Silence in the woods is priceless

My dog Belle and I went to pull and check traps this evening with the weather turning bad. It was one the evenings in the winter that I love, with the woods were silent graveyard dead , no sound at all, no birds chirping, no water running in creeks, no wind so silent that your ears hurt. We walked around the point at out on the end I could see the far ridges about a mile away and with the snow I could see it as clear as the woods I was standing in, no movement anywhere.We turned and started back up the backside of the ridge and as we neared the saddle between to ridges I brushed the snow off a down log and sat down, Belle sat next to me and we just sat listening, she had her ears perked up and was listening for any sound but like mine none came. We sat there about fifteen minutes my mustache and beard with frozen beads of water in it , and Belle whiskers and drops of frozen moisture on the ends. I reached down and rubbed her side and said we better go girl we still have some traps to pull. She took the lead as always . As we topped the ridge there we caught the the smell of wood smoke coming from the cabin, we gathered the remaing traps and headed for home and our spots next to the wood stove. I think Belle and I will watch Jeremiah Johnson while we defrost our beards and warm are feet or maybe just listen to the wood crackle in the stove.

Trapping the ulitmate sport

I love to trap and my first season was very memorable. I believe I had more fun the summer before, getting all the gear together. A then came all the preparation the derusting the dyeing of the traps. I also had to take a class for first time trappers; I was the only middle aged man in a group of kids. I have been bear hunting, taken a huge whitetail buck, and caught a 25 pound flathead catfish. But the thrill of what could be in the trap, and the scouting for the target animal sign. The matching of whits makes trapping the ultimate outdoor activity.
I trapped 2 winters before my son Kenny Ray Jr. was born and had a lot of fun. I never caught a lot of animals but still enjoyed it tremendously. I trapped a stream called the Little Beavercreek, in the city of Beavercreek a suburb of Dayton Ohio. It ran past the body shop that I worked at the time, so it was easy to run before and after work. One of the days that stands out still after 20 years was a day in January. It was a bitter cold day it had been about zero for a week. And at 5:30pm the full moon was already hanging in the clear blue sky as the orange and pink glow to the west was all that was left of the sun. I drove down to the end of the parking lot, slid into my waders. I had been going in and out of the stream now for about three weeks and climbed down into the stream at an old railway tressel .Which was in sight of a couple of house’s. Little known to me was, I was being watched the whole time during my trapping adventure. I entered the stream and looked at one of my sets just below the trestle .Jack pot I had a nice muskrat right at the edge of a slide at the junction of the stream and a drainage ditch. I picked up my prize and continued down the stream checking my traps. My mind began to wander as I took in all of nature’s glory. The more I walked and looked around at the banks of the stream. The more the tension of the day slid away as if being carried away with the current of Little Beavercreek. As if on queue a flock of Canadian geese flew over head in perfect formation, singing to me as they flew into the fading sun. I stopped to watch and wander at this perfect moment in a mans life. A time where he has no worries, no deadlines to meet, just this perfect moment in time. Just him and the stream and his thoughts. When the silence was suddenly broken, “hey you down there in the water”. I turned to see a woman standing on the bridge in her house coat. She said I have been watching you for a couple of weeks. What are you doing down in there? I told her I was running some traps. She then asked me if I could tell her what was this animal she kept seeing around the creek, it looks like a rat with a tail. I reached into my coat and said like this she said yes. It’s a muskrat, I told her .She said ok thanks and left. Strange I thought as she was running back towards her house. I never thought anyone ever knew I was there let alone being watched everyday. It taught me that you have to a responsible sportsman all the time especially when you are in an urban area. I continued on down the stream checking my other sets and resetting some of the ones that were in a more open area that could be seen from the road. As I did not want to catch a coon and it be seen in the trap before I checked them in the morning before work began. My last trap which was a live trap set next to a trail leading from a small stand of timber to the waters edge. Had a nice big coon and at closer glance had three legs. Was baited with some peanut butter and jelly. I prefer this bait as House cats seem to have little interest in it. I carry that first coon with me still to day during the winter season. It is my winter hat, and it always takes be back to a day of perfection. And where ever I wear it at the bank or into a restaurant A complete stranger will ask me about my hat. The children always want to touch it and ask me if is real. And folks of my generation and older will tell me how they had one like it when they were a kid. My wife is afraid that I will have a confrontation with an animal activist as well as some people that stop me ask if I am afraid one of them will. I always say look at me do you think they will confront me. I am six foot and weigh 290 lbs with a full beard; I think I will be safe. That year I only caught a few muskrats nothing spectacular, but the one thing I did get was a 3 legged raccoon and a memory of a perfect day.
My second season trapping was moving along nothing very eventful. Then one afternoon I got a phone call. The man asked if he could speak to Ken. I said you are. How can I help you? He said his name was Lynn and that he got my name from a friend. I understand you trap. I told him yes, I do a little trapping... Well I need a trapper as I am the grounds keeper, here at Walnut Grove country club. The raccoons are destroying our putting greens. They come in at night and cut the sod to get at the grubs underneath. He then asks if I could come over, so we could discuss what needed done. I went to see him and he showed me the damage that the coons were doing to the golf greens. It looked like someone took a knife and split them open and rolled them back. I told him I could help. He said the only thing was I had to come in late in the evening and pull the traps every morning so that the members did not see what I was doing, I said ok. So I went to work, I would get there about dusk and go to work, but there was always a member or two just finishing. They would always stop and ask what I was doing and I would always stop and answer their questions. Their reply was always basically the same, get them. Now the particular day I remember most is the morning my wife Tari decided she was going to go with me. She got up at 5 am and climbed into my old pick up with me and we set out for the country club. It still tickles me to think of us in that old truck, me in my coon skin hat and a gun in the back seat. Can you say Beverly hillbilly’s .The first trap we came to was next to the fence and the woods that the coons were coming out of and under. The headlamps showed the eyes of the first catch of the day. A big ole coon in a foot hold trap. I stopped the truck and got out with .22 rifle and disposed of the coon. As I put the gun back in the cab and coon in the bed. She said if you get another I want to shoot it, I said are you sure. She said yes. I drove around checking each trap and pulling them as I went. As I approached the 16th green which seemed to be a favorite spot as it had the most damage. I heard the chain rattle from the foothold that I set right on the green. I stopped the truck on the golf cart lane looked at Tari and said come on let’s go... I got out and grabbed the rifle and told her again to come on. I could tell she was changing her mind by the look on her face. No, I will just wait here. Ok honey I said and I went on to my quarry. There he was in the foothold trying to pull away. I thought tonight I will set up the second hole with the same set up. I had rolled back the sod and dug my trap in and placed just a drop of a coon lure right at the edge of the sod. I caught 20 coons that winter most of them at the country club. I enjoyed just walking around and setting up in the beautiful piece of property. As well as talking to the members that stopped me to talk about trapping.
I never went back to the country club as the ground keeper moved onto another job. I only trapped another season after that one on the Little Beavercreek. After my son was born there just never seemed to be enough time. But this year he is thirteen and I have had a problem with a mink getting at my chickens. I went looking for my traps and I think it will be fun teaching my son. But I think we will target coon as I have been seeing a lot of track in the creek near the chicken lot. The little boy needs a coon skin cap and I can think of no better way to spend more time with him. Although he might be a little soft hearted like his mother. That’s ok as I love them both.

