled myself listening to their high pitched squill and low
Speaker 1: end oul hoots. I can make a turkey gobble with
Speaker 1: my rendition of a barred out, but that high note
Speaker 1: they and others I know ughs, absolutely eludes my vocal range.
Speaker 1: Those boys are flirting with falsettos that would make the
Speaker 1: bee gi'es jealous. Anyway, the goblin was music to our
Speaker 1: ears in a way we went. We sat up in
Speaker 1: our first location and had a gobbler answer. Several times.
Speaker 1: We heard a hen up and back at us, and
Speaker 1: we knew we were probably in for a long hunt,
Speaker 1: which was not what we counted on. Jordan and Keith
Speaker 1: both had businesses to attend to later in the morning,
Speaker 1: so if it was going to happen, it needed to
Speaker 1: happen quick. A gobbler with hens hunt isn't usually very
Speaker 1: fast or successful, but it was the only game in
Speaker 1: town and we were in it. Then we realized we
Speaker 1: were here in a second turkey moving in from the west,
Speaker 1: and the gobbler we'd initially sat down on wasn't getting
Speaker 1: any closer, and we could hear drumming. And while that
Speaker 1: sound is suddenly subdued, you can hear it a long
Speaker 1: way if you know what you're listening for and the
Speaker 1: conditions are right. Keith knows that property inside and out,
Speaker 1: and he showed me his own ax map of how
Speaker 1: the property laid out. And it may sense that while
Speaker 1: we could hear that turkey drumming, it was obvious he
Speaker 1: was in a small opening at the edge of the property,
Speaker 1: just strutting back and forth and gathering up hens for
Speaker 1: the daily spring singles. Make sure he was hosting for
Speaker 1: the hens we could hear, and the additional gobbler that
Speaker 1: was easing away. It seemed like the place to be
Speaker 1: So we got up and we moved closer. Keith took
Speaker 1: us on a round about course that got us within
Speaker 1: one hundred and twenty five yards of the dance party.
Speaker 1: Now we may have been a football field away from
Speaker 1: the band, but we were on the dance floor for sure.
Speaker 1: In addition to that, there was a small wood road
Speaker 1: that wound from where we stood to where that gobbler
Speaker 1: was dropping them sick Beach. From behind the DJ booth,
Speaker 1: Jordan and I grabbed a tree on the east side
Speaker 1: of that little road, in the edge of a pine thicket.
Speaker 1: Keith picked one a few yards south of us. To
Speaker 1: our immediate west and north was hardwoods. And the extra
Speaker 1: turkey that was gobbling his way closer to the ship
Speaker 1: dig been hosted in front of us. We called him. Bowl.
Speaker 1: Turkeys answered, first turkey still in his spot, and the
Speaker 1: other turkey getting a little closer to him. We weren't
Speaker 1: battling turkeys. Now, I felt good about what lay before.
Speaker 1: These turkeys had had very little hunting pressure on them.
Speaker 1: They weren't call shy, they didn't get any outside influence
Speaker 1: in this place that Keith had developed into a little
Speaker 1: turkey sanctuary. I felt good, great even about my chances
Speaker 1: of killing the turkey. The turkeys weren't the issue. Time
Speaker 1: was normally faced with a scenario like this, time is
Speaker 1: on my side. I just sit and wait for the
Speaker 1: hens to slip off, and the turkey I first started
Speaker 1: messing with comes in like he owns the place, strutting
Speaker 1: and gobbling. When he gets close enough, I send a
Speaker 1: dip of lead shot for him to put between his
Speaker 1: cheek and gum or old sneaky pete that was occasionally
Speaker 1: goblet from the west. He'll shut his pie hole and
Speaker 1: slips in in stealth mode, looking to a lope with
Speaker 1: the calls he's been hearing. That sounds like a hen turkey,
Speaker 1: It looks a whole lot like me with a shotgun.
Speaker 1: Now this day, time was not on my side. I
Speaker 1: was hunt with a couple of fellows that look at
Speaker 1: life responsibly and take their work seriously and not gonna
Speaker 1: miss appointments. How I got hooked up with them, I
Speaker 1: have no idea, but the sand in the eyeglass was
Speaker 1: running out, and when it did, regardless of what was
Speaker 1: taking place in the hunt, they both had to go.
