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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 in 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 to offer. 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. The helpers we get buy in this life,

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Speaker 1: never on our own. All of us, at one time

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Speaker 1: or another, need a little help, sometimes a lot of help,

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Speaker 1: but help just the same. And I'm gonna talk to

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Speaker 1: you today about the ones that give it. But first

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna tell you a story. It may have been

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Speaker 1: January or February, regardless of the particular month, it was cold,

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Speaker 1: raining and nasty outside when I was awoken from a nice,

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Speaker 1: warm slummer to the telephone in the middle of the night. Now,

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Speaker 1: such is the life of a deputy on call in

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Speaker 1: a rural county for an under manned sheriff's department. You

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Speaker 1: were really never off, even when you were off work.

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Speaker 1: But sometime after midnight, you know, when the good calls

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Speaker 1: come in. I answered the phone, trying to be coherent

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Speaker 1: enough to decipher what the dispatcher was telling me from

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Speaker 1: the other end of the line. Brent, are you awake? Yes,

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Speaker 1: I usually when I answer the phone. That was my

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Speaker 1: normal smart elect response to being woke up in the

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Speaker 1: middle of the night, knowing I was fixing half to

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Speaker 1: go somewhere I didn't want to go, which was anywhere

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Speaker 1: that wasn't under the warm covers where I was currently busy.

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Speaker 1: She said, I'm waking another deputy. There's a burglar in

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Speaker 1: progress at the old Simpson Place. Burglary in progress. That

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Speaker 1: got my attention, But I immediately knew that the old

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Speaker 1: Simpson Place was vacant. The Uttererly couple that lived there

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Speaker 1: forever were both deceased, and there wasn't an alarm system

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Speaker 1: there that I knew of. Actually, there weren't alarm systems

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Speaker 1: at all at any of the rural businesses that dotted

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Speaker 1: the county, much less of residence, especially one that no

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Speaker 1: one lived at during that time. Someone called it in. Yes,

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Speaker 1: they drove by there just now and saw a flashlight

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Speaker 1: of someone walking in front of the big picture window

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Speaker 1: that faces the road. I have them on the other

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Speaker 1: line call the Simpson Sun and make sure no one

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Speaker 1: is supposed to be there. Tell them we're on their

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Speaker 1: way and to stay by the phone. I'm getting dressed,

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Speaker 1: And with that, I hung up the phone and jumped

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Speaker 1: in the uniform coveralls that was staged in the living room,

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Speaker 1: along with my gun, belt, radio and boots, just for

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Speaker 1: such as an occasion as this. Now, in less than

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Speaker 1: five minutes, I was pulling up to the Sheriff's office,

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Speaker 1: where I would jump into the car with another deputy,

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Speaker 1: and the two of us would paint the road red

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Speaker 1: to the address of the complaint, knowing full well that

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Speaker 1: no one would be there when we got there. That's

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Speaker 1: the way it always was. They were never there. Our

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Speaker 1: response time was fast, considering what all had to transpire

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Speaker 1: before we actually got to the address of the call,

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Speaker 1: but still never fast enough to catch anyone on the scene.

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Speaker 1: Someone had to see something to report, get to a phone,

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Speaker 1: like a real phone that was connected to a house

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Speaker 1: and call it in. There weren't no cell phones. Describe

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Speaker 1: what was happening to the dispatcher, who then had to

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Speaker 1: figure out where they were talking about. And if Noah

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Speaker 1: had informed the dispatcher who was on a call, they

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Speaker 1: had to call the sheriff see who he wanted to send.

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Speaker 1: Then they had to call and wake up with the

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Speaker 1: deputy and explain everything all over again. It took a while,

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Speaker 1: and by the time all that happened, even if it

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Speaker 1: was legitimate burglary and not a false alarm or someone

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Speaker 1: out hunting or checking on livestock, the bad guy would

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Speaker 1: always be gone. Rolling up on an actual burglary in

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Speaker 1: progress is the super Bowl of patrol calls. What better

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Speaker 1: way to catch a burglar than red handed surprise, JOCKO,

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Speaker 1: better drop me my silverware and reach for the sky

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Speaker 1: if you don't want to leave here with more holes

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Speaker 1: in your person than you showed up with. Now, I

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Speaker 1: imagine saying something like that, And there may have been

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Speaker 1: a few more colorful metaphors thrown into spice it up,

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Speaker 1: but you get the idea. But in all the burglary

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Speaker 1: in progress calls I got dispatched too in the middle

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Speaker 1: of the night, most of them turned out to either

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Speaker 1: be a false alarm or the perpetrators were long gone

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Speaker 1: when we got there. It was the nature of the beast.

