Speaker 1: Welcome to this Country Life. I'm your host, Brent Reeves.
Speaker 1: From coon hunting to trot lining and just general country living.
Speaker 1: I want you to stay a while as I share
Speaker 1: my stories and the country skills that will help you
Speaker 1: beat the system. This Country Life is proudly presented as
Speaker 1: part of Meat Eaters Podcast Network, bringing you the best
Speaker 1: outdoor podcast the airways have to offer. All right, friends,
Speaker 1: pull you up a chair or drop that tailgate. I
Speaker 1: think I got a thing or two. The teacher, kids
Speaker 1: and outdoors. Summer's coming to an end and just about
Speaker 1: all the kids are back in school. I know it's
Speaker 1: a relief for some, but with my eleven year old
Speaker 1: Bailey back in the schoolhouse, I am fresh out of
Speaker 1: folks to play with during the day. It got me
Speaker 1: to thinking about all the stuff we've done over the summer,
Speaker 1: and that brought memories of what I used to do
Speaker 1: with my family. We're gonna be talking about the kids
Speaker 1: in the outdoors, but first I'm gonna tell you a story.
Speaker 1: My son Hunter was six years old and it was
Speaker 1: gun deer season in Arkansas. We've been practicing his shooting
Speaker 1: with a youth model single barrel two forty three and
Speaker 1: He'd become very proficient and safe using the scope, holding
Speaker 1: steady aim, thumb, cocking the hammer back, and keeping his
Speaker 1: finger off the trigger until he was ready to shoot. Safety. Safety, safety.
Speaker 1: It was our constant mantra, and he'd dry fired that
Speaker 1: rifle one hundred times before he ever squeezed the trigger
Speaker 1: on a live round with hearing protection in place. He
Speaker 1: watched me shoot several rounds, and I'd explained to him
Speaker 1: beforehand that it was going to be loud, and he
Speaker 1: knew what to expect when it came his turn, and
Speaker 1: he never missed a beat. I was confident in his
Speaker 1: abilities out to about eighty yards, but we drawn the
Speaker 1: line it somewhere around fifty, just to be on the
Speaker 1: safe side. The night before the season opened, we'd all
Speaker 1: gathered at the b and our deer camp for our
Speaker 1: ritual supper. We had a fire going outside and everyone
Speaker 1: gathered in a circle, laughing and talking and anticipating the
Speaker 1: hunt that was kicking off in the morning. Big folks
Speaker 1: and little folks alike, hunting season was here and we
Speaker 1: were all excited, and none more so than the kids,
Speaker 1: and Hunter was one of them. It was his first
Speaker 1: time staying at the camp, and it was his first
Speaker 1: time being a trigger man, and he couldn't wait or
Speaker 1: stop talking about it or anything else. That boy has
Speaker 1: never been shy about talking. He loved to talk, and
Speaker 1: I've said it a hundred times. When he was little
Speaker 1: and couldn't think of anything to say, he'd just pick
Speaker 1: up a stick and whooping on something and hollered to
Speaker 1: make some racket. We liked to have never got him
Speaker 1: to be quiet when it came bedtime. But he wasn't
Speaker 1: the only one talking when we cut the lanterns out.
Speaker 1: My brother Tim, his brother in law Joe, who we
Speaker 1: all counted as a bonus brother. Tim's boys Matthew and Will,
Speaker 1: and Joe's son Daniel were all making their share of racket.
Speaker 1: When it seemed like we'd never get to sleep, Joe's
Speaker 1: alarm clock was going off and waking us all up.
Speaker 1: Opening day, somebody stoked that fire is freezing in here.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you all about the deer camp we built
Speaker 1: out of rough olk lumber, a hammer, a square, and
Speaker 1: a chainsaw, but that's a story for another day. There
Speaker 1: was no electricity and we heated it with a barrel
Speaker 1: stove and cooked on an old gas stove. Joe had
Speaker 1: a couple of lanterns going, and he was making breakfast,
Speaker 1: and Tim was putting wood on the fire while the
Speaker 1: rest of us got ready. Hunter couldn't get rest fast enough.
Speaker 1: He was excited and talking up a storm already. I
Speaker 1: did not see a change in that coming anytime soon.
Speaker 1: I had already figured that we were more or less
Speaker 1: going deer looking instead of deer hunting, and that was
Speaker 1: okay with me. However long he wanted to be there
Speaker 1: was how long we were going to stay. And I
Speaker 1: might coax him into staying a little past the golden
Speaker 1: hour of the morning if he wanted to leave early.
