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Speaker 1: Welcome to this Country Life. I'm your host, Brent Reeves

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Speaker 1: from coon hunting to trotlining and just in general country living.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Speaker 1: a valuable lesson that only costs a buck. Lessons can

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Speaker 1: be learned in every situation if you're paying attention. Today's

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Speaker 1: episode is one of those, and it revolves around the

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Speaker 1: annual pursuit of white tail deer. More folks chase deer

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Speaker 1: than any other creature in the woods, and I've seen

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Speaker 1: some some sketchy stuff go on when a person's judgment

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Speaker 1: gets clouded by these magnificent critters. The teacher and the

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Speaker 1: student were separated by only a handful of years, that

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Speaker 1: in that span person can become wise far beyond a

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Speaker 1: measured amount of time. We've got a lot to talk about,

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Speaker 1: so let's get to it. Forty one years is a

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Speaker 1: long time. Forty one years from the memory of a

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Speaker 1: specific hunt and forty one years in prison are both

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Speaker 1: a tad shy of fifteen thousand days. But one seems

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Speaker 1: like yesterday, and the other, I assume would be like

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Speaker 1: a literal lifetime. Time, as they say, is relative to

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Speaker 1: the subject matter. But I remember this hunt like it

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Speaker 1: was yesterday in the grandest detail, for what I lost

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Speaker 1: instead of what I got. But what I got would

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Speaker 1: eventually be bigger than what I was after I was

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Speaker 1: sitting within sight of our camp's eastern boundary, a surveyed

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Speaker 1: white painted landline adorning trees that separated the Timber company

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Speaker 1: land within our claim and the clearcut of a different

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Speaker 1: timber concern. The stand I was roosted in during the

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Speaker 1: first week of gunn deer season in Arkansas was built

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Speaker 1: by my brother Tim and his brother in law, Joe Bryant.

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Speaker 1: It consisted of short tubeerforees used as rungs that were

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Speaker 1: nailed between the gap of two young white oak trees

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Speaker 1: that stood a few feet apart fifteen feet above the

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Speaker 1: planet Earth. Up that series of steps was constructed a

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Speaker 1: small platform that was two feet wide and about three

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Speaker 1: feet long and floored with enough tube before is to

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Speaker 1: make a good seat you could comfortably sit and down

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Speaker 1: or your legs like you were sitting on the tailgate

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Speaker 1: of a truck, or use either tree as a backrest

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Speaker 1: and face either east or west. I bought on the

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Speaker 1: trail that went right past it, that was leading out

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Speaker 1: of or into the neighboring clearcut. It was all determined

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Speaker 1: by the direction the deer were walking. It was a

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Speaker 1: quarter of a mile walk east from the big army

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Speaker 1: tent that we were sleeping in to the stand, and

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Speaker 1: to get there you'd have to walk the very trail

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Speaker 1: you hoped the deer would be using. Once you got there.

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Speaker 1: A cold front had the wind coming out of the

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Speaker 1: north that morning that was perfect for getting deer up

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Speaker 1: on their feet, and that westward running trail for deer

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Speaker 1: coming out of their beds from that big thicket across

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Speaker 1: the property line would have me sitting in the perfect

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Speaker 1: spot to catch them coming toward me before they ever

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Speaker 1: had a chance to smell me. Breakfast that morning was coffee, lightbread,

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Speaker 1: bacon and eggs, and we cooked it in a vist

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Speaker 1: queen wrapped kitchen that was just big enough to hold

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Speaker 1: a cold and stove, a lantern and the ice chest

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Speaker 1: containing all the victials. If you try to do the

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Speaker 1: math on that light bread description, it's just untoasted white

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Speaker 1: bread from the loaf. I was in my fifties when

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Speaker 1: I learned not everyone calls it that. I've learned a

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Speaker 1: lot of things in my fifties. Sadly none of them

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Speaker 1: have been how to make myself invisible. That would come

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Speaker 1: in real handy during turkey season. It was cold that morning,

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Speaker 1: with a good frost, and I had climbed onto my

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Speaker 1: perch way before the appointed time for the sun to rise.

