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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 trotlining and just in general country living.

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Speaker 1: I want you to stay a while as I share

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Speaker 1: my experiences in life lessons. This Country Life is presented

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Speaker 1: by Case Knives from the store More Studio on Meat

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Speaker 1: Eaters Podcast Network, bringing you the best outdoor podcast that

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Speaker 1: airways have to offer. All right, friends, grab a chair

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Speaker 1: or drop that tailgate. I've got some stores to share,

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Speaker 1: cold hunter, hot gumbo. I've been doing all manner of

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Speaker 1: things here lately, except killing dugs of any significant number.

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Speaker 1: That's okay. I've been busy just the same and lending

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Speaker 1: my talents as limited as they are the competition cooking,

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Speaker 1: that's right, I'm a professional chef. That's a lie and

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Speaker 1: probably not the last one you'll hear today. Just kidding.

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Speaker 1: Maybe I'm gonna tell you what I mean in a minute,

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Speaker 1: But first I'm going to tell you a story. Today's

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Speaker 1: story is an important one for all of us to

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Speaker 1: pay close attention to. It's as timely of a message

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Speaker 1: as I've ever put out. It's a lesson on dealing

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Speaker 1: with the cold at a time when just about everyone

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Speaker 1: around the country is fixing to be dealing with or

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Speaker 1: is dealing with some record setting cold and I mean

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Speaker 1: right now. It's from Greg Brown, who's living large and

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Speaker 1: making tracks with his eight year old son Tie up

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Speaker 1: around Chelsea, Oklahoma. Now, this story is from a time

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Speaker 1: many moods ago, long before Tie was even a glimmer

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Speaker 1: in Greg's eye. So in Greg's words and my voice,

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Speaker 1: here we go. In twenty eleven, I was a senior

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Speaker 1: in high school. A buddy of mine and I duck

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Speaker 1: hunted a piece of public flooded timber that only had

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Speaker 1: about four open holes. It was a great duck hunting,

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Speaker 1: but as you can imagine, with those few spots available,

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Speaker 1: you had to get there pretty early in the morning

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Speaker 1: to claim a spot. Now, this particular morning, we got

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Speaker 1: there around one am. We set in the truck until

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Speaker 1: the first set of headlights were coming down the road

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Speaker 1: headed to the parking lot of the WMA. Now, when

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Speaker 1: that first set of headlights appeared shortly after we got there,

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Speaker 1: we jumped out of the truck, threw our waiters on,

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Speaker 1: grabbed the decoys and guns, and headed down the gravel

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Speaker 1: top levee that led to the flooded timber. We got

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Speaker 1: down to the narrow clearing in the timber and stepped

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Speaker 1: off the levee into the water. The rest of the

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Speaker 1: walk back to the open hole was all flooded, and

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Speaker 1: that morning it was seventeen degrees and the temperature had

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Speaker 1: just dropped, so there was only a very thin layer

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Speaker 1: of ice on the water. I only had a cheap

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Speaker 1: pair of uninsulated rubber waiters on and we had only

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Speaker 1: made it about one hundred yards into the timber when

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Speaker 1: I kicked a sharp stob on the side of a

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Speaker 1: submerged log, which poked a large hole in my waiters

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Speaker 1: just below the knee. I didn't want to miss out

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Speaker 1: on a good hunt. I told my buddy, let's go.

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Speaker 1: I'll be fine. I'm not going back to the truck,

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Speaker 1: so we kept racing back to our spot before anyone

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Speaker 1: else could get there. We made it to the hole

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Speaker 1: we wanted and began setting down decoys and getting everything ready.