Speaker 1: But I decided that I wasn't gonna make him stay
Speaker 1: any longer. That was fun for him, after all. When
Speaker 1: it stopped being fun for him, it wasn't gonna be
Speaker 1: fun for me neither. We parked my truck at Tim's
Speaker 1: house and walked by flashlight in not silence to the
Speaker 1: window maker, a big plywood box stand that sat on
Speaker 1: four cross ties overlooking an old patch that we planted
Speaker 1: for deer. About three quarters of an acre in size.
Speaker 1: The stand had a short tin roof and cam o'
Speaker 1: neett and draped over the open airs above the four
Speaker 1: foot wall. Joe or ten one had put an old
Speaker 1: easy chair in there that was perfect for sitting and
Speaker 1: resting your rifle on top of that wall, unless you
Speaker 1: were about the height a hundred at age six, His
Speaker 1: legs barely reached from his butt to the ground, so
Speaker 1: he was sitting in my lap, talking up a storm
Speaker 1: and waiting on daylight, which wasn't that far away. It
Speaker 1: was cold, but I had Hunter bundled up and looking
Speaker 1: like the Michelin man. His rifle was broke open and
Speaker 1: propped up in the corner. I had the shells in
Speaker 1: my pocket, and my job was to help him look
Speaker 1: for deer, loading, handing the rifle when it came time.
Speaker 1: If it came time, I remember the sun coming up
Speaker 1: in a decent frost on the ground, and the camel
Speaker 1: curtains that hung over the windows. We talked about how
Speaker 1: you could see our breath when we talked, and we
Speaker 1: smoked imaginary cigars, taking puffs from limbs. I broke off
Speaker 1: the tree behind us and blowing imaginary smoking the air
Speaker 1: like a freight train. Time had passed quickly and we
Speaker 1: were laughing, giggling and talking and making more racket than
Speaker 1: the chicken house. When Hunter whispered, Daddy, there's a spike, well,
Speaker 1: i'll be a dang Sure was, and he was standing
Speaker 1: broadside right in front of the stand, closer than we'd practiced.
Speaker 1: How that joker got there without me knowing, or more importantly,
Speaker 1: without us scaring him off, It's still a mystery to me.
Speaker 1: But there he stood, and Hunter had gone from bumping
Speaker 1: his gums to a laser focus watching that dear. I'm
Speaker 1: not sure he ever blinked. I used forward and grabbed
Speaker 1: his rifle, loaded it, placed it on top of the wall.
Speaker 1: The barrel was poking out far enough that it wouldn't
Speaker 1: be loud in the stand, but I had his ear
Speaker 1: muffs on his head anyway, just like we'd practiced. He
Speaker 1: had a tough time finding him in the scope at first,
Speaker 1: due to his excitement and because he was so close.
Speaker 1: Finally he said, I see I told him whenever he
Speaker 1: felt comfortable, cocked the hammer, wait for his crosshairs to
Speaker 1: settle like we'd practiced, then put his finger on the trigger,
Speaker 1: remembered to breathe and give it a squeeze. It was
Speaker 1: like waiting on water to boil. That spike was slowly
Speaker 1: feeding along the middle of the food plotting, and he
Speaker 1: wasn't in a hurry to go anywhere, and Hunter wasn't
Speaker 1: in a hurry to pull the trigger. It was a
Speaker 1: beautiful morning. It was cold, crisp, zero wind, the birds
Speaker 1: were singing, and that deer was so close. I could
Speaker 1: hear him biting off the green oats he was bunching on.
Speaker 1: I could also feel Hunter's heart beating in his chest
Speaker 1: with the rhythm of a singer sewing machine. And when
Speaker 1: I thought I was going to pass out with anticipation, bam,
Speaker 1: he pulled the trigger. That deer dropped in his tracks
Speaker 1: and never flinched. All the hugging and high five and started,
Speaker 1: and we got our plunder together and more or less
Speaker 1: bailed out of that widow maker to go look at
Speaker 1: his deer. He'd practiced and practiced, he'd learned everything he
Speaker 1: could about safe, proper shot placement, and then demonstrated it
Speaker 1: when it came time to do so. I was proud
Speaker 1: of him, and he was proud too. We looked at
Speaker 1: that deer and we said a little prayer of thanks.
Speaker 1: That was something that we'd started that day and continue now.
Speaker 1: It was the end of an incredible morning of first
Speaker 1: or so we thought. We walked back to TAM's house
Speaker 1: and got his fore wheel and went and got the deer.
