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 ducks,
Speaker 1: trees and danger. A journey can start at any moment,
Speaker 1: but a lifelong journey has to start pretty early in
Speaker 1: a person's life. It was ducks for me, and I
Speaker 1: took my first step on that trick at eleven. And
Speaker 1: I'm going to tell you a lot about what went
Speaker 1: on when I was chasing those critters around Arkansas. But
Speaker 1: first I'm going to tell you the I had all started.
Speaker 1: I had the pleasure of being invited to go on
Speaker 1: a duck hunt last weekend with a group of friends
Speaker 1: that I coon hunt with, and I have to say
Speaker 1: I missed it more than I thought. After a twenty
Speaker 1: six year marathon grind of guiding duck hunters every available day,
Speaker 1: stressing about water, duck camp, maintenance, boat, motor, upkeep, leases,
Speaker 1: no rest, little sleep, downward trend and duck numbers and
Speaker 1: upward trend of duck shooters, and the collection of birthdays.
Speaker 1: My brother and I quit. I hung up my calls
Speaker 1: and did other things. A bowl hunted, a fly fished,
Speaker 1: a coon hunted. But the main thing I did was
Speaker 1: enjoy myself during hunting season. Duck season used to be
Speaker 1: my reason for being. It was what I looked forward
Speaker 1: to most. When it wasn't duck season, I thought about it.
Speaker 1: I counted the days until it was now. My dad
Speaker 1: wasn't a duck hunter, but my older brother Tim just
Speaker 1: decided one day that he was. And if he was
Speaker 1: doing it, you could bet that I was going to
Speaker 1: try to do it too. For anyone that's new to
Speaker 1: the podcast, I grew up in the country, and I
Speaker 1: loved to hunt and fish and do just about anything
Speaker 1: that's outside except for chores. Now being raised on a farm,
Speaker 1: there was always something to be done, Something needed doctored
Speaker 1: or stacked, split, loaded, unloaded, disked, raked, painted, planted, burned.
Speaker 1: Then on was ain't gonna burn themselves, you know, toaded,
Speaker 1: picked or a combination of any number of them. Now
Speaker 1: I didn't really care for it. None of that has changed.
Speaker 1: I got a four wheeler trailer sitting in my backyard
Speaker 1: right now that I begrudgingly filled with limbs two springs
Speaker 1: ago before the moving started. Now, this was all under
Speaker 1: the direction of my workaholic wife Alexis, who lives by
Speaker 1: the proverb that idle hands are the devil's workshop. Well,
Speaker 1: that trailer is still sitting there full of limbs, and
Speaker 1: when I have time, I'm going to haul them off.
Speaker 1: But right now I'm busy being retired and thinking about
Speaker 1: duck hunting again. I was eleven on my first duck
Speaker 1: hunt in nineteen seventy seven. My brother Tim and Joe
Speaker 1: Tyree took me to Star City, Arkansas, to a beaver
Speaker 1: pond that was located behind a mena farm on Cane Creek.
Speaker 1: The beavers had a large section of hardwoods flooded with backwater,
Speaker 1: and Star City is on the edge of the Arkansas
Speaker 1: River delta. With the river close and flooded rice fields closer,
Speaker 1: that beaver pond was a natural resting spot for Mallard
Speaker 1: ducks looking for a place to snag a few acrens,
Speaker 1: take a nap and hunt up a gall to roll
Speaker 1: back north with. When the time came, I was sporting
Speaker 1: my first pair of uninsulated red ball waiters, an early
Speaker 1: Christmas present from Tim and my sister in law, Barbajean.
Speaker 1: The suspenders were green with several buckles, just like my brothers,
Speaker 1: with two layers of socks, a red Union suit you
Speaker 1: know the kind with the flap in the back for emergencies,
Speaker 1: a flannel shirt, a green Army filled jacket, and a
Speaker 1: brand new Ducks back canvas hat. I followed Tim and
Speaker 1: Joe for the half mile walk to the flooded timber.
Speaker 1: I didn't have a light, so I stuck close to Tim,
Speaker 1: and when he pulled his foot out of a track,
Speaker 1: I stuck mine in there. And that would be the
Speaker 1: template that I would use for many years until he
Speaker 1: encouraged me to go ahead and do my own thing,
Speaker 1: and he even started following me some. That's a good thing.
Speaker 1: That's how you evaluate the lessons getting passed down. Just
Speaker 1: like our father and all the adults and the more
Speaker 1: experienced folks that we looked up to had done for us,
Speaker 1: and the ones that came before Dad had done for
Speaker 1: him that's how it worked works, Tim said, be careful, Brent.
