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 the airways have to offer. All right, friends,
Speaker 1: grab a chair or drop that tailgate. I've got some
Speaker 1: stories to share toddlers, tunas and tailgates. I've been traveling
Speaker 1: a lot lately, and even the best job in the
Speaker 1: world can be tiresome and make you miss home. Does
Speaker 1: me good, though, to get to meet like minded folks
Speaker 1: from all over that share our passion for the wild places.
Speaker 1: I'm going to tell you about some of my latest
Speaker 1: travel and adventures. But first, I'm going to tell you
Speaker 1: a story. This week's story comes from the thumb of
Speaker 1: the mitten shaped state of Michigan and This Country Life
Speaker 1: listener Cody Klein. Cody lives in the village of Dryden,
Speaker 1: population one thousand and twenty three. Cody's got a deer
Speaker 1: story for us, So, in Cody's words in my voice,
Speaker 1: here we go. Last year's deer season was one to
Speaker 1: remember for me. I was able to get a dough
Speaker 1: fairly early in the archery season here, and I figured
Speaker 1: that now that I had some meat in the freezer,
Speaker 1: i'd be more patient and wait for peak rut time
Speaker 1: to hopefully have a chance at a good book. Peak
Speaker 1: rut time here where I'm at fell right about the
Speaker 1: second week of November last year, and that's a little
Speaker 1: bit later than normal, and I had planned on taking
Speaker 1: some time off during the first week of November to
Speaker 1: try to make it happen, but it never did. However,
Speaker 1: I did take off a day at work so that
Speaker 1: my wife could chaperon a school event for our oldest
Speaker 1: daughter while I stayed home with our three year old son, Zeke,
Speaker 1: and our newborn baby girl. It just happened to be
Speaker 1: the opening day of rifle season. I had taken Zeke
Speaker 1: out goose hunting earlier in the year, and it was
Speaker 1: his first hunting trip and we had a blast just
Speaker 1: sitting there and watching the birds. He loved it, and
Speaker 1: as much fun as goose hunting was, he really wanted
Speaker 1: to go deer hunting with me. Unfortunately, I didn't think
Speaker 1: any of the stands I had were safe enough for
Speaker 1: the both of us. Anyway, on opening day, I woke up,
Speaker 1: saw my wife and oldest daughter off the school, and
Speaker 1: buckled in for a day of doing my best to
Speaker 1: keep the house together. While my wife was gone all lunchtime,
Speaker 1: I opened the blinds to a back window of the
Speaker 1: house in full view of the food plots where all
Speaker 1: of the deer activity takes place there. At home, I
Speaker 1: decided to leave the blinds open on the off chance
Speaker 1: of deer walked out into the open. Now fast forward
Speaker 1: about two hours later, and it's almost time for my
Speaker 1: wife to get home, and Zeke is asking for his
Speaker 1: twelfth snack of the day. So as I'm handing him banana,
Speaker 1: I look out to the food plot and see a
Speaker 1: big buck. I just thought, oh cool, a big buck
Speaker 1: is I've been down to hand my son and snacking.
Speaker 1: Before he can grab it from my hand, I realized
Speaker 1: what I just saw A snap upright. I look back
Speaker 1: out the window and I see, by far the biggest
Speaker 1: buck I've ever seen in my life, an absolute monster
Speaker 1: of a white tail. I'm all in a panic, and
Speaker 1: my son says, Dad, what's wrong, to which I respond,
Speaker 1: there's a big buck out back, buddy, And I'm gonna
Speaker 1: get him. In a frantic rush, I grabbed my baby
Speaker 1: and I move her from the high cherry to or
Speaker 1: packing play. Now, grab my boots and my gun, and
Speaker 1: I go running out of the house. All the while
Speaker 1: my son was chasing me around, going Daddy, can I come?
Speaker 1: And how big is he, to which I replied, I'll
Speaker 1: be back in a minute, Bud, just stay in the house, please.
Speaker 1: After what felt like five minutes but it's probably more
Speaker 1: like thirty seconds, I'm outside trying to get a shot
Speaker 1: lined up, but I can't quite find a good spot.
Speaker 1: Run around the other side of the house, and the
Speaker 1: whole time of the buck is just standing there sniffing
Speaker 1: around for doze while I'm running around like a man possessed,
Speaker 1: trying to get this done and get back inside before
Speaker 1: the baby starts fussy. I finally get to the other
Speaker 1: side and find a spot where I think I can
Speaker 1: get a shot off, about sixty yards from the buck,
Speaker 1: when suddenly the buck spins around and stares directly at me.
