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 experiences and life lessons. This country Life is presented
Speaker 1: by Case Knives on Meat Eaters Podcast Network, bringing you
Speaker 1: the best outdoor podcast.
Speaker 2: The airwaves haved off.
Speaker 1: All right, friends, grab a chair or drop that tailgate.
Speaker 1: I've got some stories to share. Keeping your cool above
Speaker 1: and below the water. Good night, nurse, We've got some
Speaker 1: stuff to talk about this week. I thought my adrenaline
Speaker 1: field living on the edge of safety adventures were over
Speaker 1: when I hung up my badge and spurs from chasing
Speaker 1: criminals around. But alas they were not. I'm going to
Speaker 1: tell you all all about it. There's no leading story.
Speaker 1: This is the long one, kids, So grab a cup
Speaker 1: of Joe and get ready for this one. I still
Speaker 1: remember the opening sentences of the liability waiver that my
Speaker 1: brother Tim and I had our family attorney draw up
Speaker 1: for our guide business. Welcome to Southern Waterfowler's Guide Service.
Speaker 1: Waterfowl hunting is an inherently dangerous activity, and from there
Speaker 1: it went on to describe that associating your person with firearms, dogs,
Speaker 1: water boats, ATVs, inclement weather, and others either known or
Speaker 1: unknown to you. Was a risk you took voluntarily and
Speaker 1: assumed all the responsibility should any calamity befall you whilst
Speaker 1: participating in any activities during your stay. It took a
Speaker 1: whole page of legal life alad you couldn't really understand
Speaker 1: without deciphering it with a Rosetta stone to say, you're
Speaker 1: on your own, pal, don't do anything stupid now. The
Speaker 1: reason we had to hire a lawyer to create that
Speaker 1: document for clients to sign was because of lawyers in
Speaker 1: the first place. It's like the circle of life. They
Speaker 1: created and profited from this whole assumed liability thing, to
Speaker 1: the point where you can't swing a dead cat around
Speaker 1: your head without hitting someone looking to sue you for something,
Speaker 1: including hitting them with a dead cat. It's in our
Speaker 1: DNA to take risk. Folks have been taking risks since
Speaker 1: like forever. For instance, had the Spaniards not risk the
Speaker 1: Royal farm on Columbus's exploration of the West, we'd all
Speaker 1: be working on the second Thursday of each October instead
Speaker 1: of sitting in a tree bow hunting like Queen Isabella intended.
Speaker 1: For all of us to do. I'm no stranger to
Speaker 1: takeing risks. Anyone who's listened to this weekly struggle be
Speaker 1: well versed by now on my continued attempts to unintentionally
Speaker 1: martyr myself doing the things that I love most, which
Speaker 1: is spending time outside. I've never been what I would
Speaker 1: call reckless, but there have been occasions when I have
Speaker 1: used poor judgment. I was ten or eleven when I
Speaker 1: unintentionally discovered that it was possible to pop a wheelie
Speaker 1: on a tractor. I was bush hogging a field behind
Speaker 1: the house. For those that aren't familiar with that term,
Speaker 1: bush hogging allowed me to hold forth a simple explanation.
Speaker 1: Bush hog is a brand name for a roadary couter
Speaker 1: that's pulled behind a tractor to cut high grass, weeds
Speaker 1: and tree sap with bushes, all kinds such as that.
Speaker 1: And it was powered by the tractor's PTO, by a
Speaker 1: drive chef that you connected to the gearbox that ran
Speaker 1: the blades. The faster you set the throttle, the faster
Speaker 1: the blades turn. It was a big, overgrown lawnmower, and
Speaker 1: it was inherently dangerous activity to begin with, and trusting
Speaker 1: it to a child even more so, or one would think,
Speaker 1: but it was not really. I was well versed on
Speaker 1: how to run both pieces of machinery before ever being
Speaker 1: turned loose on. I lived on a farm, and it
Speaker 1: was part of my very existence, along with the regular
Speaker 1: chores of mowing the yard and other activity that kids
Speaker 1: of the time found themselves bound too, and what I
Speaker 1: liked to refer to as my error of indentured servitude.
Speaker 2: No work, no victuals.