Speaker 1: There's a big beaver. Run right here. Step extra long
Speaker 1: so you hit the other side and don't fall in.
Speaker 1: And it's deep, and if you get wet, you gonna
Speaker 1: get cold because we ain't going back to the truck
Speaker 1: until we're done hunting. Well, I stood in the spot
Speaker 1: where he'd more or less jumped from, and the muddy
Speaker 1: water was up to my behind, and I wondered, step
Speaker 1: extra long? How long is that? He's like twice as
Speaker 1: tall as me. I'm gonna fall in, but I don't
Speaker 1: care because I'm going duck. And before I could finish
Speaker 1: that thought, he reached and grabbed me by the hand
Speaker 1: and said jump, and I did, and he snatched me
Speaker 1: over that beaver built abyss and we waited on him
Speaker 1: telling me where the logs and the sticks were that
Speaker 1: I had to step over. He taught me on that
Speaker 1: trip to slide my feet when I couldn't see the bottom,
Speaker 1: and not to put my weight forward when walking until
Speaker 1: I planted my foot firmly on solid ground. Now I
Speaker 1: can't even begin to estimate how many I passed that
Speaker 1: on to duck hutting clients. Some of them still dripping
Speaker 1: wet from learning the hard way. It was still dark
Speaker 1: when we got to the spot, and I could see
Speaker 1: the stars shining through the opening in the trees, and
Speaker 1: Tim let me help put the decoys out in the
Speaker 1: water that was just above my knees. Me and you
Speaker 1: will stand right here by this tree, and Joe will
Speaker 1: be standing by that one. He pointed over to my
Speaker 1: right with his flashlight, and I could already see Joe
Speaker 1: propped up against that oak tree, shot gun hanging on
Speaker 1: a nail, his hands in his pockets, he just waiting
Speaker 1: on daylight. The wind was blowing from my right to
Speaker 1: the left, and the sky was starting to turn pink
Speaker 1: behind us. Tim poured some coffee out of his thermest
Speaker 1: bottle and gave me the cup while he dug out
Speaker 1: a cigarette and lit it. And that coffee smelled good
Speaker 1: and the cup felt good in my cold hands. We
Speaker 1: shared that cup back and forth and warmed our enters
Speaker 1: as we talked about wearing when to shoot, and when
Speaker 1: I could look at the working ducks, and when I couldn't.
Speaker 1: Now I'm glad he's quit smoking many years ago, but
Speaker 1: I'll catch a whilf of a cigarette smoke occasionally, and
Speaker 1: it'll remind me of similar times. Coffee does the same thing.
Speaker 1: It's funny how smell and all that is connected with memories.
Speaker 1: It seemed like forever, But eventually I could look over
Speaker 1: at Joe and I could see his outline. He hadn't
Speaker 1: moved an inch, and I could see the silhouettes of
Speaker 1: the decoys as they moved back and forth in the
Speaker 1: hole where we'd set them. We heard duck wings whistling
Speaker 1: overhead and ducks quacking out in the timber. I'm not
Speaker 1: sure I even blinked. I was about to pee in
Speaker 1: my breeches, and not just from excitement. I hadn't drink
Speaker 1: a lot of coffee up to that part of my life,
Speaker 1: and it was making short work about dixie cup sized bladder. Tim,
Speaker 1: I got a pee right now? Yes, he said, Well,
Speaker 1: get over you uder and get it done, shooting irises
Speaker 1: in five minutes. Well I got it done. Once I
Speaker 1: was back by the tree, Tim gave me a handful
Speaker 1: of shells to put in my pocket, told me to
Speaker 1: load up. That's what I was waiting to hear. I
Speaker 1: checked the safety and I put three of them in
Speaker 1: that remyton eleven hundred checked the safety again, and I waited.
