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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 the

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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: inside the Secret Hideout. All right, I'm getting my commercial

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Speaker 1: over with First. Unless you live in a cave, you

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Speaker 1: know that the big Black Friday sale is going on.

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Speaker 1: Go to meat eater dot com for the details. And

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Speaker 1: for all you folks hollering about the commercials, I'll refund

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Speaker 1: you what you paid to listen to the content. Oh yeah,

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Speaker 1: you didn't pay nothing. Now, then, today I'm going to

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Speaker 1: tell you all about my man cave, my new studio,

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Speaker 1: the new office, the secret hideout, whatever you want to

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Speaker 1: call it. But I'm not just talking about the structure.

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Speaker 1: I'm talking about just a few of the contents and

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Speaker 1: how I got them and what they mean to I

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Speaker 1: think you'll enjoy it. But first I'm going to tell

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Speaker 1: you a story. The thought of having your own place

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Speaker 1: is as part of our genetic code as anything. We're

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Speaker 1: more or less hardwired to be on the hunt for

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Speaker 1: something we can call our own. It started after Adam

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Speaker 1: and Eve got their viction notice from the best piece

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Speaker 1: of real estate this side of Heaven. Folks have been

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Speaker 1: looking for their own places ever since. It's fun to

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Speaker 1: look for your own spot. There's there's always some mystery

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Speaker 1: and intrigue as you wander around looking at property. In

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Speaker 1: some cases there's an element of danger, especially if you

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Speaker 1: find yourself on the wrong side of town or your

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Speaker 1: middle name is the as in Alexander the Great or

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Speaker 1: Attil of the Hunt, two examples of acquiring property that

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Speaker 1: someone else thought was already spoken for, and therein lies

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Speaker 1: the danger. The only dangerous thing I ever did involving

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Speaker 1: my own spot was trying to build something on a

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Speaker 1: spot I already possessed. Well family did anyway, Like the

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Speaker 1: time me in a couple other near do wells, decided

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Speaker 1: to dig our own cave in the middle of a

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Speaker 1: cow PASTI there was a small rise in that southern

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Speaker 1: Savannah that was surrounded by a handful of sweet gum

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Speaker 1: trees on the backside of that rise was a hollowed

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Speaker 1: out spot about the size of a fifty five gallon barrel.

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Speaker 1: It resembled a shallow cave opening if you tilted your

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Speaker 1: head just right, closed one eye and squad with the other.

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Speaker 1: Prime real estate is defined by its location, and this

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Speaker 1: was a gift from heaven because the address was secret

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Speaker 1: hide out rural route one box. Mama can't see us

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Speaker 1: from the house. It was like some angelic forester had

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Speaker 1: purposely planted those sweet gums in the direct line of

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Speaker 1: sight between the house and where the excavation would take place.

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Speaker 1: The three of us planned the whole operation in about

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Speaker 1: five minutes. A big pond fishing trip had turned into

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Speaker 1: a combat patrol when the fish refused to bite. While

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Speaker 1: recounting for the enemy, we happened upon the little grove

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Speaker 1: of gum trees to cool in the shade and discovered

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Speaker 1: the hidden possibilities within the small depression that lay behind it.

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Speaker 1: Oblivious to enemy troops or Spice satellites. It was the

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Speaker 1: perfect spot. All right, we're getting our bicycles. We left

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Speaker 1: down by the pond and riding to the barn by

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Speaker 1: the chicken house. It was a half a mile away there,

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Speaker 1: We're gonna each slip into tool shed and steal three

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Speaker 1: shovels to dig our cave with. We were behind enemy

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Speaker 1: lines now, and if captured, we could be shot for

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Speaker 1: being spies, or worst yet, told to do some chores

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Speaker 1: we left unfinished at our homes before we all decided

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Speaker 1: to meet up and go fishing. We were kicking up

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Speaker 1: dust like a runaway stage coach. When we slid to

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Speaker 1: a stop by the egg house. We laid down our

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Speaker 1: bikes crept into the tool shed, snatching up two shovels

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Speaker 1: in a sharp shooter spade. Looking like the juvenile tool

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Speaker 1: thieves we were. We balanced our digging implements with one

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Speaker 1: hand and pedal like the devil themselves was chasing us

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Speaker 1: as hard as we could go all the way back