Speaker 1: And I understood, After all, I was the guest. The
Speaker 1: goblin had gone silent for a couple of minutes while
Speaker 1: we waited to see what would happen next. Now, in
Speaker 1: my mind I had already played it out about a
Speaker 1: hundred times. The pine ticket to the east wasn't too
Speaker 1: thick for that turkey to approach from, but he would
Speaker 1: have had to work a lot harder to get there
Speaker 1: if he chose to come that way. When he got
Speaker 1: close enough to realize that but he'd been tricked. He
Speaker 1: had been close enough for me to reach out and
Speaker 1: grab him and take him hostage. If he came down
Speaker 1: the road from the north or through the oaks from
Speaker 1: the west, he was doomed. A kevlar vest, combat helmet
Speaker 1: and whaling's vet Dr. Bradshaw couldn't have saved him. I
Speaker 1: was excited and and nervous with anticipation about what I
Speaker 1: felt was about to happen. I glanced at my watch.
Speaker 1: We were looking at about twenty more minutes before we
Speaker 1: had to scadaddle. Keith called from behind me, and that
Speaker 1: turkey that hadn't gobbled him close to three minutes cut
Speaker 1: him off with a gobble. Here we go, I thought.
Speaker 1: Twenty sixons later, boom, someone across the property line put
Speaker 1: an end to the whole party, and a hush fell
Speaker 1: over the crowd. I knew what had happened immediately, but
Speaker 1: it was the one thing I hadn't counted on happening.
Speaker 1: It took me a few seconds to do all the
Speaker 1: math in my head, remembering how close we were to
Speaker 1: the property line in the corner from the map that
Speaker 1: Keith had showed me, and estimating where the shot had
Speaker 1: come from. It seemed that that guy was about the
Speaker 1: same distance from the turkey that we were. He just
Speaker 1: happened to be where that rascal wanted to go. The
Speaker 1: fact that Jordan and Keith were jumping up and charging
Speaker 1: in the direction of where that turkey just got smashed
Speaker 1: validated my assumption that nobody was trespassing. That turkey died
Speaker 1: across the property line. I started laughing. I turned and
Speaker 1: looked at Jordan's He was laughing too. Keith eased up
Speaker 1: to where we were sitting, and he was laughing. What else?
Speaker 1: What else could we have done? What would getting upset accomplished? Now?
Speaker 1: I'll admit, in my younger days, I probably wouldn't have
Speaker 1: taken that roller coaster swing of emotion and such good stried.
Speaker 1: But those younger days have gone, and there's there's validity
Speaker 1: to the tired old adage of hunting it and about killing.
Speaker 1: I've said it, I've read it, and it's the easy
Speaker 1: phrase to utter when you're unsuccessful or trying to explain
Speaker 1: to a non hunter or even an anti hunter, why
Speaker 1: we do what we do. I didn't get up ours
Speaker 1: before dawn to go out there that morning, toting a
Speaker 1: seven pound shot gun, enough calls to stock a small
Speaker 1: sporting goods store, and risking the West Nile virus, malari
Speaker 1: and heartworms to listen to someone not in my hunting
Speaker 1: party shoot the turkey that I'd been frying in my
Speaker 1: head for the past fifteen minutes. So why was I laughing?
Speaker 1: It's because the gift had already been given to me
Speaker 1: that morning. I've said it before, and I never tire
Speaker 1: of saying it. If it's not incoming gunfire, it ain't
Speaker 1: that big a deal. Along with my dad's mantra of
Speaker 1: saying if you ain't having fun, it's your own fault.
Speaker 1: Now you stir that up and you got yourself a
Speaker 1: recipe for laughing when your turkey dies at the hands
Speaker 1: of some nameless individual. Cross the fence line. Keith whipped
Speaker 1: out his phone and sent a text to his friend
Speaker 1: who hunted property next door. A minute later, and Keith
Speaker 1: gets a picture of a rubber boot on the neck
Speaker 1: of my Mississippi longbeard or was it. I thank Keith
Speaker 1: for the inviting Jordan for hosting me while I was there,
Speaker 1: and they tried to apologize for how that hunt unfolded.
Speaker 1: Now they already knew because they were turkey hunters just
Speaker 1: like me. But I told them it didn't matter, because
Speaker 1: it really didn't matter. I've killed way over one hundred
Speaker 1: turkeys in my life and watched at least the same
Speaker 1: number get thumped by folks I was calling for filming,
Speaker 1: and that one getting hauled out by someone else wasn't
Speaker 1: going to hurt me one bit either way. I told
Speaker 1: Keith that I appreciated him and Jordan for inviting me
Speaker 1: there and giving me the opportunity to experience the beauty
Speaker 1: and the drama that is spring turkey hunting. That's the gift.
