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

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

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Speaker 1: by Case Knives on Meat Eaters Podcast Network, bringing you

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Speaker 1: the best outdoor podcast the airways had off. All right, friends,

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Speaker 1: grab a chair or drop that tailgate. I've got some

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Speaker 1: stories to share Bear Camp. I'm working on more years

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Speaker 1: at our Arkansas bear Camp than you can count on

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Speaker 1: both hands. And if you judge this one by the

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Speaker 1: quality of the bears taken, it wouldn't be close to

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Speaker 1: the top ten. If you judge it by what I

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Speaker 1: took home, it's far and above number one. I'm going

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Speaker 1: to tell you all about it, but first I'm going

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Speaker 1: to tell you a story. This week, we're doing a

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Speaker 1: listener story that caught my attention on three levels. One

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Speaker 1: who was sent in by a lady We need more

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Speaker 1: of them in the outdoors. Two at the time it happened,

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Speaker 1: she was a new hunter. And three it has a

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Speaker 1: good lesson. It was sent in by the Pride of Arcade,

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Speaker 1: New York, Amelia Martina. Arcade is also the home of

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Speaker 1: Daniel Frederick Bateman, who died in eighteen sixty nine at

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Speaker 1: the ripe old age of one hundred and nine. Daniel

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Speaker 1: was the last survivor receiving a veteran's pension for service

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Speaker 1: in the American Revolutionary War. But we ain't talking about

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Speaker 1: old Daniel Bateman. It's a Milia's time to shine. So

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Speaker 1: in my voice and Amelia's words, here we go. My

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Speaker 1: name is Amelia Martina, and I'm not the best at

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Speaker 1: telling stories, but we loved listening to yours. My husband

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Speaker 1: has been listening to the Meat Eater podcast for quite

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Speaker 1: some time and we look forward to doing trivia and

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Speaker 1: listening to this country life. My son will stop whatever

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Speaker 1: he's doing to listen to your stories. However, now I

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Speaker 1: have a story for you, so here it is. I

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Speaker 1: hope you enjoy it now. I was never a hunter,

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Speaker 1: and even though I am the oldest grandchild, I was

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Speaker 1: the last of the seven that my grandpa ever thought

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Speaker 1: would become one. The men always went out every November

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Speaker 1: on opening day of whitetail season, hoping to get a deer.

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Speaker 1: All the while the women stayed at home making chili

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Speaker 1: and desserts for when they came home at lunch and

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Speaker 1: before heading back out for the afternoon hunt. However, I

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Speaker 1: loved being in the woods when I was a kid,

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Speaker 1: making forts and taking walks to find new secret spots.

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Speaker 1: It's always a fun time. When I got married, my

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Speaker 1: husband joined the men and the tradition continued. I was

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Speaker 1: able to go out with him and join the experience,

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Speaker 1: but shooting with my camera instead of a firearm. I

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Speaker 1: enjoyed hunting more than I realized, so I took the

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Speaker 1: proper courses to get my hunting license, and the next

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Speaker 1: year I was able to join in. So for the

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Speaker 1: past five years, my husband and I have gone to

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Speaker 1: my grandpa's property out in the tiny town of Granger,

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Speaker 1: New York for our hunting tradition. We pack our supplies

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Speaker 1: and drive over to the family cabin the night before

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Speaker 1: to spend the night. Now upon arrival, my grandpa always

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Speaker 1: greets us, making a big deal out of coming over,

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Speaker 1: and he gives us the I just know that you're

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Speaker 1: going to get one speech. He shares stories that we've

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Speaker 1: all heard before, but we never tire of hearing, and

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Speaker 1: then go to bed, only to wake up before the

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Speaker 1: sun to get to our blind that we set up

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Speaker 1: months before, making sure that there are handwarmers for us

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Speaker 1: and chili in the crock pot, and Grandpa says, all right,

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Speaker 1: very good, let's go. He patched us on the back

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Speaker 1: and we head out into the dark, making our way

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Speaker 1: through the woods, the moonlight lighting our snow covered path

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Speaker 1: as we make it down to our blind and snuggle

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Speaker 1: in and wait. Disappointed by the lack of activity, we

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Speaker 1: decided to pack it up as the last of the

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Speaker 1: sun led us back to the cabin, telling my grandpa

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Speaker 1: that we'll be back in a couple days to try

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Speaker 1: it again. Keeping our promise, we returned with determination, ready

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Speaker 1: for a day in the woods. We decided to try

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Speaker 1: another blind that my grandpa had said up, letting us

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Speaker 1: know his heater is in there so we can be warm.

