1
00:00:05,160 --> 00:00:09,240
Speaker 1: Welcome to This Country Life. I'm your host, Brent Rieves.

2
00:00:09,920 --> 00:00:13,720
Speaker 1: From coon hunting to trot lining and just general country living.

3
00:00:14,080 --> 00:00:16,040
Speaker 1: I want you to stay a while as I share

4
00:00:16,079 --> 00:00:18,479
Speaker 1: my stories and the country skills that will help you

5
00:00:18,560 --> 00:00:22,320
Speaker 1: beat the system. This Country Life is proudly presented as

6
00:00:22,400 --> 00:00:25,880
Speaker 1: part of Meat Eater's podcast network, bringing you the best

7
00:00:25,920 --> 00:00:29,960
Speaker 1: outdoor podcast the airways have to offer. All right, friends,

8
00:00:30,160 --> 00:00:32,680
Speaker 1: pull you up a chair or drop that tail gate.

9
00:00:33,000 --> 00:00:34,640
Speaker 1: I think I got a thing or two and teach

10
00:00:34,680 --> 00:00:44,120
Speaker 1: you trapping in TNT. Trapping a controversial subject in some

11
00:00:44,159 --> 00:00:47,720
Speaker 1: places these days, but like it or not, trapping was

12
00:00:47,880 --> 00:00:50,800
Speaker 1: and continues to be an important and effective method of

13
00:00:50,840 --> 00:00:55,360
Speaker 1: predator nuisance, animal control and land protection. As a kid,

14
00:00:55,600 --> 00:00:58,320
Speaker 1: I followed my older brother Tim around, learning the dudes

15
00:00:58,400 --> 00:01:01,000
Speaker 1: and the don'ts, just like he followed our uncle Dob

16
00:01:01,080 --> 00:01:04,000
Speaker 1: around learning from him. Now you've heard me talk about

17
00:01:04,080 --> 00:01:07,679
Speaker 1: Uncle Dob before. He wasn't our uncle, just a longtime

18
00:01:07,760 --> 00:01:10,800
Speaker 1: family friend that, like the rest of us Reeves boys,

19
00:01:11,200 --> 00:01:14,679
Speaker 1: would rather hunt, fish and work a condition none of

20
00:01:14,760 --> 00:01:19,960
Speaker 1: us ever really got under control. Trapping in beaver control stories.

21
00:01:19,959 --> 00:01:23,760
Speaker 1: This week on Meet There's This Country Life podcast. The

22
00:01:23,840 --> 00:01:33,920
Speaker 1: first I'm going to tell you a story. It was

23
00:01:33,959 --> 00:01:36,440
Speaker 1: the winter of nineteen eighty five, and while I was

24
00:01:36,560 --> 00:01:39,600
Speaker 1: enrolled in college at the University of Arkansas at Monticela,

25
00:01:40,160 --> 00:01:43,880
Speaker 1: I worked as a nighttime and weekend dispatcher and jaylor

26
00:01:44,280 --> 00:01:47,560
Speaker 1: at the Warren Police Department. In a town less than

27
00:01:47,640 --> 00:01:50,320
Speaker 1: seven thousand people, there wasn't usually a whole lot happening

28
00:01:50,400 --> 00:01:53,920
Speaker 1: on Sunday mornings, So when the entrance door swung open

29
00:01:54,120 --> 00:01:58,320
Speaker 1: with a bang and a mud covered man stepped up

30
00:01:58,320 --> 00:02:01,320
Speaker 1: to the window of the radio room kind of startled me.

31
00:02:02,600 --> 00:02:06,360
Speaker 1: He was soaked from head to toe, tracking mud all over.

32
00:02:06,400 --> 00:02:09,240
Speaker 1: The trustee polished floors and was staring at me with

33
00:02:09,320 --> 00:02:14,359
Speaker 1: an exaggerated look of desperation. This man needed help. Had

34
00:02:14,360 --> 00:02:16,640
Speaker 1: he been involved in an accident, been in a fight,

35
00:02:17,360 --> 00:02:20,760
Speaker 1: witness some type of tragedy. I had no clue, but

36
00:02:20,840 --> 00:02:22,720
Speaker 1: I didn't know that in the time it took me

37
00:02:22,840 --> 00:02:24,960
Speaker 1: to get out of my chair and hurry to the window,

38
00:02:25,360 --> 00:02:29,320
Speaker 1: he seemed to be hanging on by a thread. Sir,

39
00:02:29,480 --> 00:02:34,520
Speaker 1: you all right, I need a game warden. A game warden.

