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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 trot lining and just general country living.

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Speaker 2: I want you to stay a.

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Speaker 1: While as I share my stories and the country skills

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Speaker 1: that will help you beat the system. This Country Life

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Speaker 1: is proudly presented as part of Meat Eaters Podcast Network,

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Speaker 1: bringing you the best outdoor podcast the airways have to offer.

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Speaker 1: All right, friends, pull you up a chair or drop

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Speaker 1: that tailgate. I think I got a thing or two

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Speaker 1: to teach you. Stories from the guide service. Twenty six

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Speaker 1: years in the guiding business taught me a few things

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Speaker 1: about people that hunt. The biggest thing was that they

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Speaker 1: were all looking for something different, and what some of

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Speaker 1: them were hunting surprised me. They were from all over

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Speaker 1: this great nation. They ate differently, they dressed differently, certainly

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Speaker 1: talk differently, and about the only thing we all had

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Speaker 1: in common was ducks, or so a thought. I'm gonna

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Speaker 1: tell you all about it, but first I'm gonna.

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Speaker 2: Tell you a story.

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Speaker 1: We were all standing in the dark, in the knee

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Speaker 1: deep water in the flooded timber of an unnamed Arkansas

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Speaker 1: Wildlife Management There, me, my brother Tim, and six boys

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Speaker 1: from New Jersey that had booked a four day hunt

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Speaker 1: with us. This was before it became illegal to guide

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Speaker 1: on public land, and I'm not going to be any

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Speaker 1: more specific about where we were, south southwest of Stuttgart,

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Speaker 1: so the spot burning police don't issue a wart from

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Speaker 1: my arrest and start hounding me with hate mail because

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Speaker 1: I named the most well known thirty three thousand, eight

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Speaker 1: hundred and thirty two acre, about twice the size of Cleveland,

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Speaker 1: Ohio Green Tree reservoir on the planet. No gonna do that, biometam.

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Speaker 1: We were waiting on daylight and staying warm, drinking coffee

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Speaker 1: and anticipating the hunt. We'd absolutely smashed the ducks in

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Speaker 1: the timber of the day before, but had to move

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Speaker 1: to a different spot this morning because of the shifting wind.

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Speaker 1: Some of the boys had stayed up late into the night,

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Speaker 1: celebrating the hunt by abusing their livers. They weren't as

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Speaker 1: easy to roust out of bed that morning, but peer

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Speaker 1: pressure prevailed and they made mustar and time to ride

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Speaker 1: over to the parking lot. Now, after a short half

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Speaker 1: a mile walk and wade, we found ourselves in our

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Speaker 1: current spot. Decoys out trees assigned to each hunter as

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Speaker 1: their spot to stand and the first safety brief given

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Speaker 1: all thirty minutes before shooting time. The second safety briefing

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Speaker 1: would be right before we loaded up. Now, these Yankees

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Speaker 1: were absolutely digging everything we were showing them. They were

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Speaker 1: fish out of water about Southern culture, food, local animals,

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Speaker 1: and and the way we talked. It was so much

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Speaker 1: fun teaching them about all of it, and they, in

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Speaker 1: turn were telling us about how life was where they

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Speaker 1: were from. And for the most part it was eerly similar.

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Speaker 1: Aside from the weird pronunciations of words, we were all

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Speaker 1: pretty much alike. Oddly, folks up north find it necessary

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Speaker 1: to use all the letters when saying a word. I know, right,

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Speaker 1: Ain't that weird? Anyway? These boys could put away the

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Speaker 1: groceries and if they were awake, they were eating. Now,

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Speaker 1: we always vetted folks before they got there about food,

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Speaker 1: and we told them the kinds of food that they'd

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Speaker 1: be eating, which was home cooks, Southern food, and they

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Speaker 1: were looking forward to it. But they had one request.

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Speaker 1: They said that they weren't going to eat oakrey. I

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Speaker 1: call it oakrey. Some folks call it okruh. I know, right,

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Speaker 1: Ain't that weird anyway? However you say it they drew

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Speaker 1: the line at eating it twenty four but twenty four

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Speaker 1: hours into their visit and Tim had them eating pickled

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Speaker 1: oakrey out of a jar, and my sister in law,

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Speaker 1: Barbera Jean, had him eating cut up ochre she'd mealed

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Speaker 1: and fried, and a cast iron skillet. We'd broken the

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Speaker 1: ochre barrier. They trusted us, They had an open mind

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Speaker 1: and were curious about things that they'd never seen before,

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Speaker 1: and relied on us to tell them the truth about

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Speaker 1: what they were looking at. That was the first mistake.