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Speaker 1: This one would more than likely be the same, but

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Speaker 1: we had to respond to it like we knew they

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Speaker 1: were there and we were going to catch them. The

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Speaker 1: rain was getting harder, and the temperature was just north

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Speaker 1: of freezing according to the bank thermometer, that we just

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Speaker 1: blew by going faster than we probably should have. In

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Speaker 1: those conditions, there was no need for the sirre in

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Speaker 1: the blue lights. There wasn't anyone else out except for

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Speaker 1: us and the burglar, who if what was reported was true,

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Speaker 1: was another fifteen minutes away at a country home that

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Speaker 1: sat two hundred yards off of gravel road that no

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Speaker 1: one had been to in weeks. The rain had slacked

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Speaker 1: up enough that when we got close to the driveway,

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Speaker 1: the deputy that was driving turned off the headlights and

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Speaker 1: we stuck our heads out the windows and watched the

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Speaker 1: house and both ditches as he turned in, and we

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Speaker 1: creeped up the long drive in the dark, stopping a

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Speaker 1: short distance from the house. The interior was dark as

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Speaker 1: a tomb except for the globe, a single light bulb

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Speaker 1: that I could see through picture window. Towards the back

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Speaker 1: of the house, the rain picked it back up along

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Speaker 1: with the wind. It was cold and miserable outside, but

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Speaker 1: it was masking our approach to the house. We slipped

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Speaker 1: in through a cracked door that led from the car

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Speaker 1: port into a utility room. There were muddy footprints stacked

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Speaker 1: on top of one another on the car port steps

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Speaker 1: and in tior some weren't dry, that led back and

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Speaker 1: forth to the rest of the house. My spidery sin

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Speaker 1: started tingling. Someone may be there now, but someone had

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Speaker 1: been very recently. The floor creaked with every step we

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Speaker 1: made through the kitchen towards the rear of the house,

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Speaker 1: where the light was shining. Guns drawn, I prayed the

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Speaker 1: wind and the rain wouldn't let whoever was in there.

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Speaker 1: If they were in there hear us coming, and I

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Speaker 1: peeked around the corner of the door that led from

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Speaker 1: the kitchen into the living room, and that's when I

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Speaker 1: saw there was no floor. The floor joists were exposed,

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Speaker 1: and all the floor and had been removed. Every room

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Speaker 1: that I could see from where I stood had no floor.

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Speaker 1: The single light bulble was from a lamp with no

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Speaker 1: shade that was laying across two spans of floor joists.

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Speaker 1: We cleared the rest of the house, there was no

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Speaker 1: one in there. Burglary in progress had once again turned

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Speaker 1: into a burglary after the fat call, But where'd the

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Speaker 1: barefooted guy go, the one that made all the tracks

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Speaker 1: that were still fresh on the steps of the utility room.

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Speaker 1: We had passed any vehicles on our way there, they

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Speaker 1: had to be close. No one was walking. I looked

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Speaker 1: behind the house and grown up in the trees and

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Speaker 1: bushes was an old barn, a hallway that went down

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Speaker 1: the center of the structure, as dark as a cave.

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Speaker 1: There are probably law enforcement folks listening to this right now, thinking, well,

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Speaker 1: you need to call some backup before you head out

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Speaker 1: of that barn, and they'd be right, that's exactly what

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Speaker 1: you do. However, there was no backup. Had it not

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Speaker 1: been for the foresight and this of the dispatcher, one

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Speaker 1: of us would have been there alone. It's just the

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Speaker 1: way it used to be and how we were used

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Speaker 1: to working as the same wind that was made famous

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Speaker 1: by Texas Ranger Captain Bill McDonald back in the early

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Speaker 1: nineteen hundreds. One riot, one ranger. But thankfully there were

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Speaker 1: two of us, and we hit the hall of that barn.

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Speaker 1: We turned on our flashlights and cleared all the stalls

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Speaker 1: in both rooms. There was nothing there. The only place

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Speaker 1: left to search was the hayloft back near the entrance

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Speaker 1: was the ladder that went up the hole in the

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Speaker 1: loft floor. It was nearly a carving copy of every

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Speaker 1: old barn laft ladder that I'd ever seen or climbed.

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Speaker 1: The old barn on our farm was almost the exact same,

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Speaker 1: except the ladder was at the opposite end of the hallway.