Speaker 1: He grabbed a leg and helped me as much as
Speaker 1: a six year old boy can load his prize on
Speaker 1: the rack. We got back to TAM's house. He was
Speaker 1: waiting for us, and so was my dad. Tim heard
Speaker 1: Hunter shoot and had come off the stand to see
Speaker 1: what he did. My Dad wasn't nothing. He was just
Speaker 1: there waiting on everybody to come out of the woods
Speaker 1: to see what they got, especially the kids. Tim went
Speaker 1: back in the house and brought out his video camera,
Speaker 1: and if he hadn't, I'm not sure I could even
Speaker 1: tell the rest of this story. But Tim starts recording
Speaker 1: and Hunter starts telling the story, beginning pretty much from
Speaker 1: the dawn of time and leading up to where we
Speaker 1: all found ourselves. At that moment, Tim, me and Dad
Speaker 1: standing shoulder to shoulder, watching and listening to the longest
Speaker 1: story that has ever been told on camera. It was
Speaker 1: like the script reading for the Ten Commandments. There was
Speaker 1: a lot to get through. At one point, during Hunter's
Speaker 1: defense of his doctoral presentation, I heard my brother say,
Speaker 1: come on, man, like that gun. Breakfast is getting cold.
Speaker 1: And then my dad said, look at that deer. Hunter
Speaker 1: looked over at the one he was standing beside, but
Speaker 1: we were looking at a yearling door that was behind Hunter,
Speaker 1: bounding about sixty yards away at the edge of Tim's yard,
Speaker 1: next to the woods. Tim raised the camera and followed
Speaker 1: that day as she made a big loop around the
Speaker 1: yard and circled back toward the house and where we
Speaker 1: were standing, and then turned and headed right toward us.
Speaker 1: Nobody moved, nobody said a word. There was three feet
Speaker 1: between where we stood looking at Hunter and where he
Speaker 1: stood beside the four wheeler with his dead deer facing us.
Speaker 1: That dough split the difference between us and jumped higher
Speaker 1: than Hunter stood, kicked like a bucking horse, hit the ground,
Speaker 1: and loped back into the woods. From whence it came.
Speaker 1: Nobody but a Hunter said a word when it happened.
Speaker 1: But you can hear him on the tape, as that
Speaker 1: deer was in midair say WHOA about as nonchalant as
Speaker 1: I just did. It was absolutely hilarious. One of the
Speaker 1: most outrageous things I've ever witnessed, and I've seen some
Speaker 1: crazy stuff. I have no explanation for it, but it
Speaker 1: remains a special memory, nonetheless, one I shared with my
Speaker 1: late father, my brother, and my son, all because we
Speaker 1: were outdoors, and that's just how that happened. Kids and outdoors.
Speaker 1: Kids and outdoors is like biscuits and gravy. It's hard
Speaker 1: for me to think about one without thinking about the other.
Speaker 1: And growing up, if you had time to hang around
Speaker 1: the house, somebody, namely my mama, would find something for
Speaker 1: me to do that wasn't nearly as fun or treacherous
Speaker 1: as the things I could come up with on my own.
Speaker 1: So when the opportunity arose, either by finishing my chores
Speaker 1: or climbing out the window, I was gone. Deuces. I'll
Speaker 1: see all as supper time and deal with whatever fate
Speaker 1: awaits me then. But right now I got to go. Now.
Speaker 1: Where I was escaping to wasn't town, or most times
Speaker 1: not even to any of my friends. I didn't have
Speaker 1: any that lived very close. Besides, I had a dog,
Speaker 1: a horse, a bicycle, a hairshoes that are wore sometimes,
Speaker 1: and my playground was only limited by how far I
Speaker 1: felt like walking or riding that day. But times have changed,
Speaker 1: and a childhood like mine, for the most part, has
Speaker 1: faded away. I couldn't imagine not knowing where my kids
Speaker 1: or grandkids were. Like when I was a kid, my
Speaker 1: parents weren't neglecting me. They knew I was safe wherever
Speaker 1: I was. The times they were just simply different then.
Speaker 1: So guess why it's up to us to get those
Speaker 1: little tax deductions of hours off the couch, out from
Speaker 1: in front of whatever hypnotizing screen that they're staring at,
Speaker 1: and into nature. All these grown ups that fight against
Speaker 1: everything we all hold so deer were once impressionable children.