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Speaker 1: Let's go back in time twenty four hours as I

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Speaker 1: drove them from the airport and a Little Rock to

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Speaker 1: our camp that sat on the bank with the mud

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Speaker 1: Lake Bend on the Arkansas River. As soon as we

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Speaker 1: hit the Gravel County Road on the last leg of

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Speaker 1: the ride from the Little Rock, we passed a cotton

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Speaker 1: field that had been picked, but the stalks hadn't been

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Speaker 1: moved yet. If you're unfamiliar with what that looks like,

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Speaker 1: imagine waste high rows of little sapling trees with no

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Speaker 1: leaves and bits of white hanging off the limbs. Even

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Speaker 1: with the most advanced machinery of today, there's always cotton

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Speaker 1: that doesn't get picked. The passing by this field that

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Speaker 1: was close to the camp, one of my passengers asked,

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Speaker 1: what is that growing in that field? I saw him

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Speaker 1: point to the cotton field, and everyone was looking at

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Speaker 1: it or looking at me, waiting for an answer, And

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Speaker 1: I said, y'all don't know what that is. And I

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Speaker 1: was a little surprised that they'd never seen a cotton

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Speaker 1: pass before. And then I realized they don't grow no

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Speaker 1: cotton in New Jersey. Of course they hadn't seen one,

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Speaker 1: so be in a compulsive liar, I said, those are

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Speaker 1: grit bushes. Grits. He asked, yeah, man, grits, you know,

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Speaker 1: like you eat for breakfast. He said, oh yeah, I've

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Speaker 1: heard of those. We don't eat those back home. Well,

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Speaker 1: I told him that he'd have the opportunity to eat

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Speaker 1: them here because we have them every day. He asked

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Speaker 1: me if that's what they'd be eating for breakfast, and

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Speaker 1: I said, no, that's what you'll be eating with breakfast.

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Speaker 1: Always wondered where those things came from, he said, they

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Speaker 1: were all satisfied with my answer. Now, I could have

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Speaker 1: told him the truth, But you know, what's the fun

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Speaker 1: in that. I bet some of you are saying right

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Speaker 1: now where dogrits come from. But anyway, that was lie

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Speaker 1: number one. Before we driven another half mile. We drove

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Speaker 1: up on the Arkansas River levee headed to where our

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Speaker 1: camp was located, which was inside the levee. Also inside

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Speaker 1: the levee where some old dykes that had been abandoned

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Speaker 1: by the Army Corps engineers when in nineteen seventy two

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Speaker 1: the McLellan Current Navigation System cut a new path for

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Speaker 1: the Arkansas River, taking the mud Lake Bend out of

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Speaker 1: the channel. The dikes were constructed of telephone pole sized

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Speaker 1: timbers and stacked like an a frame or what's called

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Speaker 1: a no dig fence, and it's covered in large gray rock.

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Speaker 1: Most of the big rocks had been salvaged from the

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Speaker 1: diyke by the locals with permission for erosion control and

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Speaker 1: different uses. But when the gray rocks were gone, you

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Speaker 1: could see what looked like a telephone pole sized fence

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Speaker 1: about eight feet high. Someone else asked as we passed,

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Speaker 1: what in the world is that fence for? Well, I

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Speaker 1: saw them all looking at it, just like the cotton

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Speaker 1: patch back down the road, and I said, oh, that

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Speaker 1: fence they used to raise rod nastroses down here for

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Speaker 1: the zoos. Someone else joined in, are there any more

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Speaker 1: down here? Straight faced? I told him, well, they're not

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Speaker 1: really sure. Five got out and killed one of the

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Speaker 1: caretakers trying to put them back in, and they pretty

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Speaker 1: well shut down the whole operation. Someone asked if they

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Speaker 1: catch them. I said, well, they shot three of them

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Speaker 1: the next day down the river on a big farm.

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Speaker 1: One was killed a week later after he routed it

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Speaker 1: up fifty acres of gritz they never found, and they

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Speaker 1: never found the fifth one. There's lots of folks grilling

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Speaker 1: out that summer though. They were amazed at that story.