Speaker 1: The ducks started flying in big groups and were bypassing
Speaker 1: our little spot. I was getting discouraged, but Tim told
Speaker 1: me to be patient. Soon the sun was high enough
Speaker 1: for the decoys to be seen, and the ducks started
Speaker 1: acting interested. Tim was calling to one group that was
Speaker 1: circling when four or five dropped in that we never
Speaker 1: saw coming, and Tim and Joe each shot one as
Speaker 1: they hovered over the decoys. Well, I was peeking at
Speaker 1: the group that was still circling when they shot, and
Speaker 1: it scared the fire out of me. It's a good
Speaker 1: thing i'd gotten rid of that coffee earlier, but they
Speaker 1: might have scared the pee out of me too. Now,
Speaker 1: you got to be ready. I'm gonna tell you when
Speaker 1: to shoot, But sometimes they slip in on us, Tim
Speaker 1: told me. He said, so when they do, you gotta
Speaker 1: be quick. Well, I was listening intently and watching the
Speaker 1: sky when a big, old fat mall of drake started
Speaker 1: making tie eight circles and losing altitude as he burned
Speaker 1: off speeding. Tim continued his lesson. I said, no matter
Speaker 1: how many come in, just pick out one and forget
Speaker 1: all the rest. Of them. Now. I guess he saw
Speaker 1: my eyes following that duck that was dropping in, and
Speaker 1: as he was looking up to see what I was saying,
Speaker 1: he continued his lecture with be sure to give him
Speaker 1: some lead, and then give him the lead. At that moment,
Speaker 1: that drake looked as big as a wing shehutling pony,
Speaker 1: and he was inside the trees in front of me,
Speaker 1: about fifteen feet above the decoys. Went. To Tim's surprise,
Speaker 1: I showed her that eleven hundred punched off the safety
Speaker 1: and put him belly button up in the decoys. Tim
Speaker 1: calmly finished his lessons with just like that man alive,
Speaker 1: that was number one Numero uno and the match that
Speaker 1: lit my fuse. I handed in my shotgun and I
Speaker 1: waited out amongst the decoys to retrieve my prize. And
Speaker 1: I couldn't have been more proud, And Nita contemn. I
Speaker 1: hung onto those curly tail feathers for years and years
Speaker 1: until they got lost. Like things like that do. My
Speaker 1: mama made a big batch of duck and rice out
Speaker 1: of that rascal and some others that we brought home
Speaker 1: that day. I can smell it cooking right now, and
Speaker 1: see how that whole hunt played out in my head
Speaker 1: like it like it happened this morning. That's the thing
Speaker 1: about memories. They're the little movies that played in your
Speaker 1: head anytime you want them to. And that one, well,
Speaker 1: I was reminded of it a few days ago when
Speaker 1: I was watching ducks swinging around after we called to
Speaker 1: them and dropping into decoys, just like I'd seen a
Speaker 1: million times before. It was a tail. I thought I
Speaker 1: was done with. But me and duck hunting never officially
Speaker 1: broke up. We just took a three year vacation. And
Speaker 1: that's just how it happened and how it all started.
Speaker 1: Now here's a duck story that happened twelve years after
Speaker 1: my duck hunting journey started, and believe it or not,
Speaker 1: it was within a half a mile of that very spot,
Speaker 1: in the same flooded timber, but under extremely different circumstances.
Speaker 1: This is the time my journey nearly came to an
Speaker 1: abrupt and violent halt. So gather the young'uns, and y'all
Speaker 1: listen up. The reeves boys are out doing dumb stuff again.
Speaker 1: Remember Cane Creek, like from ten minutes ago, the creek
Speaker 1: that the beavers had dammed up and created the pond
Speaker 1: and the flooded timber where I shot my first mount
Speaker 1: of duck. Remember well, fast forward twelve years and it's
Speaker 1: now a one thousand, six hundred and seventy five acre
Speaker 1: lake within the two thousand and fifty three acre Cane
Speaker 1: Creek State Park. It's a beautiful park in the lake
Speaker 1: in it so it's approving great fishery under the care
Speaker 1: of the Arkansas State Parks and the Arkansas Gaming Fish Commission,
Speaker 1: and it's all there for the public. When all the
Speaker 1: land was purchased, construction began and a big levee was built.
