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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 airwaves have 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. Tense, crawfish and sleep avenue Camping is

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Speaker 1: something a lot of us like to do. There are

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Speaker 1: those who camp solely for the experience of spending time

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Speaker 1: out nature and those who do it in conjunction with

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Speaker 1: some other activity. Regardless of your reason for being there,

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Speaker 1: sleeping outside comes with ups and downs, and I'm gonna

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Speaker 1: talk all about them. But first, I'm going to tell

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Speaker 1: you a story. My older brother, Tim has told this

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Speaker 1: story for years. That's a good one, and I'm going

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Speaker 1: to share it with you now. But Tim and some

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Speaker 1: of his friends went camping in high school. This would

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Speaker 1: have been in the early nineteen seventies. He said there

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Speaker 1: were three or four of them on this particular outing

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Speaker 1: one summer, and they'd all decided to bowl some crawfish

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Speaker 1: to go along with the balognaan bread they brought for supper.

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Speaker 1: They built a fire that night, and they sanged up

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Speaker 1: some crawfish from the creek and had a pot of water.

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Speaker 1: They dropped some whole taters into ball hanging over the fire.

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Speaker 1: They carried on as boys do, playing wrestling and doing

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Speaker 1: everything except focusing on the cooking pot. They would soon

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Speaker 1: regret that omission of responsibility. After some time, someone decided

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Speaker 1: that taters had to be done by now, so they

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Speaker 1: dropped all the crawfish in and went back to rough housing.

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Speaker 1: For those of you who may not know, crawfish like

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Speaker 1: shrip don't take long to cook. They're pretty well done

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Speaker 1: after about five minutes, and then you turn the fire

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Speaker 1: off and just let them soak up the seasoning timse.

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Speaker 1: They didn't have any crawfish season and had only decided

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Speaker 1: to cook some after finding them in the creek where

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Speaker 1: they were fishing and frog gigging up and down that night.

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Speaker 1: They also weren't keeping up with the water in the

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Speaker 1: pot with the taters because they'd run all their flashlight

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Speaker 1: batteries down by then and didn't see they'd bowled the

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Speaker 1: majority of the water out of the pot. Add another

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Speaker 1: cloud to the perfect storm of the fire dying down

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Speaker 1: to the point that the crawfish that didn't die in

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Speaker 1: the pot when they were dropped in were standing on

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Speaker 1: the corpses of their fallen comrades that had managed to

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Speaker 1: get semi cooked. At the point someone suggested they commenced

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Speaker 1: to eating, Tim said he and the others all jammed

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Speaker 1: their hands down in there to grab a crawfish before

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Speaker 1: they were gone, and peeled at them so fast they

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Speaker 1: didn't really take time to look at them. It wouldn't

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Speaker 1: have mattered because they didn't have a light with enough

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Speaker 1: juice in it to look at him anyway, He said,

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Speaker 1: the first one he d it was a little chewy, but

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Speaker 1: he had it swallowed and was working on his second

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Speaker 1: one and thinking to himself, man, they didn't rinse them

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Speaker 1: very well because the first one was not on a chewy,

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Speaker 1: but he was a little gritty. He was having a

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Speaker 1: time peeling the second one when someone hollered, hey, these

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Speaker 1: crawfish ain't done well. Somebody grabbed the pot off the

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Speaker 1: hook and held it down near the fire so they

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Speaker 1: could see in there, and Tim said the dead ones

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Speaker 1: weren't cooked, and the live ones were mad at the

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Speaker 1: world and spoiling for a fight. They cut the live

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Speaker 1: ones loose. They figured they'd earned that by then, and

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Speaker 1: they kept the dead ones for bait, and they fished

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Speaker 1: the taters out of the pot to eat. Now, apparently,

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Speaker 1: when they dropped all those crawfish in, they're probably a

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Speaker 1: dozen or so, they landed on their feet like cats,

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Speaker 1: and we're doing the hot foot to stay alive, using

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Speaker 1: those taters like islands of sanctuary in a sea of

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Speaker 1: ball and water. And according to my brother Tim, that's

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Speaker 1: just how that happened. Camping means a lot of things

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Speaker 1: to a lot of different folks, but a simplistic definition

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Speaker 1: is the activity of spending a vacation living in a camp,

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Speaker 1: tent or a camper. Now. I've done a whole lot

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Speaker 1: of it throughout my life, and I enjoyed very much.