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Speaker 1: He wishes us good luck, and away we went. Finding

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Speaker 1: the lying at the far end of the property. We

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Speaker 1: slide into our folding camp chairs and wait for the

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Speaker 1: birds to start singing their morning song, all snuggling into

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Speaker 1: my husband's oversized winter came on. Fighting heavy eye lids

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Speaker 1: and the quiet of the forests, I heard my husband whisper,

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Speaker 1: don't move. Unaware of what he saw, I slowly turned

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Speaker 1: my head to see where his rifle was pointing, and

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Speaker 1: I saw nothing, and I heard nothing. Then, as if

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Speaker 1: she appeared out of the thick brush, I saw her

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Speaker 1: lumbering through the woods, but quiet as can be, not

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Speaker 1: thirty yards in front of us, as she turns and stops,

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Speaker 1: a two hundred and fifty pound beautiful black bear. Just

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Speaker 1: standing there, holding my breath and bracing for the crack

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Speaker 1: of the rifle, I waited, but the only noise I

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Speaker 1: heard was my husband's disappointing size. We saw two cubs

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Speaker 1: running to ketch up to their mama. In all ah

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Speaker 1: of what we saw, and shocked by incredibly ghost like

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Speaker 1: three bears can be in the woods, we just sat

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Speaker 1: and stared. We watched as they vanished into the woods

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Speaker 1: as quietly as they came in, and as our heart

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Speaker 1: rates came back down and we were sure that mom

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Speaker 1: and babies were far enough away, we ventured out to

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Speaker 1: see where they could have gone, following tracks as far

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Speaker 1: as we could until we headed back to the cabin.

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Speaker 1: Excited by our encounter. My grandpa wasn't there, but we

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Speaker 1: left them a note about the adventure and headed home,

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Speaker 1: not caring much that we didn't get a deer that year.

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Speaker 1: Next year would be a whole new adventure, to which

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Speaker 1: I did get my first deer, a big, beautiful dough.

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Speaker 1: But that's another story, And according to Amelia Martinez of

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Speaker 1: Arcade in New York, that's just how that happened. Well, Amelia,

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Speaker 1: I think you are a good storyteller and our appreciate

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Speaker 1: you sharing that with the rest of us. Your narrative

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Speaker 1: describes a hunter's relationship with the game we're entrusted to

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Speaker 1: look after by learning the rules, the regulations, and the

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Speaker 1: moral obligations we follow when deciding to legally kill an

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Speaker 1: animal or let it go, depending upon the circumstances of

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Speaker 1: each encounter. Now that's a lesson for us all, and

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Speaker 1: I appreciate you sharing it. Like Amelia's new tradition that

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Speaker 1: she's sharing with her family in Western New York, I've

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Speaker 1: been privileged to share one with a group of folks

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Speaker 1: here in Arkansas that I was initiated in about a

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Speaker 1: dozen years ago, something we just call bear Camp. It

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Speaker 1: started out for me as a job and an assignment

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Speaker 1: to film a Harry Little Hillbilly that looked more like

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Speaker 1: Harry Potter stunt double with his crazy round glass. This

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Speaker 1: is then a bear hunting magazine publisher from northwest Arkansas.

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Speaker 1: When I thought of a bear hunter, although I didn't

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Speaker 1: know any, I thought of Will Gears character bear Claw

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Speaker 1: Chris Lap and the greatest movie ever made Jeremia Johnson,

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Speaker 1: a bearded buckskin and fur wearing gruff old cadra with

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Speaker 1: a bear claw necklace, whose life experiences were written all

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Speaker 1: over his weathered face, and the knowledge of bears and

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Speaker 1: their habits were second nature to his own. Now, except

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Speaker 1: for the fur trim to buckskin clothes, the gruff demeanor,

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Speaker 1: and the weather warren face from decades of hard mountain living,

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Speaker 1: I'd say the rest of it was pretty much on point.