Speaker 1: It took a while, but the lake area flooded and
Speaker 1: as a result of the timber inside eventually died, leaving
Speaker 1: standing snags that would fall and be reclaimed by Mother
Speaker 1: Earth and all her witness. Now, during that time, we
Speaker 1: took full advantage of the water and for several years
Speaker 1: we put a pretty good smashing on the ducks. Now,
Speaker 1: this was still a few years before we started our
Speaker 1: guiding business, and on this day it was me Tim
Speaker 1: and our good friend Andy Johnson. Andy and I had
Speaker 1: worked together at a forester consulting business, and he liked
Speaker 1: a duck hut as much as we did. By the
Speaker 1: time of this hunt, most of the timber had fallen down,
Speaker 1: so just traveling around the lake was pretty risky. You
Speaker 1: had to go slow and pick your way around the
Speaker 1: boat lanes and watching for logs that had drifted into
Speaker 1: the routes that were cut out, and you had to
Speaker 1: make sure you didn't hit a stump if you had
Speaker 1: to go around one that did. The timber having nearly
Speaker 1: all fallen presented another challenge as well. Where you're going
Speaker 1: to hide? Now, none of us like hunting out of
Speaker 1: a boat, even though that was a very productive and
Speaker 1: a safe way to shoot ducks in those conditions. No,
Speaker 1: we were purist, and you duck hunt standing beside a
Speaker 1: tree and knee deep water, just like folks in the
Speaker 1: Bible did. Well, we figured they did anyway, So we'd
Speaker 1: make the treacherous trek, dodging snags and blowdowns out to
Speaker 1: a spot that when the timber was alive, it was
Speaker 1: tailor made for duck hunting. It was a hole about
Speaker 1: forty yards wide and ringed with material trees. The water
Speaker 1: was knee deep in there at that stage of the
Speaker 1: lake's progression, and the ground was mostly solid with a
Speaker 1: few old stump holes here there. The stump holes had
Speaker 1: silted in and looked solid from above the water. But
Speaker 1: if you stepped in one, you'd sink up to your
Speaker 1: straddle and you'd think you were headed to the other
Speaker 1: side of the planet. Because you'd rarely ever touch the bottom,
Speaker 1: you'd get wet, and someone would usually had to come
Speaker 1: help you get out. That was what we worried about,
Speaker 1: stepping in a hole or snagging a limb causing you
Speaker 1: a leak in your waiters. While we walked around putting
Speaker 1: out decoys or picking up ducks, or just traveling from
Speaker 1: one spot to another. The thought of being driven in
Speaker 1: the ground like a tent peg never crossed our minds.
Speaker 1: And it was cold and crisp and a blue bird day.
Speaker 1: The only thing missing was when, which if it had
Speaker 1: been blowing, we wouldn't have been hunting in that spot
Speaker 1: because of all the dead timber. We would have been
Speaker 1: on the bank somewhere and relatively safety hidden among the
Speaker 1: live trees on the edge of the lake, where there
Speaker 1: was no threat to our health and safety. But like
Speaker 1: hunting from a boat, that wasn't what real duck hunters did.
Speaker 1: Real duck hunters got out in the middle of the
Speaker 1: hardship and embraced the struggle. I'm glad, I'm over that foolishness,
Speaker 1: but on this day I was still very much in
Speaker 1: that frame of mind. We got in that spot way
Speaker 1: before daylight, put out the decoys, and everyone picked out
Speaker 1: their place to stand. Tim and Andy were about fifteen
Speaker 1: yards apart, standing by medium size standing snags, and I
Speaker 1: was kind of quartered across the hole, not in the
Speaker 1: line of fire by any means, but standing by the
Speaker 1: biggest oak snag in the whole area. Now, we set
Speaker 1: the decoys where the ducks had to land out away
Speaker 1: from where we were all stationed, and had a hard
Speaker 1: rule that no one shoots below the limb on a
Speaker 1: snag at the shooting end of the hole. Cripples were
Speaker 1: dispatched by who was closest and always in a direction
Speaker 1: away from everyone, and only after making sure where everyone
Speaker 1: was and that we all knew someone was about to
Speaker 1: shoot on the water safety something we took very seriously.
Speaker 1: It's rule one, and it still is. We started scratching
Speaker 1: out a few ducks out of the groups that worked
Speaker 1: in that hole, and only liked one or two each
Speaker 1: for a limit. When the mid morning Love came around. Now,
Speaker 1: every duck hunter's familiar with that, and this one rolled
Speaker 1: in around ten am. If you're not familiar with it,
Speaker 1: it's when the ducks just all of a sudden quit
Speaker 1: flying before eventually starting to get up and stir around
Speaker 1: a little bit more. Now we could have left with
Speaker 1: a good mess of ducks already, but that ain't what
Speaker 1: duck hunters do. Come on, man, you got to stay
Speaker 1: until you get all the law allows. Anyway, the mid
Speaker 1: morning Love, the conversation amongst all of us had died
Speaker 1: down to nothing. We were just all kind of just
Speaker 1: standing there, lost in our thoughts. No birds were singing,
Speaker 1: There was not one sound to anything. I looked up
Speaker 1: that tiring snag that I was standing beside, and I
Speaker 1: marveled at how big and straight he was. It would
Speaker 1: have took all three of us to reach around it.
Speaker 1: There was three big limbs that had grown out from
Speaker 1: the trunk, and the lowest one was about I don't know,
Speaker 1: twenty five feet above my head. They were all on
Speaker 1: the opposite sides of each other and had broken off
Speaker 1: at about the same distance from where they sprouted. Back
Speaker 1: when that tree and the ground that grew on was
Speaker 1: claimed by those cats and friends. It was a big
Speaker 1: tree and it had been there a long long time.