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Speaker 1: We set up by the trees we wanted and waited

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Speaker 1: for sunrise. There was nowhere to get out of the water,

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Speaker 1: and the right leg of my waiters had now filled

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Speaker 1: up to my knee. I was cold before, but after

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Speaker 1: we got set up and stopped, I began to get

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Speaker 1: very cold. I had been wet for over an hour

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Speaker 1: when I started shivering. My teeth were chattering uncontrollably, and

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Speaker 1: we still had a few hours before daylight. I told

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Speaker 1: my buddy I can't stay out here. I'm going back

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Speaker 1: to the truck, and he offered to go with me. Now,

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Speaker 1: I'll be fine, there's no reason for you to miss

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Speaker 1: out on the hunt too. So not only did I

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Speaker 1: separate from my hunting partner, but the only light I

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Speaker 1: had was the light on my iPhone. I grabbed my

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Speaker 1: gun and blind bag and headed for the truck. After

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Speaker 1: standing still at our spot trying to stay for the hunt.

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Speaker 1: My right leg had gotten so stiff from the cold

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Speaker 1: water that I could barely bend my knee, and I

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Speaker 1: had almost a mile walk to get back to the truck.

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Speaker 1: I made it about halfway through the water back to

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Speaker 1: the levee when I tripped on a log. Not being

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Speaker 1: able to bend my right leg, I couldn't catch myself

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Speaker 1: and I went face first into the water, going completely under.

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Speaker 1: This was the most shocking cold I'd ever felt. It.

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Speaker 1: It completely took my breath away and I thought I

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Speaker 1: was cold before, but now I was literally freezing. I

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Speaker 1: managed to stand back up and was having to drag

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Speaker 1: my leg as I leaped towards the levee. And I

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Speaker 1: went a little further and my phone turned off from

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Speaker 1: getting wet when I fell. Now I had lost my

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Speaker 1: only light and the ability to call for help. I

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Speaker 1: would be navigating by moonlight from here on out. I

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Speaker 1: started getting worried at this point, but I told myself

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Speaker 1: just to stay calm and keep moving forward. Before making

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Speaker 1: it to the levee, I hung my foot two more

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Speaker 1: times and fell. Both times I went completely underwater. I

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Speaker 1: was so cold and really starting to worry now. I

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Speaker 1: finally made it to the levee and stepped out of

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Speaker 1: the water and on the solid ground. The narrow clear

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Speaker 1: cut in the flooded timber that led to the open

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Speaker 1: holes ran east and west, and the levee that led

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Speaker 1: to the truck ran north and south. The truck was

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Speaker 1: parked to the south of me, but when I stepped

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Speaker 1: up on that levee, I wasn't sure which way to go.

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Speaker 1: I had gotten so cold that hypothermia was affecting my judgment.

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Speaker 1: I wasn't thinking clearly, and then I started to panic

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Speaker 1: began to pray for help and guidance for me to

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Speaker 1: make the right decision and to get me back to

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Speaker 1: that truck, because I knew I was in trouble. Finally

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Speaker 1: decided to head south, and thank God that was the

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Speaker 1: right decision. The levee was wide enough for a vehicle

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Speaker 1: to drive, and there was a didg on each side,

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Speaker 1: followed by a big trees lininging it all the way

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Speaker 1: back to the parking lot. I walked down that levee,

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Speaker 1: dragging my right legs so stiff now from the cold

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Speaker 1: that I couldn't bend it at all. The trees began

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Speaker 1: to close in on me. I felt as if they

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Speaker 1: were getting closer and closer to me. I felt like

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Speaker 1: they'd moved within a foot on either side of me,

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Speaker 1: and I started feeling trapped in the moonlight. The road

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Speaker 1: appeared to get longer longer. I began to sense something

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Speaker 1: was following me, and when I turned around to look

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Speaker 1: behind me, I think I heard something run across the

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Speaker 1: road in the other direction. I started seeing shadowy figures

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Speaker 1: dark quickly in front of me, and then hear them

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Speaker 1: behind me once again. It is to say I was

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Speaker 1: in an extreme state of panic. All brought on by

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Speaker 1: the intense, indescribable cold. Walk a little way, and then

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Speaker 1: tell myself, no, you're going the wrong way. You need

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Speaker 1: to go back, start back a few steps. Then I

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Speaker 1: had to tell myself, you know, south is the right direction,

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Speaker 1: Just just keep moving south. I thought back to the

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Speaker 1: Hunter's Safety class I too. They taught us about people

