A button buck and a twice broke shoulder

Well I managed a button buck this last Saturday , no large buck but meat for the freezer.
I had some company come down and hunt with me, my cousin Lester hunted Saturday and helped me drag this deer out of a gully about a quarter mile of a drag. It took us about 40 minutes to get where I could put my ole truck to it and load it in. And my brother in law Tony Boninsegna and his friend Rob came down to my little farm to hunt with me . I believe this is the first time that hunted with my brother in law. They did not have very good luck as I believe Rob seen a doe Saturday night but did not get a shot. I did not see any deer Saturday night but the morning hunt was nice but disappointing and a surprise that later revealed it self to me.
I gave everyone there pick of places to hunt and then I decided to go out on the point. The point is a steep lonely place but thick in cover and when ever I need to get a deer this is where I go. As I killed my first deer there and some of my most memorable hunts have been on the point. I got out there about 7:45 am and with the four inches of snow on the ground I did not have to drop over the edge, I took up a position where I could see the bench below. After about 40 minutes I decided to get up and stalk hunt my way around the point and toward the tree house where Tony and Rob were sitting and maybe push a deer toward them. I had gone about 30 yards when I caught some movement about 80 yards below me. I stopped and watched the area very closely sure enough 2 deer moving at an angle up the hill right toward me. I picked out a clearing in the trees and waited on the deer to step into it. The only problem I had was holding the gun steady with my left arm, the gun felt like it weighed a hundred ponds and caused my shoulder to ache. When the deer stepped into my clearing I shot and missed the deer turned and went down the hill and they stopped as I thought they would have went to the next county. I picked up the grim reaper[ my Remington 870 shotgun] only this time I grabbed a small tree with my left hand and rested the shotgun on my forearm to steady the shot. It was about a hundred yards I thought the deer stepped into my window of a clear shot, I squeezed the trigger and the deer fell.
And when it feel the other deer ran to my right where there was five other deer watching that I had not seen. it was quite a shock to see those other deer. I turned my attention back to the deer I hit and it was trying to get up.. So I quickly moved down the hill to finish off the deer. But in my haste I did not mark the spot where the deer fell good enough and when I got where I thought it was I could find no sign,I thought I was going crazy. I thought surely I could find blood in all the snow. I searched for what seemed an hour when Lester showed up. I told him where I shot from and where the deer should be and he looked around and there it is about 20 or 25 yards further down the hill. I looked back up the hill and thought man that was a hell of a shot and Lester agreed.
On the walk back we dragged the deer and laughed and talked about other hunts on the point and Lester said if killed another out there he would charge me five dollars to help me. As we where walking at one point me foot slipped and I fell on my sore left shoulder. It had been very sore since deer gun season came in. I had flipped my four wheeler off the back of my truck and fell on my left shoulder. It was starting to feel better and some strength back,and not only did I fall that morning but on the evening hunt I fell hard again on the same shoulder, I almost blacked out from the pain. I managed to get back to the cabin but had no supplies there as I had taken everything home the first of December as I had not planned to use the cabin that much this winter. I will never do that again, there will be something quick and and easy to prepare.
It was a rough night I took six Advil and a shot of good Kentucky bourbon and went to bed. And when I got home Sunday I broke down and went to Urgent Care where the took X-rays. The doctor asked me If had injured my shoulder before. I told her about flipping the 4 wheeler about three weeks ago. She then told me I had broke my shoulder then and she showed my where it had starting healing in the X-Ray and where I had just broke it again. The funny thing about this deer season during the week long season I only managed to see two deer and both on the run. I seen the two this past weekend and the five that watched me make a Daniel Boone shot on a button buck. But as I finished the dishes Sunday morning I turned and looked out the window of the cabin and there was three deer in the front yard not twenty yards from me. I could have taken one easy from the front porch but as i turned for the Grim Reaper the shooting pain in my shoulder reminded me what are you going to dummy you only have one good arm and no help to drag and the four wheeler is at Uncle Kens just sit and watch those deer and that is what I did.

Hogs head for supper

My grandfather Brewer told a story to my Uncle Ken that he has told to me several times thru the years but I have forgotten their names. And when I asked him recently about the story he has now forgotten their names but said the story is very true. The story takes place back in the nineteen twenties. Three friends were out drinking and has it was getting close to suppertime. One friend invited the other two to his house for supper.
When they arrived at his and went into the kitchen for supper and sat down at the table.
They were passing the jug around and laughing and having a good time. About then the wife started bring in supper and the last thing she brought in was a plate with a large cooked hogs head. The two guest swallowed hard and began to refuse his hospitality, they said man we cannot eat that thing. He said yes you can and got up from the table and walked into the other room. As he walked backed into kitchen he thumb cocked and old double barrel shotgun and pointed it at both men. He said you will eat it or die. I am told they ate every bite of that head. Now am told that hogs head is good as my grandma used to fix it as well as my Uncle Arnold. But I can honestly say I have never had the pleasure of this Appalachian delicacy, nor am I looking forward to it anytime soon, unless I am looking down the barrel of a thumb cocked shotgun in the hands of a insulted drunk.

Spare the rod spoil the child

Uncle Ken told me a story the other day about the day he got three whippings in a day.
His teacher Adie Combs spanked him for goofing off in class and during the spanking he took off running out the door and heading for home. On his way home he began to think up a story that his dad would believe, he thought he had a good one. There in the tobacco beds was his dad working away. He asked “ son what are you doing here”? Why ain’t you in school? So Ken started telling his story as why he left school and the whole time he was talking grandpa was walking toward the creek bank and bent over and cut a switch and strolled back across the tobacco bed and began to whip him. And then told him to go back to school and that he would ask his sisters at supper if he returned. So he went back to school where Adie welcomed him back with another spanking, his third of the day.
Now that is parent / teacher support. Can you imagine the headlines and lawsuits today?

Two candy bar onion

Lester, Kenny Ray and I had supper with Uncle Ken Wednesday evening. He fixed soup beans and cornbread with fried potatoes and a two-candy bar onion. What is a two-candy bar onion you ask? Well it is a strong yellow onion that takes two candy bars to kill the taste of the onion. As I was sitting at the table the table I have sat at for so many Saturday evenings after hunting all day with Uncle Ken and sometimes Dad and Lester either squirrel or rabbit hunting. And this is the way it was for every Saturday from the first of September till rabbit season went out at the end of February, either white beans or pinto beans cooked with ham. And like I said after eating raw onion with these dinners Lester and I would stop at the store to get a cold soda and two candy bars each, that event took place for over ten years. We even burnt out Uncle Ken’s granddaughter from eating soup beans. As I was sitting there waiting on the cornbread to finish seems I am all ways waiting on the bread to finish. As we ate the food of kings and I mean kings of the Appalachia, to me they are better than any steak or caviar. The stories of old began to flow; Kenny Ray listened to every word of each story just as I always have. From the time of when I was his age until now. The funny thing is I bought a small digital recorder to record Uncle Ken when he starts telling the stories of which I forgot on my desk at the cabin. I am afraid that I might forget one of them as remember one almost every time I write, and every time I am with a family member a new one come back into my memory.
But of the one’s told on this night none are better than the memory of a little table with a plate of fried potatoes, cornbread, soup beans and a two candy bar onion.

Free Americans a endangered species

Civilized freedom to the point of freedom lost! What is the cost of the false feeling of security? I have been following this latest government intrusion of our lives in the news the last few days. People are subjecting themselves and children to being groped by a stranger in the name of security. What happens next when a terrorist hides an explosive in a body cavity or is implanted under the skin? Do we then subject everyone to a complete body cavity search? Even worse I heard Sean Hannity say everyone should carry a security card to be scanned. Does that sound familiar is not that what Nazi Germany did? I believe we have already lost to the terrorist as we are disrupting are lives as well as giving up are freedom.And as usual the government closes the barn door after the cow has gotten out. I for one will not give up the fight for I fear not as much as myself but for my son and grandchildren as the only freedom they will know may be from reading about it in a history book. Or will the government rewrite that book or will they have security clearance to even read it?