Speaker 1: And I wonder if those folks had grown up like
Speaker 1: I had, and like those I grew up with, But
Speaker 1: they still have the same thoughts and ideas. Now, let
Speaker 1: me say this, I'm a steadfast beloe and choosing your
Speaker 1: own path and doing what trips your trigger. But it's
Speaker 1: hard for me to understand the way some folks think
Speaker 1: about how we should interact with nature. My wife, alexis
Speaker 1: the quintessential city girl who before we'd met, had no
Speaker 1: preconceived ideas or beliefs about hunting and fishing. She didn't
Speaker 1: grow up around it and had no exposure. It's a
Speaker 1: testament to her parents, my mother and father in law
Speaker 1: both of whom I love is my own, each had
Speaker 1: minimal exposure to those pastimes in their lives as well,
Speaker 1: but through common sense, they know that we are stewards
Speaker 1: of nature, and while they each choose to abstain from
Speaker 1: participating in the legal taking of any type of game,
Speaker 1: they understand that it's necessary for the overall good of
Speaker 1: the nature and fully support my efforts. Alexis is the
Speaker 1: same way. She doesn't care one thing about doing it,
Speaker 1: but loves to see the joy I get from it,
Speaker 1: and fully supports our daughter's participation because Bailey she likes
Speaker 1: it too. That's fine with me and Bailey. That's three
Speaker 1: less folks we have to beat to our favorite hunting spots.
Speaker 1: The first thing you need to remember when taking the
Speaker 1: little folks is to try and see what they're seeing
Speaker 1: and how they see it. Darkness is especially concerning to
Speaker 1: most kids and a few adults I know, but reassuring
Speaker 1: them if your activities occur at night is a big plus.
Speaker 1: I remember Kyou hunting with my dad, and we weren't
Speaker 1: hunting them to shoot as much as we were letting
Speaker 1: the dogs run them. And if you're unfamiliar with this practice,
Speaker 1: allow me to give you a brief description. My dad
Speaker 1: had a pack of running walker foxhounds. They look just
Speaker 1: like their cousins, the tree and walker, which is what
Speaker 1: my dog wailing is. Anyway, They usually have a leaner
Speaker 1: bill because speed is their game, and they don't have
Speaker 1: the tree and instinct, which is to bark along while
Speaker 1: trailing the scent of a coon, unto the hound finds
Speaker 1: which trees climbed and sets into tree in and it's
Speaker 1: usually a totally different kind of barking. We'll get to
Speaker 1: that in the future when the weather cools off and
Speaker 1: we start talking about tree and walkers. But running walkers
Speaker 1: would rather run the sin of a game, trailing it
Speaker 1: over the countryside or through the woods, barking as they went,
Speaker 1: which sounds exactly like a bunch of dogs barking to
Speaker 1: folks that don't get the allure, but to those that do,
Speaker 1: it's a literal symphony of sound, and my dad was
Speaker 1: considered a maestro of the sport. Kylets are most active
Speaker 1: at night, so when the weather allowed, we'd be down
Speaker 1: on the potlatch timber company roads looking for sign where
Speaker 1: they'd either crossed or left their calling cart in the
Speaker 1: middle of the road in the form of a well
Speaker 1: digested sample from last night's supper with fresh sign we'd
Speaker 1: cut the dogs loose and the race would be on.
Speaker 1: Then it could go on for a few hours, and
Speaker 1: my dad would name each hound as it barked and
Speaker 1: his position in the race while we sat or laid
Speaker 1: down on top of the dog box. Sometimes it was
Speaker 1: cold and we'd build a fire. Sometimes other folks would
Speaker 1: hunt with us and bring their dogs, and that was it.
