Happy birthday you lucky man

Well another birthday come and gone. Forty six down and only God knows how many left, I hope another thirty anyway.I do not know how it will end but I found out tonight how it started . My mother came over tonight to wish me happy birthday and was telling Kenny Ray about the morning I was born. I was born in Campton Kentucky
in Dr. Maddix clinic about six thirty a.m. and that evening mom went home with me and my grandma Brewer. In those days there was no central heat in that old two story farm house and the only heat was a stone fireplace with grate, and it was the front room as well as my grandma,s bedroom. Mom told Kenny Ray how that night she and I shared the big old feather bed with my Grandma.I think Maybe that is why my mother and grandma Brewer mean so much to me. I was the last of the grandma Brewers grandchildren to spend their first night in that old house. In a handmade feather bed and under a handmade quilt and kept warm with love.
I am a very lucky man my life started with the love of my mother and my grandma,
and as I go to bed tonight I am am still kept warm from the love of my wife and son, and still the love of my mother. And my grandma who I know watches from Heaven.
Life is like an alarm clock, you can only wind one time and you do know when it will quit. so tell that some one you love them. you may not get another chance.

Breakfast with Uncle Ken

I went down to the farm yesterday morning to work on one of the four wheelers that Uncle Ken uses to haul firewood with. As well as my ole tractor it is about time to get potatoes in the ground. I got there about nine a.m. and Uncle Ken and I went to breakfast together. After breakfast we went over to A friend of ours house , Joel
he is a Mennonite I have hunted Joel's farm for over twenty years now and I have watched his children grow up. Two of his sons Jesse and James used to tag along with me in the fields hunting when they were only seven or eight years old. I used to take them my old hunting and trapping magazines when I finished them and now they are men. Uncle Ken and I visited with them a little while and I hired Joel to do some roof work for me this week on the cabin.
We got back to Uncle Kens house and we sat outside and talked the better part of the day. There was nothing wrong with the four wheeler,He just did not let it warm up enough before turning the choke off. He has to go the heart doctor Monday as he has a leaky valve that might require surgery and I think he is scared a little and so am I.I love to talk to Uncle about the old days and Kentucky which is what we always talk about that and hunting and firewood. We talked about his older brother Arnold yesterday.
Arnold was a jack of all trades and did little of everything. He farmed, raised bees
cut timber, coal mined, he could make tobacco sticks, he could shoe horse's and mules
and he even cut and split White oak stave's for barrels. Ken said he sold the tobacco sticks for seventy five dollars a thousand. But the main thing about Uncle Arnold was he would eat just about any kind of meat. Ken told me about a time when he caught possum and had his wife Anna may cook it. they had to throw pot and all away as Arnold said it must of wintered with a skunk because as it started cooking it stunk so bad that he could not eat it. Arnold even tried to eat a chicken hawk one time and said it was a real blue meat and not fit to eat. Ken then told me about a time when Arnold was sitting on the front porch of his house when a big snapping turtle walked out of the creek right into Arnold's yard, mistake Arnold leaped from the porch and had supper. Ken said that turtle could have walked out anywhere on Baptist fork and been safe but he committed suicide and walked in front of Arnold.
Uncle Ken said he remembered a big turtle fry one year when was a kid Arnold and Anna-may and two of her brothers caught seventeen big turtles. Anna may and her sister in law had two big pans going frying turtle and she made about five gallons of Kool aide in a big milk can. Ken said they all had a great time. Uncle Arnold passed away in 1997 the same year Kenny Ray was born. One of the last times Uncle Ken seen Arnold, he was cooking a mess of pig ears and feet.
My whole family and the people of Baptist fork used to live there lives as my friend Joel and his family live today. They depended on no one but themselves and helped those in need.
I finished the day sitting on the porch of the cabin enjoying the sunshine, making a list of things that I forgot to bring with me to fix the tractor next weekend. After I meet with Uncle Ken for breakfast.