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Speaker 1: For my friend Klay Nukelem, he hired me to film

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Speaker 1: him hunting a bear in Oklahoma. And when I say hired,

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Speaker 1: I mean I offered to film him for whatever he

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Speaker 1: could afford to pay me, just for the experience, and

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Speaker 1: he gladly accepted. During our monetary negotiations on the phone,

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Speaker 1: he caughted me a price of zero dollars, and I

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Speaker 1: gladly accepted. He was grinding it out and burning the

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Speaker 1: candle at both ends, trying to make it in the

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Speaker 1: outdoor media business, a place I was looking to find

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Speaker 1: my spot in as well. Something told me I was

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Speaker 1: going to have a good time on this gig, and

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Speaker 1: if I didn't, all it was going to cost me

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Speaker 1: was a few days in my time, and I might

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Speaker 1: get to see a bear in the meantime, something I'd

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Speaker 1: never seen in the wild. We hunted hard for three days,

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Speaker 1: never saw a hair or even a track, not one,

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Speaker 1: and just like that, bear season was over. Acorns were

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Speaker 1: dropping from the trees before the season opened. And when

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Speaker 1: that happens, there is no use sitting at a bear

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Speaker 1: bait site because they ain't coming. Bears will climb over

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Speaker 1: a mountain of doughnuts to eat one white oak acren.

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Speaker 1: They know what's good for them and there's no substitute.

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Speaker 1: They're hardwired for natural mass, and that's what they're thinking

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Speaker 1: about while they're killing time at a bait site. That

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Speaker 1: was twelve years and a whole bunch of bears ago,

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Speaker 1: and I couldn't even begin to say how many we've

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Speaker 1: looked at sitting side by side, either in a stand

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Speaker 1: or on the ground. Now the ground was a new one,

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Speaker 1: I'd admit I thought it was really odd to hunt

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Speaker 1: a bear from the ground. I knew they had better

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Speaker 1: noses than deer, and to hunt a deer from the

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Speaker 1: ground took a lot of wind direction and stand placement

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Speaker 1: and thought and preparation. Deer can get a whiff of

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Speaker 1: you in boom, They're gone. Turns out a lot of

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Speaker 1: times a bear just don't care. That has allowed us

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Speaker 1: to see a lot of crazy bear behavior all over

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Speaker 1: the US and especially in remote areas of Canada. I

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Speaker 1: was hooked from the first time we hunted together, even

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Speaker 1: though we didn't see a bear. Just the thought of

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Speaker 1: it intrigued me enough to commit to Any time Clay

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Speaker 1: needed a camera man, I told him to call me,

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Speaker 1: and he did, sometimes with a month or two warning

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Speaker 1: that Sometimes it was hey, can you leave in two

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Speaker 1: days for a week of bear hunting? My answer was

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Speaker 1: always yes. I had become just as committed to his

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Speaker 1: mission of creating interest in the professional and unique content

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Speaker 1: about bears and bear hunting. I was only betting my time,

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Speaker 1: but Clay he was betting his future, and that's the

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Speaker 1: way it would go from then on. I'd go before

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Speaker 1: season to document the task of baiting the sites, packing

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Speaker 1: bait into a wilderness along with my camera gear, I

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Speaker 1: met a handful of people who were trusted to be

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Speaker 1: in the inner circle, none of which had a bigger

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Speaker 1: standing than James Lawrence. James is a man that most

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Speaker 1: of you know through Clay's storytelling, films and podcasts. I

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Speaker 1: was fortunate enough to be there and to get to

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Speaker 1: know this man who became my friend because of the

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Speaker 1: mutual respect we had for wild things that we all love,

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Speaker 1: and the genuine good time that we all have together. James,

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Speaker 1: his neighbors, and Clay's parents, his wife, Misty, and their

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Speaker 1: children were always at bear Camp, and regardless of our

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Speaker 1: success or failures, the whole pack of them was betting

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Speaker 1: on us. It was truly a family event that I'd

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Speaker 1: been invited to join. Now what it started out as

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Speaker 1: a job turned into something bigger. The contact didn't start

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Speaker 1: and stop at bear season anymore. He carried all throughout

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Speaker 1: the year. I saw the mission that Clay was on,

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Speaker 1: and I wanted to be a permanent part of it.