Speaker 1: That is cold hunting. Now. What filled the gaps when
Speaker 1: the dogs went out of here and or they lost
Speaker 1: the trail of the colt was conversations about everything in
Speaker 1: the world. He'd let me have a flashlight to keep
Speaker 1: the buggers away, and we'd lay back and look at
Speaker 1: the stars. We'd walk up and down the gravel road
Speaker 1: with me running the light and looking at tracks and bugs,
Speaker 1: and he'd hand me a rock and bet I couldn't
Speaker 1: chunk and hit something. What he was doing was keeping
Speaker 1: me entertained and allowing me to participate in a fun
Speaker 1: way while spending time with him and doing something that
Speaker 1: he liked to do too. Those times are burned into
Speaker 1: my memory, and not just hunting fishing memories, cutting firewood,
Speaker 1: having the horse shod, and taking me to work and
Speaker 1: letting me help him. It was all about the time
Speaker 1: spent together and not the activity. I can say with
Speaker 1: one hundred percent certainty that my endearment towards showing youngins
Speaker 1: how much fun can be had without electricity just by
Speaker 1: looking at the natural stuff around him is because he
Speaker 1: took the time to show me, and so did my
Speaker 1: brother Tim. A lot of hunting requires stealth and quiet,
Speaker 1: two things most kids ain't real good at, So when
Speaker 1: we include them, we need to think about an activity
Speaker 1: that they can do well. Sometimes they're just like that
Speaker 1: old coon down pup your training. You need to find
Speaker 1: them an easy coon to tree. So you stack the
Speaker 1: deck in your pup's favor and catch a coon in
Speaker 1: a live trap and release it for him to see,
Speaker 1: and then put him on the scent and watch him
Speaker 1: do his thing. Gives him confidence and with praise, he'll
Speaker 1: want to do it again. Same way with kids, picking
Speaker 1: activity they can win at, digging for fishing, bait, how
Speaker 1: to build a fire and cook a hot dog, and
Speaker 1: if they're responsible enough, how to care for and sharpen
Speaker 1: a good pocket knife. Now you know what kind. But
Speaker 1: in case you don't remember, you should go back to
Speaker 1: episode one and review. I figure, if you're still listening,
Speaker 1: you might as well give them a good knife to
Speaker 1: start with. Now, squirrel hunting with dogs was what I
Speaker 1: cut my teeth on, and that was an activity numero
Speaker 1: uno at Casa Day reeves well, Brenn, I ain't got
Speaker 1: a dog. I ain't got a dog. Ain't no problem.
Speaker 1: Take them with you on a sight seeing journey looking
Speaker 1: for squirrels. You don't even need a gun for that.
Speaker 1: Make a list of birds to go look for, and
Speaker 1: then check them off the list as you walk around
Speaker 1: your neighborhood looking or just sitting in the backyard or
Speaker 1: just looking out the window. The information available to us
Speaker 1: to the creatures that inhabit where we live, regardless of
Speaker 1: where we live, it's tremendous, and there is no excuse
Speaker 1: for saying you don't know. I don't know about other states,
Speaker 1: but I would assume they have similar programs like our
Speaker 1: Arkansas Game and Fish Commission does. We have free admission
Speaker 1: to nature centers located all over the state with programs
Speaker 1: and staff, with employees whose job is to educate folks
Speaker 1: of all ages. The displays and activities they host are outstanding,
Speaker 1: and if your state doesn't have them, I'm inviting you
Speaker 1: to ours. We'll be glad to have you. I've got
Speaker 1: a lot more to talk about on this kids and
Speaker 1: outdoor subject, so let's make this part one. In part two,
Speaker 1: I'm going to share some more stories, but I'm also
Speaker 1: going to give you some information that you can share
Speaker 1: with your schools that have a host of great programs
Speaker 1: to get the kids out of the house and into
Speaker 1: the outdoors. There's facts and figures in there that are
Speaker 1: eye opening, at least they were for me. You ain't
Speaker 1: gonna want to miss it. And until next week, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna leave you with this. I was taking the Bailey
Speaker 1: at to school this morning and I asked her about
Speaker 1: why she liked to go out in the woods with me,
Speaker 1: whether we were hunting, fishing, or just knocking around just
Speaker 1: getting some info for this podcast. She said, I like
Speaker 1: it when we get a deer and we skin it
Speaker 1: and cut the meat up to eat. I like to
Speaker 1: help with that. I like when we go coon hunting
Speaker 1: with Whaling and I get to drive the side by
Speaker 1: side and look for the coon that Whaling's barking at.
Speaker 1: I like it when we fish. I like to help
Speaker 1: you cook them and then we get to eat them. Well,
Speaker 1: I asked her about the times that we were just
Speaker 1: messing around the woods what she liked about that, and
Speaker 1: she said, I just like being with you, Daddy and
Speaker 1: learning stuff. So then I asked her one last question
Speaker 1: before she hopped out of the truck, and that big
Speaker 1: old sc swallowed my baby like a grape. I said,
Speaker 1: have you got any advice for grown ups or kids
Speaker 1: that might like to start trying to do the things
Speaker 1: that we do all the time? And she put some
Speaker 1: thought into it, and she looked at me and said,
Speaker 1: it doesn't have to be perfect. You don't have to
Speaker 1: get a deer or catch a fish. Just make memories.
Speaker 1: And with that she gave me some sugar and hopped
Speaker 1: out the door. That's pretty good. Thank y'all so much
Speaker 1: for listening. I sincerely appreciate all the wonderful feedback we've
Speaker 1: been receiving and hope you folks will continue to review
Speaker 1: and share this country life with others you think might
Speaker 1: enjoy it. This is Brent Reeves, sign it off, y'all,
Speaker 1: be careful the tru