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Speaker 1: with hypothermia, how they would hallucinate walk in the wrong

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Speaker 1: direction even when they knew the area they were in

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Speaker 1: very well. So I just kept telling myself, you cannot panic,

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Speaker 1: just keep walking, you can't stop. After what felt like

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Speaker 1: an eternity, I finally saw the truck and the glow

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Speaker 1: of the moon. It was the most amazing feeling of

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Speaker 1: relief I've ever felt. And I got there. I reached

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Speaker 1: in and I started it up. I knew I had

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Speaker 1: to get warm fast, and I began to try to

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Speaker 1: get my waiters off. Anyone who's ever taken off wet

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Speaker 1: waiters or rubber boots knows you know that can be

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Speaker 1: a pretty big task. Ad what felt like a completely

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Speaker 1: frozen leg and uncontrollable violence shiver into the mix, and

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Speaker 1: it was not an easy task or a very pretty sight.

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Speaker 1: The fight to get my waiters off was so hard

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Speaker 1: that I began to panic again. I thought to myself

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Speaker 1: as I struggled, I made it this close, only to

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Speaker 1: die at the truck door. Now I know I could

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Speaker 1: have just gotten in the truck with the waiters on,

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Speaker 1: but I was not thinking clearly. My ability to reason

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Speaker 1: was all but gone. Finally I got the waiters off

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Speaker 1: and myself in the truck. Now, another thing that I

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Speaker 1: remembered from my hundred safety class was that people with

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Speaker 1: hyper learning it can just fall asleep and never wake up.

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Speaker 1: When I sat down in that driver's seat of that truck,

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Speaker 1: I reached over and turned the heat and the fan

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Speaker 1: all the way up, and I started feeling very, very sleepy.

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Speaker 1: It was the sleepiest I had ever been. I could

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Speaker 1: not keep my eyes open. I was fighting so hard

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Speaker 1: to stay awake and get the heat going, but it

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Speaker 1: felt as if my arm weighed five hundred pounds as

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Speaker 1: I was reaching for the heater nob. As soon as

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Speaker 1: I got the heater turned on, I passed out. I

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Speaker 1: didn't wake up for a couple of hours. Now. I

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Speaker 1: give all the credit to God for getting me out

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Speaker 1: of those flooded woods that day, and only he could

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Speaker 1: have kept my mind right enough to push through and

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Speaker 1: make it back. I was in a complete state of

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Speaker 1: panic and almost made the wrong choice several times. On

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Speaker 1: the way out. There was always a moment of clarity

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Speaker 1: where something kept telling me to keep moving forward in

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Speaker 1: the direction I was going, reassuring me that would be okay.

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Speaker 1: Now here's something else that I'd like to share. My

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Speaker 1: parents have owned and operated a doughnut shop for over

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Speaker 1: thirty years. They go in and start baking around midnight

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Speaker 1: every night. Found out later that on the morning of

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Speaker 1: the hunt, while my parents were busy making donuts, that

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Speaker 1: my dad suddenly stopped went to my mom and told her,

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Speaker 1: we need to pray for Greg's safety today while he's hunting.

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Speaker 1: They both stopped what they were doing they prayed for me.

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Speaker 1: And when I heard this, it sent chills down my back,

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Speaker 1: and it was just another confirmation that the Good Lord

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Speaker 1: kept his hand on me that day and guided me

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Speaker 1: back to that truck. My friend made it back to

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Speaker 1: the truck a couple hours after I had woken up

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Speaker 1: with his limit of mallards, and I don't have any

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Speaker 1: long lasting effects that day, but I do listen to

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Speaker 1: that little voice when it yells loud enough for me

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Speaker 1: to hear it, and I pay attention. Like the time

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Speaker 1: I'd started toward my dear stand after having forgotten my

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Speaker 1: safety harness, the little boy said go back and get it.