Speaker 1: It was a simple arrangement that required no knowledge of
Speaker 1: Latin to understand. I didn't really mind it unless it
Speaker 1: was taking the time I'd allotted for hunting and fishing
Speaker 1: or running around with my friends. Otherwise, I actually enjoyed it,
Speaker 1: especially when I found out I could do tricks on it.
Speaker 1: It was a massive Ferston two forty five diesel tractor
Speaker 1: manuft action from nineteen seventy six to nineteen eighty three,
Speaker 1: and you could buy one in its final year of
Speaker 1: production for seventeen thy one hundred and fifty dollars.
Speaker 2: We'd had that one.
Speaker 1: For a few years by then, but it was in
Speaker 1: great shape and well taken care of.
Speaker 2: I just sat down in the seat and started it.
Speaker 1: Up, set the throttle to the RPMs I'd been instructed
Speaker 1: to do, and placed the tractor in the appropriate gear
Speaker 1: and range I was allowed to use for traveling from
Speaker 1: the barn to wherever I'd be running the tractor on
Speaker 1: the farm. I had a different set of instructions for
Speaker 1: actually engaging the bush hoog and mowing. It was higher
Speaker 1: RPMs but lower gears. I left the barn across the
Speaker 1: pond level and slowed down to a crawl to cross
Speaker 1: the spillway on the west side of the pond. Reaching
Speaker 1: the other side, I increased the throttle above where I
Speaker 1: was supposed to, but I was in a hurry to
Speaker 1: get to bowing, and with the bush hog raised a
Speaker 1: few feet above the ground behind the tractor, it looked
Speaker 1: like a diesel pired red Wah with its stinger poking out.
Speaker 1: While releasing the clutch, my left foot slipped off the
Speaker 1: pedal and I popped the wheelie on that tractor and
Speaker 1: rode it for about ten yards before I slammed it
Speaker 1: back down. The wheel on the back of the bush
Speaker 1: all acting like a wheelie bar and keeping the front
Speaker 1: wheels from getting more than a couple of feet above Arkansas.
Speaker 1: It scared the living soup out of me and was
Speaker 1: exhilaratingly fun all at the same time. I needed to
Speaker 1: do that again, and I did on multiple occasions when
Speaker 1: the coast was clear of parents and snitches. Popping the
Speaker 1: wheelie was my gateway maneuver that led me to power
Speaker 1: breaking individual back wheels, allowing me to whip into a
Speaker 1: power slide in the mud and change directions on the
Speaker 1: dime on that tractor, never thinking how easy it would
Speaker 1: have been to flip the tractor over on top of me,
Speaker 1: which was a real and probable occurrence that thankfully never
Speaker 1: manifested itself in my routine of tractor tricks, witnessed only
Speaker 1: by me and our cow dog Luke. Now that was
Speaker 1: the extent of my tractor tricks, and thinking back on
Speaker 1: it now, I realized how blessed I am to still
Speaker 1: be here today. I'm also reminded of the time my
Speaker 1: friend Wayne Parnell rode his motorcycle all the way from
Speaker 1: where he lived in the country on the other side
Speaker 1: of town out to our farm. We were about fourteen
Speaker 1: years old. He'd been exactly two months to the day
Speaker 1: older than me, and it was the summertime, and I
Speaker 1: was the only one at home. When Wayne came rolling
Speaker 1: up on his new wheels man that slick, He said,
Speaker 1: you want to ride it?
Speaker 2: Heck, yeah, I do.
Speaker 1: This would be the first time I had ever rode
Speaker 1: a motorcycle in my life.
Speaker 2: You know how to ride one, don't you? Yep? Sure do?
Speaker 2: What's the gears? One down?
Speaker 1: And three of them said got it and I'm gone.
Speaker 1: And with that I eased out the clutch while rotating
Speaker 1: the throttling way. I went down the driveway, out on
Speaker 1: the County Road and around the curve that only a
Speaker 1: few short years ago I had mud drifted the family
Speaker 1: farm truck ending that escapade from Walker Creek.
Speaker 2: Chasing the school bus. You when they remember.
Speaker 1: Once I was out of Wayne's line of sight, I
Speaker 1: down shifted into first gear, showered down on the throttle,
Speaker 1: and released the clutch with the intention of popping a
Speaker 1: wheelie and riding it for a piece down the road.
Speaker 2: That was my intention. It was my maiden voyage on
Speaker 2: a motorcycle. I needed it to be marrorable. Now what
Speaker 2: happened was before Cat cauldlicks behind.