40
00:02:35,240 --> 00:02:37,880
Speaker 1: That's not what I was expecting to hear. He could

41
00:02:37,880 --> 00:02:40,320
Speaker 1: have said anything, but the last thing I expected. He

42
00:02:40,400 --> 00:02:44,400
Speaker 1: him to say, was I needed a game warden? I

43
00:02:44,400 --> 00:02:48,560
Speaker 1: asked him again, are you okay? He said, man, I'm tired.

44
00:02:49,160 --> 00:02:52,440
Speaker 1: We're all tired, but I need a game warden and

45
00:02:52,520 --> 00:02:55,400
Speaker 1: tell him to bring a cage. I never seen this

46
00:02:55,480 --> 00:02:57,520
Speaker 1: man before in my life, but I knew he was

47
00:02:57,600 --> 00:03:00,760
Speaker 1: sincere about what he was talking about. But it's six

48
00:03:00,840 --> 00:03:04,079
Speaker 1: am on a Sunday morning. I'm fixing. I had to

49
00:03:04,120 --> 00:03:06,680
Speaker 1: wake someone up, so I have to have a little

50
00:03:06,720 --> 00:03:09,960
Speaker 1: more information before I do. I said, you said that

51
00:03:10,160 --> 00:03:16,359
Speaker 1: you were all tired of somebody outside. Yes, my trapping partners. Well,

52
00:03:16,360 --> 00:03:18,120
Speaker 1: none of this was making a lot of sense, so

53
00:03:18,160 --> 00:03:20,919
Speaker 1: to answer the questions I was bound to get when

54
00:03:20,960 --> 00:03:23,200
Speaker 1: I woke the game boarding up, so I told the

55
00:03:23,280 --> 00:03:25,480
Speaker 1: man I needed to go with him outside, me the

56
00:03:25,520 --> 00:03:27,639
Speaker 1: folks that they were there with him, and get a

57
00:03:27,639 --> 00:03:31,560
Speaker 1: little more information about what was going on. I wasn't

58
00:03:31,600 --> 00:03:34,160
Speaker 1: sure a game board is what this guy needed. I

59
00:03:34,240 --> 00:03:36,760
Speaker 1: was thinking a bath and a psychiatrist would be more

60
00:03:36,760 --> 00:03:41,240
Speaker 1: help to him. Anyway. I followed him outside and there

61
00:03:41,280 --> 00:03:47,320
Speaker 1: stood his two accomplices, both disheveled, muddy, soaking, wet, and bleeding.

62
00:03:48,040 --> 00:03:51,400
Speaker 1: Now they weren't oozing blood, but they were covered from

63
00:03:51,440 --> 00:03:54,680
Speaker 1: head to toe with pretty significant cuts and scratches in

64
00:03:54,720 --> 00:03:57,560
Speaker 1: their All their clothes, and I mean all of their

65
00:03:57,600 --> 00:03:59,320
Speaker 1: clothes look like they'd been in a fight with a

66
00:03:59,320 --> 00:04:04,080
Speaker 1: weed eater and lost. One man was wearing the remnants

67
00:04:04,120 --> 00:04:06,960
Speaker 1: of a pair of rubber boots, the tops of which

68
00:04:07,120 --> 00:04:10,200
Speaker 1: had been shredded. The only thing that appeared to be

69
00:04:10,200 --> 00:04:13,160
Speaker 1: holding on his feet was a round of duct tape

70
00:04:13,200 --> 00:04:16,839
Speaker 1: that he wrapped around each shin. These guys look like

71
00:04:16,839 --> 00:04:19,440
Speaker 1: they've been eaten by a kyoti and crapped off a cliff.

72
00:04:20,120 --> 00:04:24,000
Speaker 1: Whatever had happened was serious, and these boys were traumatized

73
00:04:24,040 --> 00:04:28,120
Speaker 1: from it. Okay, man, now what's going on? Why do

74
00:04:28,240 --> 00:04:32,120
Speaker 1: you need a game warden? The man with the taped

75
00:04:32,160 --> 00:04:35,320
Speaker 1: on rubber boots spoke up, We need one to give

76
00:04:35,400 --> 00:04:39,120
Speaker 1: us a tag for this otter. I looked around. What otter?

77
00:04:39,960 --> 00:04:41,760
Speaker 1: The one in this wooden box in the back of

78
00:04:41,800 --> 00:04:44,200
Speaker 1: the truck. He motioned toward the back of his truck,

79
00:04:44,200 --> 00:04:47,040
Speaker 1: and I walked over to see a plywood box about

80
00:04:47,080 --> 00:04:50,120
Speaker 1: three foot square, had a hinge lid on the top,

81
00:04:50,200 --> 00:04:52,400
Speaker 1: and it was secured with a hasp and a padlock.