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Speaker 1: The two trees the stam was built in stood side beside,

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Speaker 1: laying the east and west. I sat down, and I

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Speaker 1: leaned against the tree to the west and faced the

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Speaker 1: opposite direction from which I came. With an unobstructed view

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Speaker 1: from that little oak flat, I was sitting in to

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Speaker 1: the edge of a thicket on the other side of

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Speaker 1: the property line, eighty yards away. As down creeped into Arkansas,

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Speaker 1: I could see to my left, which was north, and

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Speaker 1: to my right being south, and everything in between through

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Speaker 1: the open wood. An occasional glance would have to suffice

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Speaker 1: for covering the way I had walked in. But knowing

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Speaker 1: how much those deer like bedding in that thicket made

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Speaker 1: me direct my full attention in that direction. I had

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Speaker 1: gotten as cold as I was going to be all day,

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Speaker 1: which for me is right after the sun comes up.

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Speaker 1: The occasional rigor would rattle me as I sat quartered

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Speaker 1: away from the wind when I heard the old familiar

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Speaker 1: sound of leaves crunching under deer feet louder and louder.

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Speaker 1: It became getting closer and closer, and I had no

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Speaker 1: reason in my mind for not being able to see it.

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Speaker 1: As plain as the day that was dawned before me.

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Speaker 1: I could see the well beaten trail leading out of

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Speaker 1: that thicket that could have doubled as a cattle trail

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Speaker 1: across a pasture. Where was this dad gum deer? And then,

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Speaker 1: from somewhere in the recesses of my misfiring synapses, the

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Speaker 1: thought occurred to me to look back the way I

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Speaker 1: came there, thirty yards away and getting closer. Was a

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Speaker 1: little spike walking toward the thicket, stepping in the tracks

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Speaker 1: I just made thirty minutes ago, his nose dipping down

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Speaker 1: almost to the dirt every few steps. I immediately began

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Speaker 1: to warm up as I followed the young buck as

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Speaker 1: He traced my path to the stand, stopping right beside

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Speaker 1: me where I was sitting and where I stepped off

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Speaker 1: the trail and climbed the tree. The wind was blowing

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Speaker 1: straight to him, but since he hadn't run off, I

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Speaker 1: assumed it was blowing over the top of him. Why

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Speaker 1: he hadn't boogered over smelling where I had walked was

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Speaker 1: the math problem I was currently working on in my head.

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Speaker 1: He stuck his nose down and got another whiff and

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Speaker 1: jerked his head up, looking in the direction of the thicket.

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Speaker 1: I swiveled, watching between him and the trail that lay

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Speaker 1: before him. When I saw a dough in a yearly

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Speaker 1: and pop out of that big brier patch and head

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Speaker 1: toward where he stood and I sat. She wasn't running,

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Speaker 1: but she she wasn't just strolling either. Her yearling was big,

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Speaker 1: but he still had a few spots that you could see,

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Speaker 1: and alternated between picking up acrons and trying to nurse.

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Speaker 1: She ignored the tempts of him trying to nurse, except

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Speaker 1: for the occasional kick to Junior's head. They spoke the

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Speaker 1: universal mom language of I'm busy. You got to find

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Speaker 1: your own self. Some deed she stopped twenty yards away,

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Speaker 1: and that little buck hadn't twitched from his location until

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Speaker 1: she did. Being the opportunitist he apparently was, old, Spike

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Speaker 1: ignored the tax deduction that though had tagging along with her,

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Speaker 1: and took it upon himself to let Romance bloom. It

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Speaker 1: was quite rude. The Spike was bobbing and weaving like

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Speaker 1: a cutting horse, trying to keep her in one spot

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Speaker 1: for a slow dance, and wound up having this behind

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Speaker 1: to the thicket she and Junior just came out of.