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Speaker 1: As you approached the barn, there was mud on the rungs,

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Speaker 1: and when I put my hands on it to climb up,

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Speaker 1: some of it squished up between my fingers. I turned

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Speaker 1: off and put away my flashlight, and I sent it

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Speaker 1: up the ladder with one hand while I held my

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Speaker 1: pistol in my right hand. I dug down as I climbed,

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Speaker 1: stand below the opening of the floor, even though I

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Speaker 1: could have easily stood up on the middle rung and

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Speaker 1: sing clearly into the barn loft. Placing both heels of

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Speaker 1: my boots on the same rung, I stood up with

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Speaker 1: my pistol in one hand and the light and the

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Speaker 1: other head and shoulders above the opening. In one fluid movement,

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Speaker 1: I leaned forward with my chest against the floor of

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Speaker 1: the loft, pointed my pistol, and turned on the flashlight

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Speaker 1: at the same time. Less than a foot from my

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Speaker 1: face was the business end of a shotgun that was

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Speaker 1: pointed directly between my eyes. The rest all happened in

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Speaker 1: slow motion. I could no longer hear the rain, I

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Speaker 1: didn't feel the cold. The whole world was like my lasses.

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Speaker 1: But I was thinking and reacting two moves ahead of

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Speaker 1: everything else that was going on around me. Instantly, I

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Speaker 1: shifted to one side, laid my flashlight on the floor,

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Speaker 1: still shining in the same direction, placed my finger on

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Speaker 1: the trigger of my duty weapon, aimed at the man's head,

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Speaker 1: and I pulled that shot gun down and handed it

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Speaker 1: to the deputy below me. Now, in the time it

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Speaker 1: took me to tell you that I could have done

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Speaker 1: what I did ten times, that's how fast it happened.

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Speaker 1: That's not something you practice. That's a blessing you received

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Speaker 1: when it ain't your time to go. I could plainly

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Speaker 1: see the top of the man's head, his shoulders, and

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Speaker 1: his arms laying alongside where the shotgun had been. It

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Speaker 1: had fallen asleep, sound asleep. Had he been waiting to

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Speaker 1: ambush us and just went to sleep. I don't know.

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Speaker 1: I never will know. The man was off his meds

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Speaker 1: and had been in and out of mental facilities the

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Speaker 1: majority this adult life. This would get him sent back

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Speaker 1: to one eventually, after he'd been a judicated for burglarizing

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Speaker 1: the old Simpson place and removing all the floor, he

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Speaker 1: taken it and stacked it up on the other side

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Speaker 1: of the barn. Now, one curious thing that made me

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Speaker 1: scratch my head and thankful that I still had one

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Speaker 1: after staring down the barrel of that shotgun was the

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Speaker 1: coon hide that he had wrapped around the stock tail

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Speaker 1: and all. He said in his statement that he shot

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Speaker 1: that coon when he was tearing up the floor, and

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Speaker 1: apparently the coon had taken up residents under the house

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Speaker 1: before he got there. Anyway, he shot the coon, cooked

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Speaker 1: and ate him, and adored his hide on his shotgun

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Speaker 1: as a trophy, which would have made getting clobbered with

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Speaker 1: that shotgun just a little bit worse for me anyway,

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Speaker 1: if there could have been such a thing. But what

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Speaker 1: wound up happening was he got help. He didn't know

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Speaker 1: he needed any, but he did. I counted as a

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Speaker 1: blessing to have been the one he nearly scared to

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Speaker 1: death with that shotgun. I'm proud of the way it

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Speaker 1: turned out. I'm thankful that the good Lord, let me

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Speaker 1: see the situation clearly enough that I didn't react in

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Speaker 1: a way that I would have been justified in doing so.

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Speaker 1: It made me value my life and my opportunities to

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Speaker 1: help others that much more. That guy needed help. I

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Speaker 1: needed to see that he got it, and he did.