Stories of Kinzer holler and the Hickory grove

I have hunted the ridge in front of uncle Ken’s house for many years and many more to come.
the ridge as been clear cut at different time thru the years and it changes the animal patterns each time as it is ever evolving. It is out on the point that it never seems to change, as well as the Hickory grove as the timber cutters have no real value in the Hickory’s so it has remained fairly constant.
I got my first squirrel out on the point one fine September afternoon with Uncle Ken. We were sitting and talking quietly when a fox squirrel ran up a maple. we must of startled him on his journey somewhere and when he stopped on the body of the little maple to check us out. I shouldered my gun and fired. The squirrel fell but when we walked over to fetch him up I could not find him. My Uncle came over and looked the ground over and said there he is Beach look at the end of that hollow Sassafras there, see his tail. He had enough energy to crawl part of they in just his was all that was hanging out.
I was deer hunting out on the point one very cold morning in December. I had positioned my self behind a huge old oak and sat down with my back to the point as the wind was howling that morning. I was trying to keep out the cold wind and every few minutes I would take a peek around the tree to see if any deer were moving up the point. I had seen them doing it almost every week thru squirrel season. I peeked a few times and nothing. The time between peeks got longer and longer as the colder I got. After about and hour and half I thought I heard something. I raised my head and turned toward my right and when I did I was eye to eye with a doe. Her eyes got as big as saucers we were so close I could have kissed her. I thought well here we go as I moved she leaped and in mid air turned her body the opposite direction. I started to shoulder my gun as I was turning and seen five more deer right behind her. it was a covey of deer. And all were flying over the point I did not know which to shoot at and never got off one shot. I made the mistake of telling My Uncle Ken that story he told everyone that the deer ate the hat right off of my head while I was sleeping
The eight point that did not get away was on the point almost the same spot as the deer that ate my hat.
It was another cold December day and I had positioned my self behind another large oak and this time I was facing the point and I did go to sleep. I put myself there because I had seen a big buck for the last two weeks that I squirrel hunted and seen him traveling thru the green briar thicket just below me. I had been a sleep about 45 minutes when a crunching noise disturbed my sleep. I slowly raised my head to find this huge buck about 18 to yards away and looking down the point , he had no ideal I was there. I took my time and shoulder my gun and fired and he fell. I was very happy to say the least as I stood up so did the buck. I was not so happy now. I had not killed the buck just hit his spine and he was now crawling away from at a good pace for just having his to front legs as he was dragging his hind legs . Just as he was going over the point I got off another shot which finished the job. Now the other deer that I had killed up to that time were small and I had help dragging them out. It took me the better part of two hours to drag this brute down the mountain. But when the job was finished I lit up a big cigar and reveled in my prize. He hangs in my family room still and reminded of the excitement of those first few minutes that I laid my eyes on him.
I was entering the Hickory grove very slowly one October morning slowly as the squirrel’s were now on the ground a lot. I thought I seen some movement to my left on the ground . I slowly started my gun up when I seen is was a little six point buck moving slowly toward me. I let my gun down slowly and started watching the buck, the wind was hitting me in the face. .He kept getting closer and closer I stood there not moving a muscle and thought how close would he come before he seem or smelled me. After about forty minutes I found out he came with 20 feet of me and laid down. I could not believe it and by now my muscle were aching. And to make it worse I looked down the deer path and there was two fox squirrel’s chasing each other and they were starting to get into gun range. When the squirrel’s got into range I slowly started to move my gun back up and the minute I moved the buck launched from his spot and down the deer trail. I shot at the squirrel but the deer had scared them so bad their first leap must have been twenty feet and I missed the biggest one in front. I had no game but was one of my most exciting hunts.
My nephew Matthew took his first deer there in the grove when he was eleven years old . We found a well used trail thru the grove and sat down about forty yards away , just above the trail. About twenty minutes passed and I seen a young deer heading right toward us . I elbowed Matthew and pointed and he slowly raised his gun. The first shot missed and the deer turned and Matthew fired again and the deer fell over grave yard dead. I congratulated him and as we walked up to the deer I seen that Matthew had got a lucky shot off and hit the deer in the eye with the slug. I said that was lucky as hell and he quickly said what do you mean lucky. that is where I aiming. I asked him you were what aiming for his eye. Yes he said with a smile he winked at me so I shot him in the eye. I still say it was a lucky shot.
The days the turkey’s scared me was on the point. I started that morning before daylight as I always did in those days of my youth. It was just beginning to get a daylight as I neared the top of the point. I acme around a different direction this morning as to try and get a better angle on a big scaly bark hickory that the squirrel’s were working on. I ha stopped to rest and listen for the squirrel’s cutting on hickory nuts. I was leaning against a big chestnut oak when all of a sudden a roar like noise and debris starting falling on me from the top of the tree. It startled me pretty bad. I thought what the hell is the tree falling on me or what? I finally gained my composure and seen the three big turkeys flying I thought all the racket would scare the squirrel’s into the next county.
I have taken a lot of game off that point and out of the hickory grove thru the years. From some very memorable and some not. these are just a few I am sure as I read thru my journals and talk with my uncle and cousin Lester I will have more to add to the adventure’s of the point and Hickory grove

Pheasant for supper

Kenny Ray sharpshooter

The Little boy limited out Saturday with two pheasants at the youth hunt put on by Greene county fish and game. Lester went out with me to see the club and watch Kenny Ray. I have to say that the Little boy is a very good shot a chip off the old block. He comes from a long line of excellent shooters. Although he should be a good shot he has been shooting since he was two years old. I had took a day off from work I on November nineteen of 1999 and as I was leaving the house in all of my camo, I went to kiss him good-bye he asked “daddy where are you going”? I said son daddy is going to go deer hunting today.
He then asked “ daddy can I go with you”? I said yes if you want to, and his mother started crying. I said Tari what is wrong and she said I knew you would get him someday but I did not think it would be this soon. She wiped away the tears and helped get him dressed in his camo we kissed her good bye.
It was a beautiful fall day the temperature was in the seventies and when I got down to Uncle Kens, dad and Ken where surprised to see us. And they asked what are planning on doing and Kenny Ray said we are going deer hunting. Dad looked at me I told him I think we will just get in the woods and walk around for a while and just enjoy the day. Dad then told me to go in and get the Slip O {uncle Kens twenty gauge shotgun} and we will let Kenny Ray shot some. I hesitantly said ok So the three of us started into the wood s and up the ridge when we got on this little bench we stopped to rest and Kenny Ray put is toy binoculars to his eyes and looked around. Dad said son lets him shoot. I loaded the Slip O and asked Kenny Ray “do you want to shoot”? He quickly answered yes. So I bent down and held the gun and showed him how to hold where the trigger was. And with that he squeezed the trigger and the gun went off. I was nervous as he did not like loud noises but as soon as the gun went off his little blonde head swung around to me and asked shoot again daddy. He shot the Slip O three time’s that afternoon and the tree of us walked around the woods just talking. It was one of the best hunts I have ever had.
I have a picture in a shadow box frame in my trophy room of Dad and Kenny Ray holding the Slip O and the three spent shotgun shells at the bottom of the frame.

Sweet Appalachia

Appalachian remote control and jumper cables

I was sharing some memories about my grandpa Patton with you the other day. And as I was sitting by the heating stove at the cabin this morning watching the sun come with a cup of coffee and my thoughts about the past, I decided to share a few more. The house I remember was a four-room house with a porch across the front and down one side, the porch step was a large rock, and the well was on the side porch. You had to lower the this tube about three or four feet long and it was about four inches in diameter and when it was done to the water you pulled a cord that opened a trap door and the water would enter the tube, you released the cord and the lid closed you then pulled up the tube by the chain and pulley. You then swung the tube over your bucket pulled the cord and the water was released. If you where doing laundry or dishes you the put the water on the stove to heat it. Drinking water was in a bucket on the counter and a schoolhouse dipper was in it you simply got a drink and put the dipper back in the bucket for the next person. Tari cannot comprehend that everyone drank from the same container, as she is a city person. Anyway the house set in a little bottom in a narrow holler the garden was out in front of the house, as wells a couple of coon hounds tied to fifty five gallon drum dog house’s, and the tobacco field behind the house a small creek with a plank foot bridge ran down one side for about seventy five or eighty yards and then joined by a small creek that ran from the hillside and the outhouse sat on this creek. The inside of the house was very simple all the rooms had linoleum floors the kitchen had a table and chair that sat next to a window and the chest freezer sat at the end of the table next to the wall, and of course a refrigerator, stove and a Hoosier type cabinet and the ringer washer sat in a corner. In the center of the house was a coal burning pot belly stove, I can still hear the shaking of the grate in my mind still today just as if I had done it this morning and is has been thirty years.
Two bedrooms one small with a bed and the wardrobe, one large with to big beds. Each bed had a feather mattress and on big feather pillow that went across the bed and each with homemade quilts on them, and under the one big bed by the door that led out onto the front porch had a chamber pot under it. The living room had to couches a TV and a gun rack. The TV got two channels and the antenna sat up on the mountain, which brings me the story. Grandpa Uncle Bob and I wanted to watch the UK Basketball game but the signal was not very good so we had to adjust the antenna. With my grandpa on the couch locking at the TV my aunt Evelyn on the porch me about half up the mountain and Uncle Bob at the antenna. He moved it one-way and hollered at me how; that I then hollered how’s that to Evelyn she asked grandpa how’s that. He would a little more then Evelyn hollered a little more to me and then I hollered a little more to Bob. And this continued till the picture came in better, and this all was done in the dark of night, and there you have Appalachian remote control.
My grandpa had a couple of heart attachs before he passed away, on the first one he had I to laugh as the ambulance drivers told my uncle Bob and mom that the whole time they were taking him to hospital and working all he kept asking was he much he owed them for the ride. When he was in the hospital in intensive care mom and I was allowed to go in and visit for a few minutes. And in the room was this mountain of a man in this bed with all of these wire hooked to him they had to shave parts of his chest to attach them. And at some time during our visit he looked over at me with sorrow in eyes and said “ Branson what ever you do don’t let them hook those jumper cables to you”. I will never forget that day.