Speaker 1: I freeze, thinking I just need to be still and
Speaker 1: wait for him to go back to sniffing around and
Speaker 1: I can take my shot, and the sound of a
Speaker 1: door slamming shut, and my three year old running with
Speaker 1: his hunting cap and boots on, yelling Dad, wait for me. Well,
Speaker 1: as you can imagine, a buck didn't wait around to
Speaker 1: see what happened next and took off out of my
Speaker 1: life forever. I'm standing there trying to process what just
Speaker 1: happened when Zeke gets to me, all out of breath
Speaker 1: and says, Dad, that was a huge buck. Yes it was, buddy,
Speaker 1: it was. At first, I didn't know whether to be
Speaker 1: frustrated to laugh, but it didn't take long for me
Speaker 1: to realize that even though I didn't get the buck,
Speaker 1: I got something much much better, A hunting partner for
Speaker 1: life that I get to make memories with, and hopefully
Speaker 1: down the road i'll have grandkids that I can make
Speaker 1: memories with. Two. In his eyes, I'm Superman and all
Speaker 1: he wants to do is to be there with me,
Speaker 1: to see me save the day. I wasn't looking at
Speaker 1: it like that. I only saw it from my point
Speaker 1: of view, which was go get that deer. All he
Speaker 1: saw was me going hunting, and he wasn't about to
Speaker 1: be left behind. I can tell you this, I will
Speaker 1: never leave my little hunting partner at home. Again, and
Speaker 1: according to Cody Klein from Dryden, Michigan, that's just how
Speaker 1: that happened. Well, Cody, I appreciate you fessing up to
Speaker 1: your moment of weakness, only to be reminded with a
Speaker 1: swift kicked right square in the realities of what was
Speaker 1: actually important that day. I'd say, all three of you
Speaker 1: are younginsp superman. Thanks for sharing. I counted it up
Speaker 1: and in the last eleven days I have been through
Speaker 1: twelve airports. It all started when, as I mentioned last week,
Speaker 1: I went down to Venice, Louisiana for the meat Eater
Speaker 1: Fishing Experience at Cypress Cove. Holy cow, what a trip
Speaker 1: and experience that actually was. I had no idea what
Speaker 1: to expect other than weather permitting. One day out of
Speaker 1: the three, my group was scheduled to fish off shore
Speaker 1: chasing yellow fin tuna. The closest I had been prior
Speaker 1: to this trip to catching tuna had been at Kroger
Speaker 1: on the canned fud isle. This was not the same
Speaker 1: and it sure wouldn't taste the same. More on that
Speaker 1: in a minute. There have been two groups before us
Speaker 1: that couldn't make it offshore due to the remnants of
Speaker 1: the latest hurricane that stirred up the gulf nine foot
Speaker 1: plus waves had boats bobbing around out there like nobody's business,
Speaker 1: and I wasn't interested in the slightest. The film a
Speaker 1: Southern edition of deadlyst Catch, starring yours truly. We stayed
Speaker 1: in shore and fished the brackish water for red fish,
Speaker 1: sheep's head, and speckled trout. The red fish and speckled
Speaker 1: trout looked familiar enough, but the sheep's head looked odd,
Speaker 1: with two rows of teeth that looked like somebody's grandpat
Speaker 1: order the model of a catalog. Now, I'm sure there's
Speaker 1: a lot of folks that live along the coast that
Speaker 1: rolled their eyes at me right now, but come me
Speaker 1: some slack. Those fish look goofy, but they put up
Speaker 1: quite a fight and they taste really good. We had
Speaker 1: a great group of folks working the event, and our
Speaker 1: hosts were second to none. Catfish, shrimp, soft shell crabs,
Speaker 1: grits and the fish that we caught were all on
Speaker 1: the menu, and let me tell you it was good.