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Speaker 1: I listened. A short time later, I was dangling on

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Speaker 1: the end of that harness after our strap broke on

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Speaker 1: my lock on. I hope my story will help someone

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Speaker 1: listen to reason and go back to the truck as

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Speaker 1: soon as they get with or turn around and go

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Speaker 1: get that safety arty, or any other scenario that could

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Speaker 1: turn tragic. I love to hunt as much as anyone,

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Speaker 1: but there is no hunt worth losing your life. And

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Speaker 1: according to Ty Brown's favorite hunting partner is Pappy Greg,

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Speaker 1: That's just how that happened. There's a lesson for all

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Speaker 1: of us in there, Greg, and I appreciate you sharing

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Speaker 1: it with us. Bait a trap with duck Gumbo and

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Speaker 1: I'm caught. Cut me loose and I'll step right back

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Speaker 1: in there. That's the effect good Gumbo has on me

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Speaker 1: and just about all the folks I choose to associate

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Speaker 1: myself with, none so more than Michael Padres at the

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Speaker 1: Coon Camp in Augusta, Arkansas, the place we now officially

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Speaker 1: referred to as the cash Bow Hound and Mallard Club

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Speaker 1: sounds cool because it is. It's the headquarters of a

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Speaker 1: lot of bio Arkansas based duck and coon hunting adventures

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Speaker 1: with my pals, the brothers went more Randal and Wade.

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Speaker 1: Then there's Brad Clark, Michael Roseman, and occasionally old Clay

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Speaker 1: Bow makes his way down from Walmartville to hunt in

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Speaker 1: the real Arkansas the flat Park. There are a whole

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Speaker 1: host of other regular guests and friends that shuffle through

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Speaker 1: depending on the time of the year, and getting to

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Speaker 1: meet them well, it's always a pleasure, especially when one

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Speaker 1: of them can cook like South Louisiana's on Chris Kent. Now.

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Speaker 1: This event featured me, Random, Brad, Wade, and Chris in

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Speaker 1: the addition of a bonus Chris from Tennessee named Chris Perry.

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Speaker 1: He's a fire marshal by trade and class clown by choice.

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Speaker 1: But we'd all gathered together to do some duck hunting

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Speaker 1: this year and participate in the Mallard Masters Gumboat cook Off.

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Speaker 1: It's a contest within a larger one day festival called

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Speaker 1: the Mallard Masters Championship. The whole event is supporting community

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Speaker 1: education scholarships while showcasing the area's rich history of duck

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Speaker 1: hunting and duck cooking. Look it up. It's a relatively

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Speaker 1: new annual event and it's growing bigger every year. The

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Speaker 1: ducks hadn't been cooperating very well, so we switched on

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Speaker 1: the fly to chasing coons and cooking gumbo. I brought

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Speaker 1: whaling in my year old puppy, Jesse. Brad and Randall

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Speaker 1: had Jesse's brother, Zeke, and for two nights with coon

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Speaker 1: hunting Fellowship and watched our house move through the river

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Speaker 1: bottoms on dry ground that should have had water and

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Speaker 1: ducks on it. That led us to change the old

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Speaker 1: saying of no rain, no ducks to no rain, new

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Speaker 1: coon hunting ground. That's his progression can be measured with

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Speaker 1: an each worm, while Zeke appears to be not only

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Speaker 1: heading in the right direction, but treeing coons by himself

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Speaker 1: as he goes. I'm proud of what Brad's done with

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Speaker 1: that youngster, and it gives me hope and inspiration to

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Speaker 1: keep lodding along with Jesse. Michael roseveand has another sister

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Speaker 1: to Zeke and Jesse, and she's starting to come out

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Speaker 1: of her shell as well, coon ans don't always make

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Speaker 1: coon dogs be what I'm dealing with here. Who knows

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Speaker 1: hunting dogs develop at a different rate, even those from

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Speaker 1: the same litter. So with my fingers crossed behind my

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Speaker 1: back and a hopeful look toward the heavens, I'm saying

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Speaker 1: a prayer that she'll start figuring it out soon. She

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Speaker 1: started ranging out further. Michael suggested taking her strictly walking

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Speaker 1: next to the distraction of the side beside. That seems

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Speaker 1: to be working. He said it helped with his dog

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Speaker 1: and helped her pay more attention to what was going

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Speaker 1: on around her. We'll see if it works for Jess.