A kiss for you Bug

I have so many stories that I have written and a lot more that need written. Then I have to decide which one’s should I write. I keep a list of title’s and notes for each one, and I as remember other one's I scratch a note on something so I will not forget it. I have thought allot about my grandpa Patton lately. He was a true character if there ever was one. He was a big man over six foot and about two hundred and thirty five pounds with big-callused hands and a great sense of humor and a boisterous laugh. He was a war hero who saved a man’s life but I never heard ever talk about the war. I can still see him walking the farm lane with hat on head and whistling or singing “ ruby don’t take your love to town”. He had a nickname for everyone my sister Lisa was crying tom, I have two girl cousins there names where big rump and round rump. My grandma’s nickname was Bug. He called my dad 'Myrtle’s son in law.' My dad always got a big chuckle telling me the story about it. My grandfather was against my mom and dad getting married and in fact never attended the wedding. And when people would ask him about my dad he always told them that he was not his son in law but Myrtle’s {my grandma]. Finally after several years had passed he and dad was a man’s house looking at some coonhounds and my grandpa-introduced dad as his son in law. My dad with his sense humor answered no Robert I am Myrtle’s son in law. It embarrassed grandpa a little as he did know that dad knew about it.
Then there are little things that I remember like my lunch box that I carry. Grandpa gave it to me when I started working, I was seventeen years old. He had used it on his job with the Kentucky highway department. He said Branson here I want you to have this bucket to carry your dinner in from home as it will help save a few coins. I am forty-six years old and I still carry that same lunch bucket. I also use my grandparent’s pressure canner that they bought sometime in the fifties I use it every year to can with.
But there are three sayings that are used around my house by Kenny Ray and Tari as well as myself. They always bring a smile to our faces no matter what the situation, and neither Tari nor Kenny Ray ever met him. The first one is what is said after we tear the house apart looking for something and usually after one of us gets angry. Some one will holler, “ by god it’s in the wardrobe Bug”. That is what always transpired when my grandparents where looking for something. The wardrobe was like a freestanding closet a piece of furniture. So when you cannot find something look in the wardrobe Bug. As it always lightens the mood.
The second was a phrase that he said just one time that I recall. It was in the wintertime and my grandma was always cold and keeps the house fairly warm. This particular day the house was comfortable but grandma cam in and put another piece of coal in the stove. And as she was closing the stove door and opening the dampers. he reached down and grabbed his hat threw it on his head and stormed out
The door hollering “ buzzard sweat, man sweat summer and winter to”. So whenever a room gets to hot at my house you will hear the famous words buzzard sweat.
This last phrase my mother wished I would not write about but I have to. It always brings a smile to my families face. The phrase is “here is a kiss for you Bug”, but you have to say it after you fart big and loud. so goodnight everyone and hears a kiss for you Bug.

The Jester hill panther

When I was a kid I was told about a panther that roamed the hills of Kentucky, now I never seen it or know of anyone that actually did. But nonetheless the stories have been told now I know it was not a panther but it was something, as I know the stories are based on something seen but unexplained. I now have a panther of my own on the farm. It started about three or four weeks ago. Lester was squirrel hunting just below the cabin in some heavy underbrush when he seen it and asked me what I thought it was. He described it as dark in color with a white tail and stomach, and about the size of a medium dog. I guessed it was possibly a bobcat. I did not think much more about it until this past weekend. On Thursday night as Kenny Ray and I pulled on to the lane to the cabin, it was about nine thirty a animal crossed the gravel road in front of us, it happened so fast that I asked Kenny Ray did you see that? What was it? He said I think it was a house cat. I said no although it moved like a cat it was too big for a housecat. Then on Saturday afternoon I was working on my tractor out by the pond. I was bent over adjusting the carburetor when I raised up I got a glimpse of it again. It was black and about the size of a medium dog but very limber in its movement like a cat. It must have been as startled as I was, as it seemed to turn it’s self in midair and went back over the hill. I moved over to the woods trying to see if I could make out what it was, but I was not quick enough. I think it might be the fox Kenny Ray and I seen back in the spring as it was all but its front shoulders, but what Lester seen had a white stomach and tail, so I am not sure. I think I will put up my trail camera and fill up some feeders to see if I can solve my panther mystery before the legend grows into the panther of Jester hill.

Wonderful Firewood

Firewood, to Kenny Ray and some others the word brings picture of sledge hammers and wedges, sweaty hard work in cutting splitting and stacking; to me it has never been that.
Now do not get me wrong I have spent plenty of days with sore muscles and the need for some Advil and Tari’s heating pad on my back. And sometimes in March it easier to turn on the furnace than to drag more wood into the house. But I love to sit by the heating stove in the early morning with cup of coffee or a cold snowy day with a book and curled up on the couch while old man winter is howling outside. Whenever I am hunting or in the woods I am always looking for dead or blown over trees that will make good wood.
However my favorite part has always been spending time with Uncle Ken, Dad, Lester and now the Little Boy. Just this past Friday I had planned and spent the better part of the day with Uncle Ken and the Little Boy on the mountain dragging out and cutting two big loads of Ash, White oak and Sassafras wood. We would work a while then take a break and tell stories of days past of rabbit hunting and of other days in the woods with each other and the fun we have had.
I got back to the cabin with a load of White Oak and stacked on it on the porch. I then got me a cup of coffee and sat out on the porch next to stack of wood and the Little Boy got on the four wheeler and went riding. As I sat there sipping coffee and enjoying the smell of the White Oak I thought about different times spent cutting firewood, there was the time Uncle Ken was hauling firewood out of the woods with four wheeler and wagon and he rolled them up on the mountain and he had to walk out. He called me that evening to tell me about it and to bring some tools to get it out of the woods. Then there was the time the steering column broke on his old truck up on the mountain and I had to come fix.
I had a little Ranger pickup a few years ago and I put it over the hill to load with wood and I could not get out and Uncle Ken had to hook his Chevy up to me with a chain and pull me out of the woods I still hear about it to this day and it has been twenty years , not just a few I do not know where the time has gone.
I have been burning firewood for over twenty years and my Uncle over forty years now.He cuts by himself just about all the time now that Dad is gone and I worry about him being up on the mountain by himself. But he will not stop cutting firewood and I realize now that he can not as it is a part of him. The saw the maul and the trees and Uncle Ken

Sharing my October on the farm

A tree house view of October

Not enough October's in a man's life

October is my most favorite time of year. I read somewhere one time that there are not enough October’s in a mans life, and I adamantly agree. My father’s favorite time of year was the spring; he liked it because everything was fresh with life and green. Now I like the spring as I like all the different seasons. But I am like my mother as fall is best and October is great. The cool nights and the warm days, the first fire of the season and the smell of wood smoke on a cool day. Picking apples and a cup of warm cider. The changing of the leaves from green to yellow and red, I love to be up at my farm when the leaves have changed for their last dance before winter. To me there is no better time to be in the woods than October, to sit in a tree stand in the warm sunshine with a bow and a book, the wonderful smell of the woods that I cannot describe and no sciencetist has been ever to duplicate. I love to watch the squirrels hide their winter supply. The fallen leaves being blown about as they tumble end over end, all my senses are heightened at this time of year. I find it very difficult to keep my mind on work at this time of year, as all I want to do is be in the woods with bow or gun. Even today as I am writing I am sitting under a big red maple at carriage hill farms soaking up the sun and enjoying the sound of the wind thru the trees, the ballet that the fallen leaves are performing is grand, and the smell from the barn and hog lot are wonderful. October to me is a once in a lifetime event and it comes once each year and each year it is different, and each year it could be my last. I hope heaven is twelve moths of Octobers as they are not enough in one mans life.