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Speaker 1: Coffee tastes better, the food you eat tastes better. The

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Speaker 1: whole experience to me is refreshing and a reboot from

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Speaker 1: my brain. Last January, Clay and I spent the night

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Speaker 1: on an island on the Mine Mississippi River while filming

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Speaker 1: a deer and duck hunting film for the Bear Grease

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Speaker 1: road Show. There were two other guys on that trip, cinematographers,

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Speaker 1: Drew stick Line and Dave Gardner. They were there, and

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Speaker 1: they were sleeping in a big boat that Sea Arc

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Speaker 1: Boats had provided for us to use. That Rascal had

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Speaker 1: a canopy that fully enclosed the cabin into a heedable retreat,

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Speaker 1: complete with lights and couches that doubled his beds very comfortable.

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Speaker 1: I guess Clay and I were eighty yards away on

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Speaker 1: a point of land down inside the bank that shielded

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Speaker 1: us from the cold wind but did nothing to protect

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Speaker 1: us from the cold ground. After a supper, we each

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Speaker 1: crawled into our separate tents, and I realized, after getting inside,

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Speaker 1: cocooning myself in my sleeping bag and laying down, that

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Speaker 1: I'd made an egregious error not only in figuring the

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Speaker 1: slope of where I'd set up my solo tent, but

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Speaker 1: also the orientation of it. My feet were uphill, then

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Speaker 1: climb with such that the material of my sleeping bag

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Speaker 1: was sliding off the air mattress, and there would be

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Speaker 1: no way I'd be able to get any sleep cause

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Speaker 1: of it. I laid their way in my options I

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Speaker 1: could get back up and reset everything by tearing my

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Speaker 1: tent down and turning at one hundred and eighty degrees.

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Speaker 1: Or I could just flip around and put my feet

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Speaker 1: where my head was. Now that makes sense, I'm sure

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Speaker 1: while I was reciting it's the majority of you were saying,

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Speaker 1: just turn around, dummy. Well, if it were on that easy,

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Speaker 1: that solo tent was sloped, narrowed in height, and wit

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Speaker 1: making one end specifically designed for your feet. To break

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Speaker 1: it down, I'd have to get dressed, unload everything from inside,

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Speaker 1: and redrough the whole operation from start to finish. By

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Speaker 1: this time, we'd all been up for over twenty hours.

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Speaker 1: I was ready to go to sleep. We'd be up

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Speaker 1: and going again the next morning in daylight, try and

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Speaker 1: beat the rain that was moving in. Was still another

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Speaker 1: one hundred and twenty five miles to go. Every minute

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Speaker 1: I was awake, it was a minute I wasn't going

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Speaker 1: to get to sleep. I'll just flip around. My face

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Speaker 1: only be a few inches from the tent where normally

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Speaker 1: my toes would be pointed. But so what I was tired.

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Speaker 1: I think I could have hung myself on a nail

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Speaker 1: by the shirt collar and rested. That option sounded better

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Speaker 1: than what actually happened. Did I mention that I have

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Speaker 1: sleep at me? I probably should have, because that also

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Speaker 1: played a major role in that night's slumber party. I'd

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Speaker 1: prepared fire Night under the Stars by purchasing off the

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Speaker 1: interwebs a big rechargeable power supply that was guaranteed to

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Speaker 1: run a seapap machine for nine hours. I'm not sure

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Speaker 1: what nine hours in China is where that big battery

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Speaker 1: was made, but it converted to about three hours inside

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Speaker 1: the levees of the Mississippi River. Also, because of how

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Speaker 1: cold got that night, the condensation that built up in

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Speaker 1: the air holes had me hollering for a lifeguard half

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Speaker 1: a dozen times before the battery finally died two and

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Speaker 1: a half hours before the alarm went off. Nothing like

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Speaker 1: trying to sleep with a bubbling plastic tube hooked up

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Speaker 1: to your face and finally drifting off to sleep, only

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Speaker 1: to inhale a nose full of water. I might as