Beagle , bear, wild boar or Jester hill panther

Well I was caught twice today without my rifle, Once this morning. If you read my other blog you know I had a chicken killed by a coyote last week and since then I have been patrolling the lane every morning with my rifle , kind of like a prison guard. Mainly to have my scent in the area to scare off any varmints. This morning however I left my rifle next to the door, and as I started down the lane I jumped a grey fox, laying there in ambush for my hens. The grass next to the lane was only about five inches high and yet he was just laying there. I cut the grass this afternoon.
                                      The second time was this evening at about seven thirty I walked out to the pond to check on  Kenny Ray. When I got there I decided to turn Fisher one of my Beagle hounds loose for some exercise.  Doc my other beagle run loose all the time, well they ran around the pond and up and down the lane and I decided to take them out and see if we could get up a rabbit and have us a race. The dogs ran into the brush and I was standing on top of the ridge checking on a persimmon tree to see if it had any fruit. Just then I heard the dogs bark about two hundred yards from me in the edge of the woods where Kenny Ray thought he seen a bear last week. They were barking at something but not moving out with the track{scent} and they do not cold trail. They were barking like a coon hound on tree, that's when I heard the brush start breaking and a low growl and like a dog cry for just as second and yet the dogs stayed in the same spot. Now I had no gun , no shirt and my boots were not even tied. I began to holler back at Kenny Ray to go get my gun. He jumped om his four wheeler and went back to the house to grab my rifle. Another four or five minutes passed and the digs still barking but now were moving to my right and now about a hundred yards from me. Kenny Ray returned with my rifle and we started into the woods toward the dogs and as we approached Kenny Ray spotted one of the dogs just as they started back to my left toward where the commotion began. So we turned toward the point to try and cut them off.  This time the dogs and the prey went low on the point and the underbrush so bad you can not see the bench from our position. As we listened to the dogs run they slowly went around the ridge into a old clear cut and once again they seemed to have stopped but there barking intensified, again like they had it treed and by now it was getting dark, in fact I looked at my watch , ten minutes to nine.  the barking lasted about ten minutes then all was quiet. I was getting eat up with mosquitoes and had Kenny Ray go get my tee shirt, he was gone about ten minutes and returned with my shirt and asked me dad have you heard anything I said no son. He the asked me what I thought they might be running. I said well son it is not a rabbit or deer as they do not run like that, I said they were running like the dogs I hunted over in Tennessee wild boar hunting, and while I have hunted bear but not with dogs, son I am not sure what it is. He then asked me dad do you think the dogs are hurt? Are you going to go in after them. Son I do not know and I began to call the dogs in. At nine thirty still no sound and no dogs coming to my calls. I said son let's us go get my truck and drive out through and listen for them.  We returned with the truck and I stopped where we last heard them and I began to call once again, we waited a few minutes and I drove down about twenty yards and there was Fisher coming in to my calls finally but no Doc. Fisher had his tongue hanging down to the ground  and was wore out Kenny Ray picked him
up and I said son check him over and see if he is hurt, Kenny Ray replied no dad no blood just wore out, I began to call for Doc But he never came in or barked. Kenny Ray asked dad what are you going to do, son nothing I can do for now we will wait till morning and see if Doc comes in.

Mountain man stir fry

What a dinner we had last night thanks to my two boys, my son Kenny Ray and my other son/nephew
Matthew. They spent most of the night Friday night frog gigging, setting turtle jugs and Saturday fishing, they woke Tari and I up early Saturday morning about one a.m. coming in the house soaking wet, and they just had to show dad how well they did without him. But the old man caught the biggest catfish for supper. We had frog legs, turtle and catfish and tater's from the garden all cooked over an open fire, my extra large skillet was not big enough for all the food. We were joined by sister in law Rhonda brother in law Tony and his three sons niece Monica and her two children and wife Tari all around the fire. The big hit of the night was the frog legs everyone kept asking if there was anymore the fried potatoes was a close second. After supper was over we discussed our next stir fry in September it will include same items plus squirrel and duck.

Turkzilla , beagles and turtles

This spring I managed two fill both of my turkey tags with two very nice gobblers. The first one was 25 lbs 11 inch beard and one inch spurs, the second was a monster 27lbs, eleven and a half inch beard and one and a quate rinch spurs. The fellows at the check in station said it was the biggest turkey that they had ever checked in. Ther magazine fish and game finder took the photo hanging in the store and told the fellows that it would be in the July isssue possibly the cover. I did not make the cover but turkzilla and I are on page 10. The first turkey I sneaked on , I closed the distance of about fifty yards without him seeing me, his attention was on a hen. He fell grave yard dead at the boom of the shotgun. I stepped of the distance at seventy one steps , a great shot . The second was in full strut also and with two hens and I managed to close the distance once again about twenty yards and the giant fell again grave yard dead never even twitching  a nice forty step shot.
              Overall in six hunts two turkey's on the ground and heard 8 different gobblers in those six days , and was still hearing turkeys gobble around the farm up the third week of June. We had one even come to my calls as Tari and my mom and I were sitting on the porch drinking coffee. Tari even slipping up on them in the early mornings on her walks. My brother in law also took a nice twenty two pound gobbler.
                           I purchased two beagle young beagle hounds back in the spring and try to take them out ever other evening if I am not to tired from the days work. One shows promise Fisher has a lot of hunt in him not much hope for Doc though. Kenny Ray has been running turtle jugs since season came in and so far has only managed one, along with some frog gigging . I have not got go with him yet, but I will be carving out some time to go with him soon.