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Speaker 1: to what was going to be the world's greatest height

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Speaker 1: out ever constructed. I could see us right now as plane,

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Speaker 1: as if we'd all met up this morning. Todd was

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Speaker 1: wearing jeans, tennis shoes, and a white T shirt that

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Speaker 1: had red on the hem of his sleeves and around

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Speaker 1: his neck. Bob was wearing his World War II patterned

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Speaker 1: cameo shirt, jeans, and tennis shoes. Now, I'll give you

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Speaker 1: one guess, but if it ain't overalls, no shirt and boots,

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Speaker 1: you'd be wrong for what I was wearing. The diggings

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Speaker 1: started with each of us side by side, with a

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Speaker 1: dirt flying behind us like wood being run through a chipper.

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Speaker 1: Now this wasn't going to take long at all. We

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Speaker 1: figured by noon, one of us could slip up to

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Speaker 1: my house, have my Mama fix us all up some

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Speaker 1: fried blogna, and by the time which everyone got back

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Speaker 1: with the rations, we'd be eating them and the comfort

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Speaker 1: of the foyer of our underground fortress. It was the

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Speaker 1: best laid plans of mice and men and little boys

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Speaker 1: was stolen shovels. The summer heat wasn't a factor in

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Speaker 1: the demise of our underground layer. It was just one

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Speaker 1: of a million flashes of youthful, vaultedhusiasm that faded as

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Speaker 1: fast as it burned. When the top soule turned to

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Speaker 1: clay and the digging slowed down to a crawl, the

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Speaker 1: fish would eventually start biting again, and a third of

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Speaker 1: our crew that had left for the fried blown he

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Speaker 1: had yet to return with even a bite. We made

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Speaker 1: tracks for the ponderosa and found him sitting at the

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Speaker 1: table smiling with a mouthful of grub and a double

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Speaker 1: handful of a fried mule lip sandwich. If you don't

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Speaker 1: know what that is, you need some happiness in your life.

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Speaker 1: It's pettigeen baloonna cut thick as a muse, lip in

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Speaker 1: fry and cast iron skillet. I like mine with a

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Speaker 1: light bread and Duke's mayonnaise. But it's rumored there are

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Speaker 1: humans out there that prefer mustard. Whatever. Anyway, that wound

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Speaker 1: up being the end of that project. There were plenty more,

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Speaker 1: one in particular that involves stacking tomato sticks like Lincoln

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Speaker 1: logs in the loft of a barn and defending it

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Speaker 1: with bb guns sweet potatoes, but that's a story for

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Speaker 1: another day. Now. You remember those shovels, Well, we didn't.

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Speaker 1: Several years later, I was bush hogging around that group

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Speaker 1: of sweet gums and was almost in a trance from

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Speaker 1: the monotonous drone of the tractor when the most god

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Speaker 1: awfully racket of banging and clanging comments from behind me

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Speaker 1: underneath the bush hog. Oh yeah, the shevels, And that's

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Speaker 1: just how that happened. I stepped up on the porch

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Speaker 1: and walked inside a building that had been built in

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Speaker 1: Kentucky and driven down the highway and parked behind my house.

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Speaker 1: Now it got there. Was the story I told y'all

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Speaker 1: last week, A true blessing from start to almost finished.

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Speaker 1: The peace to resistance will be when mister Alsis Alsis

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Speaker 1: Andersny arrives this spring along with his tanned hide. That

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Speaker 1: moosehead will be the centerpiece of the wall you first

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Speaker 1: see when you cross the threshold. It will be the

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Speaker 1: start of many conversations with folks who have like minded interests,

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Speaker 1: like a lot of us. They gonna say, tell me

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Speaker 1: about that moose, and I'll shoot that moose a million

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Speaker 1: times over the coming months and years should I be

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Speaker 1: fortunate enough to continue waking up on the right side

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Speaker 1: of the grass. But the story of the moose will

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Speaker 1: be a side note. The best part of me telling

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Speaker 1: that moose to it. We'll be talking about who I

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Speaker 1: was with, how Craig McCarthy, my guide and good friend,

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Speaker 1: went down and cut meat off that moose every night

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Speaker 1: for us to cook for supper. Now I'll tell them

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Speaker 1: about Dave Gardner, who started out as a cameraman in

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Speaker 1: a bear camp five years ago. It's now like a

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Speaker 1: brother to me to see his little boy bowing his

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Speaker 1: wife Ada through starlink while we sat at the supper table,

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Speaker 1: and the northern lights danced around outside every night, and

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Speaker 1: we looked at him except when it rained sideways. And

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Speaker 1: then folks will look elsewhere and see the bear skulls

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Speaker 1: that you did you kill those in Arkansas? All but one?