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Speaker 1: I do know that I'm going to be hunting her

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Speaker 1: every opportunity. I have this frame because I want her

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Speaker 1: to have the opportunity to do it on her own.

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Speaker 1: Saturday was the big day of the gun boat cooking contest,

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Speaker 1: and we got going in that booth around eight point

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Speaker 1: thirty that morning. The gumboat team was comprised of Chris Randall,

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Speaker 1: Wade brad Me and the other Chris Chris Parry. Randall

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Speaker 1: is a great cook and cooks for us all the

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Speaker 1: time in camp. He was making the rule while Chris

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Speaker 1: Kent did just about everything else. Brad and Wade chopped

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Speaker 1: up the holy trinity of onions, bell peppers, and celery

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Speaker 1: while I drank coffee, visited with folks walking by the booth,

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Speaker 1: and irritated as many children as I could get to

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Speaker 1: stop by to talk to. Most of the things I'm

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Speaker 1: qualified to do now. Chris Perry was the gopher, and

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Speaker 1: he was busy doing everything from plumbing at the camp

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Speaker 1: to bringing things we've forgotten to the booth. It was

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Speaker 1: a flurry of active vity, mostly by the headshelf, who

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Speaker 1: was stirring, cutting pot and mixing, tasting, all the while

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Speaker 1: washing the clock and working around the rest of us

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Speaker 1: who were seemingly in his way every time he turned around.

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Speaker 1: There were calling exhibitions and food vendors with kids activities, largs, crafts,

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Speaker 1: and a whole slew of family oriented activities. And for

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Speaker 1: a town of only eighteen hundred, I bet I saw

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Speaker 1: close to a third of that number Saturday. By noon,

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Speaker 1: there was a lot of fun in our booth was

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Speaker 1: a wall of wooden pallets nailed together and decorated with

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Speaker 1: mounted ducks mounted coon. The big boar's head switch came

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Speaker 1: from the bole behind the cabin, small decoys, and an

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Speaker 1: old wheat bran coon hunt light easily recognized over the

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Speaker 1: silver topped battery box that hung on a belt and

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Speaker 1: a thick black cord that connected the battery with the

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Speaker 1: head light attached to a hard hat. It was a

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Speaker 1: coon hunting standard for many years, and it, along with

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Speaker 1: the ducks and the decoys, represented us and our camp

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Speaker 1: very well. Feeding time came at twelve and that's when

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Speaker 1: we hollered Suey and started giving out samples. The line

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Speaker 1: for all the gumbo at all the boots was long

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Speaker 1: and slow going. We served it until it was gone,

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Speaker 1: saving a sample, and the contests issued container to turn

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Speaker 1: in to the judges. Now, Chris's gumbo was the best

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Speaker 1: I've ever eate. And I make gumbo at home all

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Speaker 1: the time and I fix it just like I like it,

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Speaker 1: but his was better. And even though at the end

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Speaker 1: of the contest we didn't win for our gum bow,

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Speaker 1: we did win first place for the best booth. Well.

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Speaker 1: That night we celebrated by hitting the woods with whaling

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Speaker 1: Jesse and Zeke. After we callared up our four legged

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Speaker 1: hunting companions, we made a cast into the woods anticipating

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Speaker 1: tree and hounds at any moment Jesse took office. They

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Speaker 1: was wailing out to about four hundred yards before finding

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Speaker 1: their way back. Whaling opened up on a track after

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Speaker 1: a few minutes, and we all listened to him singing

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Speaker 1: our favorite verse as he tracked down through the bottoms.

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Speaker 1: He followed it up with a course a loud and

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Speaker 1: long series of chops, letting us all know he was

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Speaker 1: convinced that he had a coon tread. As we walked

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Speaker 1: to him, he's barking, echoing through the timber. We discussed

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Speaker 1: everything from how good he sounded to asking how in

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Speaker 1: the world did Chris's gun bowl might win first place?