Speaker 1: I was laying on my back holding a Honda motorcycle
Speaker 1: in the air like I had been placed there in
Speaker 1: the middle of that gravel road like a paperweight to
Speaker 1: keep the rocks from blowing away in the wind.
Speaker 2: As gently as I could.
Speaker 1: I uprided Wayne's motorcycle, inspected it for any signs of abuse,
Speaker 1: and there was none. I wrote it back to where
Speaker 1: he sat waiting for me on the front porch. I
Speaker 1: have known him for fifty years. I have guarded that
Speaker 1: secret for the last forty four. I feel better now
Speaker 1: that I've confessed sorry, Wayne. Outside of playing cops and
Speaker 1: robbers with real police cars and chasing real bad guys,
Speaker 1: some of which were pretty dynamic, I've kept the danger
Speaker 1: needle pretty much on zero when it pertains to purposely
Speaker 1: putting myself at risk just for the sake of thrill
Speaker 1: and adventure. Let's not to say it didn't happen, because
Speaker 1: it did, just not on purpose. Some of the occasions
Speaker 1: I've alluded to on this very program. Another that happened
Speaker 1: a few days ago. I'm about to I and a
Speaker 1: few of my fellow compatriots, gathered in Arkansas are at
Speaker 1: the head of a recent Arctic coal front that was
Speaker 1: running to be bringing in frigid temperature, snow and clouds
Speaker 1: of ducks two thirds of which would turn out to
Speaker 1: be true. But as I sometimes say, that's a story
Speaker 1: at the end of the day. Anyway, after months and months
Speaker 1: of planning with my colleagues at first light and meet
Speaker 1: Eater on a duck hunting film we've been working on,
Speaker 1: the time came for the rubber to meet.
Speaker 2: The road, or better yet, with the waiters to meet
Speaker 2: the water.
Speaker 1: I'd gain permission to hunt a few places that are
Speaker 1: a little off the beaten path that some friends have
Speaker 1: access to, and it was one of those places our
Speaker 1: adventure would begin well before daylight and well below freezing.
Speaker 1: We rolled up to the meeting place an hour and
Speaker 1: a half before daylight and met another one of my
Speaker 1: friends who would lead us, and by us, I mean
Speaker 1: all seven of us, a number that included two video
Speaker 1: camera men, a photographer, a producer, a black lab named Moss,
Speaker 1: and two others along with yours, truly toting shotguns, camera gear,
Speaker 1: a dog stand, backpack, shotguns, and three sons of the South,
Speaker 1: would occupy a fifteen year old syber side that has
Speaker 1: been a fixture at the Cash by You Hunt Club.
Speaker 1: The number of ducks and coons and hounds and people
Speaker 1: it has carted back and forth along the white and
Speaker 1: cash rivers would be far too many for me to
Speaker 1: even hazard a guests, but you get the idea. It's
Speaker 1: been well used and like our old tractor, it's always
Speaker 1: been well taken care of. It wasn't treated as a
Speaker 1: circus prop like I did that tractor on occasion, or
Speaker 1: a borred motorcycle from a childhood friend. It was a
Speaker 1: conveyance to and from the hunting and fishing locations, a
Speaker 1: tool in the Geordia to be used, cleaned and put away.
Speaker 1: That's how piece of machinery lasts for fifteen years and
Speaker 1: in an environment of wearing hardship. And it is with
Speaker 1: this contraption that we would all narrowly avoid trap tragedy.
Speaker 1: On the onset of this production, we gathered in a
Speaker 1: huddle delegating who would ride where, before taking a two
Speaker 1: sides beside convoy down the levee and a cross wooden
Speaker 1: bridge into what I like to call the mother Church,
Speaker 1: a duck hunting knee deep.
Speaker 2: Flooded green timber.
Speaker 1: It is the one true place to enjoy deconn mallard
Speaker 1: ducks and see in the beauty of how they seemingly
Speaker 1: sometimes just crash down in through the holes in the canopy,
Speaker 1: their wings stir in the air like a big ceiling fan,
Speaker 1: and ended in a splash of water that sometimes reaches
Speaker 1: where you stand. The image I just struggled vainly to describe.
Speaker 2: Is what we were going to attempt to.