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Speaker 1: Can I pick it up? Nope, But let me show

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Speaker 1: you something. Then I'll show them at the top of

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Speaker 1: the skull of that first bear I killed, and tell

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Speaker 1: the story. See that cracking there, whether there it was

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Speaker 1: three minutes or less of legal shooting light. When that

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Speaker 1: bear just appeared out of nowhere, I picked up my

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Speaker 1: bow and with a set of eyes that now would

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Speaker 1: be lucky to see the pins, settled the glow of

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Speaker 1: the top one in the middle of the middle, and

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Speaker 1: moved it a little forward and squeezed the trigger on

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Speaker 1: that bear and ran to the edge of the mountain

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Speaker 1: and fell down a bluff, his head striking a big

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Speaker 1: flat rock in the middle of the creek eighty feet below.

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Speaker 1: And that's where we found him, as dead as the

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Speaker 1: big rock he landed on. The crazy part is that

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Speaker 1: boulder in the creek he landed on was fifty yards

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Speaker 1: from the cabin. I'd spent the night in back to

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Speaker 1: my truck up to the edge of the creek, and me,

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Speaker 1: James Lawrence, and Claybow loaded him in the truck. What's that?

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Speaker 1: What's what? Those sticks? Those aren't sticks, they're switches. Let

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Speaker 1: me tell you about those switches. When my daughter Amy

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Speaker 1: was four years old, she said, Daddy, Santa Claus is

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Speaker 1: going to bring you switches for Christmas. She wrapped those

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Speaker 1: up and gave them to me and thought it was

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Speaker 1: the funniest thing ever. That was thirty Christmases ago, and

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Speaker 1: they have never not been with me. I see them

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Speaker 1: wrapped in that little tight bundle, bound with the bread

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Speaker 1: ties that she used, and I can see a little

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Speaker 1: blonde headed girl with the most mischievous grin watching me

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Speaker 1: open that present with a tag that said to Daddy

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Speaker 1: from Santa. Is that an old flashlight? Yes it is.

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Speaker 1: That's a Craftsman flashlight, and one that's exactly like the

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Speaker 1: one my dad had back in the seventies. I can't

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Speaker 1: count how many times I marveled at how bright that

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Speaker 1: thing was. It was with him every time we cut

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Speaker 1: the hounds loose after coyotes. The fondest memories were when

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Speaker 1: it was cold and I was bundled up and sitting

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Speaker 1: on the dog crate in the back of the truck,

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Speaker 1: trying to pick out which dog was witch. As they

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Speaker 1: chased that cood down through the saline river bottoms. They're

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Speaker 1: barks and balls echoing through the cold night air. Sometimes

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Speaker 1: we'd be righting the perfect spot to see them cross

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Speaker 1: the road close to where we sat, the beam of

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Speaker 1: that light going on for what seemed like forever into

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Speaker 1: the blackness of the night, until interrupted by the dogs.

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Speaker 1: As they crossed the gravel, each tried to gain the lead,

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Speaker 1: and the leaders trying to keep it. We could see

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Speaker 1: the steam coming off of them as they seemingly barely

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Speaker 1: touched the crown of the road before disappearing into the

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Speaker 1: woods on the opposite side. It was like they were

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Speaker 1: a dozen train engines pulling a long line of invisible

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Speaker 1: cars on rails, bound for the unknown. Sometimes I would

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Speaker 1: wake up in the cab of the truck, Dad having

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Speaker 1: laid me down in the front seat and covered me

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Speaker 1: up with his coat stay warm while he caught the

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Speaker 1: dogs one by one and loaded them in the dog crate.

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Speaker 1: Some of that I'll tell whoever asked about that old light,

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Speaker 1: and some of it I'll probably just keep to myself.

