For my son and grandsons

This blog is for future generations to look at and try to understand a way of life that has disappeared in one generation. A life of simplicty and a life of adventure that only
can come from living with nature.

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

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.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

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.

Monday, December 6, 2010

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?

Sunday, December 5, 2010

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.