30 years of vacation a husband and Hunter

I am writing tonight with little Belle curled up at my feet and a fine cigar. Thinking back over this past week of another great week of vacation. This is the thirtieth year of having this week off an the last time that I will be taking the whole week off , at best a couple of days only. I will be taking more time in October and staying on the farm. My week began with a wonderful dinner with my family over for Thanksgiving, with Mom , my sister's Lisa and Jennifer and their families and my Uncle Ken. Then on Friday Kenny Ray and I went on our second annual pheasant hunt, and once again the little boy put it on the old man. He made me so proud of him with his shot selection and his accuracy , the guides were impressed as well. As that same morning they had an accident with a eight year old boy who shot one of their best dogs that morning, and they are now considering no longer letting kids hunt there. It would be a shame this is the first time in over thirty years of hunting that I have seen such a accident. Kenny Ray and went to the farm after the hunt and on Saturday, Kenny Ray fixed baked pheasant with sauteed mushrooms onions and celery, with bake potatoes and a salad. Over the weekend we were joined by my father-in-law and brother-in-law and his two sons and my cousin, all of whom came down for the deer gun season.

                            On opening day Monday Kenny Ray and I hit the point together I seen a doe but did not get a shot. After about two hours we got up and began to back toward the cabin slowly trying to sneak up on some deer, when we came to briar thicket at a small white oak that Kenny Ray killed his first squirrel, he motioned to me to watch the lower end as he busted the thicket and just has he started thru something jumped and took off and what I seen took me by surprise a big coyote the first I have seen on the farm in twenty four years I have heard them howling at night but never seen one. On Tuesday morning I awoke with the ground covered in snow and chose not to hunt as I was going back to Dayton , to take my wife Tari out to supper for thirtieth wedding anniversary. I spent the morning out by the pond with my father-in-law Richard Boninsegna, we burnt trash and smoked a cigar while we watched Belle play in her first snow. I believe she enjoys the farm just as much as I do, she evens heads to the truck went let out to use the potty, looks up to me with ears perked up, like she is saying come on old man open the door and get driving.
                   On Wednesday Kenny Ray and I went duck hunting for the first time. I had posted on Greene county fish and game web site that we were looking for someone to take and show us the rope's, as I have never done any duck hunting. Fellow member Shane Davis called and said he would be happy to take us.
We arrived at C.J. Brown reservoir at four thirty am and took a boat ride and set up and just as if planned just after daylight two hooded merganser's came in and only one left, the little boy got his first duck a hen with one shot. A little while latter a drake flew in and the old man busted it. and then Shane got himself a drake. We only killed three ducks but we seen lots of birds and had a good time and are hooked, I can not thank Shane enough and neither can my taxidermist. I had planned on going back to the farm Thursday, to continue deer hunting, but I woke that morning with a cold and decided to stay in Dayton, as I don not like going to the doctor and letting them robe me. I am going to have to finish as Belle is chewing on my toe's and demanding my attention, her and I will go to the family room and turn on the western channel and see what is on.

Dad we are home

 

We have been busy around the farm this October cutting firewood and mowing around the farm. Kenny Ray his friend Matt and Shane and I finally built are dock/ deck on the pond I have planned it for two years. It was also a lesson for the boys on simple construction and how to hit your thumb with a hammer. Shane and I overseen the framing and the turned it over to the boys to put the decking on.

Kenny Ray had to be the first test pilot / cannonball , he and Matt tested it repeatedly and they even were able to trash talk Shane into flight. I have since installed two solar lamps and Kenny Ray is now able to run his remote control boat at night. Kenny Ray has also started taking his meals there and he continues to say Dad , I love my dock only wished we would have built it sooner. I am lucky that Kenny Ray loves the farm as much as I , for the last two Sundays when I have said son it is time to get ready and go home, his reply has been Dad we are home and I am never leaving

                                                                              

It is time to hit the woods again

It is Monday September 17 and 5 a.m. breakfast is over and I am trying to get caught up on some writing. I would rather be putting on my hunting pants this morning but I have to wear trained monkey clothes and go into the office.But before I go i will drink another cup of coffee and write some. Hunting season 2012 started in the great state of Kentucky , the opening of deer bow season on September 1. I was joined by my son Kenny Ray , my mother Pearlie she did not hunt she spent time with her brothers Bob and Earl and sister Monnell. I was also joined by Uncle Ken he spent time with his sister Mary and brother E.C. and I spent most of my time at the Brewer farm, 226 acres of home.
 On opening morning I had a deer come within about 40 yards but I was winded and the deer went to blowing and stomping it's feet at me but never let me see if it was a buck or doe in two and half days all we seen was turkey's and they never got within range as always.
The last remaining barn on the farm is about to be taken down as it took allot of damage back in the spring from the large hail. I spent my dinner time in the barn thinking back to all the work filled days and jokes and laughter that was done there thru the last 75 or 80 years. I cut some of the siding off the barn to bring back , to make a picture frame and to decorate inside of my cabin. I just found out this week after having some of it planed it is Chestnut and it looks very nice.
I took September 6 off from work to bring Squirrel season in and spend some time with Uncle Ken.

I had a perfect start to the Ohio season I was six for six , seen six squirrel's shot six times and six pieces of meat on my belt and back to my truck by 10 a.m. I split them with Uncle Ken . He stewed and made gravy with his on Friday and I fried mine. This past weekend was a work weekend Kenny Ray and I had to bring down new couch for the cabin on Friday. I was planning on burning the old one but Kenny Ray said  no dad let's put out by the pond like that couch in the movie Grumpy Old Men . Well as you see in the above photo the couch for now is by the pond and Uncle Ken and I both
relaxing after cutting firewood all day Saturday, we were both to tired to fish. On Sunday I decided to hunt that morning and had another good bushy tail hunt , not perfect but good I seen seven on the ground and killed three, I gave them all to Uncle Ken and I think he going to cook them today for him and is great granddaughter  for supper. Kenny Ray and I put up my tree stand Sunday afternoon and just farted around in the woods. We got back to the cabin around two thirty and he took a nap on the couch and I sat on the porch with a  cup of coffee and listened to the Reds  game on the radio in between snores. So far in the season deer 0 squirell's 9