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Speaker 1: She'd already taken a couple of poly time jabs that

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Speaker 1: Spike went from. Out of that same thicket, Spike was

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Speaker 1: no longer looking toward a big nine points shot out

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Speaker 1: of there like he was late for work. He carvered

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Speaker 1: the sixty yards like a missile and was Spike's full

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Speaker 1: attention directed toward Mama. The big buck gave Spike nine

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Speaker 1: reasons to get out of dodge right in his back pockets, Yauza,

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Speaker 1: The world being round is the only way Spike could

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Speaker 1: ever make it back to those woods. He left there

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Speaker 1: so fast that if it's flat, he'd drawn off the

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Speaker 1: edge before he could have slowed down the stop but

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Speaker 1: that wasn't the end of the action by any meanings. Well,

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Speaker 1: it was playing to see for everyone that these two

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Speaker 1: had a history there mutually agreed upon amorous field. Congress

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Speaker 1: used the whole dah floor from the ticket table to

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Speaker 1: the band. Junior and I just passed the time focused

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Speaker 1: on other things like ian akerons and trying not to stare,

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Speaker 1: And all of a sudden I remembered I was there

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Speaker 1: to shoot a deer. The band must have taken a break,

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Speaker 1: because when the dancing stopped, Mama and Junior used on

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Speaker 1: down the trail, and the nine point just stood there

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Speaker 1: catching his wind. When I decided to let it all

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Speaker 1: out of him, he was more than a quartering to

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Speaker 1: me when I settled the crosshairs on where I wanted,

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Speaker 1: and while he watched his mane squeeze disappear down the road,

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Speaker 1: I gave the trigger a squeeze and send him one

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Speaker 1: hundred and fifty grains of getting my freezer, all of

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Speaker 1: which he told it with him at a slightly more

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Speaker 1: timid rate than the spike had left with He was

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Speaker 1: heading north and was swallowed up by the thickness of

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Speaker 1: the overseas of pine woods between the oak flat where

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Speaker 1: I was sitting in the State highway before the echo

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Speaker 1: of that rifle had stopped bouncing around in the woods.

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Speaker 1: I know I hit him. I couldn't have missed from

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Speaker 1: that distance. He was rolling low and hugging the ground

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Speaker 1: when I last saw him, and I walked over. I

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Speaker 1: found some blood after a short dish. Now it wasn't

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Speaker 1: poor now, but it wasn't dripping neither. He was headed

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Speaker 1: toward the highway with me in hot pursuit when I

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Speaker 1: hit a seemingly impenetrable thicket a double back and headed

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Speaker 1: to the camp to get my truck and some help.

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Speaker 1: Tim and Joe had heard me shooting were waiting for

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Speaker 1: me when I got there. I was telling them the story.

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Speaker 1: I told him where I had lost him in the

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Speaker 1: thicket near the highway and that we needed to go

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Speaker 1: get him from there. As I was explaining to them

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Speaker 1: where he was, we heard a rifle shot exactly where

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Speaker 1: I was pointing. We all paused and looked at one another,

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Speaker 1: and Joe said, somebody just shot your deer. From that point,

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Speaker 1: the fictationous band that was playing Belly Rubbie music for

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Speaker 1: the Star Crossed Ungerlet's cueued up the traveling music, and

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Speaker 1: I jumped in my truck and Tim and Joe foun

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Speaker 1: I pulled out of the highway half a mile down

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Speaker 1: the road, and I could see three folks standing on

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Speaker 1: the side of the road exactly where I figured my

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Speaker 1: deer would have crossed. A sigh of relief at that

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Speaker 1: particular point of my life. The deer that only moments

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Speaker 1: ago I had shot and tracted that thicket is the

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Speaker 1: biggest buck I had ever shot in my life. I

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Speaker 1: had already picked a spot out for him on my wall.

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Speaker 1: I don't know why those folks shot. I assumed they

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Speaker 1: must have give them the old coup de grass. But

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Speaker 1: whatever reason could there have been, I pulled up and

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Speaker 1: there stood what could only be described as an amalgamation

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Speaker 1: of bens. Now, this eclectic crew of misfits gathered together

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Speaker 1: could have only been the result of some monumental egregiousness

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Speaker 1: of human mouth feastings. They could have rented themselves out

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Speaker 1: to haunt a house. First impression showed that they were

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Speaker 1: missing teeth, a limb, and personal hygiene, and what theycked

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Speaker 1: in cleanliness and tasteful of appearance they made up for

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Speaker 1: with tier one trashiness. And they were all standing over

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Speaker 1: my buck. One was holding the lever action rifle. Was

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Speaker 1: he still kicking when y'all shot him? I said that

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Speaker 1: to no one in particular, but aimed at it to

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Speaker 1: whomever was going to be the spokesman for the group kicking.