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Speaker 1: And that's just how that happened. Being a helper. That

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Speaker 1: term I learned from mister Rogers. Yes, that mister Rogers,

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Speaker 1: the one who sang about being a good neighbor and

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Speaker 1: showed generations how easy it was to be one. But

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Speaker 1: his quote about being a helper was explaining to the

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Speaker 1: little folks and adults like me who were watching with

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Speaker 1: them that any time he saw something scary on the

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Speaker 1: news as a child, that his mother told him to

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Speaker 1: look for the helpers, but there was always someone going

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Speaker 1: to help those in trouble. He said. It was reassuring

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Speaker 1: and it made him feel better knowing that there was

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Speaker 1: always someone who was willing to help, And just like always,

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Speaker 1: mister Rogers was right. I spent my whole career trying

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Speaker 1: to help folks, and so did a lot of other

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Speaker 1: people right along with me. But that's not the people

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Speaker 1: I'm talking about now. I'm talking about the helpers who,

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Speaker 1: regardless of the situation someone is in, step up and

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Speaker 1: be a helper. I saw it firsthand. Over the course

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Speaker 1: of the last few weeks, two events were well publicized

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Speaker 1: as tragedies. A local Arkansas duck hunter was severely injured

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Speaker 1: in a boating accident there where I and a group

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Speaker 1: of my friends and colleagues had been filming for a

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Speaker 1: future First Life production. Then a horrific plane crash in Washington,

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Speaker 1: d C. That counted among its many victims a group

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Speaker 1: of hunters that had hunted with friends of mine Kansas Place.

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Speaker 1: A lot of us at meat eater At hunted this year.

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Speaker 1: Whole nation in an outdoor community rallied around each other

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Speaker 1: in prayer and raising money to support not only our

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Speaker 1: fellow sportion but their families as well. Through both of

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Speaker 1: those events, we are giving people, and when called upon

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Speaker 1: in times of darkness, the helpers bring light to the

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Speaker 1: shadows of sadness and despair. We have no ability to

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Speaker 1: erase the pain or bring back those that have been lost,

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Speaker 1: but we each have a way of helping through given

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Speaker 1: whether it's prayer, labor, or donations, it shows we care

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Speaker 1: and we'll share as much of the burden as we

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Speaker 1: can to allow those who can to recover or those

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Speaker 1: who can't to grieve. And then there's the other helpers,

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Speaker 1: the ones who step forward unprovoked by dire circumstances, the

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Speaker 1: helpers who, through the goodness of doing what's right, is

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Speaker 1: their only motivation. I met him almost five years ago.

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Speaker 1: He was a local fireman who had to supplement his

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Speaker 1: income by working his days off mowing yards. That told

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Speaker 1: me something about him right from the start. He served

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Speaker 1: his community in a noble and dangerous career, and his

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Speaker 1: compensation required augmentation for him to live comfortably, and yet

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Speaker 1: he still served. I would later find out he served

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Speaker 1: his nation too, although he never talks about it. I

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Speaker 1: invited him to give me an estimate on mowing, and

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Speaker 1: after meeting me, we talked about coon hunting. After he

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Speaker 1: saw whaling. I had been in the podcast Renner for

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Speaker 1: a while, and after watching my tree and walker run around,

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Speaker 1: he blurted it out, is that whaling? I smiled and

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Speaker 1: said yes. He said, I've seen that dog on Facebook.

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Speaker 1: Who are you? Just when I thought I'd gotten famous,

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Speaker 1: the fireman and old whaler put my feet squarely back

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Speaker 1: on terra FIRMA first time he mowed our yard. I

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Speaker 1: hid behind the fence and sprayed water on him like

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Speaker 1: he was raining when he was making laps in the

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Speaker 1: front yard jungle. The look on his face when he

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Speaker 1: stood up and saw me laughing over the fence with

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Speaker 1: that water hose my hand is one I'll never forget.

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Speaker 1: And over the last five years we've hunted a lot together,

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Speaker 1: Hunter Gullick and me. He moved on from the fire

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Speaker 1: department and now serves our community as alignment whose main

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Speaker 1: task is keeping the lights on his mind, and everyone

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Speaker 1: else is home around us. So far, so good. Now

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Speaker 1: I'm switching gears here, so hang with me. You're gonna

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Speaker 1: be glad you did. But over the past few months,

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Speaker 1: my wife has been getting Bailey's haircut by a lady

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Speaker 1: in town who cuts a lot of our friends and kids' hair.