82
00:04:54,120 --> 00:04:59,440
Speaker 1: You got an otter in there barely? Okay, Well, why

83
00:04:59,440 --> 00:05:02,480
Speaker 1: do you need a We need him to pay us

84
00:05:02,480 --> 00:05:08,200
Speaker 1: our hundred dollars for an otter. Yes, this otter wanted.

85
00:05:09,560 --> 00:05:12,080
Speaker 1: My feeble attempt at humor was lost on these guys.

86
00:05:12,160 --> 00:05:16,360
Speaker 1: I thought it was funny. They did not. Why is

87
00:05:16,400 --> 00:05:18,800
Speaker 1: a game warden going to give you one hundred dollars?

88
00:05:20,279 --> 00:05:22,520
Speaker 1: He told me. The game and Fish is trading Missouri

89
00:05:22,720 --> 00:05:25,960
Speaker 1: otters for turkeys. For every live otter we bring in

90
00:05:26,480 --> 00:05:29,440
Speaker 1: and turn over to the game and Fish Arkansas gets

91
00:05:29,440 --> 00:05:33,080
Speaker 1: a turkey and we get one hundred dollars. Well, how'd

92
00:05:33,120 --> 00:05:36,840
Speaker 1: y'all catch him? We trapped him? How'd you get him

93
00:05:36,839 --> 00:05:40,800
Speaker 1: in the box? Fellas that I'm not really sure. It

94
00:05:40,920 --> 00:05:44,160
Speaker 1: seemed to go on forever. There was a little bit

95
00:05:44,200 --> 00:05:47,880
Speaker 1: of sadness in his voice. Well, tell me about it.

96
00:05:47,960 --> 00:05:50,599
Speaker 1: We had him on a catch pole and took the

97
00:05:50,640 --> 00:05:53,719
Speaker 1: trap off his foot, and everything was going fine up

98
00:05:53,800 --> 00:05:56,840
Speaker 1: to that point. The cable was running around his chest,

99
00:05:56,920 --> 00:05:59,520
Speaker 1: right behind his front legs, and I had it set

100
00:05:59,560 --> 00:06:02,440
Speaker 1: where just hold him and not squeeze him. I didn't

101
00:06:02,480 --> 00:06:05,839
Speaker 1: want to hurt him. The plan was to take the

102
00:06:05,880 --> 00:06:09,000
Speaker 1: trap off his foot, pick him up, and drop him

103
00:06:09,040 --> 00:06:11,560
Speaker 1: in the hole in the box and hit the tension

104
00:06:11,600 --> 00:06:15,000
Speaker 1: release on the catchpole and removed the cable. Well that's

105
00:06:15,040 --> 00:06:20,920
Speaker 1: not what happened, no, sir, not even close. The second

106
00:06:20,960 --> 00:06:24,960
Speaker 1: that foothole trap come off, he went berserk. You ain't

107
00:06:25,000 --> 00:06:28,160
Speaker 1: never seen nothing like it, he told me. He bit

108
00:06:28,200 --> 00:06:31,760
Speaker 1: the catch pole in half quicker than anything he'd ever seen.

109
00:06:32,440 --> 00:06:34,200
Speaker 1: He said, it was like I had Bruce Lee on

110
00:06:34,240 --> 00:06:36,320
Speaker 1: the leash and he was beating us all up with

111
00:06:36,360 --> 00:06:40,799
Speaker 1: a pair of nunchoes. It's the biggest otter I've ever seen.

112
00:06:41,240 --> 00:06:43,839
Speaker 1: He gnawed, and he called Lloyd's boots off so fast

113
00:06:43,839 --> 00:06:45,520
Speaker 1: that when he jumped he can try to get away.

114
00:06:45,520 --> 00:06:48,479
Speaker 1: He stepped out of both of them. Lloyd told his

115
00:06:48,520 --> 00:06:52,680
Speaker 1: boots back to the truck in his hands. The next

116
00:06:52,720 --> 00:06:55,960
Speaker 1: forty five minutes were painful. I kept him in the

117
00:06:55,960 --> 00:06:59,040
Speaker 1: wire catch, but we couldn't get him in the box.

118
00:07:00,080 --> 00:07:02,320
Speaker 1: Should have made the hole bigger. I'd lift him off

119
00:07:02,360 --> 00:07:04,280
Speaker 1: the ground and try to lower him down in that hole,

120
00:07:04,279 --> 00:07:06,440
Speaker 1: but he just standing there over that whole, snarl in

121
00:07:06,440 --> 00:07:10,800
Speaker 1: the bite and trying to kill him. These boys were

122
00:07:10,840 --> 00:07:13,480
Speaker 1: in a bad way. I said, well, how'd you get

123
00:07:13,560 --> 00:07:16,680
Speaker 1: him in there? He said, Lord pitched him one of

124
00:07:16,720 --> 00:07:18,600
Speaker 1: his boots, and as soon as he jumped on it.