Dad, those Swamp People have nothing on us

Kenny Ray got back last night after spending three days in Appalachain American heaven, the farm in Bainbridge. We went fishing Friday afternoon fishing after spending the morning with my cousin Lester. Lester came down that morning to visit and he brought down his deer mount to hang on the wall above the fireplace , it is in Ohio big bucks record book and was taken just below my pond. That afternoon Kenny Ray and went over to the river and fished up until dark. River fishing is new to Kenny Ray he has to learn to deal with the current. I did manage to catch one Saugeye. On Saturday Kenny Ray rode the four wheeler while I mowed around the pond, he finally grabbed a fishing rod around nine thirty am and staretd catching some small large mouth about five of them which he released. We then decided to try and fish my neibors pond which he has told me for the last five years and I have never taken the time to do so. Now from my pond it is only about a hundred yards thru the woods. I do not think this pond has been fished in ten or twenty years to my knowledge as the banks are all grown up and it is very difficult to casy and is covered in ant hills about two feet high where you can cast.but boy does it ever have fish. just as fast as you would cast the bobber would disappear. We caught and kept ten fish and I think we released twenty nice Bluegill. I had been promising Kenny Ray a fish fry like I used to do over a open fire.
As we sat around the fire talking and watching the fish fry Kenny Ray said Dad what about some frog legs I told him not tonight as frog season was not in yet but he could try and catch some if wanted to. He grabbed my spotlight and hit the banks and managed to catch one bull frog with his hands which totally amazed me. He turned the frog loose washed up and we ate some nice fish for supper, as we were eating we heard a splash behind us , it was his fishing pole going into the water as we forgot the pole he baited and cast out. We laughed and Kenny Ray said Dad those Swamp People have nothing on us.
It started raining on us around midnight and we called it an evening and went back to the cabin.
I woke around five am and it was pouring a rain , I got up turned on the coffee pot and sat out on the porch and listened to the rain hitting the metal roof, as it got daylight the fog began to roll in from the valley below and thru the woods and in the disatance I could hear a turkey gobble. about eight I ran out of coffee in the first pot and decide it was time for sausage and eggs . Kenny Ray got up and we cleaned up around the cabin , went out and Kenny Ray added some new sugar syrup to his bees{ which I thought were mine} and headed back to Dayton in the rain.

Dryland fish/Morel mushrooms

Kenny Ray and I took some time out from working on the farm yesterday to go look for some dry land fish. it was a beautiful sun filled spring day. We started in the woods just below the cabin, I have never had a whole lot of luck when it came to finding Morels, always to late or to early in the season as I hunted them in my spare time which is has hard to find as the mushrooms. But this year the waitress at Timbers told they were just starting to be found as some of the customers were just beginning to tel what they were finding. Kenny Ray and I finished opening up my new spot for my Honey bees, which I have decided to keep again after a few years of not having any fresh honey. The fish had been fed and all that was left was to burn some trash and cut two loads of firewood for the day. Kenny Ray was more than ready to take a break from working. I walked over the same ground as in years past searching the same wood lot checking around Ash, hickory, elm under all the May apple and just when I was about to quit and back to cutting wood and there at my left foot was the gold at the end of the rainbow. I looked to my left and there was more and then to might right even more. I yelled at Kenny Ray and he was more excited than I. As we pinched them off at the ground, we talked about everything that a person needed could be provided on a small farm and woodlot, food as in wild game berries, nuts , dry land fish and poke salad. Dad what is Poke salad ? Kenny Ray asked.

Son that is another lesson Dad will be teaching in a a few weeks.

Gods almighty hand

Just one of the reasons I enjoy my little cabin in the woods this beautiful sunrise out my front windows and a cup of black coffee. Thought I would share some Appalachia with everyone.

Kenny Ray the trapper

Kenny Ray has learned a new skill trapping, and I hope he loves it as much as I do. Of all of my outdoor pursuits this is the one I have enjoyed the most even though it seems I have never had enough time to pursue it . I hope to spend a lot more time on the trap line  for the remainder of this season and over the next few years. We set his first trap this past Saturday afternoon and his first catch was a feral house cat we were using a fish base bait. When Kenny Ray released the cat it shot out of the trap like it was a rocket. We then reset the trap on Sunday and had no catch. On Monday evening we reset the trap after supper only this time with marshmallow creme, success. In the picture above he is wearing my first trapped Raccoon which became my winter hat. Kenny Ray's first Raccoon, after I showed him how to skin will be off for the taxidermist in the morning to be tanned. He wants to mount the skin himself either on a limb or some other base as we are still discussing how it will be displayed. As he is showing some interest in learning taxidermy. I love to see his big smile as enjoys himself  in the great outdoors whether it be fishing, hunting or trapping or farming as these are things that bring me great pleasure as these things we do together. I have only one problem now as he wants to target catching a Skunk it seems he wants his own fur hat a black and white one.