Uncle Grover and Trig handme down 22 rifle

Uncle Grover visited my mother and other family members for coffee every Sunday morning; he made his rounds on a regular basis. He and my father were coon-hunting partners; he had a nickname for my dad of Trig. He love to rabbit and coon hunt and he loved his biscuits and gravy. My Aunt Hazel cooked them just about everyday so she was very good at it, as I believe she fixed them everyday that they were married.
One morning my dad and Grover and a friend of theirs Virgil came in from coon hunting, and Aunt Hazel made a large bowl of Gravy and about 2 dozen biscuits for the 3 of them. Virgil made the comment to dad that she must have thought there was an army coming for breakfast. Dad chuckled and though to himself that Virgil was in for a surprise to watch Uncle Grover eat biscuits and gravy, when they finished there was not even a scrape left, Virgil could not believe what he had just watched, and talked about it for years. Dad and Grover hunted together for years and they bought a 22 rifle a Remington model 514 some time in the 1960’s. At some point the arm on the bolt got broke and they had someone weld back on. The gun is beat up but shots great, Kenny Ray won first place last year with the gun. I was a little embarrassed as some of the kids were shooting all these new fancy rifle’s with scope’s and some even looked like these Olympic target rifles. Then here was my boy with a well-worn 40 plus year old rifle with open sights and score 95 out of a 100 possible points. And Kenny Ray would not trade or sell for anything, as he is very proud to carry a gun with so much history. I have often thought if the gun could talk what tells it would tell.
Dad and Grover owned dogs together as well, one was a walker hound by the name of Gypsy, and they won several trophies and raised several good pups out of her. I recall not long after dad moved back to Kentucky, Aunt Hazel was mad as hell as Grover bought a dog for a thousand dollars, that was a lot of money for a dog at that time.
When Uncle Grover passed away of a heart attack It was the biggest funeral that I have attended I believe his son Steve said there was a 101 cars in the funeral procession.
Uncle Grover was loved by many, as I cannot recall a time that he was not smiling and joking.In the picture above Trig is on left and Grover on the right.

Goodbye to Ole man winter

What a beautiful day here on the farm, the porch reads fifty-two degrees and I am in my favorite T-shirt enjoying the warm sunshine. I am being serenaded by a some crows calling in the distance as well as a couple of squirrels squaking about thirty yards from my seat here on the porch. I am not sure if the are squeaking at each other, or me but I hope they are squaking at Old man winter, telling him to be on his way. As I am sure they are as tired of him as I am.
My cabin faces due south toward the homeland of Kentucky, and most of the snow and ice are melted in front of the cabin and on the sides. But as I look onto the woods on the northeast side there is still a light covering of snow, it looks like a checkerboard.
I do believe that the worst of winter is behind us now, that the back of the old man is broke. As I seen something today that I have never noticed before, Kenny Ray and I was sitting in the front room of the cabin talking and I noticed some birds in the side yard. It looked funny to me because on a second look it was Robins. I am always looking for the return of the Robins as usually spring is not far behind them. This always makes me happy when I see the first of the year. And I was really happy today and not just because I seen one but I counted twenty five Robins in the yard scratching in the leaf litter for something to eat, twenty five Robins now that has to be a sign.
I had a little fun today out of Kenny Ray as he and I went for a walk this afternoon out to the pond. He wanted to throw rocks out on the frozen pond. We discovered a couple of years ago that when you throw rocks out on the frozen water it make a noise. The noise changes pitch as the rock slides across. And depending on the size of rock also change’s
The tone. It is a lot of fun when you throw multiple rocks. But today no tone’s as there was too much snow over the ice. So I told Kenny Ray lets go get that hornet’s nest out by the fence that we seen back in deer season. We walked out there and he held the limb down while I snapped it off. It was still in good shape considering the bad weather. As we started back to the cabin Kenny Ray asked dad is sure that all the hornets were gone? Yes son they are gone. Dad can I touch it? Sure son go ahead and has is hand touched it I made a buzzing sound with my mouth and when I did Kenny Ray jumped about a foot backwards as it scared him to death. I started laughing pretty hard and he said thanks dad very funny as he picked up a snowball and threw it at me. I laughed all the way back to the cabin and I kept making a buzzing sound. The hornets nest will not only make a good conversation piece but will hold a memory of a fine afternoon spent with my son.
We then drove down and spent a couple of hours with Uncle Ken and he shared some more stories with us. Which takes me to where I am now on the front porch in the sunshine saying goodbye with squirrels to old man winter as he has worn out his welcome.

Grandpa a hero to me and the world

Back in October I wrote about my grandpa Patton my moms dad. He served in the army in WWII. He never talked about it much to me and this past summer I started looking for some information about this part of his life. My Uncle Bob had his discharge papers and I asked My Aunt Evelyn for a copy of it, which she did. I then wrote my us congress man for a copy of any records on my grandpa that he could send me. And in return they sent me a bunch of forms to fill out, which I did. Well I had somewhat forgot about it. And then about a week ago I got a letter and a package in the mail. The package contained my grandpa's medal that he had received. I knew that he had a Purple Heart with Oak Leaf clusters and had seen it at one time. But did know nor did my mother know of the other ones. Which included the Bronze Star for bravery. A European , African, Middle Eastern mead with three Bronze stars as well as his combat infantry and good conduct medals. He was if I read it right with the 41st armored infantry and served in the battles at Sicily , Normandy and Northern France. He was wounded on August 22 in France. I was always proud of my grandpa the hunter and the tobacco farmer, the moonshiner and a solider. I will frame and display his medals in my office as a constant reminder of what he and his generation did for the world.

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.