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Speaker 1: But I also learned that this wasn't like a deer hunt,

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Speaker 1: and I don't mean that degradingly towards deer hunters either.

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Speaker 1: The difference between deer hunting and bear hunting was significant.

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Speaker 1: In the eyes of the Newcombs and the Lawrences, and

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Speaker 1: that relevance was transferred to me. Now, Obviously, I thought

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Speaker 1: it was cool to see a bear in my home state.

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Speaker 1: And at that time, when I was first introduced to

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Speaker 1: that world, there were way more hunters who hadn't seen

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Speaker 1: a bear in the wild than those that had. I'd

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Speaker 1: grown up deer hunting and seeing deer daily on our farm.

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Speaker 1: Seeing and shooting a deer was like going to the mailbox.

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Speaker 1: It was a commonality that we all shared where I

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Speaker 1: grew up, We coexisted on the same ground and really

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Speaker 1: only got excited by the big ones, the bucks that

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Speaker 1: we'd hunt during the season, The big ones that we

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Speaker 1: longed to have a shot at, were what excited us,

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Speaker 1: not the endless parade of doze in yere lands and

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Speaker 1: small bucks that we'd grown accustomed to seeing. We took

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Speaker 1: it for granted, really, and when you do that, you

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Speaker 1: become complacent. Now, complacency breeds in attendiveness, and that's how

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Speaker 1: things slipped through the cracks. By only focusing on what

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Speaker 1: you're after a few weeks before the onset of the season,

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Speaker 1: you're not seeing the big picture. To me, that creates

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Speaker 1: an interest that's only driven by harvest and not a

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Speaker 1: true appreciation for the animal we're chasing. James and Clay

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Speaker 1: both study bears year round, and if I wanted to

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Speaker 1: be able to join the conversation, I'd better learn to

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Speaker 1: do the same. I studied game camera pictures and read

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Speaker 1: a ton of articles, a lot of them written by

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Speaker 1: Clay himself, and I asked James questions and tried to

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Speaker 1: soak in as much knowledge about bears that I could.

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Speaker 1: When I was with him, the main thing I did

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Speaker 1: was listen and try to apply the things I'd learned

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Speaker 1: to the things I was seeing. Whenever Clay and I

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Speaker 1: were on a hunt somewhere, him with a bow, me

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Speaker 1: with a camera, I saw how both of them revered

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Speaker 1: bears for what they are, a complex animal that roams

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Speaker 1: the landscape, thriving in unfractured expanses of wilderness, ghostly appearing

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Speaker 1: and disappearing seemingly it will. I don't know how many

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Speaker 1: bears I feel with Clay or a campus someone else

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Speaker 1: had taken when we all gathered to skin it and

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Speaker 1: rendered down the fat, all of which they shared with me.

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Speaker 1: And then one day, two days after we'd all left

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Speaker 1: the camp for home with everyone who'd hunted taken bears.

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Speaker 1: I got a call from James friend, you know that

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Speaker 1: bait we thought was dead up on the hill, Yes, sir,

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Speaker 1: well there's a bear hitting it pretty hard and we

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Speaker 1: want you to come back over, okay, James, Who am

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Speaker 1: I going to be filming? James kind of laughed and

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Speaker 1: he said, well, I think Clay might be filming you.

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Speaker 1: I could hear the excitement and pleasure in his voice

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Speaker 1: as he offered me my first opportunity to take a

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Speaker 1: bear myself. I didn't know what to say, but less

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Speaker 1: than twenty four hours later, I was sitting on that

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Speaker 1: bait and Clay filming and kill a bear with only

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Speaker 1: moments to spare legal shooting light. As a matter of fact,

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Speaker 1: we'd already shot the end sequence of the hunt and

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Speaker 1: was in the process of packing up when a bear

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Speaker 1: walked out less than fifteen yards. And that's when I

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Speaker 1: knew I'd been accepted into the bear Camp family, an

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Speaker 1: extension of the newcom and Lawrence family that I do

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Speaker 1: not take for granted. I've had conversations with Clay about

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Speaker 1: gifting bears to hunters, and I took all my kids

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Speaker 1: deer hunting. At the first notion, they expressed an interest

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Speaker 1: in it, and Clay did the same, but he wouldn't

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Speaker 1: allow them to take a bear until they had a