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Speaker 1: And to tell you the truth, if I can, so

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Speaker 1: was I. And that was lie number two. Fast forward

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Speaker 1: to the morning of the hunt, and as I was

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Speaker 1: making coffee that morning and getting ready before we left

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Speaker 1: the camp, I noticed one fellow was already up before

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Speaker 1: the rest of them. He was one of the six

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Speaker 1: that had abstained from the liver wrecking party and was

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Speaker 1: a fresh as a daisy, bouncing around in that kitchen

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Speaker 1: fixing blown and sandwich is like it was his normal job.

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Speaker 1: He had them all laid out and stacked together according

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Speaker 1: to what he put on him half he put on mayonnaise,

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Speaker 1: another half he put on mustard. I followed him downstairs

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Speaker 1: to go warm on my truck and saw him start

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Speaker 1: handing out sandwiches like he was dealing cards in casino,

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Speaker 1: and all his buddies, who were preoccupied with getting themselves

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Speaker 1: ready mayonnaise or mustard. He asked the other five alls

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Speaker 1: that it didn't matter, so he was just stuffing them

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Speaker 1: in their blind bags. Eventually left. All right, now we're

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Speaker 1: back in the duck hunting hole in the darkness, where

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Speaker 1: the only light was from the occasional glow of a cigarette.

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Speaker 1: Tim and I had been having a great time with

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Speaker 1: these guys. They were one of our favorite groups of

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Speaker 1: clients that would become more like friends and family after

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Speaker 1: coming year after year. We still talk to them now,

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Speaker 1: but that morning they were still new and extremely gullible.

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Speaker 1: As I mentioned way back when this story started going

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Speaker 1: off the rails, it was day two and we were

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Speaker 1: standing in a new spot in the dark, with everyone

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Speaker 1: standing in their assigned spot with everything you could imagine

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Speaker 1: in their own personal blind bags, including the Balogney sandwhich

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Speaker 1: is one of them, had made for everyone a screech

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Speaker 1: owl cut loose less than fifty yards away, a six

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Speaker 1: man simultaneous chorus of let me see, how can I

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Speaker 1: say this? A profane inquiry of the source of that

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Speaker 1: sound resonated through the flooded timber. My brother Tim said,

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Speaker 1: don't nobody move or turn on a light now. His

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Speaker 1: voice was seriously concerned. I realized then these boys had

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Speaker 1: never heard a screech owl, and even though knowing what

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Speaker 1: one is, it'll make the hairstown upon your back of

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Speaker 1: your neck. But when everybody was quiet and listening and

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Speaker 1: waiting for one of us to say something, it was

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Speaker 1: then that I whispered loud enough for everyone to hear

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Speaker 1: hawl or monkeys. You could have heard a pin draw.

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Speaker 1: I saw two lid cigarettes almost simultaneously fall from their

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Speaker 1: faces and disappear in the muddy water with an audible hiss.

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Speaker 1: I don't think they took a breath. It was pitch

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Speaker 1: black and you couldn't see an inch in front of

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Speaker 1: your face. Tim whispered during that whole rhino deal. They

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Speaker 1: had some monkeys down here too, And when they quit

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Speaker 1: raising them rhinos, someone cut all the monkeys loose. They're

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Speaker 1: attracted to light because the keepers fed them at night,

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Speaker 1: and when they got loose man. They took to these woods,

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Speaker 1: and that's where they've lived ever since. There's only a

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Speaker 1: few left, but we hear them out here occasionally coming

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Speaker 1: to headlights looking for food. They dine up in the daytime.

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Speaker 1: You won't ever see them out Then now there was

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Speaker 1: my opportunity. I was positive no one had moved a muscle,

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Speaker 1: not one person, and I'm sure they were praying for daylight,

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Speaker 1: which was still like twenty minutes away, and wondered how

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Speaker 1: they'd voluntarily paid to walk into a wild animal park.

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Speaker 1: That's when I said the problem. The problem is blowny.

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Speaker 1: They fed them scraps from that blowny plant up river,

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Speaker 1: and they could smell blooney from a long way off.

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Speaker 1: Those jokers like bloonna more than I do. Good thing

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Speaker 1: is they hate mayonnaise and they won't come near it.