Speaker 1: That's the gift that wouldn't be taken lightly or received
Speaker 1: as such for the folks like the three of us
Speaker 1: that were there that morning, four counting the dude to
Speaker 1: cross the fence. The interaction with the goblin turkey during
Speaker 1: the spring ritual is second to nothing, but only to
Speaker 1: those who value it as we do. It may be
Speaker 1: bream fishing to the next person, or deer hunting or
Speaker 1: frog gigging. It could be anything. That's why when I
Speaker 1: see an expensive paint described as a work of art
Speaker 1: that to me looks like a monkey with a box
Speaker 1: of colors did it in the dark? I have to
Speaker 1: let it go. Beauty and value truly are in the
Speaker 1: eye of the beholder. Whether it's a big boss gober
Speaker 1: strutting in the gun range, a trout rising to a
Speaker 1: perfectly cast dry fly, or a piece of art that
Speaker 1: looks like a primate did it in the dark. Who
Speaker 1: are we to tell them they're wrong? They certainly can't
Speaker 1: tell us we are. We should appreciate even the smallest
Speaker 1: of gestures and gifts from our friends, because if you
Speaker 1: really look at it and see what the true gift
Speaker 1: is in each event, it's not a frazer full of
Speaker 1: help meat or a live well full of fish. It's
Speaker 1: their time, their time, and your time, and there's only
Speaker 1: so much of it to go around. That's why it's
Speaker 1: important and that's why I value the outdoors so much,
Speaker 1: at least in my case, is to share that time
Speaker 1: with someone I value experiencing an event. I value time.
Speaker 1: That's the most precious gift we can give. Thank you
Speaker 1: for giving me your time each week. Now pay it forward,
Speaker 1: Grab up a pal and go hunting, fishing, or shopping
Speaker 1: for monkey art. Just spending some time with someone you value,
Speaker 1: and the rest take care of itself. We were almost
Speaker 1: all the way back to the truck when Keith got
Speaker 1: a second text from that cat that shot my turkey.
Speaker 1: Here's what it said, y'all's turkey is still there. The
Speaker 1: turkey I killed came in from the west and fought
Speaker 1: the one y'all were working for about two minutes, biggest
Speaker 1: fight I've ever seen. I called to him when it
Speaker 1: was over, and he came running to me and I
Speaker 1: shot him. Well, dad gone. I had forgot all about
Speaker 1: the second turkey time. There was a time when I
Speaker 1: would have turned around and went back after that joker,
Speaker 1: But this time our time had run out. There was
Speaker 1: no more time. And that's how it happens. What seemed
Speaker 1: like a cut and dried moment turned into something different.
Speaker 1: It went from fixing to kill a turkey, thinking that
Speaker 1: turkey was dead, to learning that there'd be another time.
Speaker 1: Keith invited me back in the hope and promise of
Speaker 1: another time. Well, that ain't a bad gift either. All right,
Speaker 1: y'all listen up. Here's the announcement. Now. I'm known for
Speaker 1: telling stories, mostly true ones, and through the feedback from
Speaker 1: my podcast listeners and meeting some wonderful people since this
Speaker 1: endeavor started, I've heard some great stories from them too.
Speaker 1: Some are too good not to tell, and I think
Speaker 1: y'all will agree. So here's what I want you to do.
Speaker 1: If you have a story that you'd like me to share,
Speaker 1: send it to my tcl story at the meat eater
Speaker 1: dot com. We're going to give them a good once
Speaker 1: over and select a few occasionally for me to read.
Speaker 1: Not all of them, I can't do them all, but
Speaker 1: the good ones we absolutely gonna put out there. I
Speaker 1: think it's a great way for us to interact, for
Speaker 1: me to get to know y'all while we're at it.
Speaker 1: Write out your stories as clearly as possible. There's no
Speaker 1: such thing as too much detail. Y'all just have to
Speaker 1: trust me to wheedle them down to fit and I'll
Speaker 1: tell them. Send your story. I don't forget that picture
Speaker 1: of me and Tim. If you want that case pocket
Speaker 1: knife to my TCL story at the meat eater dot
Speaker 1: com until next week. This is Brent Reeves signing off.
Speaker 1: Y'all we careful