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Speaker 1: true appreciation and understanding of how important it was To

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Speaker 1: do so, they had to look at it like he

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Speaker 1: and James did, and how they both taught me to

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Speaker 1: It wasn't a process of paying dues or completing a

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Speaker 1: course of study. It was an overall understanding of every

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Speaker 1: facet of bear hunting, most notably conservation aspect and the

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Speaker 1: role hunters play in the stewardship of bears. My observations

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Speaker 1: as a parent tell me that's how my father raised me,

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Speaker 1: and I've tried to raise my children the same way,

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Speaker 1: teaching him the totality of how life ebbs and flows

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Speaker 1: with sadness, joy, failure, and success, all of which you

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Speaker 1: could experience on a one day bear hunt. I know

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Speaker 1: I've seen it now this year is those of you

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Speaker 1: who listened to last week's episode already know my bear

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Speaker 1: hunting plans were changed at the last minute by a

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Speaker 1: set of unfortunate circumstances. Disappointed, of course, I was sad,

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Speaker 1: not even a little bit. I was only going to

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Speaker 1: skip Bear Camp this year if I had a big

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Speaker 1: bear coming into my bait that was three and a

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Speaker 1: half hours away. Now, the baits at Bear Camp were

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Speaker 1: pretty lean this year, and we'd invited the bear biologists

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Speaker 1: for the State of Mississippi, Anthony Ballard, and a graduate

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Speaker 1: student working on his master's degree in wildlife biology, Spencer

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Speaker 1: Daniels Clay and I met him on a bearden study

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Speaker 1: they'd invited us to last March in Mississippi River Delta.

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Speaker 1: As soon as we all got into camp, the positive

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Speaker 1: flow switched to a negative ebb. Big bears that had

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Speaker 1: been hitting the baits began tapering off and going nocturnal.

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Speaker 1: The number of acorns that were hitting the deck all

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Speaker 1: over the mountains weren't helping either. That was keeping all

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Speaker 1: the bears busy and only trickling in right after daylight

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Speaker 1: and right before dark. Opening day wasn't going to be

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Speaker 1: what it had been in the past few years. James

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Speaker 1: and I talked, and I don't think we'd ever had

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Speaker 1: an opening day where someone didn't get one since I'd

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Speaker 1: started coming, and yet here we were bearless on opening day.

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Speaker 1: Now that wouldn't remain, as two out of three did

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Speaker 1: take bears on the evening of Day two in the

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Speaker 1: morning of Day three. Significant accomplishments considering the conditions and

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Speaker 1: all the factors we had working against us, but still

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Speaker 1: not the best part of this year's camp, Not for

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Speaker 1: me anyway. I've known James for years now. We shared

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Speaker 1: a dangerous expedition into the wilderness of northern Saskatchewan, chasing

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Speaker 1: barriers with Clay and a couple other close friends. One

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Speaker 1: year that truly tested our resolve. James and I were

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Speaker 1: in a boat together with a guide in the weather

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Speaker 1: we endeared crossing a massive lake was unlike anything I

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Speaker 1: had ever seen. The waves were three to four feet

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Speaker 1: at unrelenting. The five and a half hour boat ride

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Speaker 1: was horrendous, and there were several times I wished I

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Speaker 1: wasn't there. I was scared, and I'm not ashamed to

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Speaker 1: admit it now. I have no doubt that you could

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Speaker 1: have looked at my face then and known yourself firsthand.

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Speaker 1: But James never said a word, changed expressions, or exhibited

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Speaker 1: anything other than a glare of contempt. As the next

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Speaker 1: set of waves battered the boat we were trying to

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Speaker 1: stay inside of. He was riding the storm out, just

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Speaker 1: like he'd ridden the storms before when he'd gotten sick

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Speaker 1: with a sickness that takes a lot of folks out,

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Speaker 1: but it didn't get James. And on that trip, James

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Speaker 1: didn't get a bear, when all the other hunters in

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Speaker 1: camp did a few months later, I was back at

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Speaker 1: our Arkansas Bear camp with James and Clay and had

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Speaker 1: the pleasure of filming James hunting on the land he'd

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Speaker 1: grown up on in the Washington Mountains. On the way

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Speaker 1: over to our spot on opening day, I turned my