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Speaker 1: Y'all ain't got no blooney, do you. Tim waited about

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Speaker 1: ten seconds, and then he turned on his headlight, and

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Speaker 1: all six of them were bug eyed, trying to see

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Speaker 1: it in the dark and silently checking their sandwiches to

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Speaker 1: see which flavor they had. Tim and I couldn't hold

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Speaker 1: it any longer and were busting a gut laughing at them. Now,

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Speaker 1: I'm not sure if they were laughing so hard because

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Speaker 1: they thought it was funny, or if they were so

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Speaker 1: relieved that a monkey wasn't gonna drop out of the

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Speaker 1: tree and beat them up over a blowney sandwich. Now,

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Speaker 1: we told them there weren't any monkeys running her around,

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Speaker 1: and that was a screech owl they heard. And those

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Speaker 1: boys hunted with us for several years, and they could

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Speaker 1: dish out the fun just as well as they could

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Speaker 1: take it. And I miss those and I talked to

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Speaker 1: a few of them every now and then. But as

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Speaker 1: far as they know, there's one rheino from the Arkansas

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Speaker 1: River Rideinoceros Farm that's still unaccounted for, and the gritch

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Speaker 1: crop is as strong as ever. And that's just how

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Speaker 1: it happened, or how we told them it happened. Stories

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Speaker 1: from the guide service, I got to meet a lot

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Speaker 1: of interesting, in good people. I can't remember if we

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Speaker 1: had anyone from any further west than Texas, but there

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Speaker 1: ain't many states we didn't have hunters come from. On

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Speaker 1: the eastern half of the US. You could just about

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Speaker 1: draw a line from West Texas to Canada. And those

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Speaker 1: were our people. Some were content just to be there.

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Speaker 1: Some were happy if they just saw ducks, Some couldn't

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Speaker 1: be satisfied regardless of the situation, and some folks I

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Speaker 1: wouldn't let pay me to hang out with them again.

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Speaker 1: Those were few and far between, but after after a

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Speaker 1: quarter of a century of guiding, you could tell within

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Speaker 1: the first ten minutes of meeting new clients how good

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Speaker 1: or bad the next three days were going to be.

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Speaker 1: If they marveled at the landscape and wanted to talk

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Speaker 1: about their families and were interested in Arkansas and that

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Speaker 1: ecosystem that they were seeing for the first time, it

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Speaker 1: was going to be good. If they started talking about

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Speaker 1: the number of ducks that they were going to shoot,

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Speaker 1: and this is how we do it back home, you

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Speaker 1: could get ready for a bumpy ride. There was a

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Speaker 1: small percentage of them that came back just to get

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Speaker 1: away from whatever it was they were dealing with back home,

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Speaker 1: and some admitted they were coming back year after year

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Speaker 1: to see if Tim and I were ever going to fistfight,

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Speaker 1: And some of them loved that hell bent for leather

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Speaker 1: boat ride through the flooded timber. All this duck hunting

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Speaker 1: I've been doing lately is put ducks on my brain again.

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Speaker 1: I'm sorry, alexis not really, but it also reminded me

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Speaker 1: of what I love and what I missed about it.

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Speaker 1: Once I got over being burned out on the drudgery

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Speaker 1: or guiding, my thoughts shifted back to why we started

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Speaker 1: guiding in the first place, and that was to show

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Speaker 1: others what we were seeing and let someone else pay

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Speaker 1: for our duck hunting addiction. It was essentially the same

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00:15:20,440 --> 00:15:23,400
Speaker 1: reason I started filming hunts and what set me off

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Speaker 1: on this long and winding road of how I'm sitting

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00:15:26,240 --> 00:15:31,080
Speaker 1: here today talking to you. Seeing people appreciating being all

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Speaker 1: these creatures that were gifted to us to enjoy the

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Speaker 1: same way that Tim and I are is a rarely

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Speaker 1: reached level of satisfaction. I tell you this story to

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Speaker 1: show you what I mean. Tim and I were guiding

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00:15:45,040 --> 00:15:47,720
Speaker 1: four folks from a couple of neighboring states who were

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Speaker 1: multiple KFC franchise owners. Now, these guys were very successful businessmen,

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Speaker 1: and they could have afforded to hunt with anyone they

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Speaker 1: wanted to, and they chose us. They were all old

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Speaker 1: country boys who had worked hard and made it big,

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Speaker 1: but still appreciated the warmth and feel of a real

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00:16:06,640 --> 00:16:09,840
Speaker 1: hunting camp over a five star amenities that could have

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00:16:09,880 --> 00:16:12,440
Speaker 1: got them at a higher end private land hunting service.