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Speaker 1: He wasn't kicking. He was standing there on the edge

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Speaker 1: of the woods when I shot him. That's Timber Company land.

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Speaker 1: Anybody can hunt there. Hmm. Well, now he was right

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Speaker 1: about that, even though it was counted as ours by

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Speaker 1: gentlemen's agreements from the camps all around us. This was

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Speaker 1: still before releasing land started. We had no legal right

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Speaker 1: to tell anyone that they couldn't hunt there. But I

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Speaker 1: said it don't matter. I shot him fifteen minutes before

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Speaker 1: you did. That's my deer now. I fitting loaded him

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Speaker 1: in my truck. The greasiest of the lot slowly looked

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Speaker 1: up at me and said that, dear is ours. I

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Speaker 1: could see this playing out in a couple different ways,

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Speaker 1: both of which would have me celebrating my nineteenth birthday

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Speaker 1: in the state penitentiary or Reeves cemetery. What a terrible

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Speaker 1: way to spend a birthday, and yet that's exactly where

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Speaker 1: I was intending on going at that moment in my

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Speaker 1: life over a deer, as they say in the dramatic

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Speaker 1: movie scripts, the plot thickened. I am not a coward,

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Speaker 1: but I have been scared before, seeing the totality of

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Speaker 1: a situation. But as I stood there looking at my buck,

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Speaker 1: me on one side, and the mangiest trio of ne'er

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Speaker 1: do wells I've ever seen, including up to right now,

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Speaker 1: I didn't have sense enough to even be cautious. Words

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Speaker 1: were exchanged, and in a matter of moments things began

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Speaker 1: to get a little sporty, and my brother walked up

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Speaker 1: with Joe Wright beside it. All right, that's three on three,

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Speaker 1: somebody ring the bell and let's get this Donny Brook started.

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Speaker 1: I got a deer to skin. Tim asked me what happened,

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Speaker 1: and I told him and Joe about the conversation the

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Speaker 1: three amigos and I had just finished. Tim introduced himself

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Speaker 1: to these vagabonds, and I looked at him sideways when

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Speaker 1: he did. Now, Joe referenced the story that that fellow

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Speaker 1: had told me, and he said, you shot this deer

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Speaker 1: when he was standing over there and pointed to the

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Speaker 1: edge of the woods. Yeah, shot him. Right behind the shoulder.

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Speaker 1: That's where it went in, and he pointed right where

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Speaker 1: I had shot him. Joe rolled the deer over. On

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Speaker 1: the opposite side was an exit woe filled with dirt.

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Speaker 1: Joe looked at the dirt, and the woman then looked

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Speaker 1: at the misgrant that was holding the rifle and said,

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Speaker 1: now you didn't you shot that deer laying right there

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Speaker 1: on the ground. That's how all the dirt got in there. Well,

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Speaker 1: that was it for me. It's time to rumble. I've

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Speaker 1: already picked out who I was gonna punch first. The

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Speaker 1: man with the rifle was fixing the get one on

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Speaker 1: his go to sleep button. It'd be hard to see

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Speaker 1: who to shoe with both his eyes shut and his

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Speaker 1: nose mashed flat, But my plan was to continue waiting

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Speaker 1: on him while Tim and Joe settled on the other two,

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Speaker 1: one of which was sporting a freshly bandaged nub above

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Speaker 1: his right wrist where his boxing gloves should have been. Now,

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Speaker 1: which everyone got him was gonna have an incredible reach advantage.

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Speaker 1: Then my brother said, Brent, shut your mouth and go

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Speaker 1: back to the truck. Y'all get this deer and get

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Speaker 1: out of here. Don't let me catch you back here again.

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Speaker 1: He said that with a sternless unlike I'd ever heard

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Speaker 1: him use. They didn't say a word, and I didn't

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Speaker 1: care what he said. I find to knock this dude out.

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Speaker 1: And Tim looked over me and said now, and I

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Speaker 1: knew he meant for me to do what he said,

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Speaker 1: not what I was intended. I turned around and I

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Speaker 1: walked back to that truck, mad as a mashed cat,

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Speaker 1: and I turned to see Lefty. I'm just guessing they

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Speaker 1: called him Lefty. I asked what I'd have called him, but

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Speaker 1: he was now holding the rifle while the other two

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Speaker 1: drunk the deer to their rattle trap of a car.