125
00:07:19,280 --> 00:07:21,520
Speaker 1: He threw his coat on him, wrapped him up, and

126
00:07:21,560 --> 00:07:26,600
Speaker 1: stuck him down in there. I said, that's why Lord

127
00:07:26,600 --> 00:07:32,160
Speaker 1: ain't wearing a coat. Yep, the otter got it. I said, well,

128
00:07:32,160 --> 00:07:35,520
Speaker 1: at least you got your boot back, Lloyd. What's left

129
00:07:35,560 --> 00:07:39,000
Speaker 1: of it? He said, all right, I'm gonna call the

130
00:07:39,080 --> 00:07:41,640
Speaker 1: game and fish and they'll be sending someone out here

131
00:07:41,640 --> 00:07:47,000
Speaker 1: pretty quick. I bet is the otter injured anyway or anywhere.

132
00:07:48,000 --> 00:07:50,880
Speaker 1: He looked healthy when we last saw him. Fair enough.

133
00:07:50,920 --> 00:07:53,760
Speaker 1: I said, he's a bigger hunh. He said, it's the

134
00:07:53,760 --> 00:07:58,000
Speaker 1: biggest one you've ever seen. How big is he? Man

135
00:07:58,040 --> 00:08:02,120
Speaker 1: said he's pushing thirty pounds. Wow. Okay, well crack that,

136
00:08:02,200 --> 00:08:04,320
Speaker 1: open that lid and let's look at him. I want

137
00:08:04,320 --> 00:08:08,000
Speaker 1: to sing, fellas that do what I said, open the lid.

138
00:08:08,320 --> 00:08:11,800
Speaker 1: I want to see this thirty pound odd. Well. They

139
00:08:11,840 --> 00:08:14,320
Speaker 1: all looked at one another and back at me without

140
00:08:14,360 --> 00:08:17,600
Speaker 1: saying a word. Then he said, mister, I've always tried

141
00:08:17,640 --> 00:08:19,920
Speaker 1: to do right by the law, but listen to me

142
00:08:19,960 --> 00:08:23,080
Speaker 1: when I say this. I ain't opening that box up

143
00:08:23,120 --> 00:08:27,000
Speaker 1: for you or nobody else. If my grandma walked up

144
00:08:27,040 --> 00:08:29,440
Speaker 1: here right now, that's been dead over twenty years and say,

145
00:08:29,520 --> 00:08:32,120
Speaker 1: crack that lid open. I want to look at him.

146
00:08:32,520 --> 00:08:34,520
Speaker 1: She'd hand me one hundred dollars before I got the

147
00:08:34,600 --> 00:08:37,920
Speaker 1: key out of my pocket. And when you call the game, Horden,

148
00:08:38,559 --> 00:08:41,640
Speaker 1: don't worry about having him bring a cage. He can

149
00:08:41,679 --> 00:08:55,480
Speaker 1: have this one. And that's just how that happened. From

150
00:08:55,520 --> 00:08:58,240
Speaker 1: the sixth grade on and off through junior high. In

151
00:08:58,320 --> 00:09:02,760
Speaker 1: high school, I ran it trap line before school. Now.

152
00:09:02,760 --> 00:09:04,760
Speaker 1: That meant that while all the other kids were still

153
00:09:04,800 --> 00:09:08,120
Speaker 1: sacked out in the old bed, Old Briddley was walking

154
00:09:08,160 --> 00:09:11,959
Speaker 1: through the woods and creeks checking traps. I never had

155
00:09:11,960 --> 00:09:14,560
Speaker 1: out more than two dozen at a time, but checking

156
00:09:14,559 --> 00:09:17,640
Speaker 1: that many traps, resetting and running down coons that had

157
00:09:17,800 --> 00:09:21,000
Speaker 1: pulled my drags off, that took some time. And there

158
00:09:21,040 --> 00:09:23,680
Speaker 1: were several mornings that I was running across the field

159
00:09:23,760 --> 00:09:25,400
Speaker 1: with a coon or two to throw in the barn

160
00:09:25,440 --> 00:09:27,559
Speaker 1: and run and catch the bus before it took off.