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Speaker 1: We were strictly the meat and Tater's guide service. We

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00:16:16,840 --> 00:16:21,080
Speaker 1: provided a clean, dry place to sleep, good home cooked food,

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Speaker 1: and we worked our tails off to give them the

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Speaker 1: best opportunity to kill ducks. So on the evening that

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Speaker 1: they got there, we discussed where we'd be hunting the

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Speaker 1: next day, and it wasn't going to be a cake walk,

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00:16:34,000 --> 00:16:36,600
Speaker 1: but it was going to be a walk. But there

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00:16:36,680 --> 00:16:39,560
Speaker 1: wasn't gonna be no cake at the end. There'd be

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00:16:39,640 --> 00:16:42,560
Speaker 1: a better chance of CPR because the ducks were using

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Speaker 1: a spot that we had to walk to, and if

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00:16:44,400 --> 00:16:47,160
Speaker 1: we were being paid to give them the best opportunity

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Speaker 1: to shoot ducks, this was where we were going and

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00:16:51,320 --> 00:16:54,400
Speaker 1: how we were going to get there. Now. Their ages

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00:16:54,520 --> 00:16:58,040
Speaker 1: ranged from their late fifties to mid sixties, and they

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00:16:58,080 --> 00:17:01,720
Speaker 1: all seemed in relatively good health. When their host book

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00:17:01,760 --> 00:17:04,520
Speaker 1: to hunt, we told them that the possibility of walking

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00:17:04,600 --> 00:17:08,359
Speaker 1: long distances existed. If that was a deal breaker, we

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00:17:08,440 --> 00:17:11,960
Speaker 1: needed to know now before they paid their deposit, which,

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00:17:12,240 --> 00:17:14,639
Speaker 1: by the way, I don't think we ever really required.

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00:17:14,840 --> 00:17:17,359
Speaker 1: We trusted folks to do the right thing, and it

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00:17:17,480 --> 00:17:20,119
Speaker 1: always worked out except for one group of hunters, but

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00:17:20,200 --> 00:17:25,240
Speaker 1: that's my story for another day. With a thermist full

293
00:17:25,280 --> 00:17:28,280
Speaker 1: of coffee, a sack of sausage biscuits, and a snake

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00:17:28,359 --> 00:17:31,359
Speaker 1: bite kit consisting of a half pint of peach snops,

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00:17:31,960 --> 00:17:35,560
Speaker 1: Tim and I, along with four trusting individuals, headed out

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Speaker 1: to the public shooting grounds for a forty five minute

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00:17:38,880 --> 00:17:43,560
Speaker 1: march to where we'd been tricking ducks all week. Parking

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00:17:43,600 --> 00:17:45,640
Speaker 1: lot was full when we got there, so the race

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00:17:45,760 --> 00:17:48,560
Speaker 1: was on, and before the wheels stopped rolling on Tim's truck,

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00:17:49,119 --> 00:17:52,880
Speaker 1: I saw him bail out, rolling towards our spot. I'd

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00:17:52,920 --> 00:17:54,840
Speaker 1: bring the rest of the decoys and the rest of

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00:17:54,840 --> 00:17:58,879
Speaker 1: her plumb. Close to an hour later, me and my

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00:17:58,960 --> 00:18:02,080
Speaker 1: four charges walked into the spot where we'd been hunting

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00:18:02,119 --> 00:18:05,040
Speaker 1: all week to find Thim still sweating from his run

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00:18:05,040 --> 00:18:10,280
Speaker 1: into the hole touchdown. The south wind was perfect and

306
00:18:10,320 --> 00:18:14,000
Speaker 1: there wasn't a cloud in the sky. Other groups of

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00:18:14,040 --> 00:18:17,639
Speaker 1: hunters that came close were waved away with a flashlight,

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00:18:17,720 --> 00:18:20,760
Speaker 1: and that was the unwritten rule of hunting public land.

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00:18:20,800 --> 00:18:24,439
Speaker 1: Back then. It was truly first come, first served, and

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Speaker 1: everyone played by that rule. We've had to change our

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00:18:28,160 --> 00:18:30,760
Speaker 1: plans on many occasions by someone else beating us to

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00:18:30,800 --> 00:18:34,120
Speaker 1: a particular spot, But on this morning we'd slid right

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Speaker 1: in on the eggs. The hole in the timber wasn't big,

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00:18:38,160 --> 00:18:41,800
Speaker 1: but it was nearly a perfect circle of trees. The

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00:18:41,840 --> 00:18:44,320
Speaker 1: water was between calf and knee deep, and we could

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00:18:44,359 --> 00:18:46,919
Speaker 1: still see a few sprigs of brown grass poking up

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00:18:46,960 --> 00:18:48,680
Speaker 1: here and there. With our lights as we put out

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Speaker 1: the decoys. Now the whole measured about thirty yards across,

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Speaker 1: so we lined the edges with decoys, and Tim put

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Speaker 1: one hen decoy right in the middle. We all lined

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00:19:00,240 --> 00:19:02,840
Speaker 1: up on the south side of the hole, Me furthest

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00:19:02,840 --> 00:19:05,160
Speaker 1: to the right and Tim anchor in the other end.