Speaker 1: Capture on film, and even then fails to show all
Speaker 1: the wonderment of decin ducks. You feel it as much
Speaker 1: as you see it, you smell it as much as
Speaker 1: you hear it. To fully appreciate it, you have to
Speaker 1: be there with friends in which to share it, And
Speaker 1: with friends I was both colleagues and hunting buddies. We
Speaker 1: followed our counterparts down the levee, they and the lead
Speaker 1: side by side, and us bringing up the rear. The
Speaker 1: bridge that crossed the ditch leading into the footed timber
Speaker 1: was fashioned with new six or six treated timbers and
Speaker 1: tuber forms. It was solidly constructed, and the lead vehicle
Speaker 1: and our element crossed without a hitch, and we followed
Speaker 1: suit Brad Clark, the pride of her Nando Mississippi. Our
Speaker 1: driver lined up perfectly and eased our way across the
Speaker 1: bridge that allowed for a little less than a foot
Speaker 1: of clearance. On each side of the six foot wooden
Speaker 1: expanse that separated dry clothes from wet ones. The next
Speaker 1: instant was quick and in slow motion, all at once.
Speaker 1: Now no one can say for sure what happened, but
Speaker 1: after the rear tires touched the bridge and we were
Speaker 1: one hundred percent committed to the crossing, the rear end
Speaker 1: slowly slid left. I sat in the cab, staring straight
Speaker 1: at the head of the flooded woods in front of us,
Speaker 1: as did Brad and Trevor Nevin, my young friend, who
Speaker 1: in his senior year of high school joined us on
Speaker 1: this film to play a pivotal role in the message
Speaker 1: that we were trying to capture. We all felt the
Speaker 1: sudden shift as the left rear tire crept toward the
Speaker 1: left edge, either due to the ice that had formed
Speaker 1: on the bridge or possibly a board that had become loose,
Speaker 1: we don't know. We still don't know, but the cause
Speaker 1: was immateial. What did matter was that we were all
Speaker 1: doing the math in our heads, and the rate of
Speaker 1: leftward motion was going to surpass the rate of forward
Speaker 1: momentum that we needed to reach the other side. Now,
Speaker 1: Brad did the only thing he could have done, and
Speaker 1: that was to send the foot feed to the floor
Speaker 1: and hope the front tires could pull us back from
Speaker 1: the brink of extinction.
Speaker 2: It was not to be.
Speaker 1: Now before the armchair quarterback start writing in and telling
Speaker 1: me how this and that should have been done differently.
Speaker 2: Save it there.
Speaker 1: And no one, and I mean no one knows how
Speaker 1: they'll react to anything.
Speaker 2: Until they're in that situation.
Speaker 1: Giving it all again, same situation, same surroundings. I would
Speaker 1: expect him to do the same thing, but next time
Speaker 1: I wouldn't ride.
Speaker 2: I'd let him cross byself. Just kidding, not really.
Speaker 1: Now back to the bridge, I reached and grabbed the
Speaker 1: right front handle of the roller bar, whose cloaqual name
Speaker 1: has never been more fitting or descriptive than it was
Speaker 1: at that particular moment. My left arm was on the
Speaker 1: back seat and around Trevor's shoulders, and as we reached
Speaker 1: the point of no return, I grabbed as much.
Speaker 2: Of his coat that I could squeeze into my left hand,
Speaker 2: and I pulled him as close to me as I
Speaker 2: could manage.
Speaker 1: The side of the side, dipped toward the left rear,
Speaker 1: and in one fluid motion, whipped the front toward and
Speaker 1: into the ditch. Freezing cold water rushed into the cabin,
Speaker 1: passed my waist, and I pulled with all my might
Speaker 1: on Trevor's coat to keep him off of Brad, who
Speaker 1: I assumed was now completely underwater and pinned there by
Speaker 1: me and Trevor. My right leg was contorted and hung
Speaker 1: behind me, preventing me from sliding out of the side
Speaker 1: be side because I couldn't get out, I couldn't get
Speaker 1: Trevor out, and for all I knew Brad was still underwater.
Speaker 1: The time stood absolutely still. I didn't feel the cold water,
Speaker 1: I didn't hear anything. I could see that Trevor was
Speaker 1: fine and of the three of us was in the
Speaker 1: best position to come out unscathed, which he did. He
Speaker 1: was sandwiched between me and Brad. Trevor didn't even get wet.