Speaker 1: Apparently everything down there that swims likes to eat shrimp
Speaker 1: bait we used on just about everything. I love shrimp myself,
Speaker 1: and while all the fish taste the great. It reminded
Speaker 1: me of the dilemma I have when I'm fishing for
Speaker 1: flat heead catfish with live blue gill brim. Why do
Speaker 1: you baite a hook with something that tastes great and
Speaker 1: catch something that only tastes good. It seems a little silly,
Speaker 1: but I get it. You can feed a whole lot
Speaker 1: more folks with a big fish, then you can a
Speaker 1: little shrimp. Now, the two days I fished inshore, I
Speaker 1: probably caught fifty or sixty fish that came back to
Speaker 1: Arkansas with me. Some folks caught a whole lot more
Speaker 1: than that. Fishery is strong there, and the folks there
Speaker 1: that are making their limons fishing or taking good care
Speaker 1: of it. They're monitoring and catching, measuring any fish that's
Speaker 1: close one way or the other, hearing the slot limits,
Speaker 1: and even self imposing stronger limitations on the younger and
Speaker 1: the bigger fish. Now, that's steward and the resource and
Speaker 1: perpetuate the sense of responsibility and respect for the next
Speaker 1: generation to follow. I could easily tell it, at least
Speaker 1: with the captain's eye fished with that this wasn't just
Speaker 1: something they did to earn a living. They were fully
Speaker 1: vested first in the resource and second in the mission
Speaker 1: of catching fish. That's the way it should be, and
Speaker 1: that's what separates us as sportsmen and women who value
Speaker 1: what we chase above the cosmetics and filling the freezer,
Speaker 1: from those who oppose our heritage and way of life
Speaker 1: with little or no understanding of the totality of what
Speaker 1: we're doing. That gives me hope. It has me feeling
Speaker 1: the warm fuzzies on the inside when I think about
Speaker 1: the future and what we're leaving for the next generations.
Speaker 1: I was also hoping the small round patch I stuck
Speaker 1: behind my ear was going to keep me from having
Speaker 1: a different feeling inside. As we finally set sail before
Speaker 1: daylight with the blue waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
Speaker 1: Being in a boat that could fit in a barn
Speaker 1: on a body of water that was big as well.
Speaker 1: Everything in the world that wasn't dirt wasn't really a
Speaker 1: big deal. It was the thought of getting seasick and
Speaker 1: being miserable all day and everyone else suffering through my
Speaker 1: misery while catching fishing having a great time. I tried
Speaker 1: to calm myself down by remembering all the times I
Speaker 1: sat on the edge of a helicopter and legs dangling
Speaker 1: outside and hooping and hollering like I was riding a
Speaker 1: roller coaster. And then I thought about all the birthdays
Speaker 1: I've had since then, and the last roller coaster I rode,
Speaker 1: the one upside down that make me wish that hadn't
Speaker 1: been born. Other than that, I was fine, but the
Speaker 1: sea was calm and the fishing was good. The idea
Speaker 1: of being so far away from the bank that you
Speaker 1: couldn't see land in any direction was a bit taxing
Speaker 1: on my perception of reality. As the depth finders said
Speaker 1: that there was four thousand feet of water between the
Speaker 1: bottom of my feet and the bottom of the ocean.
Speaker 1: Now that's a little over three quarters of a mile.
Speaker 1: This morning I walked out from where I was deer hunting.
Speaker 1: That was a little over three quarters of a mile too.
Speaker 1: I was just easing along, taking my time, not kicking
Speaker 1: up any dust, but not lollygagging either, And that stroll
Speaker 1: took me over twenty minutes. Now, that's a lot of water,
Speaker 1: and there's stuff swimming around in there that will swallow
Speaker 1: you whole. And keep right on going. My first goal
Speaker 1: wasn't to catch a fish. It wasn't even not to
Speaker 1: get seasick. It was to stay on the right side
Speaker 1: of the boat. We drove out to some offshore oil
Speaker 1: platforms and fish with spinning rods like you'd fish with
Speaker 1: around home for bass and catfish, except these were rigged
Speaker 1: up with a string of six barblous jigs on them,
Speaker 1: and we'd cast out and sometimes catch six little bait
Speaker 1: fishing about the size of the grand prize goldfish you'd
Speaker 1: wind chunking darts at the county fair. The old rig
Speaker 1: workers would watch us from above and give the latest
Speaker 1: info to the captain on what they'd seen as far
Speaker 1: as fish locations, and if anyone else had been out
Speaker 1: there and doing any good. Another thing that's foreigned to
Speaker 1: me is the life those folks lead, Like my friends
Speaker 1: Joey Rodgers and Jerry Bocher, who spent their careers working offshore.
Speaker 1: I'm thankful for them doing it so I don't have to.
Speaker 1: It'd be hard for me to watch someone else fishing
Speaker 1: while I was supposed to be at work, but that's
Speaker 1: just what we were doing. And after what seemed like
Speaker 1: one failed to tempt after another, we started catching those
Speaker 1: big yellow fintuna. I watched all but one person on
Speaker 1: that boat catch a fish before it became my turn.
Speaker 1: I studied the captain's directions on the proper way to pull,
Speaker 1: and went to real, letting the rod do the work
Speaker 1: of tiring the fish, taking advantage of the opportunity to
Speaker 1: watch and learn before my time in the barrel came around. Then,
Speaker 1: when it last I had a tuna on the end
Speaker 1: of the line, I forgot everything that I just witnessed
Speaker 1: over the previous two hours. I lost all train of thought,
Speaker 1: and I had to be instructed all over again on
Speaker 1: what I'd been watching. First of all, it's fishing. It
Speaker 1: ain't that hard, old, but it is. There were muscles
Speaker 1: in my back I hadn't used since birth that fish.