The Little boy and his seven point buck

Kenny Ray and his first deer

Kenny Ray and I were joined this past weekend by his grandpa Richard Boninsegna {Tari's father},
and her brother Tony Boninsegna and his two boys Hunter and Dillion for the youth deer gun season.
On Saturday morning we all divide up for the morning hunt, Tony and Dillion to the tree stand below the cabin , and Richard and Hunter to the tree house, and Kenny Ray and I out the point. Kenny Ray and I got settled in some down trees in a bench, a flat area out on the point about ten after seven a.m.
At twenty after seven a.m. three deer ran past us at about fifty yards and quarting away, I nudged Kenny Ray and son look deer watch they might turn and come this way as they have a trail right out in front of us.However they did not they dropped of the edge of the point. Just as I settling back down and getting comfortable for what might be a long morning I caught some movement to my left about twenty yards to my left , I turned my head slowly and picked out a deer moving slowly threw the thicket and angling toward us a perfect broadside shot. I tapped Kenny Ray on the shoulder and whispered "a buck son, to my left" he slowly turned his body and brought up his gun and whispered I see him dad. I was slowly leaning back to give him a good shot , he finally pulled the trigger and those few seconds seem like an hour. I turned my head back to the deer and seen him turn and of half trot away in the same direction that he came in. I thought maybe he had missed again but I thought know you seen him hold steady. I said son let us sit here about ten or fifteen minutes and we will go track him. I looked at my watch twenty five after seven a.m. I waited what I thought was fifteen minutes and looked at my watch again twenty seven minutes after seven a.m. I could  not stand it any longer.
Come on son lets have a look,  I went over to where  I first seen the deer and where Kenny Ray shot at it, no blood just a small chunk of deer hair. I said son I think you just gave him a hair cut, no dad he said I know I hit that deer. So we followed the the trail behind him about ten yards and Kenny Ray said look some blood I went to him and son you did hit him , we followed a small blood trail about twenty yards and the trail stopped, and again doubt and disappointment set in my mind and I know his. I went out another ten yards looking for sign and nothing. I said son we may not find this deer, he was so disappointed, i swung out another ten yards in a semi circle looking for any possible sign and just as I was about to give up , I looked up the hill and there layed Kenny Ray's first deer, about fifty yards away from where he had shot him. I said son there is your deer he asked what as if he did not hear me, I again said son there is your deer just up above me. I reached the deer first and as Kenny Ray approached he said 'dad I got my deer,dad I got my deer" he was so happy , smiling and hugging me me I thought he was going to cry he was happy. I said son we have got to field dress him and drag him up the hill save some of that energy. Once we got the deer loaded into the truck we had to check him in Hirns gas station there in town and they took his picture with his first deer a seven point buck and posted on the bulletin board. I said son I never made the bulletin board but you did and smile got even bigger. As we started back to the cabin, Kenny Ray said dad let's go show Uncle Ken and dad will you take me to the cemetery and let me show grandpa. So we stoped and showed dad and then Uncle Ken. Where Uncle Ken congratulated him and asked Kenny Ray for a roast. Kenny Ray told him just as soon as the butcher finished he would get his roast.
    When we arrived back at the cabin, his grandpa Richard, Uncle Tony and the boys were there at the cabin taking a break and they came out to see his deer. they congratulated him on his first deer and he told them the story of you he got it. He then asked his grandpa Richard to take a photo of him with the deer on his shoulders. Tony and I picked up the deer and set it on his shoulders and his grandpa took
the above photo. Kenny Ray said he wanted a photo like that because I had my first deer on my shoulders in a photo. Kenny Ray then called his mother and his grandma Brewer , and cousin Lester and told his story to them. After the story telling was over we took the deer to the butcher, who had it finished in time for supper where I grilled fresh deer steaks for supper.
I found myself several times during this day thanking God not just for the animal but for my son and the family that I got to share this very special day in my sons life, and I hope that somehow my dad got to share it also. Every man wants his son to be better than himself, mine already is, thank you Lord.

Almost like going home

My mother retired back on the first of September, and decide she wanted to spend some time down at the cabin about three weeks of October. Last week was her first , on the her first day she called me around dinner time to gloat a little as she was sitting on the front porch eating some homemade vegetable soup, in the warm fall breeze and looking out over the hills and the woods and telling how beautiful everything was in fall coat of many colors. She then proceeded to call me every afternoon to tell me about her walk in the woods or how she set out the picnic table by the pond and drank her coffee and how peaceful and serene it was. I was very jealous of her, as I have stated in the past October in the mountains is my favorite time of year.
            Well on Thursday night Tari , Kenny Ray,my nephew Danny, and I went down to farm as it was the festival of the leaves weekend in Bainbridge. When we arrived at the about nine pm, mom greeted us at the door in her nightgown and as we entered the door she hugged each of us as if she had not seen us in months. As she was doing this my mind went back in time as this was so very familiar to me,  a time not so long ago of my youth when as a child we would journey back to Baptist Kentucky, arriving sometime after midnight on Friday nights and either my Grandma Brewer or Grandpa and Grandma Patton would greet us at the door with a hug and always the same question, " are you' all hungry, can I fix you something to eat". It was has if the clocked turned back forty years and I was almost home again if only for a few seconds in my mind.
We spent Friday and Saturday taking in the festival, Kenny Ray and Danny riding the ride until Kenny Ray got sick, Mom , Tari and I checking all the booths and garage sales in town. On Sunday we drove down to Adams county to see the Serpent mound , a ancient Indian burial ground. We then stopped in a little town of Locust Grove at a dairy bar and had chili dogs and a malt, sitting at some picnic tables by a little stream. When we got back to the farm Kenny Ray climbed on his four wheeler, mom, Tari and Danny took a nap. I fired up my old tractor to do what I like best, work on my little mountain farm. I had some bush hog work to do as I will only mow the hill in front of the cabin if there is some one with me in case I was to roll the tractor and get hurt, as I have rolled the riding mower in the past and been by myself, and lucky that I was not hurt. After I finished my work I walked back toward the cabin looking over my land and making plans for some more work next weekend. I stopped at the edge of the woods, I looked up at the sun through the leaves and enjoyed the warm sunshine on my face and bald head. I then layed down in the fallen leaves in the sun looking up at the blue sky and clouds moving by. I then began to thank God for the glorious day for my family and for this little piece of ground

Logan Elm Lonesome and JJ Little Girl

When I first starting hunting with Uncle Ken, he had retired from GM and moved to Bainbridge, he was 48 years old. I had not seen him in years as after my parents divorced when I was a teenager and he and Aunt Trula did not come to see us. It was weird because we had seen them a lot up until then I even went on vacation with them a few times. Well it had been years and at a funeral he and my cousin Lester started talking about hunting and as deer season was coming up in about 2 weeks Uncle Ken asked us to come and stay and hunt with him, so we agreed but I could only hunt Saturday as I had to work. I arrived early that Saturday morning and as we made our way to the woods Uncle told Lester where to hunt and as he started that way Uncle Ken said “Beach why don’t you and me hunt together “ and I said ok. Well we found us a spot and sat down.  Beach he said if you do not mind let’s just talk a while? We sat down and talked for the better part of the day. Two weeks later Uncle Ken seen an ad in the paper Beagle’s for sale. He called me on the phone and asked me if I would be interested in being partner’s in the dogs if they were any good. Since that day for the better part of 20 years Uncle Ken and I hunted together almost every Saturday. We have hunted squirrel, rabbit and deer together but some of the most fun we had were with 2 beagle’s named Logan Elm Lonesome and JJ Little Girl the dogs in the paper.  My dad and cousin and friends had joined us at time’s and  made it more memorable as we shared laughter in both good days with rabbits as well as days with no rabbits.