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00:19:06,119 --> 00:19:09,639
Speaker 1: We kept our hunters between us for safety. Ducks started

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Speaker 1: flying before shooting, light and Tim and I went over

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00:19:12,040 --> 00:19:15,600
Speaker 1: the safety briefing I would be calling the shot that day.

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Speaker 1: Don't shoot until you hear me say shoot, and no

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00:19:20,200 --> 00:19:22,480
Speaker 1: shooting below that limb you see on the other side

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00:19:22,480 --> 00:19:26,040
Speaker 1: of the hole. Tim and I'll shoot the cripples. Remember

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Speaker 1: there's other folks out here, and if we shoot someone

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00:19:28,600 --> 00:19:33,040
Speaker 1: and wound them, they might shoot back. The distance from

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00:19:33,040 --> 00:19:35,960
Speaker 1: me to Tim was no more than fifteen yards, and

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00:19:36,000 --> 00:19:41,159
Speaker 1: we were all perfectly spaced beside oak trees in a semicircle. Now, normally,

333
00:19:41,200 --> 00:19:43,200
Speaker 1: when you hunt public land, you shoot at the first

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00:19:43,240 --> 00:19:46,560
Speaker 1: opportunity you have to shoot, because someone else may shoot

335
00:19:46,560 --> 00:19:49,320
Speaker 1: at different ducks and the ones you were working get

336
00:19:49,359 --> 00:19:53,040
Speaker 1: scared away. Now that's not a qualifier to shoot at

337
00:19:53,119 --> 00:19:56,479
Speaker 1: ducks above the trees. I'm as anti skybusting as it gets.

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Speaker 1: Folks that do that ought to be sentenced to six

339
00:19:59,359 --> 00:20:03,119
Speaker 1: months in the chair. The reason we're out there is

340
00:20:03,160 --> 00:20:06,439
Speaker 1: to experience and see the ducks working down in the timber,

341
00:20:06,880 --> 00:20:09,680
Speaker 1: and when you see it for the first time, it's

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00:20:09,720 --> 00:20:14,680
Speaker 1: a magical thing. A shooting time arrived and the sky

343
00:20:14,800 --> 00:20:18,320
Speaker 1: filled with ducks. We could hear folks calling all around

344
00:20:18,400 --> 00:20:21,320
Speaker 1: us in different spots, but none close enough to consider

345
00:20:21,400 --> 00:20:26,240
Speaker 1: too close. That was another unwritten rule. If you relate

346
00:20:26,280 --> 00:20:28,399
Speaker 1: to a spot and had to find another one, you

347
00:20:28,560 --> 00:20:31,679
Speaker 1: walked until you were far enough away that you wouldn't

348
00:20:31,760 --> 00:20:34,160
Speaker 1: ruin that person's hunt, which would in turn be bad

349
00:20:34,200 --> 00:20:39,080
Speaker 1: for years as well. But ducks started flying in every direction,

350
00:20:39,240 --> 00:20:42,520
Speaker 1: and groups of fives and tens turned into twenties and

351
00:20:42,560 --> 00:20:45,920
Speaker 1: thirties as they crisscrossed back and forth, some flaring to

352
00:20:46,000 --> 00:20:49,080
Speaker 1: keep from running into each other. Tim and I called,

353
00:20:49,080 --> 00:20:54,000
Speaker 1: and our hunters remained motionless as instructed. They were all

354
00:20:54,080 --> 00:20:56,359
Speaker 1: leaned up against the trees, with their face touching the

355
00:20:56,440 --> 00:20:59,600
Speaker 1: bark and watching only what was happening in front of them,

356
00:21:00,000 --> 00:21:01,960
Speaker 1: which would be the direction the ducks would be coming

357
00:21:02,040 --> 00:21:03,879
Speaker 1: into the hole froom, if we could get them in

358
00:21:03,920 --> 00:21:06,720
Speaker 1: there before somebody else shot and spoke to them all

359
00:21:06,760 --> 00:21:10,800
Speaker 1: the way. Now, the number of ducks were too big

360
00:21:10,840 --> 00:21:13,560
Speaker 1: to estimate, but it looked like every duck in Arkansas

361
00:21:13,720 --> 00:21:16,000
Speaker 1: was trying to get into our spot, and the only

362
00:21:16,119 --> 00:21:19,440
Speaker 1: reason they hadn't was the lack of air traffic control.