A rare day to myself

Today has been a different kind of day, a day that I do not get very often a day to myself.
Kenny Ray spent the day with his Grandma and cousins at Carriage hill farms, they had some kind of pioneer days festival, I believe that is what they told me it was. Tari went to her Aunt Pam’s house, and that left me to do what I wanted, somewhat. I was going to to a auction but decided to come down to the cabin, as I had to close my post office box. I no longer need it as the bills and letters for dad have finally stopped coming, except for letter’s coming from social security and they were the first ones informed of dad’s death a year ago. Our well run government still does not know get it they stopped his check but the benefits keep going they do not know what the other is doing we can force everybody into health care including the dead all for a price. Anyway enough of that
This has been a day of first’s also, first I am writing this on a laptop that I purchased from Ebay and is part of my 100 items that I have been writing about on my other blog.
It has allowed me to write from the front porch of my cabin. As I am sitting here writing the sun is going down and the sky is streaked with pink, the crickets and tree frogs are singing a symphony, and in the distance someones coon hound is running and I can just hear it barely baying far off over on the far ridge, it is a fine evening. I went squirrel hunting this afternoon in a different woods that I got permission a couple of weeks ago, and I new this would be a good to check it out since I was by myself. There is nothing like the feeling of hunting new ground for the first time, the anticipation is high.
My hunt was not a great hunt as I did not bring home any supper but I did manage to see four big doe’s and a huge buck and did pick out a spot to hang a tree stand, which me and the Little Boy will do in two weeks as we begin the deer season. I am hoping for some much needed rain, the woods are dry as dust and is almost impossible to be quiet as you are moving thru the woods, as well as my pond is down about six feet now, one good thing though I did not have to much grass today as most of it has died I think.
I went down town and had supper and as I was waiting on the food I was looking out the window and seen another first. Coming down the road was a Mennonite horse drawn wagon with two boys about Kenny Ray’s age of thirteen, which is not uncommon. As I see these young men working the fields with a team of big Morgan horse’s all the time.
But this wagon had not a load of hay or corn but a fourteen foot canoe and a couple of fishing poles they were headed to the river to do a little night fishing as it was about seven thirty pm. when they passed. I thought to myself what fun they must be having and I thought of all those city boys playing video games when they could be floating the river at night with a pole what an adventure a real one not pretend.Well I need to finish cleaning up a little bit and finish my cup of coffee and have another piece of strawberry rhubarb pie and better head for home before everyone starts to worry as it is now nine pm. I think that coon hound is turning and heading this way, I think I will listen to the race a little bit.

Appalachian American Fruit Pawpaw

The Old Man sings for the Little Boy

The Little Boy and I opened up the 2010 hunting season yesterday down at the farm. We hit the woods about at about 7:30 am . My uncle Ken had called Friday night to make sure I was coming down and to tell me that he was going to try and go. I asked him to be careful , and he told me he was going to drive his old truck up the mountain close to the Hickory Grove, that way he did not have to walk that far. I told him I would come by and check on him when the Little boy and I finished the morning hunt. Well the best part of the first hunt of the year is the grand expectations of what the season may hold. Yesterday was no exception as the Little Boy and I discussed the morning plans on the way down in the cab of my pickup. Mother nature has her way of bringing the beast of plans back to a reality. Every tree was full of nuts the Walnuts, Acorns and Hickory's are loaded down there are lots of Dog wood berries also. It did not take long to figure out it was going to be a tough hunt. The Little Boy and I hit the woods just below the cabin where there are about 10 Hickory trees and we have good success but has I started thru there I was checking out the Hickory's I noticed there was no cuttings or very few laying around the base of the tress, which told me the squirrels had not been actively working them . I took a few more steps and got a glimpse of a gray on the ground moving parallel to me, but that was all I seen of a glimpse of his tail. The Little Boy and I hunted a few minutes trying to see him but in the heavy underbrush we could not pick him up. As we started out of that group of Hickory trees and toward the next group I caught a squirrel coming out the top of a Sassafras

I shouldered my gun as I have a million times I squeezed the trigger the old shotgun barked and I put my prey in my vest pocket. Well I thought maybe it will be good day, because I was not happy with what I had seen early. The Little Boy and I moved along quietly along the creek bank whispering to one another and we we got close to the next group of hard woods I said you go around the lower end, and I will take the upper and we will meet up where you killed your first squirrel. O.K.dad he said and we separated. I aways worry when he hunts alone and I think it makes him nervous , even though he knows those woods as well as I do he , they have been his playground since he was two years old. But I also think it builds great confidence in him.

We met up on the other side I found some sign but no meat. So we started on around the point and every little tree that I know held the same story a few nuts sampled but know serious action. When I squirrel hunt I am always looking for other sign as well for deer , turkey and the available food supply. In the early season I am looking for a mountain fruit that I like,Pawpaw's

and it never fails that when I find a few I begin to sing that old folk song you know "picking up Pawpaws's putting in my pockets" . I searched all the little pockets of Pawpaw trees and about half way around the point I found some. I pulled out my camera took a few photos for my blog and picked up and picked them from the tree and put in my pockets, with the Little Boys help and his plea Dad stop singing. He asked Dad what are you going to do with theses, I said son I found A recipe I want your mom to fix for me a Pawpaw cheesecake. We rested for a few minutes and went back to squirrel hunting and hunted are way back to the cabin . It took us about three and half hours to hunt the circle from the rear of the cabin to the front I saw three squirrels total shot one and got one. The Little Boy shot once, missed but was serenaded by the Old man.

Preparing and dreaming of a new hunting season

I am looking forward to this hunting season with great anticipation unlike the past few season's.

For some reason I have not had as much desire has I once had, at one time I lived in the woods on weekends,Uncle Ken, my cousin Lester ,my Dad and I hunted every Saturday. Squirrel and rabbit hunting mainly and we would spend the week if deer season together at Uncle Ken's house in Bainbridge. After Kenny Ray was born there just seems to be something had to done always beside hunting. But I have thought about it a lot, it seems people interest change as life changes. Anyway I have begun to get ready for hunting season and I plan on trapping once again this winter. I have Kenny Ray doing the home study trapping course so he may get his trapping permit and helping me this coming winter, hopefully he will like it as much as I did a few years ago. I got my few remaining traps dyed and waxed this past week and started scouting for some place's to build a few cubbies and will get them, built in the coming weeks so the animals will be in the habit of visiting them before season comes in. Kenny Ray has been practicing with his bow,we have been planning where he might place his tree stand, we will make the final decision when we start squirrel hunting as we will be patterning the deer thru September and I will be placing up a scouting camera around the tree house and we will plant a food plot over labor day weekend. We will also start getting the cabin ready we need to get some firewood in and catch a few fish for the freezer as well. Our schedule thru September on Saturday will be hunt of the morning, fish in the afternoon, hunt again in the evening, sit by the fire and tell tales in evening.

Sometimes the Little Boy is so windy he could blow up an onion sack, as he can tell some tall tales, he gets that from his mother's side of the family. I think the best part of the season is the preparation and the planning and the dreaming. Kenny Ray has missed three big bucks the last two years I am hopeful this year that he gets his first deer, I believe that bow hunting will help him calm down as he should get use to seeing deer but most of them will be out of range and he will just have to sit and watch them it should teach him allot about deer behavior. A new season

brings forth more stories and memories and brings back memories of the past.

Iron weed and the end of summer

To me the above photo of Iron weed in bloom signifies that summer is near the end , and that fall is nearing. I do not mind as fall is the best season for this Appalachian American. Fall means that I will have a few mornings that are cool and I will be able to sit by the fire with a cup coffee,and hunting season will be in as I eagerly await opening day of squirrel season. There is an old saying that Dad taught me" son when the Iron weed is in full bloom the squirrels are in the Hickory nuts." I have been watching the Scaly bark Hickory tree that I have in my back yard as I have for the last 21 years. the squirrels usually cut it out before season comes in about the time the Iron weed begins to bloom. This year however they have not started on it yet, they are more interested in my Galla Apple trees as they come in and climb the tree, pick and apple and move on somewhere else to eat it. Some years I have counted as many as eight squirrels in that Hickory at one time cutting Hickory nuts.

I was looking over the hunting rules this past week as I worked on my traps. They had to be derusted, dyed and waxed. The rust was pretty heavy on a couple of them as I have not trapped

in about fifteen or sixteen years, and I am looking forward to this fall and winter season as I will be teaching the Little Boy. Anyway squirrel season comes in September first in Ohio, I am going to try and go that evening after work. I am still trying to secure permission from some farmers to hunt and trap this season. Squirrel season in Kentucky comes in this Thursday the twelfth of August, if my Uncle Ken is feeling better he wants me and my cousin Lester to take him back down to the home place and hunt, as he would like to do it one more time,just like we use to do.