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Speaker 1: There's a gallery of photos in several frames hung up

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Speaker 1: from mine and Tim's duck guiding days. And in those

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Speaker 1: photos I can see Arthur, Mitch, David, Michael, Mike, Bill,

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Speaker 1: Larry Richard, and Dennis, just to name a few. I

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Speaker 1: can see Anne, my first lab from thirty seven years ago,

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Speaker 1: several years before we started guiding. I named her little

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Speaker 1: Ann after the red bone and Wilson Rawls is where

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Speaker 1: the red fern grows. And it's funny how things in

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Speaker 1: my life circle back to that book and it's seemingly

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Speaker 1: everlasting effect on me. But it's a photo Tim took

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Speaker 1: of me driving that boat up the Arkansas River and

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Speaker 1: towing his smaller boat behind us. We were using it

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Speaker 1: to haul decoys and if need be an easier conveyance

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Speaker 1: into a shallower spot that the ducks sometimes like to go.

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Speaker 1: I trained that dog myself, and she was the first

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Speaker 1: retriever to steal my heart and the first one to

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Speaker 1: break it. A few years later, thoroughly convinced that if

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Speaker 1: there is such a thing as the spirit of an

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Speaker 1: animal that Anne's would come back to me again in

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Speaker 1: the form of another black lab named Anna. Decade or

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Speaker 1: more later, Anna as a celebrated companion, and I've talked

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Speaker 1: about numerous times on this platform, and I only have

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Speaker 1: to glance above my desk to see a framed picture

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Speaker 1: of her as well. Each of those photos, taking decades apart,

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Speaker 1: takes me to one place, a place where a wet

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Speaker 1: dog is welcome company, and love and loyalty are displayed

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Speaker 1: with every breath. There's a cabinet with challenge coins given

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Speaker 1: to me by my brothers and sisters that serve our

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Speaker 1: nation and communities, one from the Congressional Medal of Honor recipient,

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Speaker 1: but none more important than the other. All of them

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Speaker 1: represents service above self, but most importantly, they represent someone

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Speaker 1: who thought enough of me to want to share them.

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Speaker 1: I may not remember all their names, but I remember

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Speaker 1: all their faces and the pride they had when they

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Speaker 1: handed them to me. I have pictures drawn and colored

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Speaker 1: by kids that I met. Some were handed to me,

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Speaker 1: but most came in the mail. Wonderful surprise to open

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Speaker 1: and see the efforts of a child who, above all else,

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Speaker 1: wanted to give me something that they made themselves, not

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Speaker 1: an email or text message, a handwritten note with a

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Speaker 1: picture attached. Some have bears in them, some have turkeys

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Speaker 1: and coons in them, but all of them have me

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Speaker 1: in them, and most of them Old Whaling's in there too.

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Speaker 1: I've got a flag from the nation of Ethiopia that

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Speaker 1: was given to me by a man who did mission

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Speaker 1: work there and happened to be traveling through Arkansas one time.

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Speaker 1: He reached out to me on a whim and we

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Speaker 1: met for coffee. I used one of his stories about

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Speaker 1: an encounter he had with a hyena in that country

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Speaker 1: on episode two thirty eight, if you're interested in checking

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Speaker 1: it out. A few months later, he sent me that

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Speaker 1: flag and a handwritten letter. He also sent me a

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Speaker 1: feather from the fan of the only turkey he's ever killed. Now,

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Speaker 1: what in the world would I do with a lone

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Speaker 1: turkey feather? I can stand flat footed, blindfold in and

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Speaker 1: grab a handful from the dozen or sold turkey fans

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Speaker 1: I have stored from more turkey kills than I can count.

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Speaker 1: What would I do with that single feather? Cherish it

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Speaker 1: as much or more than my own. That's why I

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Speaker 1: can't tell you how many case knives are in here

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Speaker 1: because I don't know. I'm waiting on the mail man

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Speaker 1: to bring me one right now that I bought just

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Speaker 1: the other day. So how every many there are in here,

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Speaker 1: add one more by tomorrow's mail ones I noticed right

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Speaker 1: offer sitting in a lighted display case, and in that

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Speaker 1: case is one I received on the day my grandson

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Speaker 1: was born. There's the first one the case company gave

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Speaker 1: me when they heard my podcast about them. There's one

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Speaker 1: in there that I gave my dad. It was the

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Speaker 1: first one I ever bought. Another one was given to

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Speaker 1: me for Father's Day by my son. And sitting on

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Speaker 1: top of that display case is a decorative railroad spike

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Speaker 1: with two magnets that support a knife that wasn't made

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Speaker 1: by my extended family out in Bradford, PA. It's a

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Speaker 1: k bar three bladed pocket knife made in America and

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Speaker 1: was manufactured, as best I can tell, no later than

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Speaker 1: the nineteen seventies. It belonged to my great uncle Bob Fry.