363
00:21:20,560 --> 00:21:23,800
Speaker 1: We called and called, and finally they all started getting

364
00:21:23,840 --> 00:21:27,680
Speaker 1: in the same flight path. I want y'all to understand

365
00:21:27,680 --> 00:21:30,560
Speaker 1: that these ducks weren't way up in the sky. They

366
00:21:30,560 --> 00:21:33,919
Speaker 1: were just above the tree tops, in easy shooting range,

367
00:21:34,240 --> 00:21:37,479
Speaker 1: and they were flying over several groups of other duck hunters.

368
00:21:38,000 --> 00:21:41,480
Speaker 1: But they didn't shoot at them. They were working our hole.

369
00:21:41,560 --> 00:21:44,919
Speaker 1: And that was the unwritten biggest rule of all. You

370
00:21:44,960 --> 00:21:47,760
Speaker 1: didn't shoot someone else's ducks that were working to their

371
00:21:47,800 --> 00:21:51,919
Speaker 1: calling and their spot. Those are called swing ducks, and

372
00:21:52,000 --> 00:21:56,520
Speaker 1: to shoot at someone's swing ducks as a cardinal sin. Now,

373
00:21:56,560 --> 00:21:58,880
Speaker 1: I know there may be some folks think of that gun.

374
00:21:59,240 --> 00:22:01,640
Speaker 1: There's a lot of un written rules that go along

375
00:22:01,680 --> 00:22:05,040
Speaker 1: with public land duck hunting, and you be correct, there are.

376
00:22:06,040 --> 00:22:09,960
Speaker 1: But when everyone followed them, public land duck hunting was

377
00:22:10,000 --> 00:22:14,480
Speaker 1: a pleasure, not a pain. We respected each other's right

378
00:22:14,520 --> 00:22:17,320
Speaker 1: to have a good hunt, and respect only works when

379
00:22:17,320 --> 00:22:21,560
Speaker 1: it's mutual. Now, this particular morning, it was working, and

380
00:22:21,640 --> 00:22:26,280
Speaker 1: it was working well. I can't accurately estimate the number

381
00:22:26,280 --> 00:22:28,320
Speaker 1: of ducks that were trying to get together to come

382
00:22:28,359 --> 00:22:31,800
Speaker 1: into the decoys, but about two passes before they did,

383
00:22:32,000 --> 00:22:34,320
Speaker 1: five or six dropped into the hole and lit in

384
00:22:34,320 --> 00:22:38,880
Speaker 1: the water. Clients never moved. I didn't call the shot

385
00:22:39,080 --> 00:22:42,320
Speaker 1: because I wanted them all to come in. Well, those

386
00:22:42,400 --> 00:22:45,200
Speaker 1: ducks spooked and shot out of there, and I continued

387
00:22:45,280 --> 00:22:48,200
Speaker 1: calling to the big group to circle. I looked over

388
00:22:48,240 --> 00:22:51,560
Speaker 1: at Tim as the last duck that had landed flew away,

389
00:22:51,800 --> 00:22:55,560
Speaker 1: and he mouthed the word to me, you messed up,

390
00:22:56,400 --> 00:22:59,960
Speaker 1: except he used a different verb. Now I kept calling,

391
00:23:00,320 --> 00:23:03,199
Speaker 1: and show did he, hoping the whole time that I

392
00:23:03,280 --> 00:23:08,359
Speaker 1: had chosen wisely. The big group finally got all together,

393
00:23:08,440 --> 00:23:11,199
Speaker 1: and after what had been must have been two to

394
00:23:11,280 --> 00:23:14,480
Speaker 1: three minutes of working ducks, they slipped in over the

395
00:23:14,520 --> 00:23:19,400
Speaker 1: trees and poured into the hole by the hundreds. They

396
00:23:19,440 --> 00:23:21,959
Speaker 1: fell up the middle and started hovering towards where we

397
00:23:21,960 --> 00:23:25,560
Speaker 1: were standing, landing between me and landing between the guy

398
00:23:25,600 --> 00:23:29,040
Speaker 1: beside me and all our hunters. They were splashing water

399
00:23:29,119 --> 00:23:32,280
Speaker 1: on me as they lit at our feet. One's wing

400
00:23:32,760 --> 00:23:36,320
Speaker 1: slapped my coat sleeve as he hovered beside me and