161
00:09:28,280 --> 00:09:30,520
Speaker 1: I never missed it, but there were a couple of

162
00:09:30,520 --> 00:09:34,079
Speaker 1: close calls. I look back at that now and I think,

163
00:09:34,120 --> 00:09:37,240
Speaker 1: would I let my kids do that? Well, the answer

164
00:09:37,320 --> 00:09:40,520
Speaker 1: is yes, if I felt they were as competent at

165
00:09:40,559 --> 00:09:44,319
Speaker 1: it as I was. And that's the difference. I may

166
00:09:44,360 --> 00:09:46,600
Speaker 1: have been eleven or twelve when I started doing this

167
00:09:46,679 --> 00:09:51,120
Speaker 1: on my own, but I had several years experience following

168
00:09:51,120 --> 00:09:54,480
Speaker 1: my brother around and watching and helping him. There's so

169
00:09:54,600 --> 00:09:57,400
Speaker 1: many things to learn, and all of it I still

170
00:09:57,520 --> 00:10:01,640
Speaker 1: used today. Tim would have me looking at tracks and

171
00:10:01,679 --> 00:10:04,400
Speaker 1: how they came down a bank or a creek edge,

172
00:10:04,400 --> 00:10:06,120
Speaker 1: and tell me to look at it and see why

173
00:10:06,320 --> 00:10:09,040
Speaker 1: coon would walk that way. Why would he walk over

174
00:10:09,120 --> 00:10:13,719
Speaker 1: some things and around others. He never told me the

175
00:10:13,800 --> 00:10:16,840
Speaker 1: answers until I answered right. He always made me think

176
00:10:16,880 --> 00:10:20,120
Speaker 1: about it. I got pretty good at it, and after

177
00:10:20,160 --> 00:10:23,720
Speaker 1: a while I figured out that they usually just travel

178
00:10:23,800 --> 00:10:26,839
Speaker 1: the path of least resistance and that keeps them near

179
00:10:26,880 --> 00:10:30,960
Speaker 1: their food source and close to an escape route. By

180
00:10:31,000 --> 00:10:34,000
Speaker 1: paying attention and asking questions, I learned a lot about

181
00:10:34,000 --> 00:10:36,280
Speaker 1: how coons get around in the world, just out there

182
00:10:36,320 --> 00:10:39,720
Speaker 1: doing their thing, and that eventually led me to try

183
00:10:39,720 --> 00:10:43,600
Speaker 1: and fox and Bobcat. I never really got good at those.

184
00:10:43,760 --> 00:10:45,959
Speaker 1: Him was a whole lot better at it than I am.

185
00:10:46,640 --> 00:10:49,000
Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, I've only caught one bobcat

186
00:10:49,000 --> 00:10:52,800
Speaker 1: in my life, and that was four years ago. Beaver

187
00:10:52,920 --> 00:10:56,800
Speaker 1: and Otter was a whole other deal. And I never

188
00:10:57,200 --> 00:11:00,480
Speaker 1: targeted Otter specifically because at the time I was really

189
00:11:00,480 --> 00:11:02,800
Speaker 1: getting into trapping and getting good enough to start making

190
00:11:02,800 --> 00:11:05,880
Speaker 1: a little money at it. The fur market went billy up.

191
00:11:07,880 --> 00:11:10,680
Speaker 1: Only reason anyone was trapping during that time was either

192
00:11:10,679 --> 00:11:13,680
Speaker 1: because they'd done it forever and didn't want to quit,

193
00:11:14,480 --> 00:11:17,840
Speaker 1: or they were doing nuisance trapping for landowners and timber companies.

194
00:11:19,160 --> 00:11:22,319
Speaker 1: Tim even contracted for a while doing some nuisance trapping

195
00:11:22,360 --> 00:11:25,319
Speaker 1: for a timber management company. And while he was doing that,

196
00:11:26,160 --> 00:11:28,800
Speaker 1: I went to work for Georgia Pacific in the forestry

197
00:11:28,840 --> 00:11:32,600
Speaker 1: department as a timber spotter. Now, if you don't know

198
00:11:32,640 --> 00:11:37,000
Speaker 1: what that is, allow me to elaborate. Georgia Pacific owned

199
00:11:37,120 --> 00:11:39,840
Speaker 1: thousands of acres of timberland in South Arkansas, and it

200
00:11:39,920 --> 00:11:42,920
Speaker 1: was my job, along with several other crews, to select

201
00:11:42,960 --> 00:11:46,240
Speaker 1: cut tracks of land for the contracting laggers to come

202
00:11:46,280 --> 00:11:49,280
Speaker 1: in and harvest the timber. Now, this is when I

203
00:11:49,360 --> 00:11:52,120
Speaker 1: was working with mister Leon. I'm sure most of you

204
00:11:52,200 --> 00:11:56,079
Speaker 1: remember him. If you don't check out episode one twenty seven,

205
00:11:56,200 --> 00:11:59,000
Speaker 1: Know Your Trees. That's just one of a handful where