Speaker 1: Over the next twenty minutes, made sure that each one
Speaker 1: got a vigorous workout. Fifteen minutes into the hook up,
Speaker 1: and I looked over the side and saw a big
Speaker 1: flash of silver contrasting in the seemingly bottomless depths of
Speaker 1: cobalt blue. There he was, just below the boat. The captain,
Speaker 1: who was standing beside me, reminded me every two minutes,
Speaker 1: so everything that I was doing was the exact opposite
Speaker 1: of what he had just instructed me to do, said
Speaker 1: the other. Seventy feet, and we'll get a gaff in him,
Speaker 1: pull up, reel down. All I heard was another seventy feet.
Speaker 1: Seventy feet. For the love of humanity, how in the
Speaker 1: name of all that's holy could it still be seventy
Speaker 1: feet from me to the silver torpedo I had hooked
Speaker 1: in the apparatus I was now wearing like a back
Speaker 1: brace strapped to the reel. It did relieve my arms
Speaker 1: from the strain, but it gave me concern that I
Speaker 1: was now at the mercy of my own agility. Should
Speaker 1: a sudden wave hit the boat, I slip and fall
Speaker 1: on the wet deck while literally tied to a fish
Speaker 1: that can swim forty seven miles an hour and dive
Speaker 1: well over three thousand feet, which, if you remember, still
Speaker 1: ain't near the bottom of where we were bobbing around. Finally,
Speaker 1: the red october surfaced, and the captain gaffed it and
Speaker 1: pulled it into the boat. Good night, nurse, the deed
Speaker 1: was done. One lights out love taped to the top
Speaker 1: of that tuna's nugging, and that was all she wrote.
Speaker 1: I stood there in amazement looking at that fish that
Speaker 1: I'm not one hundred percent sure I caught. It was
Speaker 1: more like he just let me win. But he was beautiful.
Speaker 1: Every line, every fin, every feature, even its color represented speed.
Speaker 1: I believe the Good Lord made him a fish instead
Speaker 1: of a bird so we could have a chance at
Speaker 1: seeing them. If they weren't slowed down by having to swim.
Speaker 1: I don't know if we'd even know they lived among us.
Speaker 1: Back at the lodge, my friend and colleague Peter Koh
Speaker 1: fixed us up some tunas of bechay. The pieces were
Speaker 1: marinated and citrus and seasonings and served as is. Now
Speaker 1: I would have called it raw, but being of a
Speaker 1: somewhat adventurous mindset, I tried it. The Peruvians developed the
Speaker 1: Savichier method of preparing fish prior to Columbus hitting the
Speaker 1: bank in fourteen ninety two. I ate three pieces of it,
Speaker 1: more or less, just to check the box of eating
Speaker 1: something I'd always heard about. It stated with me, about
Speaker 1: as long as grass stays with the goose, It's not
Speaker 1: like those folks in Peru didn't have corn to grind
Speaker 1: up and make meal out of it to fry fish,
Speaker 1: as they were intended to be prepared and eating. They've
Speaker 1: been growing it for thousands of years before that. Anyway,
Speaker 1: I tried it now. They also seared some on a
Speaker 1: griddle like a steak and served it medium rare, which
Speaker 1: is my favorite way to eat beef, and it was
Speaker 1: absolutely outstanding. It tasted nothing like I'd imagined it would.
Speaker 1: My only reference to tuna up until then was what
Speaker 1: came out of a can. My wife, Alexis makes the
Speaker 1: best tuna salad I've ever eaten. Beni's Louisiana may have
Speaker 1: ruined that for me. Maybe I'll start calling it something
Speaker 1: else so as not to disappoint my taste buds when
Speaker 1: she makes it. And just like that, it was time
Speaker 1: to pack up and head to the airport again. This
Speaker 1: time we'd be Wheels down in Knoxville, Tennessee, for a
Speaker 1: little squirrel hunting and football tailgate. We were the guests
Speaker 1: of Rich Frowning, a world class CrossFit athlete who has
Speaker 1: lived in Tennessee most of his life. He and his
Speaker 1: business partners and friends Josh Goodman and Matt HEWITTT Clay Bow,
Speaker 1: and a whole gaggle of meat eater production folks gathered
Speaker 1: at Rich's place to hunt and cook up some squirrels
Speaker 1: the day before the meat Eater tailgate event near Kneeland
Speaker 1: Stadium prior to the kickoff of the Alabama Tennessee football game.