Speaker 1: We were all wearing our waiters and Trevor had his
Speaker 1: coat buttoned up to his neck. Inside his clothes, we
Speaker 1: found out it was dry as a bomb. Brad was
Speaker 1: my focus. I struggled as hard as I could to
Speaker 1: free my right leg from whatever was holding behind me,
Speaker 1: doing a reverse set up to keep my head above
Speaker 1: the water, the whole time calling Brad's name. He didn't answer,
Speaker 1: and for all I knew, he was still underwater. This
Speaker 1: had gone from good to bad in the blink of
Speaker 1: an eye, and I knew it could turn tragic just
Speaker 1: as fast if I didn't get Brad above the water.
Speaker 1: My colleague and friend, Max Bart jumped in the water
Speaker 1: and was helping hold me above the surface while Trevor
Speaker 1: climbed out. Someone freed my leg and I was hauling
Speaker 1: Brad the whole time trying to find out where he was.
Speaker 1: And I crawled out and as fast as I could,
Speaker 1: I turned around only to see Brad standing up looking
Speaker 1: at me. He did go under water, but he popped
Speaker 1: up pretty quick, and he didn't answer me when I
Speaker 1: was calling his name, because he thought I was trying
Speaker 1: to get him to free my leg that after he
Speaker 1: looked at it, thought was broken because of how it
Speaker 1: was positioned. He's the one who freed my legs so
Speaker 1: I could save him. Turned out he didn't need saving,
Speaker 1: As is off in the case, communication was the problem.
Speaker 2: For the answer, we got a tractor in a back home.
Speaker 1: We pulled the side by side out of the water
Speaker 1: and loaded it back on the trailer. Daylight hadn't reached
Speaker 1: the horizon and we were headed back to the camp.
Speaker 2: That was enough adventure for the first day.
Speaker 1: We finished up with three more days of shooting and
Speaker 1: God on film what I think will be something really special.
Speaker 1: I hope it is. You can judge it for yourself
Speaker 1: when it comes out later this year. I know it
Speaker 1: will always be special to me because of the shared
Speaker 1: experience of the hunt in the camp life. We shared
Speaker 1: that experience with old friends and new ones. We can
Speaker 1: each tell our own version of that story to others
Speaker 1: who weren't there, but they'll never know exactly how it was.
Speaker 1: Drendling filled moments with acquaintances and friends make them family
Speaker 1: and brothers, but above all will always have the defining
Speaker 1: moment that, when faced with adversity, we put each other
Speaker 1: before ourselves. I've had a few of those moments over
Speaker 1: my law enforcement career, mostly with the same few people,
Speaker 1: and up until a week ago, the folks that fit
Speaker 1: that criteria of acting beyond self or just about fill
Speaker 1: up a church pew and that's all. But now there's
Speaker 1: even less space on that pew. There's risking anything getting
Speaker 1: out of bed, crossing the street.
Speaker 2: The best thing we can do is to be ever
Speaker 2: vigilant and always have a plan.
Speaker 1: I didn't have a plan in place for riding by
Speaker 1: side off a bridge, but remaining calm, assessing the immediate
Speaker 1: threats to our health and safety, and acting accordingly was
Speaker 1: what everyone did when that.
Speaker 2: Situation presented itself.
Speaker 1: Now that ain't always been the case, even with so
Speaker 1: called veteran trained professionals. I've seen it firsthand. But one
Speaker 1: of the shining examples of that day, who did you that?
Speaker 1: Was an eighteen year old high school senior from cab At, Arkansas.
Speaker 1: The world will benefit from him and others like him.
Speaker 1: I know they're out there, and I'm proud to call
Speaker 1: this one my friend. Thank y'all so much for listening.
Speaker 1: I can't wait for you to see this project when
Speaker 1: it gets released later on. Thanks for tuning into the
Speaker 1: Bear Grease channel and listening to me and Clay. If
Speaker 1: you're so inclined and have a minute, please share our
Speaker 1: podcast with others.
Speaker 2: That you think might enjoy it and leave a review.
Speaker 1: If you have a chance. It really helps to spread
Speaker 1: the word about what we're doing here.
Speaker 2: Until next week, this is Brent Reeves signing off. Y'all,
Speaker 2: be careful