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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: expectations and reality. I've been traveling a lot lately and

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Speaker 1: had the great fortune to meet and interact with families

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Speaker 1: from Tennessee to Pennsylvania and several other states as well.

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Speaker 1: The common thread among the majority of them was the

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Speaker 1: eagerness of their youngests to continue with mom and dad

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Speaker 1: and the outdoors, or the eagerness of mom and dad

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Speaker 1: to get them out there. We're going to talk about

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Speaker 1: that this week, but first I'm going to tell you

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Speaker 1: this story. Kyle Langford is a police officer with the

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Speaker 1: WYE Dot Nation Police Department in Miama, Oklahoma. Now it's

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Speaker 1: spelled like it should be pronounced Miami. But if you

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Speaker 1: call it Miami and you're referring to the city in Oklahoma,

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Speaker 1: and not the one in Florida. The Oakis are quick

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Speaker 1: to correct you. Now, Kyle has been in law enforcement

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Speaker 1: for over a dozen years, and a decade of it

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Speaker 1: was been in patrol. Now he's a resource officer at

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Speaker 1: the local school and has been for a couple of years.

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Speaker 1: This story is about a hunt with his father and

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Speaker 1: brother when he was a kid, and now he passed

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Speaker 1: that tradition down to his children. I've talked enough about

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Speaker 1: what we're going to hear, so let's just get in

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Speaker 1: there and it out. With Kyle's words in my voice,

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Speaker 1: here we go. As far back as I can remember,

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Speaker 1: I can still hear the stories from my dad and

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Speaker 1: uncle Jerry about hunt and deer camps and trips to

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Speaker 1: Colorado and funny pranks. The stories they told captured my

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Speaker 1: imagination with adventure and camaraderie, and I remember wanting nothing

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Speaker 1: more than to have stories like those of my own someday.

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Speaker 1: Growing up. A couple times a season, my dad would

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Speaker 1: take my younger brother and me along with him, and

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Speaker 1: back then deer hunting was tough, and taking two small kids, well,

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Speaker 1: that made it even tougher. There was no such thing

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Speaker 1: as a ladder stand or pop up blind for us,

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Speaker 1: and if there was, we had never heard of it.

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Speaker 1: Dad's only option was to rake the leaves away from

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Speaker 1: the base of a big tree, and there in the

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Speaker 1: dirt we would wait like a litter of raccoons. I

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Speaker 1: don't remember seeing any deer on those hunts, but I

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Speaker 1: wouldn't trade them for a boon and crocketd sized buck today.

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Speaker 1: A few years later, the year before I was able

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Speaker 1: to hunt on my own, I remember sitting with my

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Speaker 1: dad and seeing two doors. They were about seventy yards

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Speaker 1: away through the timber, and just seeing them was the

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Speaker 1: most amazing thing ever. I'd gone deer hunting with Dad

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Speaker 1: for years, and I'd seen deer from the car, but

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Speaker 1: I'd never seen one while hunting. I was blown away.

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Speaker 1: The next summer, I took my hundred safety course and

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Speaker 1: my uncle was gracious enough to let me borrow a

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Speaker 1: spare of thirty thirty. That fall. With a tag in

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Speaker 1: my pocket, I was on the road to adventure. Borrowed Marling.

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Speaker 1: Thirty thirty had a fixed four pyroscope, shoot through bases

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Speaker 1: and white stitching with a leather sling. It wasn't mine,

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Speaker 1: but I'll never forget holding it. Looking back, it was

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Speaker 1: more empowering than sitting behind the wheel of my first

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Speaker 1: with a rifle season approaching. I got it just in

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Speaker 1: time to sight it in and become familiar with it

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Speaker 1: before opening weekend, and on opening day. I remember getting

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Speaker 1: dressed by the fireplace. A dim brass lamp lit the

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Speaker 1: room as I pulled on stretched out long underwear, overly

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Speaker 1: thick wool socks, and zipped up a pair of old,

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Speaker 1: faded camel coveralls that were a couple sizes too big

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Speaker 1: and likely twice my age, or an orange sock cap,

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Speaker 1: and even older orange vests with string ties in the

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Speaker 1: corners that had been broken and retied at least a

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Speaker 1: dozen times. In that same room, Dad kept our guns

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Speaker 1: in a locking cabinet under the staircase next to the fireplace,

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Speaker 1: like it was yesterday. I can still smell the wood,

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Speaker 1: smoke and hoppies when he opened the door and passed

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Speaker 1: out guns. Early in the morning, we left the house

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Speaker 1: and Dad sixty three Chevrolet half ton pick up. It

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Speaker 1: was a fifteen mile drive from our house to our

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Speaker 1: hunting spot. When we parked the truck, it was about

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Speaker 1: twenty degrees and there was a light dusting A fresh snow.