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Speaker 1: She and her husband both worked hard to support with

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Speaker 1: their family, a family made up of eight children, two

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Speaker 1: of which mom and dad share their DNA, six of

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Speaker 1: them just share mom and Dad's love. Mom and Dad

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Speaker 1: are helpers, the best kind of helpers, and of all

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Speaker 1: the members of this octetive kids, one has shown a

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Speaker 1: keen interest in coon hunting six year old Atticus, Alexis

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Speaker 1: and Bailey would return from visits to the salon where Atticus'

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Speaker 1: mom works with tales of how he loves everything about

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Speaker 1: coon hunting and coon dogs. Atticus and his dad listened

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Speaker 1: to your podcast and watch your videos. Alexis told me,

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Speaker 1: that's cool. Please tell them. I said, thank you, and

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Speaker 1: these reports from Attiges mom were a regular highlight whenever

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Speaker 1: Alexis was there. They have a Pomeranian that Atticus calls

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Speaker 1: his coon dog, so the next time she went, I

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Speaker 1: sent him a sign to case hat and a wooden

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Speaker 1: knife kit that Atticus and his dad could put together.

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Speaker 1: Shortly afterwards, I saw a video of him on social

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Speaker 1: media wearing that hat, holding that wooden knife kit, and

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Speaker 1: watching Steven Ellen and Claybow skinning a coon on TV.

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Speaker 1: Because Mama told Alexis how, Atticus was at school working

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Speaker 1: with his teacher on writing his letters when out of

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Speaker 1: the blue, he asked her if she had a dog,

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Speaker 1: and when his teacher said yes, she did, Atticus replied,

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Speaker 1: I can teach that dog how to trea a coon now,

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Speaker 1: Much to his teacher's delight, she said that's good to know.

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Speaker 1: But first he had to continue working on his jas.

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Speaker 1: Atticus could have been me, and at one time I

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Speaker 1: was Atticus. The only difference is I've never asked of

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Speaker 1: Pomeranian to tree a coon for me, although I've hunted

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Speaker 1: with some dogs that couldn't have been any worse than one.

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Speaker 1: But what does all this have to do with being

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Speaker 1: a helper? Once again, I'm glad you asked Hunter? Remember

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Speaker 1: him well? He and I were grabbing some supper last

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Speaker 1: week before going coon hunting. Alexis and Bailey met us

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Speaker 1: at our favorite burger joint, and we laughed and talked

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Speaker 1: about everything under the sun, including the young dog of

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Speaker 1: hunters that he and I would be taken that night

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Speaker 1: with whaling. But out of know where, Hunter made the

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Speaker 1: statement that he had won too many coon houns and

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Speaker 1: needed to find a home for John. John's a tree

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Speaker 1: and walker and a litter made to a good friend

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Speaker 1: of Mine's dog that is second to none. Life Honey

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Speaker 1: with John on many occasions, and he'll run and tree

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Speaker 1: a coon. Nothing fancy, never going to be a world champion.

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Speaker 1: But if you had to survive on coons to eat,

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Speaker 1: John wouldn't let you starve. Hunter said, I'd really like

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Speaker 1: to see him go to a kid. He'd be perfect

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Speaker 1: for a kid. He's gentle, he minds what, and he

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Speaker 1: would fit a kid that wanted to get started into

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Speaker 1: hunting or needed a dog, you know, anybody that might

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Speaker 1: want it. No, I don't guess. And with that I

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Speaker 1: focused back on my cheeseburger and whatever the conversation was

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Speaker 1: that Hunter had continued after announcing he wanted to rehome John.

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Speaker 1: Finally I processed it all and I said, wait a minute, Alexis,

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Speaker 1: text Atticus's mama and see if they'd let him have John. Now.

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Speaker 1: Two days after we had supper, Hunter, Atticus, and John

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Speaker 1: all became friends. Posted a picture on my social media

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Speaker 1: about getting Atticus a tracking collar and a handheld, and

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Speaker 1: the outpouring of folks who wanted to help was immediate

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Speaker 1: and a little overwhelming. Both of those items are quite expensive,

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Speaker 1: especially to a family who's income is already prioritized. Pictures

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Speaker 1: I've seen of Atticus and John since testament of helpers

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Speaker 1: being helpers, People who saw an opportunity and to full

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Speaker 1: advantage to help sponsor something wholesome and good. What could

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Speaker 1: be better than a little boy named Atticus's Coonham, John,

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Speaker 1: thank you so much for listening all of us here

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Speaker 1: at the Beargrease Channel. Be a helper with good intent.

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Speaker 1: Little can go a long way to be seeing more

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Speaker 1: of Atticus and John right here. But until next week,

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Speaker 1: this is Brent Reeves signing off. Y'all, be careful, don't forget.

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Speaker 1: March the first is the Black Bear Bonanza at the

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Speaker 1: Benton County Fairgrounds, Arkansas. BHA has all the info you

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Speaker 1: can just google Black Bear Bonanza twenty twenty five. Come

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Speaker 1: see us