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Speaker 1: well have been sleeping in the live well on that boat,

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Speaker 1: but instead I was flying out of my tent, sliding

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Speaker 1: off that air mattress like a Laddin was singing a

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Speaker 1: whole new world to me as I fought gravity to

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Speaker 1: stay inside. Could this night get any worse Yep, it could,

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Speaker 1: and it did. The inside of the tent at the

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Speaker 1: footbed where I'd been trying to sleep had frosted over

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Speaker 1: on the inside and was beginning to melt and drip

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Speaker 1: on my face as I lay there trying to remember

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Speaker 1: I was having fun while placing over like a groundhog

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Speaker 1: sawmill in his tent next door. I crawled outside to

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Speaker 1: a heavy frost. I brought the air mattress and my

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Speaker 1: sleeping bag, and I laid down on a little less

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Speaker 1: grade and dozed on and off for what seemed like

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Speaker 1: eternity until the alarm went off. Oh yeah, camping is fun.

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Speaker 1: I heard a comedian say one time, if being outside

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Speaker 1: is so good, why are all the bugs always trying

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Speaker 1: to get in your house? Well, he got a point.

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Speaker 1: But if I'd pitched my tent correctly the first time

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Speaker 1: and properly vetted the power supply for my seapap machine

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Speaker 1: prior to that trip, I'm confident it would have been

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Speaker 1: a different experience. I still like to do it. I

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Speaker 1: just have to deal with the seapap issue. I'm working

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Speaker 1: on a solution and praying that goes well. Anyway, as

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Speaker 1: they say, means different things to different people to me.

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Speaker 1: When I hear we're gonna be roughing it, I'm thinking

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Speaker 1: on the ground, miles deep in the wilderness with nothing

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Speaker 1: other than what you could toe it in there with you.

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Speaker 1: To my wife, roughing it is anything below a suite

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Speaker 1: at the Hampton End, now she puts it, I'm not

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Speaker 1: about that little house on the prairie. Life duly noted.

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Speaker 1: We can't talk about camping without talking about some traditional

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Speaker 1: camping meals. There's a lot in summer just better than others.

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Speaker 1: I can't think of anything that ain't better than raw

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Speaker 1: crawfish like tim his pals or eating but outside of

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Speaker 1: freshly fried fish, one of my favorites is the old

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Speaker 1: hobo campfire meal. Now. I heard someone say not too

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Speaker 1: long ago that it wasn't politically correct to use the

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Speaker 1: term hobo anymore. I swear I never know what I

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Speaker 1: can and can't say, But I also don't know whatbody

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Speaker 1: else to call it. If there's any persons out there

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Speaker 1: who favor free loading travel by riding the rails over

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Speaker 1: the security of longtime employment in an address, send me

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Speaker 1: a message and tell me what I'm supposed to call it,

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Speaker 1: Because houseless person food doesn't sound too appetized. Anyway, y'all

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Speaker 1: know what I'm talking about. My son Hunter and I

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Speaker 1: have made it a hundred times over the years when

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Speaker 1: we'd be off somewhere hunting and not necessarily camping, but

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Speaker 1: not wanting to go back into town to eat dinner.

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Speaker 1: That's the new meal at our house. It's good and

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Speaker 1: it's easy. Hamburger, meat of some kind, carrots, taters, onions,

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Speaker 1: some cabbage, if you like, butter, salt, pepper, and aluminifolk.

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Speaker 1: You wrap it all up, chuck it in the coals

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Speaker 1: next to fire. In about thirty minutes, you're in business.

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Speaker 1: The first time I ate it was when I was

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Speaker 1: in the Boy Scouts. It was in the spring of

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Speaker 1: nineteen seventy nine. We were headed to Camden, Arkansas for

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Speaker 1: the Sodo Area Council Jamboree. Scouts from all over Arkansas

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Speaker 1: were assembled and the area where we were camping was

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Speaker 1: in a portion of Washita County that had been used

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Speaker 1: for making bullets to keep Germany in Japan on their

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Speaker 1: side of the planet back in the forties. Acres and

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Speaker 1: acres of concrete bunkers were strategically placed all through the woods.