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Speaker 1: Stepping out of the truck, I clipped on my camel

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Speaker 1: fanny pack. Inside it was a grut call, some fresh

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Speaker 1: earth scented wafers, and a buck Model one nineteen. I

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Speaker 1: threw my rifle over my shoulder and took a deep

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Speaker 1: breath of the cold, crisp morning air. We climbed to

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Speaker 1: the top of a big, hardwood ridge. My dad my

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Speaker 1: brother walked me to an oak tree I had never

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Speaker 1: seen before. My dad helped me kick the snow and

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Speaker 1: leaves away from the base of the tree and wished

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Speaker 1: me good luck before he and my brother walked into

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Speaker 1: the darkness with the only flashlight we had as the

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Speaker 1: sun came up that day, it was hard to describe

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Speaker 1: the feeling I had. I was actually hunting. I'd been

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Speaker 1: trusted to carry a rifle and possibly even to take

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Speaker 1: the life of a deer. It was freedom and a

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Speaker 1: responsibility I had never experience before. I wanted that morning

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Speaker 1: last wherever. We hunted that evening and went to church

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Speaker 1: the next morning. We were back in the woods on

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Speaker 1: Sunday evening and I didn't see a single deer that weekend.

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Speaker 1: It wasn't uncommon back then, and it didn't bother me anyway.

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Speaker 1: I was just excited to be in the woods. The

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Speaker 1: following Thursday, after school was out, I returned to my

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Speaker 1: oak tree. I hadn't been there long when I heard

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Speaker 1: something scanning the hillside. I saw a movement and quickly

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Speaker 1: made out the brown color of a deer under a

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Speaker 1: big white oak. She was walking slowly toward me, eating acres.

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Speaker 1: I waited for a good angle. I cocked the hammer,

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Speaker 1: I took aim and pulled the trigger. In a matter

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Speaker 1: of moments, I was standing over my first deer. She

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Speaker 1: was all of fifty five pounds, and she wasn't a

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Speaker 1: she at all. It was a button buzzy. But I

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Speaker 1: was so excited I could hardly contained myself. And with

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Speaker 1: light fading, no flashlighting, dead deer on the ground, I

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Speaker 1: went to find my dad and my brother. When I

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Speaker 1: reached the top of the ridge where Dad had dropped

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Speaker 1: me off, I waited what felt like an eternity before

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Speaker 1: I saw his flashlight cutting through the woods. That he

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Speaker 1: didn't come down the ridge toward me. It was as

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Speaker 1: if he had forgotten. Now he and my brother were

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Speaker 1: headed toward the truck. I ran toward him, yelling loud

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Speaker 1: enough to be heard over the crunching leaves, and they

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Speaker 1: finally stopped and yelled back. I hollered that I killed

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Speaker 1: a deer, and he yelled back in surprise. He didn't

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Speaker 1: even know I had shot. Over the next fifteen years

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Speaker 1: I continued to hunt with my dad, uncle Jerry, my cousins,

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Speaker 1: and my brother. We all hunted owner near that public

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Speaker 1: land in McDonald County for the better part of a decade.

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Speaker 1: We had an annual deer cam. We played poker, and

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Speaker 1: we ate a lot of fried backstraps from gravy, and

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Speaker 1: on a good year, half of us would kill us

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Speaker 1: my old foget horn or a six point, and if

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Speaker 1: we were lucky, someone would drag in out one hundred

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Speaker 1: inch eight point. Those are the most fun years of

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Speaker 1: hunting of my life, and for better or worse, it

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Speaker 1: seems the culture of dear hunting has now mess with

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Speaker 1: success in different ways than it did back then. So

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Speaker 1: thankful for the years I spent hunting on that public

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Speaker 1: land with old hand me down equipment, and for the

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Speaker 1: time together with friends and family. I have no doubt

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Speaker 1: those experiences shape me into the outdoorsman I am today.

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Speaker 1: I'm forty years old, Now my wife and I have

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Speaker 1: a nineteen year old daughter, a sixteen year old son,

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Speaker 1: and an eleven year old daughter. Sometimes question the way

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Speaker 1: I raised my kids, not only in the outdoors, been

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Speaker 1: in all walks of life. Have I held their hands

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Speaker 1: and spoon fed them too much? Have I catered to

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Speaker 1: them to ensure instant success, keeping them comfortable them and

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Speaker 1: bought them two nice of equipment and clothing. Today, my

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Speaker 1: eleven year old Angley Pearl has killed three bucks hers,

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Speaker 1: all bigger than anything I had killed by the time

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Speaker 1: I was twice her age. My son Hagen has a

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Speaker 1: quiver for his bowth that costs more than my entire

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Speaker 1: archery set up when I was sixteen, and my nineteen

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Speaker 1: year old Katie May just killed her fifth buck two

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Speaker 1: days ago. As we sat in our heated shooting house.