Speaker 1: I remember looking back over at Tim and Andy and
Speaker 1: they were looking at me. No one said a word,
Speaker 1: and then a loud pop broke the silence. That wasn't
Speaker 1: like a firecracker or a kid's cork gun going off.
Speaker 1: It didn't sound like Dracula opening up his coffin lid. No,
Speaker 1: it was quick, it was heavy, and it was a
Speaker 1: thick sound, like the sound of a humongous tree top
Speaker 1: breaking away from its base and plunging toward Earth at
Speaker 1: terminal velocity. Now I knew exactly what it was, even
Speaker 1: though I had never heard that exact sound before my life.
Speaker 1: Now you want to talk about time standing still, it did.
Speaker 1: I was looking at Tim when it popped, and I
Speaker 1: saw his eyes get wide and his face loose all
Speaker 1: its color, his expression going from indifferent to absolute horror
Speaker 1: in an instant. Now, during that same instant, I took off,
Speaker 1: running as hard and fast as I could in the
Speaker 1: knee deep water, and I was instinctively running toward my brother.
Speaker 1: He was my protector, just like always, and he'd save
Speaker 1: and protect me again. I just had to get to him,
Speaker 1: and I was running to him like my life depended
Speaker 1: on it, because it actually did. I taken four or
Speaker 1: five strides toward him, putting as much distance as I
Speaker 1: could between me and the base of that tree, solely
Speaker 1: focused on him. Having never looked up. He started screaming
Speaker 1: wrong way, wrong way, wrong way, perfect three hundred and
Speaker 1: sixty degrees on the compass, and I choose the one
Speaker 1: direction that was going to get me pounded like one
Speaker 1: of John Henry's railroad spikes. I hadn't had kids yet,
Speaker 1: I hadn't ever bought a house or ridden a motorcycle.
Speaker 1: The motorcycle thing was really bothering me because I was
Speaker 1: wishing I was on one at that exact time and
Speaker 1: riding it away from that tree. Well. I stopped, and
Speaker 1: I turned to go back the way I came when
Speaker 1: I heard the rush of wind that that tree top
Speaker 1: was making as it fell, and I felt the areas
Speaker 1: that went by my shoulder, landing flat in the water
Speaker 1: less than a foot from where I had turned to
Speaker 1: make my retreat. My shoulders were hunched up and my
Speaker 1: eyes were closed, and I turned away from that wooden
Speaker 1: buzz bomb that was about to hit me. When a
Speaker 1: wall of water came crashing down on me. Tim and
Speaker 1: Andy said I completely disappeared behind the water, and they
Speaker 1: didn't know if I'd been hammered in the ground or not.
Speaker 1: But before that water had a chance to run off
Speaker 1: of me, Tim was standing beside me and checking to
Speaker 1: see if I was all there. I got my first
Speaker 1: look at that tree top. It was enormous, and it
Speaker 1: would have easily sent me to the happy hunting grounds
Speaker 1: that it hit me. Two hunts in the same area
Speaker 1: twelve years apart. One lit the candle and the other
Speaker 1: one dang near blew it out. Contrasting stories, to be sure,
Speaker 1: but both very important in my continued growth as a human.
Speaker 1: We didn't hunt that place anymore. I remember going back
Speaker 1: after all the timber had fallen, but not many times
Speaker 1: before it all did. We found other places and other
Speaker 1: opportunities to maim and kill ourselves. But that's a story
Speaker 1: for another day. But I missed duck hunting more than
Speaker 1: I thought, a whole lot more. And it's not the
Speaker 1: duck hunt so much as it is the fellowship, sharing
Speaker 1: the sights and the sounds of ducks as they respond
Speaker 1: to a call, and pitching the decoys after circling around
Speaker 1: and shining in the sun like feathered emeralds is a
Speaker 1: sight to behold. I sat on the bench in that
Speaker 1: blind the other day beside my host and we talked
Speaker 1: about old times and places we'd been to while our
Speaker 1: other friends were shooting ducks, and I was okay with that,
Speaker 1: so was he. Thank y'all so much for listen. I
Speaker 1: really enjoy telling these stories, and from the responses we're getting,
Speaker 1: apparently you folks enjoy hearing there's more duck hunting to
Speaker 1: come along with the everyday common household buffoonery you've grown
Speaker 1: accustomed to, which reminds me of something my friend Michael
Speaker 1: Roseman told me the other day we were going coon hunting,
Speaker 1: and he said that when they're listening in and shopping
Speaker 1: building lights that he hears that acoustic guitar music start playing,
Speaker 1: someone will say, brins fixing to do something dumb. Don't
Speaker 1: play cards with them, folks, they're pretty sharp. Until next week.
Speaker 1: This is Brent Reeves sign, and all y'all be careful