206
00:11:59,480 --> 00:12:02,760
Speaker 1: I've talked to about mister Lyon. But we would get

207
00:12:02,760 --> 00:12:05,320
Speaker 1: our orders from the forester who was over our district,

208
00:12:05,559 --> 00:12:09,679
Speaker 1: and we'd either be painting landlines or checking behind laggers

209
00:12:09,679 --> 00:12:12,920
Speaker 1: to make sure they were utilizing the resource, or spotting

210
00:12:12,960 --> 00:12:17,120
Speaker 1: new tracks to cut. We carried a tree marking spray

211
00:12:17,160 --> 00:12:19,960
Speaker 1: gun that would paint a stripe at eye level that

212
00:12:20,000 --> 00:12:22,520
Speaker 1: could be seen, and then another stripe on the bottom

213
00:12:22,800 --> 00:12:25,199
Speaker 1: where the stump would be to ensure the trees we

214
00:12:25,280 --> 00:12:29,160
Speaker 1: marked were the ones that were getting cut. But my favorite,

215
00:12:29,679 --> 00:12:34,360
Speaker 1: my favorite thing we did was beaver control. We had

216
00:12:34,400 --> 00:12:37,280
Speaker 1: a couple of different folks that GP contracted to trap

217
00:12:37,360 --> 00:12:41,280
Speaker 1: beavers and I'd go with them sometime checking traps and

218
00:12:41,320 --> 00:12:44,200
Speaker 1: getting the beavers out of there. But the best part

219
00:12:44,320 --> 00:12:49,840
Speaker 1: was when we scheduled beaver down blowing days. Everyone knows

220
00:12:49,840 --> 00:12:52,640
Speaker 1: that beaver's dam upstreams and this causes the water to

221
00:12:52,679 --> 00:12:54,760
Speaker 1: back up the stream, flood out into the woods, and

222
00:12:54,800 --> 00:12:58,240
Speaker 1: eventually kill the timber, either by flooding or the beavers

223
00:12:58,280 --> 00:13:01,880
Speaker 1: gnawing them down to using the damn. They're amazing creatures

224
00:13:01,920 --> 00:13:05,040
Speaker 1: and I love them, but they're a costly lot when

225
00:13:05,080 --> 00:13:07,840
Speaker 1: it comes to growing timber to maturity, and that was

226
00:13:07,880 --> 00:13:10,800
Speaker 1: the business we were in. So if we found a

227
00:13:10,800 --> 00:13:13,560
Speaker 1: beaver pond we'd walk it out until we found where

228
00:13:13,600 --> 00:13:16,040
Speaker 1: the dam was located, mark it on a map, and

229
00:13:16,080 --> 00:13:19,760
Speaker 1: when the contractor showed up, we'd put in explosives and

230
00:13:19,840 --> 00:13:24,880
Speaker 1: get to work. Times were different, remember, and if you

231
00:13:24,960 --> 00:13:27,960
Speaker 1: had a current driver's license and a legitimate reason to

232
00:13:28,000 --> 00:13:31,240
Speaker 1: have it, you could go to a construction supply business

233
00:13:31,280 --> 00:13:36,680
Speaker 1: and buy explosives. Beaver control was a legitimate reason. The

234
00:13:36,760 --> 00:13:39,960
Speaker 1: training was pretty intense. I remember the contractor telling me

235
00:13:40,000 --> 00:13:42,480
Speaker 1: cut the fuse long enough for you to light it

236
00:13:42,640 --> 00:13:45,600
Speaker 1: and get to safety. Well, how long is that? I

237
00:13:45,640 --> 00:13:49,240
Speaker 1: asked him. He said, how fast are you? And that

238
00:13:49,360 --> 00:13:52,199
Speaker 1: was the end of the training. So while I hated

239
00:13:52,280 --> 00:13:55,080
Speaker 1: math in school, I was constantly doing it in my

240
00:13:55,200 --> 00:13:58,440
Speaker 1: head while we waited around beaver ponds and dug out

241
00:13:58,440 --> 00:14:01,240
Speaker 1: holes in the dam, the stuff full of explosives, and

242
00:14:01,679 --> 00:14:06,520
Speaker 1: planned our escape routes before the big boom. Cotton Mouths

243
00:14:06,559 --> 00:14:09,280
Speaker 1: were a constant reminder that there were more dangerous things

244
00:14:09,280 --> 00:14:11,880
Speaker 1: out there besides us and the explosives, believe it or not,

245
00:14:12,480 --> 00:14:14,920
Speaker 1: And those jokers were always where I wanted to be.