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Speaker 1: She squeezed off the suppressed rifle and within forty five

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Speaker 1: minutes we were headed back home with a nice buck

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Speaker 1: in the bed of the truck. I'd like to think

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Speaker 1: of today's world, I'm doing the right thing to make

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Speaker 1: sure my kids have good and fun experiences in the outdoors.

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Speaker 1: My goal is for them to want to continue being

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Speaker 1: outdoorsmen and women for the rest of their lives and

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Speaker 1: to someday pass on to their kids what my dad

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Speaker 1: and uncle passed on to me Off and wonder if

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Speaker 1: I made it a little too easy on by not

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Speaker 1: challenging them the way I was challenged. Will they grow

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Speaker 1: up and perceive the outdoors the way I do? Is

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Speaker 1: it selfish for me to even want that? Maybe I

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Speaker 1: should let them struggle a little more. Maybe I should

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Speaker 1: drop them off on the side of a big oak

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Speaker 1: ridge and walk out of sight for a while. Maybe

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Speaker 1: I should just be happy that they're enjoining the outdoors

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Speaker 1: and sharing time with me, doing things that I once

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Speaker 1: did with my dad. Truth is, today's world, with social media,

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Speaker 1: instant gratification, and busy lives, none of us really know

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Speaker 1: the right answers. Only only time will tell. One thing

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Speaker 1: I do know is this, I'm going to keep taking

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Speaker 1: them hunting for as long as they'll let me, and

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Speaker 1: someday I hope they can remember their first hunt as

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Speaker 1: positively with as much detail as I remember mine. And

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Speaker 1: according to Miami Tribe native Kyle Langford, that's just how

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Speaker 1: that happened. Well, Kyle, you bring us some interesting things

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Speaker 1: to think about, and I think we all to talk

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Speaker 1: about expectations and reality. Now I'm probably going to get

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Speaker 1: some heat for some of the stuff I'm fixing and say,

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Speaker 1: but this is just my opinion. Y'all don't have to

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Speaker 1: agree with it anymore than I have to agree with yours.

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Speaker 1: Some of you will and some of you won't. And

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Speaker 1: I absolutely couldn't care less which side of the fence

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Speaker 1: you're on, mainly because I seldom see a fence these days.

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Speaker 1: I haven't always thought this way. I readily admit there

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Speaker 1: was a time when I had near views on just

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Speaker 1: about everything. But maturity and experience have changed or adjusted

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Speaker 1: the way you see things. I think that's the way

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Speaker 1: it's supposed to work. You form an opinion based on

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Speaker 1: what you know to be true through your observations or

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Speaker 1: information provided to you by trusted sources, and when you

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Speaker 1: learn better, you adjust your opinions to coincide with the

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Speaker 1: facts presented. And the theme and purpose of today's episode

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Speaker 1: is weighing our expectations against reality. And I pose this

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Speaker 1: in regard to how we interact with our kids while

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Speaker 1: hunting fishing. I've heard people say that kids these days

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Speaker 1: just don't know what it's like to be wet and

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Speaker 1: cold like we did back in the good old days. Well,

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Speaker 1: kids have hunting clothes made for them now, where back

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Speaker 1: in my day they didn't. Mama had my feet stuffed

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Speaker 1: and three pairs of socks and jobbed inside bread socks

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Speaker 1: before putting on my shoes or boots and heading out

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Speaker 1: into the cold and wet. Well. I'm not about doing

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Speaker 1: things for Bailey. My grandkids are any young and I

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Speaker 1: happen to be hunting and fishing with, But I do

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Speaker 1: want to make it enjoyable for them. And just because

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Speaker 1: things can be more comfortable for kids these days, does

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Speaker 1: that mean there's any less impactful. I don't think so.

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Speaker 1: It's important for me to remember that my first experiences

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Speaker 1: with outdoor sports aren't theirs. If I project what I

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Speaker 1: remember feeling or how I think they should feel about

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Speaker 1: a particular activity, I'm setting myself up for disappointment and

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Speaker 1: adding unnecessary pressure to them. Let them enjoy or dislike

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Speaker 1: based on their own experiences. It's just as hard to

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Speaker 1: get a child to like something they have no interest

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Speaker 1: in as it is for me. We all have an

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Speaker 1: idea that everyone, especially the little ones that we introduced

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Speaker 1: to the things we all love, should feel as passionate

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Speaker 1: about them as we do. That's why we want to

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Speaker 1: share them with them in the first place. It's been

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Speaker 1: my observation that the real reason the little ones want

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Speaker 1: to be there isn't for the particular activity, it's because

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Speaker 1: we're there. During the COVID lockdown, which started when Whaling

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Speaker 1: was a half year old and Bailey was seven, there

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Speaker 1: were very few times initially when I left the house

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Speaker 1: to take him out, that she wasn't with me. She

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Speaker 1: was just as excited to put on her rubber boots

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Speaker 1: and ride with me and Whaling into the woods as

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Speaker 1: she was going to the park to play. It wasn't

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Speaker 1: the activity we were going to do together, it was

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Speaker 1: just and activity that we were doing together. Of course,

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Speaker 1: she's grown older now her attention has been directed elsewhere

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Speaker 1: as she's matured and discovered that other activities she finds

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Speaker 1: they may be more interested in coon hunting with her daddy.