My first attempt's at keeping a journal

I have mentioned that I have kept a journal of hunting and fishing thru the years. Tari found my first one that I started the other day. I have been reading thru them.They were very simple at first and now have evolved into writing them for everyone on my blogs. Here is the very first one I wrote.

Saturday May 28 1988

time 6pm til Sunday May 29 at 9am

I was with brother in law Rick and father in law Richard

Place Fort Laramie state park

moon was full

day temps 80 degrees night mid 60 's

we caught 16 fish total kept 7 catfish biggest fish caught 4lb blue cat {Kenny caught}

You see very simple and to the point. all I was after was trying to see if a pattern developed.

Saturday November 18 1989 Bainbridge

Uncle Ken and I hunted with new dogs. J.J.and Lonesome. Uncle Ken and me partners in dogs

they cost us 325.00 dollars and they have papers. we had Spike with us at Mennonite farm we had six races. I got one and Uncle Ken got one and we both missed one. Deer hunting next week

{good dogs}

Just a little more of a story, I like them much better as a story.

Campton pool room hot dog chili

My uncle E.C. worked in a pool room in my home town of Campton Ky for a few years back in the 1960's. He took customers money and they served some food, one of them chili dogs. He made the chili and my dad and Uncle Ken learned the recipe. It is very good and is great to cook at deer camp or anytime you want something simple.

1. One pound of ground beef or chuck or deer meat, put in pan with a little water and crumble meat with fork as it browns and add a little salt as it cooks. { drain of excess fat if you use a cheaper cut}

2. Add one small can of tomato sauce and stir in, while it simmers add chili powder. I just sprinkle over lightly and taste add more until you are satisfied.

3. Simmer most all the fluid off until it reaches a consistency you like

4. While chili simmers place hot dogs in pan of water and boil until done

5. place dog in bun cover with chili , onions and mustard

6. optional a roll of Tums or Rolaids use as necessary, how many depends on how much chili powder you like

That is Campton pool room hot dog chili . My Uncle Ken said you could get two dogs and a Ale 8

for fifty cents.

Aunt Pearl potatoes

Sometimes when we are in a hurry , and sometimes we are not when fixing supper. we will fix Aunt Pearl potatoes. Uncle Ken and I came in one evening after a long day of rabbit hunting. He walked into the kitchen and was preparing to cook supper. He said Beach I think we will just have Aunt Pearl potatoes with supper as I am little tired tonight. O.K. with me Uncle Ken as I like Aunt Pearl potato's. I then asked him why do we call them Aunt Pearl potato's? He said that he had ask his mom that same question one night. Grandma told him that Aunt Pearl had 9 kids.

Do you know how long it would take to peel and slice potato's for that many people? She had no choice but to fix them that way. By now you are asking what are Aunt Pearl potatoes? Here is how you prepare Aunt Pearl potatoes as you will never see on a cooking show.

1.Peel your potatoes one medium size per person and one for the pot and quarter them long ways.

2. put in pot and cover with water and bring to a boil, when potato soft enough to cut with fork they are done, do not over cook or you will have to make mashed potatoes.

3. Each person gets his potato's from the pot and they can season with salt, pepper and butter { real butter} as they please.

And there is the secret recipe for Aunt Pearl potato's. My family has been cooking them for a hundred years. I hope you enjoy them as much as we do.

The great Wiffle bird of Bainbridge

Have you ever seen a Wiffle bird? You might may not know it.My Dad always teased Kenny Ray about seeing a Wiffle bird while sitting on the porch of the cabin. Just what is a Wiffle bird you ask? You only see them when the wind is blowing hard as they are any bird that fly backwards,
but they try to fly forward, the wind either holds them in one spot are they drift backwards.

We usually see them allot at the cabin on top of the mountain as the winds seems to always be blowing in fact we have joke about the cabin being blown to Kansas or Oz.Tari thought Kenny Ray had lost his mind on afternoon as she and him were traveling down the highway and he hollered a mom look a Wiffle bird. She said that is a hawk and he argued no it's not ask Dad, Grandpa said when you see a bird fly backwards it is a Wiffle bird. She said did your Grandpa tell you that, well that explains it.

Speaking of birds I play a joke on my nephews and Kenny Ray that Uncle Ken and Dad always did to me. Dad, Uncle ken and I where going to Kentucky one day. As we were traveling down the mountain parkway we seen a bunch of Buzzards flying circles up ahead of us and Uncle Ken turned toward me in the back seat and Beach you better lay down and hide as the Buzzards are looking for something dead , ugly and stinking they fly right into this car after you. Ha ha we all laughed and till this day whenever I see Buzzards I tell who ever is with me to hide

Blackberries for shoes

I went and visited with my Aunt Carmie yesterday morning. I took her some cabbage out of my garden as well as Brewer and sons chicken, and a bag of Blackberries. As we visited she told me

about a peddler man that would come to the mountains and drop off buckets with families for them to pick berries and he would return that evening or next morning to pick them up and pay them. The money was used to buy shoes for the winter, and if there was no berries my Grandma Brewer would have to mend the old shoes as best she could, no berrie crop no shoes.

She left the farm when she was 17 for Dayton her and her brother Doc, as Dayton

had plenty of jobs. Doc got a job at Wright Patt air force base doing some construction until he got drafted for World war two. Aunt Carmie got a job in a bakery making chocolate cookies with a walnut kernel on top. She said everything that was produced went to the war effort, they even had a guard watch over them as the cookies were made so that none were eaten or taken. She told me that one day when the shift was over as they were walking out past the guard a woman in front of her was stopped and they lifted the front of her blouse and two packs of those cookies

fell out , she was fired and even blacked balled from getting another job for awhile. The job paid twenty nine dollars a week and her rent was 4 dollars for a month. During the war she said everything was rationed here at home sugar , gas shoes everything, you received a stamp for items and when that stamp gone you did without until the next monthor year on some items. My Grandpa Brewer grew a lot of sorghum molasses and sold for a dollar a bucket. it was used alot in place of sugar. I do not belive that people in here today would make those sacrfies today, I can only imagine the riots that would take place if the government had to ration shoes or gas today.

The briar patch

Mom and I got out picked another 2 gallon"s of Blackberries last night. That is a total of about 4 gallons in two days as we found the mother load of berries and picked out of just one patch. I have never seen such a berrie crop, usually I get maybe 2 quarts and I have 2 hit several spots to get that many. I believe this year if I had the time I could pick a truck load. I froze the berries from Monday for dumplings and a cobbler, Tari and mom are going to make jam today with what we got last night. I am going to go pick again Thursday weather permitting as I want to try and make some blackberries wine. As mom and I have been picking she told me that it has been over 40 years since she had been Berrie picking and this year she has been 3 times with me.

She told me that when she was a girl and the berries where in that she would be up at daylight and in the berrie patch. Grandpa and grandma would be waiting on her and her water bucket full of berries and start making jelly just as soon as she walked into the door. She also told about the time she was picking and almost grabbed a snake by the head as it was laying up in the berries.

My mother and I as well as the family love Blackberries as well as raspberries but my father would not eat them or pick them. He told me the reason was that when he was a kid that

was all they had sweet was berries and that grandma made jelly with everyone she could get a hold of. But my uncle Ken loves to pick berries and when he first retired and went to Bainbridge

not only did he pick some for himself but he picked and sold them the Mennonite's as they used them for pies. He would take a gallon of water and get on the 4 wheeler and ride up into a clear cut area where the first thing to grow back was blackberry briars. In fact he is the one that showed me how to make blackberry dumplings. Uncle Ken is now 71 years old and I visted with him some this past Sunday and as I was leaving he said hey Beach are the berries ripe up on the hill? I told him they were and he said I think I will go up and pick a few this week.