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Speaker 1: The bunkers were shaped like long iglooes that were underground

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Speaker 1: except for the openings where you entered, and along with

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Speaker 1: a regular door, the eggluo had two large barn doors

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Speaker 1: that would open the line trucks and machinery inside when

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Speaker 1: it was in use. And now they were just all

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Speaker 1: sealed and sitting empty and preparedness for a time when

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Speaker 1: they would be needed again, which would be not long

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Speaker 1: after my troop finished chowing down on a wheelbarrow full

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Speaker 1: of houseless person food. We had to close the ceremonies

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Speaker 1: for the evening, and we're all tucked into our two

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Speaker 1: man tents when thunder rumbled in the disks. We all

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Speaker 1: looked outside. The stars were shining back in a tent,

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Speaker 1: and soon enough, once the boy's buffoonery stopped, we were

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Speaker 1: all asleep. I woke up sometime in the night to

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Speaker 1: someone yelling Troop fifty four up and down them fall in.

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Speaker 1: What in the world's going on? It's still dark outside

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Speaker 1: except for all the lightning flashes? And why was all

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Speaker 1: this water running through our tent. I can't find my light,

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Speaker 1: where's my boots, where's my breeches? Why are all these

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Speaker 1: adults hollering at us to hurry up. I didn't understand

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Speaker 1: everything I knew about what was going on, but I

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Speaker 1: was panicked, and it seemed like it took me forever

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Speaker 1: to unzip that tent. I poked my head outside to

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Speaker 1: see what the calamity was about, and there, in the

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Speaker 1: pouring rain stood mister Jim dem Our, scout Master, lit

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Speaker 1: up in the glow of a coal and laner. He

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Speaker 1: was standing there with his hands on his hips like

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Speaker 1: a hero in a movie. Lightning flashed through the sky behind,

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Speaker 1: and he had on a red Windbreaker scout Master uniform

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Speaker 1: shirt neatly tucked into his shorts, hiking boots and woolsocks

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Speaker 1: rolled down over the top. He was a recruiting poster

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Speaker 1: for the Boy Scouts of America. And I wasn't afraid anymore.

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Speaker 1: I was the troop leader. And he said, Brent, gather

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Speaker 1: the boys, do a headcount and get them in the

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Speaker 1: back of that truck. A tornado is coming and we

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Speaker 1: need to move out. He stood by calmly while I

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Speaker 1: did what he told me, and we all climbed in

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Speaker 1: the back of that truck, me next to last and

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Speaker 1: him after me. The remainder of the night, we spent

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Speaker 1: one of those bunkers, soaking wet, but sheltered from the storm,

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Speaker 1: and man, did we have a story to tell. That

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Speaker 1: was my first real lesson in leadership, making sure the

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Speaker 1: people of which I was responsible were all accounted for

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Speaker 1: before leaving for safety. They were my priority, and I

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Speaker 1: never forgot that lesson. I look back now as an

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Speaker 1: adult and I see how smart mister Dean was to

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Speaker 1: allow me the opportunity to lead, even as a child,

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Speaker 1: while he stood by to take over in an instant

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Speaker 1: should I not be able to follow through with the task.

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Speaker 1: It was a defining moment for a thirteen year old

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Speaker 1: boy in a time I'll never forget. I tried to

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Speaker 1: carry that lesson throughout my career as a leader of men.

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Speaker 1: I'll leave you with this one from the first time

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Speaker 1: I ever slept in a tent. I have no idea

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Speaker 1: where the tent came from or what happened to it afterwards,

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Speaker 1: but Dad had it set up in the woods just

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Speaker 1: down from Grandpa's old home place where my uncle Jimmy

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Speaker 1: Ray was living. I couldn't have been more than five

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Speaker 1: or six, and the tent was made from red canvas.

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Speaker 1: It smelled like pneumonia and moth balls and had so

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Speaker 1: many holes in it that had it been on the

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Speaker 1: deck of a ship, you could have accurately navigated by

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Speaker 1: the stars without ever leaving your sleeping bag. Dad set

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Speaker 1: it up in a little pine thick for us kids

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Speaker 1: to play in, and his darkness approached. I begged him

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Speaker 1: to let a sleep in it, just me and him.