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Speaker 1: It's hard to believe for a thirteen year old girl

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Speaker 1: as that is. But did I judge as the success

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Speaker 1: of what we were doing and how much she enjoyed

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Speaker 1: it by how much I enjoy it now and how

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Speaker 1: I remember enjoying it with my dad nope, but I

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Speaker 1: did with my on a decade earlier, and when his

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Speaker 1: attention turned elsewhere, I incorrectly took it as an affront

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Speaker 1: to me instead of seeing it for what it was.

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Speaker 1: It was merely a different interest by a different person,

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Speaker 1: raised in a different environment, with different social pressures, and

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Speaker 1: at a different time. I remember feeling almost heartbroken that

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Speaker 1: his interests weren't a line like mine were. We hunted

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Speaker 1: a lot together when he really didn't have much choice

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Speaker 1: about going, and may have not expressed the fact that

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Speaker 1: maybe he really didn't want to go, maybe he wanted

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Speaker 1: to do something else, or maybe I put too much

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Speaker 1: pressure on him to have the same love for something

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Speaker 1: that I did, and I pushed him in the other direction.

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Speaker 1: Can I go back that far and my memory banking

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Speaker 1: accurately relived the emotions and adrenaline filled moments of my life.

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Speaker 1: I like to think I can about some things, but

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Speaker 1: I I can assure you that how I feel about

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Speaker 1: killing that squirrel on my first solo hunt that I

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Speaker 1: talked about last week, well that's only sweetened with time,

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Speaker 1: the reason being the totality of the circumstances that surrounded it,

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Speaker 1: The distance not only in decades, but the physical distance

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Speaker 1: from that spot where it occurred and where I set

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Speaker 1: now unable to return to that location or see those

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Speaker 1: things again that I saw there fifty years ago, and

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Speaker 1: that only happens with the passage of time. I value

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Speaker 1: that memory because I know I can never go back

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Speaker 1: there physically, and can only wax as poetic as I

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Speaker 1: can about that time from long ago. No one else

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Speaker 1: should be expected to feel the same value I do,

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Speaker 1: Even though they may see that there's some real value

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Speaker 1: in it, the true investment is mine alone, just as

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Speaker 1: their initial experiences will dictate the importance of where they

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Speaker 1: place that activity in their own lives. There's nothing enjoyable

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Speaker 1: about doing something you don't want to do, or be

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Speaker 1: in somewhere that you don't want to be. I think

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Speaker 1: the best thing that we can do is to expose

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Speaker 1: the outdoors to the young ones while making it as

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Speaker 1: comfortable as possible, with no other expectations, but allowing them

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Speaker 1: to make up their own minds. Then when they're older,

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Speaker 1: they can make the decisions with our guidance as to

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Speaker 1: the level of difficulty and commitment that they want to

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Speaker 1: make for themselves. Hope in our hearts that reality lives

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Speaker 1: up to our expectations, but seldom is that ever the case.

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Speaker 1: But I love for Bailey to march in this office

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Speaker 1: right now and say, Dad, I want a new pair

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Speaker 1: of hip boots and want of mister Michael's lives. Well,

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Speaker 1: you bet I will. Is she going to do that?

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Speaker 1: Probably not. But if you ask her if she had

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Speaker 1: fun when she used to follow me in that old

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Speaker 1: hound around in the woods, I bet she'd say yes.

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Speaker 1: She'll remember it as a time when she wanted to

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Speaker 1: go along with me instead of being forced to do

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Speaker 1: so that's the difference, and how we approach those first

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Speaker 1: outings will set the president on how many will fall.

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Speaker 1: I thank you all so much for listening. And hey,

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Speaker 1: check out the new Bear Greece YouTube channel, which is

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Speaker 1: really the old Bear Hunting Magazine YouTube channel. It ain't

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Speaker 1: hard to find and there's very little math involved of

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Speaker 1: any There's gonna be a lot of good stuff on there,

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Speaker 1: and I think you really enjoy it. For my very

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Speaker 1: own boy wonder Bear job. Until next week, this is

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Speaker 1: Brent Reeves signing off. Y'all be careful