I was at the market Monday getting some sweet corn and the market was selling

blackberries for $7.50 a quart, as of last night we have picked about 6 gallons total and will have enough jam and berries for several cobblers and batches of dumplings. All it cost me, getting to spend quality time with my mother and family. What a bargain , memories are priceless

Appalachian American holiday

The 4th of July, the perfect celebration for a Appalachian American The only better one is Christmas. Ever since I was a little kid The 4th meant blowing things up with fire crackers and bottle rocket fights with my cousins. Then in my twenties I got a job shooting professional fireworks shows. It was the coolest job I ever had, just think to shoot off big fireworks and get paid to do it. Tari was not real comfortable with it at times as we would store all the fireworks in my garage and some years it would be half full, and she would worry as we shot the show by hand not by pushing buttons like the pro's do now. I think they took all the fun out of it. Now in my 40's I do not get the thrill as I once did, but Kenny Ray gets a gleam in his eye's when you mention firecrackers. I have always traveled to Indiana to get him some to shoot off until this year, as last year the police knocked on our door and 2 weeks ago some one on our street was setting off fireworks and the police showed up in my driveway they never came to the door. But it made mad anyway that they just assume it was Kenny Ray. So this year we went down the cabin and has a good ole boy 4th, as you can tell by the above photo. We had a good 4 wheeler

race Kenny Ray beat his ole man and he accused dad of cheating on the course by taking short cuts in the curves. We did a little fishing but Kenny Ray was more into just going up and down the lake has fast could get the boat to go which was about 42 mph when I was driving. Kenny Ray got it about 35 mph. The bass boat belongs to a friend of mine who has not used it in about 6 years it has been just sitting in his barn. Kenny Ray and I worked together and got it going we have just 3 problems left. 1 the boat takes on water when you stop, after sitting about 20 minutes the rod storage compartment fills with water and on to the floor before the bilge pump kicks in , only a minor problem unless Tari is with us. 2 The trolling motor is not working which is a must for fishing. 3 it seems that we have a lawn mower in the middle of the boat, kenny Ray and I laughed when we put in has it was the only place left as it would not fit in the truck bed with the 4 wheeler in it. I think I will offer the photo to Jeff Foxworthy, it has all the typical

you might be a redneck, 4 wheeler , 4 wheel drive truck and a bass boat.

Our Appalachian American Holiday started by Tari, Kenny Ray and I night fishing for cat fish on Friday night and is ending with picking Black Berries with my mother and

breaking green beans for dinner with my wife. along with fresh sweet corn, tomatoes and cucumbers. I can not think of any better way to celebrate freedom than by doing things that truly make you happy. And my things are so simple spending time with my family whether it be preparing a meal or catching fish or taking a short cut in a 4 wheeler race. I thank God and all of those that lost their lives, so that I can continue to live a Appalachian American dream.

Frontiersman no longer wanted

Where is the challenge and adventure of life to day? I grew up on stories of Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett the tales of men going west, alone and testing themselves. Now men struggle to survive boredom and monotony of the slow death behind a desk, the same never ending task. Our society has even resorted to drugging boy's because they have to much energy, so they can be controlled to fit a cookie cutter society. What would the world be liked today if Ben Franklin,

Washington, Jefferson or Lewis and Clark had been given drugs to keep them calm. We have no new worlds or frontiers to explore. I can only imagine what it would be like to ride a horse with only a knife and a rifle and live by my own hands, and only answer to God in the end. The closest I have ever come was on a Black bear hunt in Canada. Larry Loxley , my cousin Lester and I were in northern Ontario. On the first day of the hunt I was probably 20 miles from camp and Lester was about 5 miles from me and I was the last one dropped off and the last to be picked up at night. I would be in my stand about 2 in the afternoon and be picked up about 1 am in the morning. Well I climbed out of my stand right at dusk, just barely enough light to see as there was no moon that evening and walked out to be picked up. I got to the road which was about 100 yards away from the tree stand. As I was sitting in the road a few minutes a grouse flushed about 10 yards from me right at the edge of the bush. Now things started going thru my mind as to what might have flushed the Grouse, was It a bear or wolf what?I started to stand up and as I was I my finger went automatically to the safe on my 30.06 rifle and switched it off, and the hair on the back of my neck stood up, my heart racing I was ALIVE and I loved it. I stood there in the darkness one big nerve looking around me even though I could not even see my hand in front of my face. For 30 minutes I was in a state of adrenaline rush, a feeling i have never experienced since, and finally ended when I heard the diesel truck coming over the horizon.

As Lester opened the door I finally unloaded my rifle. He asked me what I thought and I told him and he told me that he did not unload his gun either until the door of the truck was opened. Neither Lester or I had ever hunted in a place where we could have been some animals dinner.

What would it have been to live like that every day? I wish I could cross the Cumberland Gap

with flintlock in hand and see a wilderness for the first time !

Race to winter with a new winner

Today is the day I aways dread, the first day of summer, the longest day of the year. Why you ask? Well everyday after today starts getting shorter as we begin our journey back to winter. Now I enjoy the part of winter where I can hunt, or spend a Sunday in front of the fire reading or writing,but the cold seems to bother me more or maybe it's the lack of sunshine. Sunshine is a wonderful thing and I believe the best medicine for what ale's a body. I have been sick for the last week with a cold I believe or it could be sinus, but a lot of drainage and it seems to have settled in my chest. When I am inside with the air conditioner I seem to really clog up. But after a few minutes out in the sunshine I clear up and feel some much better, even , my mom noticed it last week when we picked raspberries. Well back to the shortest day of the year now the race begins to cut enough firewood as well as preserve some food for winter. It always seems like a race to me in which I lose trying to cut wood and can or freeze excess from the garden. and spend time with Kenny Ray. I have thought allot about it , as I have been writing my book this spring about the things I was taught and the memories that I have. Kenny Ray once told me one afternoon why we were working on something I asked him why he was goofing off and not helping me, He said Dad you work to much so it's my duty to goof off extra to make up for you. So starting this race this year Kenny Ray will win this year. I have already in the last 2 weeks been fishing with Him and Tari than I have been In the last 5 years, I am sad to say. I am going to pull my turtle trap break out the gigs, the foothold traps and clean the guns. Kenny Ray's true Appalachian American education and the first chapter to his book will begin a new.

Kenny Ray hooked on night fishing

I finally got to take Kenny Ray night fishing, we tried Friday night we got to the lake but forgot to take the lantern. I am glad we did because I think to night turned out better. It is 1:30 am Sunday morning as I write this we just finished filleting

4 nice channel catfish. I caught one and Catfish Ken, as the little boy now wants to be called caught 3 with the biggest going 4 lbs. He is now hooked on night fishing, sitting by the lantern and shooting the breeze and watching the poles. The temperature here today reached 91 degrees, when we left the lake this morning about 68 degrees. Catfish Ken wants to build a fire next time. We used lighted bobbers this evening, the first time I have ever used them, but it will not be the last. We seen the coolest thing I have ever seen fishing , Catfish Ken was useing my pole with a yellow lighted bobber, while we were watching and talking that big catfish just took the bait and pulled the bobber about a foot under water and ran probably 20 yards causing that bobber to look like the water was on fire. I actually hollered at Kenny Ray , son grab it , it's going straight to hell. The fish gave him a great battle and topped off a great first night of fishing. Kenny Ray asked me why we never night fished before as this was a great father, son moment. I said I tried once before when he was 5 but he did not have the patience, and it had not crossed my mind again until last week. About 12:30am we ran out of bait and headed home as we had fish to fillet. We are planning on next Saturday night to go again as there is a tournament at the club. Well I am off to the shower as Catfish Ken just got out and wants a hug goodnight.

Ain't it funny how the night moves

I went fishing yesterday evening by myself which does not happen very often. Kenny Ray had gone to the pool and Tari finishing laundry and packing for boy scout summer camp as she a chaperon for Kenny Ray's troop. They do not leave until next Sunday but she like to have it all done ahead time. Any way I went to the cigar shop and got me a couple of cigars and left for the lake. When I got to the lake there was only one other person there, and he left soon after. I baited up my poles and fired up a stogie. about a half hour before dark I noticed on of favorite things about Gods world, a thunder storm was moving in . I could see the lightening light up the clouds but could hear no thunder, as well as an occasional steak of lightning move across the sky.

I set there watching my poles , and a channel catfish kept chasing minnows toward the bank. I watched as a raccoon chase a flock of geese into the water. I had forgotten how much I loved night fishing. Jr. Hackathorne would take little Ronnie and me down to the Ohio river a couple times each summer and fish all night, then go beach combing in the morning. Peanut butter and jelly sandwich never tasted so good after sitting up all night. I think the best parts of the trips was the story telling that went on. As I continued sitting and remembering , and watching the sky and the

lightening it dawned on me Hey dummy it's going to rain here in a few minutes so I gathered up my stuff and started toward the truck at about 10 pm. I sat on the tailgate looking up at the sky and finished my cigar I started singing that Bob Seger song Night moves, I woke last night to the sound of the thunder, how far off I sat and wandered .

A baby , moonshine and a trooper

Kenny Ray was asking his mother yesterday about what time he was born and who was at the Hospital, what time was Monica born? Monica is his cousin that he share his birthday with, she turned 21 yesterday and at the time he was born she and her brother Matthew lived with me and Tari. As Tari was telling the answer to his questions, I remembered that night Monica was born that I was the night I thought I would go to jail.