Lonesome and JJ had been field trial dogs and were getting up in years when the previous owner sold them to us. Now they may not have won many trophies but were top shelf gun dogs.    I have seen those dogs run a rabbit an hour or longer before we got it, as they never quit. And at time’s we had to catch them and pull them off the track if the rabbit would go in a hole as they would try and dig it out. One day my uncle wounded one and it went in under a junk pile and ole JJ crawled under it on her belly caught it and brought it to him. I was hunting one Saturday with a friend Tommy and he had 2 rabbits and I had not even got a shot, when one jumped and started away from me it was too far but I shot anyway. The dogs ran it for an hour and a half after that and I kept telling Tommy I crippled the rabbit. He just kept laughing and rubbing it in. The rabbit went in a hole in a fence line now the hole was big as the dogs could go in the hole far enough that I could not get a hold of them to move on. Lonesome finally came out and I grabbed him and started over into the brush. I told Tommy that it was the only way to get JJ to come out was to get Lonesome on another rabbit. Well we jumped one and got Lonesome running but JJ still was not coming, I kept watching the fence and row and about 15 minutes passed and I started laughing and hollering at Tommy, I told you I wounded that rabbit look . JJ was trotting toward me the rabbit in her mouth she came up to me and put her front paws on my knee and gave me the rabbit just like a retriever. Tommy wanted to see the rabbit, to see if there was any shot in it but I refused.

Tommy attend several hunt’s with us and we always had a few jokes on him on one hunt he was close to my uncle when a rabbit jumped and when it did Tommy swung his gun and shot at it. My uncle quickly got on him and said man we do not shoot at the rabbits when they jump, we get the dogs on them and let them run, Tommy apologized and they moved on. Well about 3 hours later on Uncle Ken and Tommy were standing together smoking and shooting the breeze when a rabbit jumped and my uncle swung shot and killed it. Now Tommy started on him hey man you said not to shoot on the jump, and my uncle quickly said oh hell man you can’t believe a word I say and started laughing. On another hunt with him he had not got used to hunting with dogs yet. Now Lonesome and JJ were medium slow dogs on the track so sometimes the rabbit would be 75 or eighty yards in front of the dogs. So when the dogs started back towards us you had better be ready because the rabbit was already coming back and probably Already close to you as was the case this day. Tommy was probably 50 yards in front of me. I seen the rabbit and killed it. Now Tommy said that there was no way that rabbit got past him and I said it did. Just watch the track the dogs take as they come to us .The dogs came within 6 feet of where Tommy was standing he could not believe it.  

Uncle Ken was known as the luckiest hunter it seems that most of his shots were what we called stoppy  ever got was shots were with their ears pinned back and they looked like they were four feet long they were moving so fast. At times we would stop and take a break and as we sat under a tree JJ would almost always come and make a bed in the leaves next to me and rest.  But the minute Lonesome would strike a track or we stood up she was off to hunt again. She would be so wore out at the end of the day that I had to carry her in my arms back to the truck.

Those were grand days we would hunt one farm in the morning, then get us a sandwich a cake and a pop for dinner and eat in the cab of the truck and hunt another farm that evening. In the time we had them before they died there was not a day that we hunted that we did not have a race, one winter between my uncle, dad and I we killed 123 rabbits and we counted only 5 that got away. I have owned other dogs since Lonesome and JJ but none have ever been close to those two dogs, either in quality of hunt or in memories with family or friends. We only paid $250.00 for the pair but I would not have taken a million dollars for those dogs. We lost Lonesome to coyotes I believe as Uncle Ken turned him loose one evening in the spring to let him run a little , has he had done a hundred times, but he never came home. And one of the saddest days of my life was the day I buried JJ Little Girl at the edge of my Uncle’s garden. Not only did those two dogs provide with memories but they also restored a family. My Uncle Ken is now seventy one years old and no longer is able to hunt and my dad has passed away. But Ken and I still sit by the heating stove drinking coffee and telling tales of Logan Elm Lonesome and JJ Little Girl. I may  never own a dog has good ever again.

Uncle Ken, squirrel hunting, Moonshine and stolen timber

I got home from my cabin this afternoon after being there since Friday night.
I had been looking foward to this holiday weekend as it was the first since squirrel season cam in this past Thursday. My family has always hunted on Labor day weekend as far back as I can remember. And at one time when I was a kid , several Uncles and cousins, my grandpa Patton and my dad, it was like a family reunion. But this year it was Uncle Ken and I only. Uncle Ken is seventy two years old and he does not see well or is able to do much walking. So Saturday he and I jumped in my old pickup put it in four wheel drive and rode to the top of the Ridge and parked within  about thitrty yards of the Hickory grove. The Hickory grove was silent as a cemetary we found no sign of  squirrel's. We had gone about twenty yards into the grove and Uncle Ken had to rest so we sat down on a blown over Hickory tree. As we sat resting and talking a gray blundered upon us and I shot and strung him on my belt. We sat there talking about hunts from years past and the good times. After about twenty minutes he was rested and wanted to walk out on the point and check out some Walnut trees where we have always bagged some in years gone by.Just as we were nearing the point I heard a squirrel cutting on a nut, Uncle Ken said go ahead Beach I am going to sit and rest. I worked my way thru the underbrush and found my quarry there was four squirrel's in a slick bark Hickory eating what we Appalachian Americans call pig nuts. I killed one as it came down the tree, but that was all I managed as the other three never permitted me a good shot, and I wanted to get back to Uncle Ken. When I did he was sitting resting and aked me what they were eating , as he said I never heard them or seen anything. His shirt was soaked with sweat and I could tell he was very tired, I said Uncle Ken let us get out of here and I will buy us some breakfast, OK Beach he said. We got back to the truck and I helped him in, and drove back down the mountain, cleaned our squirrel's and I gave them to him. he said I will cook and make gravy on them tomorrow. After we ate he wanted to go home and get a shower and stretch out on the couch. I went back up to my little farm as I had work to do and the whole time Uncle Ken was on my mind, of all the hunts I been on in my life this has been the most special, as it may have been my last with my Uncle, and my best friend.
I got back to my little farm that afternoon, which is only about a mile the way the crow flies from Uncle Ken's and went to work. I had climb on tractor and start bush hogging the field's around the place. I only do this once a year and it seems it always is the hottest day in which I choose to do this.
it took me about five and a half hours to get just over half of it done. I quit about six and took a cool shower and went to Town for supper. After supper I got back to the farm , took a very nice Kristoff cigar of my desk , and a pint of Moonshine out of the fridge and walked out my my pond , sat down at the picnic table and lit my cigar , and sipped my Moonshine from a mason jar while looking over the fresh mowed fields. What a sight for a Applachian American a orange sky hanging over a woods. green fields and a pond with a ripple in the water a Bass just gulped down his supper.
I got up Sunday morning just after five am made a pot of coffee and sat on the porch waiting on the sun to paint the sky once again. It was a lot cooler this morning than it was yesterday and I decided at about six thirty am to check out my woods, to see what the squirrels were eating. It did noy take long I was in the woods about five minutes and found a slick bark hickory with four squirrel's riding the top out of it. I managed to get two of the four and thought to myself son you are getting old you should of had all four. I thought man this is going to be a good day I never seen another squirrel that morning.
As I neared the end of my property I noticed a lot more sunlight coming thru the woods canopy, and thought ut oh something's wrong, and I was right it seems my nieghbor sold some of his timber and in the process got on my land with the skidder and made me a nice road with three  foot deep trenches and six maybe seven Oak trees about three foot in diamator cut and gone. I hope I am wrong, I will get Unlce Ken up to look at next weekend has he knows the property line better than I. I hope I am wrong I hate to think that the timber cutter would risk so much for a couple of trees. Tree's that I have so many squirrel's out of thru the years.