246
00:14:15,440 --> 00:14:17,319
Speaker 1: I wanted to poke my hand to dig out a

247
00:14:17,360 --> 00:14:22,120
Speaker 1: spot to put some of the tovex. Tovex is the

248
00:14:22,160 --> 00:14:24,920
Speaker 1: explosive that we were using. It was just another thing

249
00:14:24,960 --> 00:14:28,040
Speaker 1: to have to keep up with. It was in the

250
00:14:28,080 --> 00:14:30,200
Speaker 1: spring of the year and the rain had flooded out

251
00:14:30,240 --> 00:14:33,320
Speaker 1: a huge creek bottom that we'd planned the log that summer,

252
00:14:34,000 --> 00:14:36,360
Speaker 1: so in order to do that we had to find

253
00:14:36,360 --> 00:14:39,200
Speaker 1: the dam. It took us a couple of days of

254
00:14:39,240 --> 00:14:41,920
Speaker 1: walking and wading and hunting it up, but we eventually

255
00:14:41,960 --> 00:14:44,800
Speaker 1: found it. One of them. Anyway, turned out there were

256
00:14:45,120 --> 00:14:48,000
Speaker 1: a series of dams along this creek that they had

257
00:14:48,000 --> 00:14:51,680
Speaker 1: worked on for years. It was an absolute marvel of

258
00:14:51,880 --> 00:14:55,720
Speaker 1: ingenuity and engineering. The structures that they build. They looked

259
00:14:55,960 --> 00:15:01,000
Speaker 1: so happenstanced, but they are anything but accidental. Every little twig,

260
00:15:01,200 --> 00:15:05,280
Speaker 1: every little limb, every load of mud is specific to

261
00:15:05,360 --> 00:15:08,600
Speaker 1: that portion of the dam and its purpose, and we

262
00:15:08,600 --> 00:15:22,040
Speaker 1: were there to blow it up. The largest of the

263
00:15:22,120 --> 00:15:25,640
Speaker 1: dams was about six feet high on the downstream side

264
00:15:25,760 --> 00:15:29,920
Speaker 1: and nearly one hundred yards long. It was massive. The

265
00:15:29,960 --> 00:15:32,920
Speaker 1: water had backed up and flooded what we estimated to

266
00:15:32,960 --> 00:15:36,200
Speaker 1: be about thirty acres of timber. The timber was showing

267
00:15:36,280 --> 00:15:39,040
Speaker 1: signs of an extreme stress, and if we were going

268
00:15:39,120 --> 00:15:42,960
Speaker 1: to salvage any of it before it died and righted

269
00:15:43,000 --> 00:15:47,120
Speaker 1: away that beaver dam had to go. Now, looking at

270
00:15:47,120 --> 00:15:49,320
Speaker 1: a topo map and knowing the country and how the

271
00:15:49,360 --> 00:15:52,440
Speaker 1: woods drained in that area, we knew there would be

272
00:15:52,520 --> 00:15:55,600
Speaker 1: no ill effects downstream by turning all that water loose.

273
00:15:56,560 --> 00:15:59,360
Speaker 1: There were slews and creeks and boughs that all led

274
00:15:59,360 --> 00:16:02,200
Speaker 1: to the river like a highway system. But how much

275
00:16:02,280 --> 00:16:06,480
Speaker 1: water are we talking about. Well, in a one acre

276
00:16:06,600 --> 00:16:10,160
Speaker 1: pond that's four feet deep, you're looking at over six

277
00:16:10,240 --> 00:16:14,400
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty one thousand gallons. Now, y'all feel free

278
00:16:14,440 --> 00:16:16,640
Speaker 1: to check my mouth. If it's wrong, don't send me

279
00:16:16,720 --> 00:16:19,440
Speaker 1: you hate mail, Copernicus take it up with the nerds

280
00:16:19,440 --> 00:16:24,200
Speaker 1: at Google. So you get the picture that we're dealing

281
00:16:24,200 --> 00:16:29,000
Speaker 1: with a lot of water, a lot of water. We

282
00:16:29,040 --> 00:16:30,560
Speaker 1: walked out in the middle of the dam on the

283
00:16:30,600 --> 00:16:33,120
Speaker 1: downstream side with a grubbing hole in a sack full

284
00:16:33,160 --> 00:16:38,239
Speaker 1: of explosives. We rigged three sets of four sticks of tovax,

285
00:16:38,720 --> 00:16:42,160
Speaker 1: placed them out in a twenty yard chain, and connected

286
00:16:42,200 --> 00:16:44,720
Speaker 1: them all with a debt cord so they would all

287
00:16:44,800 --> 00:16:48,720
Speaker 1: detonate at the same time. We put out plenty of fuse.