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Speaker 1: There went my deer. Now here came my brother. I

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Speaker 1: didn't want to talk to him. But as I started

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Speaker 1: to pull off the shoulder and go back to camp,

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Speaker 1: my right front wheel dropped into a hole and I

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Speaker 1: got stuck. I had to stop him now and ask

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Speaker 1: him to pull me out. I wanted to punch him,

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Speaker 1: and now he was laughing at me for being stuck,

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Speaker 1: on top of just giving my deer away. I felt

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Speaker 1: like Tom Cheney in the classic Questern True Grit when

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Speaker 1: little Maddie Ross shot him with her late father's big

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Speaker 1: forty four caliber Coult Dragoon revolver. He said, everything happened

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Speaker 1: to me and now I'm shot by a child. Well

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Speaker 1: I feel you, Tom, but you only got shot your

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Speaker 1: brother didn't give your biggest deer away. Tim and Joe

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Speaker 1: pulled me out and we all went back to the camp.

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Speaker 1: I was steaming, but it started to cool off a

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Speaker 1: degree or two by the time we all found our

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Speaker 1: spots at the fire. We talked about the right and

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Speaker 1: the wrong things to do, and how the right thing

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Speaker 1: is hardly ever the easiest to do or to see.

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Speaker 1: My feeling of loss was over those horns, and for

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Speaker 1: years afterwards I felt somewhat ashamed of being willing to

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Speaker 1: fight someone over something that's insignificant as a set of

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Speaker 1: deer antlers. Now, had I been trying to feed my

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Speaker 1: family with that deer, Tim would have been the first

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Speaker 1: one to get out and start swinging. Maybe that's what

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Speaker 1: those folks motivation was. I don't know. If I had

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Speaker 1: to say, I'd guess their interest was the same as mine.

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Speaker 1: A trophy that only they and the Good Lord know

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Speaker 1: that And in the grand scheme of things, what does

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Speaker 1: it matter? It didn't then and it doesn't now now.

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Speaker 1: What does matter is being magnanimous and display an integrity,

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Speaker 1: And my brother gave me a lesson in both that day,

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Speaker 1: one that I haven't forgotten. Anytime we tell that story,

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Speaker 1: we always find the humor and poking fund at that

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Speaker 1: crusty tree over by foods. But in my mind, I

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Speaker 1: remember the day that my brother made me stop think

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Speaker 1: about the situation you find yourself in, realizing that what's

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Speaker 1: really a stink. Actions have repercussions that can affect your

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Speaker 1: life forever. Like like a rock dropped in a steel pond,

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Speaker 1: the ripples go in every direction and touch everything within

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Speaker 1: the banks, each of them in one way or another.

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Speaker 1: Be hard to look back now, over forty years later,

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Speaker 1: knowing I could have walked away from a potentially bad

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Speaker 1: situation and didn't. Thanks Tim, But sometimes I still want

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Speaker 1: to punch you. Thank you so much for listening to

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Speaker 1: this country life of mine. Bear grease in a backwoods university.

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Speaker 1: Drop us a review if you have a chance, and

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Speaker 1: send those stories into my tcl story at the meat

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Speaker 1: Eater dot com. If it's a hunting story, try to

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Speaker 1: make it as relevant to the time we're in I've

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Speaker 1: got some good Turkey stories waiting, but it'll be a

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Speaker 1: few months before we tell them my signature case. Many

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Speaker 1: trappers back in stock and they tell me they're starting

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Speaker 1: to make a run out the door once again. I

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Speaker 1: want one. You might want to check in on them

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Speaker 1: before they're gone again. Christmas ain't that far away. The

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Speaker 1: same thing with the tickets for the Meat Eater Dip

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Speaker 1: down here in the Motherland this December. That's going to

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Speaker 1: be a fun time and I'm really looking forward to it. Hey,

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Speaker 1: if you like crime stories, check out the new Blood

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Speaker 1: trails Pot podcast with my partner Jordan Sellers. That's dropping

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Speaker 1: on October the thirtieth. Man, it's gonna be good. That's

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Speaker 1: it for me, And until next week. This is Brent

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