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Speaker 1: I remember the angst on his face as he tried

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Speaker 1: to talk me out of it, by steering the conversation

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Speaker 1: to make it sound like it was my idea. Son.

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Speaker 1: You don't really want to sleep in that tent, do you.

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Speaker 1: We'll have to sleep on the ground. We might get cold, Dad.

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Speaker 1: We can bring some quilts and cover up. It'll be fun.

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Speaker 1: And we can take your flashlight. Ah, the flashlight. My

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Speaker 1: dad had a flashlight that he used when he ran

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Speaker 1: his hounds a night, and to mess with it was

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Speaker 1: a capital of fence. I scared to look at it,

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Speaker 1: much less pick it up from its designated spot on

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Speaker 1: a little table at the end of the couch, just

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Speaker 1: inside the front door. A place for everything, and everything

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Speaker 1: in its place. That was my dad's motto. Death to

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Speaker 1: anyone who didn't respect it was another one, but that

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Speaker 1: light was an orange Craftsman explorer too, and a portion

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Speaker 1: of the housing around the lens glowed fluorescent green when

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Speaker 1: you turned it off, so you could find it in

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Speaker 1: the dark. It was a present we'd given him, and

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Speaker 1: it came from the Seers and Roebuck catalog were just

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Speaker 1: about everything we had came from. Back then. All the

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Speaker 1: dad's cow hunting buddies used him, and it was a

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Speaker 1: mark of professionalism to me. My dad was the best

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Speaker 1: hunter in the world, and if someone in his circle

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Speaker 1: had something that he had, then that must mean they

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Speaker 1: were pretty good too, And if we were camping, that

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Speaker 1: meant I might get to use it. We ate supper

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Speaker 1: in the house and we went to the tent right

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Speaker 1: after dark. I got to shine that flashlight around looking

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Speaker 1: at Peanut, the squirrel dog in the back door of

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Speaker 1: the single white house trailer that two adults and seven

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Speaker 1: kids shared until the house was completed. Thinking back on

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Speaker 1: how chaotic that time was in such a small space,

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Speaker 1: I'm surprised he didn't have all the kids living out

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Speaker 1: in the woods like in Oklahoma. But he built a

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Speaker 1: little fire and we set around it and we washed it,

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Speaker 1: and I'm sure I asked him me questions and I'm

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Speaker 1: positive he had a million answers. He still wasn't committed

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Speaker 1: to stay in all night, even though we had plenty

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Speaker 1: of quilts to sleep on and cover up with. It

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Speaker 1: was cool and the fire felt good, and when it

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Speaker 1: had died down, we laid down in the tent, staring

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Speaker 1: through the holes in the canvas and looking at the stars.

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Speaker 1: Occasionally he'd say something to the fact, now, if you're

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Speaker 1: scared to stay out here, we can go inside and

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Speaker 1: sleep in the bed. Like me, What did I have

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Speaker 1: to he's cared about The bravest man in the world

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Speaker 1: was sleeping in the tent with men. The world's greatest

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Speaker 1: squirrel dog was sleeping just outside. I don't remember going

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Speaker 1: to sleep, but I remember him waking me up early

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Speaker 1: the next morning to go eat breakfast. I thought about

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Speaker 1: it the gi and times as I've gotten older, how

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Speaker 1: well this hair was combed and his face was clean shaven,

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Speaker 1: and how rested he looked. Either he liked camping a

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Speaker 1: whole lot more than he let on, or I spent

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Speaker 1: the night in the backyard with Peanut and that's lived

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Speaker 1: in the house. I never asked him, but I think

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Speaker 1: I know the answer. Thank y'all so much for listening

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Speaker 1: to this country life the Rendering bear Grease here on

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Speaker 1: the Bear Grease Channel. I hope everyone's having a good

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Speaker 1: and safe hunting season. If you have the opportunity, take

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Speaker 1: a young and or an adult who might not have

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Speaker 1: the same opportunities as the rest of us. You'll get

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Speaker 1: more out of it than you will put into it.

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Speaker 1: I promise you remember our friends affected by the hurricanes,

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Speaker 1: and our servicemen and women here at home and abroad.

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Speaker 1: Until next week. This is Brent Reid signing off. Y'all

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Speaker 1: be careful