I had been in Kentucky that day with my mother we had went down to decorate the graves of

my grandparents and visit a while with everyone. My uncle Earl had a gift for me a quart of moonshine which I had requested. Mom and I got a late start back home and it was about 11.30 pm when I dropped her off at her house in Ft Wright , Kentucky about and hour and 40 minutes from my home in Beavercreek Ohio. I called Tari from mom's house to let her know where I was at, she never sleeps when I am gone.While on the phone she told me to hurry that her sister Rhonda was at the hospital in labor and wanted me to take her there as soon as I got home. Now in those day's I never followed the speed limit much anyways and I drove a truck with a full gun rack .Well I started home and about half way home I got pulled over for speeding , as I was reaching for my wallet the state trooper must of though I was pulling a gun as pulled his and demanded I put my hands in the air, I did he then asked me what I was doing and I told him I was getting my wallet, he then asked me if I had any more guns in the truck I told him no.

He then told me to open door and step out of the truck, which I did and as I was getting out I seen the quart of moonshine laying in the seat next to me, I though great I am going to jail.

The officer then ask me to step back to his cruiser and get in the passenger seat which I did.

When he got in he asked where are going in such a hurry I clocked you doing 90 mph . I told him my wife's sister was having a baby and wanted me home to take her to the hospital to take her to be with her sister. He told me slow down as he handed me back my license . I have often wandered why he never even looked inside my truck that night and what would of happened if he had.

Big game and Kenny Ray's birthday

Well last night Kenny Ray and I started our big game hunt for night crawlers, as we started out the door Tari was behind me and said she was going too. I figured she was just going to watch but she ended up catching more than me and Kenny Ray both.
I am sure the neighbors though we were crazy sneaking thru the yard at 11.30 at night with a flash light. We did not do as well as i had hoped, we should have watered the yard more, we will try again Saturday night.Today was my little boy's birthday, 13 years old so we went down to the farm to celebrate by mowing grass and fishing. We went down to the pond { honey hole} and on Tari's first cast when the bobber hit the water it went straight under, she set the hook and started yelling for me to come and help. By the time I got to her she had it on the bank.Now she has caught some fish before but nothing of this size probably 4or 5 pounds. She was so excited she said she had to pee.She ended up beating me and the little boy on his birthday.Tari caught 3cats about the same size and a couple of bass.Kenny Ray caught a couple of bass and bluegill's even had one bass jump out of the water and spit the bait at him. For a while I did not think we would get to go fishing as we sat on the porch of the cabin and listened and watched a storm move around the ridge, it did rain in town while we went down to eat dinner , it poured like a tall cow peeing on a flat rock, but it never rained a drop up at the cabin. we ran out of bait about dark and went back to the cabin and had some birthday cake.

Child safety and Big game hunting.

Last night Kenny Ray started shooting in a archery league. He did pretty good for his
first night and considering he has only been shooting for about a week.Out of a possible 300 score he shot a 197. We had a very good time walking the 30 3D decoy set, discussing different hunting techniques and shots as well as me laughing at his misses. It seems though when ever some one was watching beside me he always managed
a good dead center shot.As we finished he again said dad you need to bring your bow and shoot with me.I said son it brings me greater pleasure watching you. Little does he know all in all he his a lot better with a bow and arrow than I ever was, he might hurt himself laughing at me so it is my duty as a parent to protect him from injury.
As Kenny Ray and I came in the house tonight I asked him to spray the lawn down with the water hose. He asked why, and I told him we were going to hunt night crawler's tonight. They are now selling for $2.85 a dozen and we used 3 dozen last week.When I was a kid we never paid for worms we always caught them ourselves. Big Ron and Little Ron and myself would grab flashlights and a coffee can and have as much fun catching night crawlers as we did fishing with them, especially when could catch them 2 at time when they were mating and all slimmed up together.A couple of years ago when I was a Cub scout leader I held a meeting at my house at about 10 pm. I could not believe that the boys as well as parents had never been night crawler hunting. It was a fun filled evening with about 10 boys with flashlights and a can
and some of them screamed like a girls as they touched a night crawler for the first time. I often think about what boys miss out on today little things that build memories as well as life long friendships.

I am a Mountain Man

I wrote the other day about Kenny Ray and how well he shooting his bow. He is going to start shooting in a league tomorrow. Why he has been practing with his bow I deciced to go out this past Sunday morning and start to shoot my .50 Caliber muzzleloader Hawken rifle again. It has been about 17 years since I last popped a cap.On the first shot I had forgot how it kicked with a 100 grains of double f powder in it. I let the brass end plate rest right on my collar bone,it is still very tender tonight. I had forgotten how much fun it is to shoot and how much I hate cleaning it after shooting. I did shoot about 15 times but i need to go back outand finish sighting in for 50 yards and find out where I am at a 100 yards. I would like to shoot in a league later this summer and enter a meat shootas well that the Greene county fish and game club holds this fall.Ther is also a Mountain man Rendevous in friendship Indiana the first part of Septemeber. Kenny Ray's boy scout troop always attends, this year I may go in My mountain man deerskin shirt that my mom made from my deer skins and my coon skin hat.
I came across a creed i think you call last night going thru some stories that I have been writing. I like it very much.
My mother was a badger, my father was a griz,I can out shoot , out fight, out cuss, and out drink any man. I have the fastest horse, the sharpest knife, and the finest rifle in the mountains. Hear my challenge echo in the valleys for any man of any nation to try and lift my top knot. I will fight to the death for my right to be a free man, to trap the beaver and hunt the elk, to drink from a cool streams, and to sleep under the stars. I have no man to answer to except myself. I fear no creature on Gods green earth,for I am a Mountain Man.
J.F Ballard

A barn dance and a stoved up body

I woke up this morning all stoved up and I will have some Advil with my second cup of coffee.I took Thursday and Friday off from work to spend some time with Tari and Kenny Ray for their birthdays as they are this week, Tari today and the little boy
his is Friday. We started Thursday by getting Kenny Ray his bow repaired and then going out to Greene county fish and Game where he practiced with his bow on the archery range, it amazed how one little piece could improve his shooting, but it did.
He now wants to shoot an apple off of my head, I do not think so. We then went fishing and he beat me fishing he caught 2 nice catfish.On Friday we had a picnic out at the club and we all went fishing, Tari hooked two fish and the line broke on both pole she was using, may have to change line on poles. She wants to catch a big fish
real bad as she has caught one just small bluegills.On Saturday the pool finally opened and I got to take them swimming,Kenny Ray has been chomping at the bits to go
since they all closed last fall.My sister Lisa and nephews Dave and Dan went with us.
But my present to Tari is what has me sore this morning, I took her, Lisa and my Mom
and after many arguments and the threats of grounding the boys to a barn dance.
The dance was a local park Carriage hill farms , they had a bluegrass band by the name of a the Corndrinkers. Well we had a blast even the boys had a great time, there must of been a about a 100 people there and over half of them teenagers
and most of them girls so the boys had a really enjoyed themselves.It was very refreshing to see young people with no tattoos no ear rings sticking out of their
faces and they had clothes on and they were no under ware hanging out. We danced for
2 and half hours Tari and Lisa danced every dance, but every one's favorite dance was the Virginia Reel. It always makes me happy to see my family smile and laugh, and the smile's on old and young face's alike enjoying simple country ways. One of my favorite parts was sitting there with my mother and watching all those young girls trying to teach boys to waltz, I finally told one young man " buddy it will be easier if you just let her lead that's what I have to do to dance with my wife".
When it was over and we were walking back to the truck the boys asked when is the next barn dance?

Memorial day

Memorial day brings back allot of memories for me. of when my family always went back to Kentucky to decorate. Everyone of my uncle and aunts cousin's gathered back to the Brewer farm. We would clean off and mow the grave yard and place flowers on the
graves. Then a big dinner served with Fried chicken {my favorite]. the kids would go play and the men would gather on the porch or under a shade tree and tell tale of the past. I would always stay with the men as loved to hear all the tales, many of which I am writing down for Kenny Ray and future generations.My Aunt Carmie tells me about when she was a girl they would travel by horse and wagon over to a place called
Frozen in Breathitt county Ky, where my great grandfather is buried between his 2 wives both of which are named Elizabeth. She tells me how they made flowers out of crate paper and pipe cleaners for the graves. they would have a preaching sometimes there also as well as dinner on the grounds.Uncle Ken and Dad took to me to see the graveyard at Frozen a couple of years ago to see if we could find it. We did it is now surrounded by woods and forgotten. My family no longer get together on decoration day My Aunts and Uncle's are up in their 70's and 80's and all my cousin's
are getting in their late 50's and 60's. and it seems we only get together for a funeral's, Even are numbers are dwindling for these. It seems my Grandmother was the glue that held the family together.