401
00:23:36,359 --> 00:23:39,879
Speaker 1: sat down behind me in the calf deep water. I

402
00:23:40,000 --> 00:23:43,840
Speaker 1: yelled shoot, and Tim and I were the only two

403
00:23:43,920 --> 00:23:47,360
Speaker 1: that stepped out from the hiding spote. I glanced at

404
00:23:47,359 --> 00:23:50,520
Speaker 1: our hunters and they were frozen. Their eyes were bugged

405
00:23:50,560 --> 00:23:53,040
Speaker 1: down of their heads and their mouths were wide open,

406
00:23:53,119 --> 00:23:58,359
Speaker 1: and all what they were seeing me yelling again in

407
00:23:58,400 --> 00:24:01,560
Speaker 1: a shot from Tim, and they came, and man, we

408
00:24:02,000 --> 00:24:05,479
Speaker 1: cut it loose. We killed multiple ducks each on that

409
00:24:05,520 --> 00:24:08,200
Speaker 1: first group, and were limited out after another group or two,

410
00:24:08,760 --> 00:24:11,480
Speaker 1: and we walked all the way back to the parking lot,

411
00:24:11,640 --> 00:24:14,640
Speaker 1: laughing and reliving that hunt. And it didn't stop there

412
00:24:14,720 --> 00:24:18,080
Speaker 1: either that night. At supper the next day in the

413
00:24:18,160 --> 00:24:21,520
Speaker 1: timber and until they left, they talked about how they'd

414
00:24:21,520 --> 00:24:25,600
Speaker 1: been hypnotized by the beauty of the spectacle that they'd witnessed,

415
00:24:26,600 --> 00:24:30,520
Speaker 1: and that's what I missed. That's what I love to

416
00:24:30,640 --> 00:24:34,399
Speaker 1: share with others that see it as I do. A

417
00:24:34,560 --> 00:24:37,960
Speaker 1: mesmerizing event that speaks to your soul. When all you

418
00:24:38,080 --> 00:24:41,080
Speaker 1: hear is the whistling wing beaks and the subtle quacks

419
00:24:41,080 --> 00:24:44,000
Speaker 1: and sounds of a large group of ducks settled in

420
00:24:44,560 --> 00:24:48,720
Speaker 1: at your feet. Now, they'd have been just as satisfied

421
00:24:48,760 --> 00:24:50,800
Speaker 1: by watching and not firing a shot. And Tim and

422
00:24:50,840 --> 00:24:52,800
Speaker 1: I have done that on occasions when it was just

423
00:24:52,920 --> 00:24:56,320
Speaker 1: me and him. Brent, we got enough ducks in the freezer,

424
00:24:56,960 --> 00:24:59,960
Speaker 1: let's just look at them today, and we did that.

425
00:25:09,440 --> 00:25:11,840
Speaker 1: I finally cracked the case after a few years of

426
00:25:12,359 --> 00:25:14,719
Speaker 1: taking folks to the woods and spending time with them

427
00:25:14,760 --> 00:25:17,840
Speaker 1: out in the creation, and I could tell what they

428
00:25:17,880 --> 00:25:21,760
Speaker 1: were after. They just wanted to have fun and enjoy

429
00:25:21,880 --> 00:25:24,560
Speaker 1: the sights and sounds of the common thing that we

430
00:25:24,640 --> 00:25:28,639
Speaker 1: all loved, and that was duck hunting. You've heard me

431
00:25:28,640 --> 00:25:30,840
Speaker 1: say it on here before, and this is kind of

432
00:25:30,880 --> 00:25:34,080
Speaker 1: where it all came from. But sharing a burden lightens

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00:25:34,119 --> 00:25:39,000
Speaker 1: the load, and sharing a joy multiplies it. That's the

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00:25:39,040 --> 00:25:39,680
Speaker 1: good stuff.

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00:25:40,320 --> 00:25:42,520
Speaker 2: Seeing it for what it is, and what it is

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Speaker 2: is a beautiful gift for all of us to enjoy.

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00:25:52,440 --> 00:25:56,040
Speaker 1: I'll see all after Christmas. And from Alexis Bailey and

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Speaker 1: yours truly at Casa day Reeves, we want to wish

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00:25:59,440 --> 00:26:05,000
Speaker 1: you all very merry Christmas. Get in your girls, one, two, three,

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00:26:05,560 --> 00:26:12,240
Speaker 1: Merry Christmas. Until next week. This is Alexis Bailey and

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