Speaker 1: If you saw that game, you know it was a
Speaker 1: great contest with lots of drama, big plays, and ended
Speaker 1: with the home crowd rushing the field and uncorking the
Speaker 1: gold posts for the planet Earth. A good time was
Speaker 1: happened by all, well except for except for Alabama, but
Speaker 1: they were in the game right up until the bitter end.
Speaker 1: And as good as the game was, as exciting of
Speaker 1: a finish and as loud as one hundred and two
Speaker 1: thousand people work, it paled in comparison what took place
Speaker 1: prior to kick off. Starting at ten thirty that morning,
Speaker 1: Rich Clay and I were visiting with anyone and everyone
Speaker 1: that wanted to stop by and talk a while. Individuals, couples,
Speaker 1: and whole family stopped by. I was holding youngins from
Speaker 1: all over the country and talking with adults who appreciated
Speaker 1: the content that they hear and all the stuff they
Speaker 1: don't when they listen to this country life and bear grease.
Speaker 1: I've said it before that these events are so much
Speaker 1: fun for me to meet and talk with the people
Speaker 1: who listen. The format of Clay's show has him interviewing
Speaker 1: and traveling to speak with most interesting people around, while
Speaker 1: mine has me talking into a microphone and upstairs of
Speaker 1: my office by myself. It's so much fun for me
Speaker 1: to see from the people who've invited me into their cars, trucks,
Speaker 1: and homes each week. Will is a native of the
Speaker 1: volunteer State, sporting sunglasses a magnum PI mustache into this
Speaker 1: country life t shirt. He walked up and introduced himself.
Speaker 1: We visited for quite a while before he handed me
Speaker 1: a couple of case knives that he's brought as gifts.
Speaker 1: They're sitting here on his table as I write this,
Speaker 1: along with the keychain he included with the case brand logo.
Speaker 1: We had our picture made together. Didn't feel like a
Speaker 1: very square deal for Will two knives and returned for
Speaker 1: a picture. I talked for Veny as trapping young lad
Speaker 1: who was just beginning his career law enforcement, having recently
Speaker 1: been hired by a department, and still waiting for his
Speaker 1: date to start the academy. I remember what that was like,
Speaker 1: and I pray that he will come through on the
Speaker 1: other side of this monumental task that he's volunteered for,
Speaker 1: unscathed and with the same enthusiasm that he has now.
Speaker 1: Then there were couples with children, all of which I
Speaker 1: wish I could have brought home with me. I'm honored
Speaker 1: that some parents share these weekly ramblems with their youngsters
Speaker 1: and listen together. For that, I'm eternally grateful. It's a
Speaker 1: big reminder of the responsibility I have when I see
Speaker 1: the children who listen, that the next generation of outdoors
Speaker 1: people are being formed right now with tiny little building
Speaker 1: blocks that over time will define our culture and the
Speaker 1: direction that goes from where it is today. We may
Speaker 1: be driving the train at present, but where the tracks
Speaker 1: are laid twenty years from now foundationally are being decided
Speaker 1: every day with every interaction we have with our youth.
Speaker 1: We need to make sure we're doing it right. It's
Speaker 1: been a busy couple of weeks, and I'm ready to
Speaker 1: get home and see my family. I missed them something terrible,
Speaker 1: but the absence of them has been made a little
Speaker 1: easier by everyone who allowed me to be a part
Speaker 1: of theirs, even if it was fifteen minutes at a time.
Speaker 1: Two more days and I'll be home, but me and
Speaker 1: Austin Cleverad better known as Chili to all of us
Speaker 1: at Meat Eater and I are currently in search of
Speaker 1: white tailed deer here in Arkansas. Chili's Meat Eater's production
Speaker 1: coordinator and beloved by all who know him. I've been
Speaker 1: trying to get that former marine and pride of South
Speaker 1: Dakota down here for the last two years, and we
Speaker 1: finally made it happen. We'll be dropping a little extra
Speaker 1: content if all goes well, and I hope you'll catch
Speaker 1: that one if it does. Like I always say, don't
Speaker 1: just be cool, be Chili. Thank y'all so much for
Speaker 1: listening to me and Clay Bow here on the Beargreas channel.
Speaker 1: You know there's just about something for everyone on Meat
Speaker 1: Eaters Podcast guest Network. I encourage you to check them
Speaker 1: a whole out and when you have a chance and
Speaker 1: share them with others you think that might enjoy them too.
Speaker 1: Until next week, this is Brent Reeds signing off. Y'all
Speaker 1: be careful