Goodbye Tommy old friend

I have been away trying to to take care of some health problems,I have lost fifty pounds and my blood pressure is a lot better I have been able to cut the medicine in half. My diabetes is under control and I hope to be off the medicine for that by my next birthday, I am walking five miles a day and have removed all sugar from diet although I was bad tonight and had a chocolate chip cookie. Sugar, I do not miss all that much but I do miss my fried chicken and cornbread. But anyway I got some bad news yesterday a friend of mine was killed in a car wreck and during my walk tonight
he was on my mind. Tommy came to work with me at Loxley Brothers body shop when he was eighteen years old, I was twenty three. We became friends instantly. He and his wife became regulars at my house on the weekends playing cards.Tommy even took up hunting with uncle Ken,Dad and me. Even when Tommy moved on to anther shop we remained on the same bowling team and worked firework's shows around the fourth of July for several years after. Then him and his wife split and he disappeared for a while.
One of my favorite memories of Tommy was his first rabbit hunting trip with Ken, dad and me. Tommy was near Uncle Ken when he jumped a rabbit and pulled up his gun and fired at the rabbit, a clean miss. Uncle Ken quickly ceased the moment and said Tommy we do not shot at the rabbit on the jump we call the dogs over and get them started on the track and let them run the rabbit around. Tommy apologized and we moved on. A couple of hours later Ken and Tommy stopped for a cigarette break and while standing together a rabbit jumped next to them and Ken quickly swung his gun and killed the rabbit. Tommy said hey man you were suppose to call the dogs and let them run, that what you said. Ken looked at him and said hell Tommy you believe a word I said and started laughing loudly. Tommy shaking his head and I see that how it is.
On another hunt in January muzzle loading season for deer we were hunting together on my farm and I ran six or seven deer toward Tommy, they just about ran over him. I asked him why he did not take a shot? He said he did but his gun did not go off.
Later at dinner with uncle Ken, Tommy was telling the story to him . Uncle Ken said Tommy I know what you should have done, and Tommy asked him what? Uncle Ken said son you should have just throwed the gun over in the creek if it won't shoot. Tommy shaking his head and laughing with us.
I have not seen Tommy in over twelve years, the last time being the Friday afternoon he quit working for me I gave him his paycheck and he never returned from dinner. He did call me on the phone about nine years ago and apologized for walking out on me. Tommy said he was in rehab and was in the process of trying to get his life back together and wanted to talk to me we talked for over an hour. A day or two later I found out that Tommy had been arrested and had been living in a trash dumpster about three blocks from my house.
I have remained in contact with his ex wife thru the years and seen his two sons.
And the week he was released from prison his ex wife called me to let me know when he would get out and that I would probably be one of the first people that he contacted, but he never did. He was just forty two years old. I have often thought of friends that pass thru our lives. Friends that are apart of our lives for just a short time, and we may not see or hear from them for years at a time. But remain in our hearts and memories for all time.