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Speaker 1: He was married to my great aunt Arley May. And

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Speaker 1: if the Reeves family ever had an angel walking amongst

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Speaker 1: us with the name Reeves on the back of her jersey,

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Speaker 1: it was hert. There's a buck on the wall that

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Speaker 1: I killed in Mississippi when the Mule Skinner and I

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Speaker 1: were on our Great Mississippi River Adventure a couple years ago,

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Speaker 1: A decent deer that I was fortunate enough to make

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Speaker 1: a good shot on in a windstorm that had me

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Speaker 1: and cinematographer Drew stack Line flapping in the breeze like

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Speaker 1: wind socks in Oklahoma. But that grand adventure miraculous shot

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Speaker 1: is no longer the story of that skull mounted buck.

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Speaker 1: He's missing his nose because I'd run out of room

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Speaker 1: to hang stuff in that bedroom I was using for

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Speaker 1: a studio before getting this one, and I had it

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Speaker 1: propped up in the corner, and that's where it was

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Speaker 1: when I walked in one afternoon and Whaling the Wonder

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Speaker 1: Hound had taken it upon himself to use it as

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Speaker 1: a pacifier. I think it adds character, if not fuel

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Speaker 1: for nightmares. On the walls are duck and turkey prints

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Speaker 1: that I have seemingly had forever, most of them depicting

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Speaker 1: hunting in Arkansas from some of the most well known artists.

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Speaker 1: Philip Crowe, Arthur Anderson, and missus Eddie Jones are world

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Speaker 1: famous wildlife artists who stand amongst the most talented professionals

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Speaker 1: in that arena, and yet all of them are overshadowed

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Speaker 1: by a relatively unknown young artists in a medium some

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Speaker 1: would suggest unworthy of inclusion in that category. I received

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Speaker 1: the eighteen by eight unsigned original work as a gift

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Speaker 1: from the artist herself back in two thousand and thirteen.

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Speaker 1: It was a Father's Day gift from Bailey. She was

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Speaker 1: a couple months shy of two years old and was

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Speaker 1: so proud to hand me her finger painting when I

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Speaker 1: picked her up from the babysitter. I hung it that

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Speaker 1: day beside my chair in the living room when she

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Speaker 1: was four. She was sitting in my lap. We were

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Speaker 1: watching TV. When I saw her looking at the painting.

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Speaker 1: She was so focused on her work that she was

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Speaker 1: oblivious to everything else going on around her, TV, the dog,

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Speaker 1: even me. Finally, I said, you know, you painted that

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Speaker 1: for me. She just nodded her head and never altering

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Speaker 1: her gaze. You never told me what that is that

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Speaker 1: you painted, and immediately she said, that's the forest. For

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Speaker 1: almost three years, I glanced at that painting, seeing only

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Speaker 1: the tiny patterns of fingers that blended colors together in

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Speaker 1: a more or less chaotic way. There seemed to be

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Speaker 1: no rhyme or reason for what she'd done until I

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Speaker 1: asked her about it. When she blurted out the forest,

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Speaker 1: it was like the blur of colors and mismatched strokes

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Speaker 1: morphed into an obvious illustration of timber leaves, wildflowers. It

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Speaker 1: had been there all along. I couldn't see it because

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Speaker 1: I just didn't know how to look at it. It

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Speaker 1: was a stark reminder from a four year old that

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Speaker 1: there's more than one way to see something, and if

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Speaker 1: we put our biases aside for just a moment, sometimes

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Speaker 1: the picture is very clear. There's too many things in

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Speaker 1: here to cover, but each of them stand for people

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Speaker 1: and places that are special to me. I don't take

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Speaker 1: those relationships for granted, and value who and what the

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Speaker 1: items represent. Thank you so much for listening. Until next week.

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Speaker 1: This is Brent Reeves. Sign it off. Y'all be careful,

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Speaker 1: no