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Speaker 1: camera on and started recording James without him, knowing best

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00:20:32,680 --> 00:20:35,760
Speaker 1: way to keep someone from being camera shot and measured

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Speaker 1: in their responses if they're reserved and the quiet type,

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Speaker 1: all of which James Lawrence is. It's one of the

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Speaker 1: best interviews I've ever filmed. It was real and heartfelt,

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Speaker 1: and you could see the emotion in James's face as

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Speaker 1: he talked about his grandmother and the place we were

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Speaker 1: going to hunt and what it meant to him and

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Speaker 1: his family's legacy in the mountains. I didn't want the

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Speaker 1: ride from his home to where we were hunting to end,

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00:21:03,119 --> 00:21:06,159
Speaker 1: but it did, and in short order we were in

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Speaker 1: a tree and with his bow and me with that camera.

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Speaker 1: James killed a big bear that afternoon, and we struggled

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Speaker 1: to get it loaded in his truck, but eventually we did.

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Speaker 1: And the look in his eyes and the smile on

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Speaker 1: his face that afternoon, after I hugged his neck and

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Speaker 1: thanked him for allowing me to share that moment with

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Speaker 1: him while we stood over that bear, is one that

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Speaker 1: I will never forget. I'd never seen that look from

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Speaker 1: James before. I'm positive that was the day I understood

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Speaker 1: how James felt about bear hunting and the deep rooted

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Speaker 1: connection he had with the land, and that he'd officially

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Speaker 1: adopted me into his own. It was beautiful. I saw

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Speaker 1: that same expression last week when I watched James give

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Speaker 1: someone who meant a lot to him in an item

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Speaker 1: that meant a lot to him, something that he was

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Speaker 1: proud to give to that person he loved and respected.

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Speaker 1: The next day, he and I sat at bear camping,

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00:22:05,240 --> 00:22:07,240
Speaker 1: just visited for a while, and when he got ready

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00:22:07,240 --> 00:22:09,239
Speaker 1: to leave to go feed his cows, I walked him

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Speaker 1: to his truck, just James and me. He told me

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Speaker 1: as he leamped toward his truck, the years and the

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00:22:17,040 --> 00:22:19,720
Speaker 1: miles showing more evident now than ever on that tough

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Speaker 1: old mountain man that he lived for these days each September.

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Speaker 1: He told me he enjoyed getting ready for bear Camp

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Speaker 1: more than Bear Camp itself, as if the activity and

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00:22:30,480 --> 00:22:34,080
Speaker 1: the anticipation of all of us being together was as

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Speaker 1: exciting as the event. He put his hand on my shoulder.

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Speaker 1: I thought to brace himself as he struggled just a

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Speaker 1: bit to get into his truck. But when he didn't

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Speaker 1: reach for the door, I looked at him, and he

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Speaker 1: was looking at me right in the eyes. I saw

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Speaker 1: that same old look we'd shared as we stood over

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Speaker 1: that bear he killed all those years ago, and the

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00:22:56,960 --> 00:22:59,480
Speaker 1: same look he had when I saw him give that

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Speaker 1: gift the day before. He smiled at me and he said,

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Speaker 1: I love you, Bud. Bear Camp the least important thing

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Speaker 1: we do there. It's hunt bears. Call it bear camp,

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Speaker 1: deer camp, or coffee with your friends and family, whatever

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Speaker 1: you want to, but find a circle of folks, start

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Speaker 1: one yourself. When people can be together, folks you want

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00:23:31,240 --> 00:23:34,680
Speaker 1: to share your life with, it'll bless you beyond anything

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Speaker 1: you could ever hold in your hands. Biggest trophies you'll

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Speaker 1: take home in your heart. I promise thank y'all so

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Speaker 1: much for listening to me and old Clay Bow here

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Speaker 1: on the Bear Grease channel. I'm glad you're in this

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00:23:49,160 --> 00:23:51,680
Speaker 1: circle and you can help make it bigger by sharing

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00:23:51,720 --> 00:23:54,240
Speaker 1: it with other folks you think might like it and

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00:23:54,600 --> 00:23:56,600
Speaker 1: knocking us out of review. If you have time, we

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Speaker 1: sure appreciate it. Until next week, this is at Reeve.

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Speaker 1: Sign it up, y'all, be careful