The Garden of Eden

My grandparents Curt and Sarah Belle Brewer had an arranged marriage by the plantation owner, in Breathitt county Kentucky. Sarah had just graduated the 8th grade on a Saturday and he came in and told her and her grandmother that next Saturday she would marry Curt Brewer, they had never met.They married and had 11 children. Curt was a farmer and a logger he was a buyer of timber for the plantation owner. As he moved around he always had to rent a place with at least two house’s one for his growing family and one for his elderly father Esau and his step mother Elizabeth. Everywhere the moved the land owner always had rules on what livestock they could keep and what they could grow. This was during the great depression and times were hard.
My aunt Carmie has told me many stories thru the years as of today she is 89 years old and still remembers them like it was yesterday. She told me one night a beggar came knocking at the door It was way up in the night , they had been some killings at that time in Breathitt county also known as Bloody Breathitt. My grandfather asked him what he wanted and he asked for some bread crumbs for his children and wife but wanted nothing for himself .He asked my grandmother if they any they could give them she said she a little they could spare as back then they saved every scrap. They gave them what they had and told them they could stay overnight in the barn and they did.
In the summer of 1939 they moved to Baptist fork of the Stillwater creek in Wolfe County to a farm that Curt brother Willis Brewer had bought for the back taxes. It was 226 acres and a paradise to my grandmother. As my aunt Carmie tells me the only way to get to the farm was up the creek as there was no road, probably about a mile maybe mile and half. My uncle Ken was a baby at the time and when my grandmother got to the farm with him in her arms she thanked God for their home. You see this was the Garden of Eden to her. She was able to keep her chickens and ducks and grow whatever she needed for her family. But for some reason my grandfather hated it he also hated the ducks. you see the ducks get in the creek and they leave the water dirty with their feathers and oil and the work mules are fussy when it comes to drinking water I am told. One night my grandfather came in mad and told Belle pack up we are going back to Breathitt County. Now according to my aunt my grandmother was sitting at the dinner table sipping coffee from a tea cup with a broken handle she never looked up and no Curt my children and me are staying here I will write Willis in the morning he let us stay you can leave if you want to. Now this is the first and only time my aunt said that grandma had ever spoken up to him about anything. Well not another word was ever said about going back to Breathitt County. They purchased the farm with their second season profits 2700.00 dollars. They were not rich, by any means but they were able to produce everything the family needed with canning vegetables raising hogs and chickens and ducks for their feathers for beds and pillows and their eggs and meat.
I am not sure what year the road was put in but it was no longer after the war. The state told the people living up in the holler that if they would build the road the state would maintain it. So my grandfather Brewer Nathan Hatton and my grandfather Robert Lee Patton went together and hired a man with a dozer to build the road. Now the years after the war times were good my grandfather Curt had made a little money selling tobacco and sourghrom molasses as during the war sugar was rationed and hard to come by. And now they had a road he went into the timber business. Now it was my understanding that everyone wanted to work for him not only did he pay every Saturday but they got fed as back then it was customary they ate dinner {lunch for you city people} and they loved eating my grandmothers cooking. Things were very good until his death in 1956. The business just folded and my aunt and uncles were in the process of moving away to Dayton for factory jobs and now that Garden of Eden is now going back to the forest and the wild turkeys. Land that at one time had 3 houses and supported as many families; my grandmother lived there until the farm house burned down. My mother lived there with her when she was pregnant with me and after I was born we moved to Dayton. In later years she moved back to the farm in a mobile home that my uncle Ken purchased for her this was the early 70’s. I spent one glorious summer with her. She never owned a T.V. never listened to the radio. I can still see and hear her in my mind every morning she would sit in her rocking chair and comb out her long hair and put in a bun on top of her head, she would whistle and would rub my back and tell me how much I reminded her of my grandpa. My uncle ken and aunt Carmie tell me that I am more like him than anyone in the family. That summer I have some of my best memories of her she told me that when she first married my grandfather that she would walk into the woods with him in the evenings with him and sit while the waited on a squirrel to come into range for supper. One evening she was fixing supper and I walked by the stove and I asked her Grandma what are you fixing here for supper she said I am heating up some corn for supper for the leftover chicken from dinner, I said grandma these are peaches on the stove, she ahhhhhh. She was just about blind by this time but still stayed by herself must of the time she kept everything organized she knew where everything was. A day or two after that I killed my first rabbit, I was so thrilled and went running to show grandma, once I got there I said grandma I am going to go up to Uncle Arnold’s and see if he will show me how to clean him. She you do not need Arnold, come over and give me you knife and I will show you, you just have to be my eye’s, well she went to work and I want to tell you to this day that old blind woman to this day I cannot clean a rabbit as fats and clean as she did that day, all she asked was did she get all of its guts out, and said yes grandma. As I got older I found out that when any of the family went hunting and brought back any game that they did not clean it , they brought back to the house and she did all the cleaning. My aunt Carmie also tells me about when her first child was born my cousin Cindy that her milk did not come in and she asked the doctor what to do? The doctor told her to take the girl to Belle as she had just give birth to my father Porter just a couple of weeks later, it always struck me as funny that my dad and his older niece where breast fed at the same time.
The year my mother Pearlie Lived with her they became close friends. My sisters still say my grandmother was right when she said, right after my mother came upon a copperhead snake in the garden and she believed I would be retarded because the snake had scared her so.Even after my parents divorced she came of every year and would stay a couple of weeks with us. She once told my little dog that she was going to pinch off his nose if he did not stop barking as he did at night when she was going to bed as she would put on her night scarf overhead. My dad was dating another woman and was going to marry her and he was telling my grandmother about it one day when I was thought to be asleep and my grandmother told him now son you do what you think you have to do but I am telling you no one will take the place of Pearlie and those kids in there.
The last time I seen her it was about 3 weeks before she passed away she had moved back in with my uncle EC. In Campton Kentucky. Mom stopped and let us kids see her and she was telling mom about these headaches and little explosions in her head mom told her she needed to see a doctor and she said she would . she gave my baby sister a doll that she had, and was rubbing my back telling me how much I reminded her of Curt and that she would not be around much longer, I said grandma you will be here to see my son, she hugged me and said she loved me. She was gone just 3 weeks later she had been having a series of small strokes. I have in later years discussed her life with my uncles and aunts everyone always said how hard my grandfather worked and he did but she worked much harder you see my grandfather never worked on Sunday or If the weather was bad but she had 3 meals to prepare everyday she grew the vegetable garden and preserved all the food laundry on a wash board carrying water, not to mention raising 11 children. She once told my mom that sometimes she got so lonely in the holler by herself that she would wind an old clock for company to just hear it tick.

Baptist Fork of the Stillwater creek

This spring has been tough on this old Appalachian American. First Tari found out that she is a diabetic. And in the last month the doctor put me on high blood pressure medicine and then this past Thursday they put me on Diabetes medicine also. It has been a blow to my superman mentality.
But I had a remedy of my already planned, a hunting trip to the garden of Eden, Baptist Fork of the Stillwater creek in Wolfe county Kentucky. There I spent three days hunting for wild turkey and visiting with my family.On Saturday night my Uncle played the guitar's and we sang all the bluegrass gospel favorites.We ate good country food and talked and caught up with each other's lives's. I felt more at home and ease this trip than any other since my grandparents passed away. I want to thank Uncle Bob and Aunt Evelyn for that it really meant a lot to me. On Sunday Uncle Bob came in with a big Gobbler, I did not kill one but I seen eighteen turkey's in three days, just could not get one in gun range. But I had more fun hunting this spring than I have in a long time. Saturday morning five big gobblers came in the bottom I was hunting but just out of my vision until I stepped out of my blind. I drooped down to my belly and spent the next forty minutes crawling over briar's and thru thickets and in the mud in a monsoon rain trying to get in range. I managed to get within about eighty yards before they seen me and hit the woods. I had a blast!!!
I have always enjoyed hunting the Brewer family farm two hundred and twenty six acres
of Appalachian paradise.
I started my recovery Friday morning not just the diabetes medicine but a dose of peace and continment by returning to where my parents and I were born, our roots are deep in the Garden of Eden which is Baptist fork of the Stillwater Creek.
I think I need another dose Of Baptist already, Turkey season is still in for three more weeks.