Turkey fly by

Saturday morning me and the little boy where fishing at the pond down on the farm.
he and I sat down together side by side and fished and talked and joked for a better part of an hour. When all of sudden i heard some clucking and yelping up on the grass field next to the road, I said son you hear that it is a turkey, and about that time it flew up over the fence and right over our heads it could not have been more than 2 or 3 foot over our heads. I told him that must be the hen that Uncle Ken
seen up here last week she must be nesting in the small field, I wander what got her up, It may have been that fox we seen a couple of days ago I said. She landed just a few feet behind us in the woods and went to clucking again. Son we need to leave so that she will go back to her nest, and Kenny Ray said ok dad. As we walked back to the cabin I thought how blessed I was that my son enjoyed the simple things like catching fish and shooting the breeze with his old man, And appreciating little surprises that God gives us seeing a deer , fox and even being given a turkey fly over.

Cucumber's and Copperhead's

Back in Kentucky one year while Dad and I were squirrel hunting up on the ridge, we both suddenly got a strong whiff of cucumbers. It smelled like someone had pealed a truck lot of cucumbers.
Dad said “Son, you smell that? Do you know what the old timers say about the smell of cucumbers in the woods?”
I answered, “Know Dad I don’t, what does it mean?”
“It means there are copperhead snakes nearby.”
I said, “Now do you really believe that Dad?” Which I knew he did not because Dad never believed in any of
Those old sayings, or planting by the signs.
He’d say, “Now son those are just a bunch of old wives tales.”
Well then Dad what is it then?
I don’t know son.
We had walked about 20 feet, when Dad pulled up his gun & fired two shots. I was looking for the squirrels, but all I could see was two dead Copperheads.
Dad just turned and said, “Maybe that tales true son.

Brewer son song's

My father always called me his little boy and he used to sing" Dad's ole boy babe only boy babe dad got". Whenever he would introduce me to someone it was always this is my little boy Kenny, he did this even though I was in my 40's I am 6 ft tall and weigh 275lbs I am not very little and people would laugh as dad was only about 5ft 8.
and did not weigh but about 150Lbs.I have always said the same things to Kenny Ray.
If someone is coming over he ask me not sing Dad's ole boy babe, it embarass's him.
but I know he like's it when I do it. But he does not like it when I sing in the morning the same song that my father sang to me early in the morning.
Up in the morning and off to school, they are teaching the golden rule, and that littel girl behind won't leave you alone. ring ring goes the bell they are cooking that lunch and ready to sell. I belive it is a Chuck Berry song and it used to drive me crazy when my dad sang it to me and I know It drive Kenny Ray crazy, he will try covering up his head singing any thing to try and stop me. I wonder if Kenny Ray will sing to his children the Brewer son song's.

Letting go and Remembering the good

I was talking to a good friend a couple of day's ago.She told me how much she has enjoyed reading my blog. I thanked her and we discussed that my writing was a way of dealing with my father's death. It has bothered me alot more than I expected, my father was never a real big part of my life . My father was an abusive alcohlic.
After he and my mother divorced , I was 12. I never seen or heard from him much.
maybe once every 2 years or so no birthday, christmas not a graduation even my wedding he was alway's a no show. He came back into my life when I was 30 years old.
When Uncle Ken and I went got him in Kentucky he was homeless. He moved with Uncle Ken and pulled himself together has best he could. I watched him stay sober for 6 months to a year but would alway's go back to drinking and ocassionly fight with me or Uncle Ken. Uncle Ken and I have talked alot about and could never figure him out all we ever came up with was that he just thought different than normal people. He got mad at me one time because I would not stop and see everytime I was down in Bainbridge, but if knew he was drinking as I did not want my young son to be exposed to him in that condition as he could be very tempermental.Kenny Ray was 6 years old when I asked dad to move into the cabin. I was very concerned he was just diagnosed
with C.O.P.D. smokers diasease. The trailer he was living in after moving out of Uncle Kens was not a healthy enviroment.Those last few years were fairly good he would still drink ocassionaly but only one or two times did he go on binges, but some of those could last 3 or 4 weeks until he ran out of money. As I look back now he and I fought the last year of his life on several ocassions including Thanksgiving
and Christmas as he was mad and did come up to my house for dinner either Holiday, I regrett it terribly. About a month before He died I was at the cabin and he and was sitting on the couch together talking and he looked at me and said son I am sorry.
I asked for what , and he just said I am sorry and nothing else was said. The night he died at the hospital My sister's ,Kenny Ray and I were in the emergency room with him. It was the only time I ever thought of him as being weak and frail. I was sitting in the corner just watching them attend to him , he just kept asking to be left alone , I finally got up and went over to him and told them all to leave him alone he just wants to be left alone. I placed my and under his head the other I was trying to clean the blood as best I could. Kenny ray and my sister gathered around his bed. I asked do do you want me to remove my hand from the back of your head? He looked up at me and said no.He looked backed at my sister's and said It's time for this old man to go, I love you all , He then looked at my sisiter Lisa and said I love God to, He turned back his and said God please help me. He never sad another word as the morphine started to kick in.
Sometimes I think back even the last few years of his life Dad and I never got very close to one another because we both remembered the bad times when maybe he was embaraased and ashamed at what had happened and maybe deep down I was mad and disaapointed. I told my mom after he died that I could not come up with many good memories of dad when I was a kid and she told me there was if I would let go of the bad ones I would remember the good ones.
I wished I could of had a relationship with Dad like Kenny Ray and I have. or even just one more day of sitting on the porch and joking, laughing and making a good memory.

Appalachian American Constitution

We the people can no longer ignore the situation
The cost was high lives lost and blood shed for Representation
Our jobs-kids futures and tax dollars thrown away like a castration
The working middle class lost in frustration
As Uncle Sam enters rehabilitation
For spending money like a sailor seeking fornication
As the States start speaking of succession
The only answer for this administration
Is that congress turns in their resignation
Before the people release them after November's vote numeration
so they no longer receive anymore compensation
From Wall street-Health and bank corporations
There by releasing the people from their constipation

Song of the Whippoorwill / Wicker Bill

When ever I travel back home to Kentucky, there is such a peace that come's over me, that is indescribable.one of the things that really love is to listen the Whippoorwill sing their song. That whip-poor-will whip-poor-will is very relaxing as well as humurous. I think of a story my dad always told me when I was little. About his uncle Wicker Bill, He said now son Wicker never worked a day in his life and that his dad said the Whippoorwill sang about Uncle Wicker. They sing Wicker-Bill
Wicker-Bill won't work never will, Wicker-Bill Wicker-Bill won't work never will.
Dad said grandma would tell them to hush don't say that and they would all laugh.
I was at a funeral a few year's ago back in Campton my home town. I was sitting outside with all the other men listening and telling tales.
When someone said that working hard would make you live longer.Just as quick my uncle E.C. said "now don't give me that Uncle Wicker lived to be a 105 his brother a 109
and they never worked a day in their live''s". I think we all thought about the song of Wicker-Bill Wicker-Bill won't work never will,as we all started laughing. I though in my mind of Grandma telling us to hush.

Life long friends

Henry Patton has been my friend since the second grade. It’s a miracle that he still is, but I am glad he is. He is one of the kindest people I have ever known. Now Henry never got in trouble in school a perfect student, till one day in auto body class in our junior year. It was January and about zero outside when I locked him outside and instead of walking around he waited for the door to open. Clinton another boy in class finally opened the door about 45 minutes later, when it opened I seen it and Henry came running through the shop chasing me toward the office. He tackled me right in front of Mr. Asbury’s office door and he had been watching. He opened the door and told Henry to get up and follow him, he then reached down and grabbed me by the ankle and dragged me down the hallway into the principal office and Henry strolling behind. Mr. Whitaker asked what I did and he said I do not know but he did it to Mr. Patton. We both got a weeks in school
suspension and letter mailed to our parent’s. Henry’s dad was waiting on him to get home when the letter came in the mail. He said son what is this letter about, Henry’s reply was simple “that damn Brewer” his dad never said another word about the matter.

When I first started to drive I always usually drove junk, 4 or 5 hundred dollar cars the kind I never left the house without a toolbox. Well for about 6 months I was always need a jump start or be broke down. I would always call Henry for a jump or to come get me, he or his dad always came to help me out. That year for Christmas I received a set of jumper cables from him.
Henry stood up with me when I got married and he put aside a bottle of Jack Daniels for us to share when one had a son. It was in his house when it caught on fire.