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Speaker 1: Just thinking about it now makes me want another big

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Speaker 1: bowl of it. Anyway, Whaling had a coon tread in

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Speaker 1: the first fork of a big, tall, red oak tree.

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Speaker 1: We got some great pictures of him with a National

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Speaker 1: Wildlife Boundary signed on the tree that the coon was

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Speaker 1: in making use and taking advantage of our public lands.

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Speaker 1: I petted Wailing up and we sent him on his way.

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Speaker 1: Zeke was doing his own thing in another direction, and

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Speaker 1: we all sat on a log in the dark, listening

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Speaker 1: to him barking on the track. Those of us were

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Speaker 1: tracking receivers watching the intricate twists and turns as the

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Speaker 1: mapping device painted a visual picture of what our ears

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Speaker 1: were telling us. Brad's been hunting night after night all

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Speaker 1: through the late summer and fall, working hard to learn

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Speaker 1: just exactly what Zeke was saying. It takes a while,

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Speaker 1: but repetitive trips from the hound, whose job is to

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Speaker 1: communicate with you by barking, will tell you exactly what

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Speaker 1: they're saying. To the uninitiated, it sounds like I'm making

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Speaker 1: this up. To those that know its second nature and

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Speaker 1: very real. I heard what I would call a locate

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Speaker 1: bark from z The locate bark comes just before the

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Speaker 1: dog rolls his bark over into a chopper steady bark,

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Speaker 1: indicating that he's treated waiting for you to get there.

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Speaker 1: And a competition, you can get penalized if the judge

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Speaker 1: thinks you're waiting too long to declare your dog tree.

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Speaker 1: I jokingly told Brad as if I was a judge, Sir,

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna need to call on that dog. Then. Chris Perry,

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Speaker 1: a guy that's getting into bear hunting pretty heavy with dogs,

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Speaker 1: He said, he sounds trud to me. And Wade was

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Speaker 1: watching just like I was on his handheld tracker. And

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Speaker 1: if a dog is treated, an icon on the tracker

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Speaker 1: resembling a dog with his front feet on a tree

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Speaker 1: is displayed. Wade said, his collar shows him tree. And

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Speaker 1: I spoke Brad again, with sir, I need to call

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Speaker 1: on that dog. Out of all the words in the

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Speaker 1: English language, Brad chose some intensely colorful metaphors to tell

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Speaker 1: us all to shut up. Once, laughing subsiding, I looked

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Speaker 1: back at my tracker and heard with my ears as

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Speaker 1: Zeke's barking moved a little further south, not much, but

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Speaker 1: enough to notice the dog's voice, inflection and rape changed

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Speaker 1: just a bit, and Brad's said that's it right there. Well,

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Speaker 1: we walked the three hundred yards or however far it was,

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Speaker 1: to the tree of Zeke trying to push over with

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Speaker 1: his front paws while simultaneously tried to blow the last

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Speaker 1: few leaves out of it with his barkain. Someone then

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Speaker 1: said the magic three words that every coon hundred longs

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Speaker 1: to hear. I got him, and sure enough he did.

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Speaker 1: On a limb way up in that red oak was

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Speaker 1: a big old coon looking right back at us. Now,

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Speaker 1: that was a good job on Zeke's part, and a

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Speaker 1: better one on Brad's. He knows that hound, and he

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Speaker 1: called him treated old school without ever looking at his

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Speaker 1: tracker for any clues. Listening to that dog over the

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Speaker 1: last few months, on countless trips mostly just the two

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Speaker 1: of them created a bond that is special and good,

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Speaker 1: one of love, loyalty and trust, the same thing that

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Speaker 1: brings us all together every chance we get good stuff.

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Speaker 1: Thank y'all so much for listening to Clay Lake and yours. Truly,

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Speaker 1: we really appreciate it. Send those stories to me and

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Speaker 1: Reva at my tcl story at the meadeater dot com.

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Speaker 1: And until next week, this is Brent Reeves. Sign it off.

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Speaker 1: Y'all be careful,