288
00:16:49,320 --> 00:16:52,080
Speaker 1: He let me light it, and when that fuse ignited,

289
00:16:52,640 --> 00:16:54,760
Speaker 1: I checked my watch, and we left there like we

290
00:16:54,760 --> 00:16:57,360
Speaker 1: were late for work, giggling like a couple of kids

291
00:16:57,360 --> 00:17:01,400
Speaker 1: with anticipation that what was about to happen. We'd already

292
00:17:01,480 --> 00:17:05,520
Speaker 1: picked out our spot, two big pennoak trees that stood

293
00:17:05,560 --> 00:17:08,399
Speaker 1: side by side that would have had us about seventy

294
00:17:08,440 --> 00:17:11,120
Speaker 1: five yards away from the blast zone and at angle

295
00:17:11,160 --> 00:17:15,760
Speaker 1: where we could watch the show in relative safety. I

296
00:17:15,800 --> 00:17:19,840
Speaker 1: want to know how to make time stand still, estimate

297
00:17:19,960 --> 00:17:22,720
Speaker 1: the length of time it takes for a burning fuse

298
00:17:23,119 --> 00:17:29,600
Speaker 1: to set off an explosion. We waited and waited and waited,

299
00:17:30,600 --> 00:17:33,719
Speaker 1: and nothing. I looked at my watch. Surely had been

300
00:17:33,760 --> 00:17:38,800
Speaker 1: a minute. By now, fifteen seconds had gone by, and

301
00:17:38,880 --> 00:17:43,960
Speaker 1: what seemed like forever would only be an additional fifteen seconds.

302
00:17:44,800 --> 00:17:47,520
Speaker 1: I was staring intently at that smoke drifting from the

303
00:17:47,560 --> 00:17:51,399
Speaker 1: burning fuse. The contract was smoking a cigarette, staring in

304
00:17:51,440 --> 00:17:54,160
Speaker 1: the other direction, like he was waiting on a school bus.

305
00:17:55,240 --> 00:17:58,120
Speaker 1: Did it go out? He looked at me and said,

306
00:17:58,160 --> 00:18:01,480
Speaker 1: you want to go check it? No, sir, I don't.

307
00:18:02,680 --> 00:18:05,280
Speaker 1: He looked back down through the bottles and took another

308
00:18:05,280 --> 00:18:09,040
Speaker 1: big drag off his cigarette. Finally, he looked over me

309
00:18:09,080 --> 00:18:13,440
Speaker 1: and said, fire in the hole. As non shalocked, as

310
00:18:13,440 --> 00:18:17,280
Speaker 1: he would say, past the biscuits. I poked my fingers

311
00:18:17,320 --> 00:18:19,359
Speaker 1: in my ears, and I peeked out around that big,

312
00:18:19,400 --> 00:18:22,680
Speaker 1: massive tree, just in time to see a tranquil spring

313
00:18:22,840 --> 00:18:32,120
Speaker 1: morning turn into arm again. Mud sticks and water were

314
00:18:32,200 --> 00:18:34,879
Speaker 1: raining down all around us, and the sound of the

315
00:18:34,920 --> 00:18:37,720
Speaker 1: water rushing through that fifteen yard gap in the dam

316
00:18:37,960 --> 00:18:41,960
Speaker 1: was louder than the explosion. Fish were pouring through the

317
00:18:42,000 --> 00:18:44,800
Speaker 1: opening like crazy. I wish that brought a dip net.

318
00:18:46,720 --> 00:18:51,080
Speaker 1: It took a while for that thing to drain, several hours.

319
00:18:51,119 --> 00:18:54,800
Speaker 1: In fact, we'd blown the dam at about ten am,

320
00:18:54,920 --> 00:18:58,280
Speaker 1: and at three in the afternoon we decided the creek

321
00:18:58,480 --> 00:19:02,520
Speaker 1: was safe enough to wear across. Now, why would we

322
00:19:02,600 --> 00:19:07,840
Speaker 1: be waiting across the creek Because the spot we picked

323
00:19:07,840 --> 00:19:10,520
Speaker 1: a hide from the explosion was on the wrong side.

324
00:19:12,119 --> 00:19:19,399
Speaker 1: That's why. Oh well, live and learn. Thank y'all for

325
00:19:19,480 --> 00:19:22,520
Speaker 1: listening and for helping us spread the word about our show.

326
00:19:22,520 --> 00:19:25,000
Speaker 1: If you haven't and you know someone that might enjoy,

327
00:19:25,600 --> 00:19:28,600
Speaker 1: send it to him. Remember which side of the creek

328
00:19:28,640 --> 00:19:31,360
Speaker 1: you're own. And until next time, this is Brent Reeves

329
00:19:31,400 --> 00:19:33,679
Speaker 1: signing off. Y'all, be careful