My Last Deer Hunt On A Management Area.

Years ago I used to hunt on management hunting areas but I quickly figured out this just wasn't my cup of tea. I had the privilege to hunt with one of my high school buddies and good friend Ricky Duke and another friend Chris Ballinger at Motlow State College Management area back in 1986. Now Ricky was to meet us there opening morning to give us a little insight on the best areas to hunt and where we could hunt as not all the management area was open to hunting. After getting the lowdown on the hunting areas we set of to hunt what was actually the back side of the management area. Ricky went to the left of us and Chris and I planned on following a fire access roadbed down through the woods and cross over a couple of hollows before setting up to hunt. As Chris and I walked in , we came upon a hunter sitting up on a ladder platform stand that became very rude and impolite and vulgar toward us telling us that he was hunting in that area and for us to get out of there and go somewhere else. At the time I was young and quick tempered and this guy made me mad very quickly by trying to claim the woods as his own hunting area. So at that time I was carrying a Remington 300 magnum and turned to my hunting partner, which put the barrel of my rifle pointing straight at the ladder stand, and clicked the safety off the rifle and ask Chris if he heard what that big fat m*****F***** had said to us?. When the hunter heard the rifle safety click off his eyes got really big and he decided not to say anything else to us as we moved off further into the woods behind him which was where we were headed for anyway. AS we walked further down into the hollow we could start to see there was blaze orange everywhere in that area and I was still mad from my encounter with the rude hunter. I raised my rifle and shot into a large oak tree then hollered out " There he goes boys yell get him ". Blaze orange was everywhere looking for the deer and we moved off further still into the woods over three more hollows before finally setting up to hunt. We traveled so far back into the woods we were hunting on the management area property line which joined a big farm. Chris sat by a big tree watching the hollow and I had set up watching the woods at the property line hoping a deer would come from the farm into the woods. As luck would have it a nice six point buck did cross over into the woods from the farm but the brush was real thick and my shot didn't connect. When we got ready to leave we had gotten turned around and found ourselves coming out in the town on the back side of the management area. Luckily Ricky had already figured out where we would be coming out from and had come around the road to get us and return us to our truck.This was the last time I ever hunted deer on a management area and as long as I can find property to hunt behind closed/locked gates I won't be hunting management areas again. Just remember everyone has the same rights to hunt on any management area so don't make the other hunters mad at you-- be polite.

My Mentor To Our Heritage.

Some twenty years ago I had a mentor who helped me learn about deer hunting. How to shoot a bow, what signs to look for during scouting trips, tree stand locations, field dressing my deer, bucthering, packaging and cooking my venison. I in turn passed this knowledge on to young adults getting started and carried them on youth hunts for their first deer. When I moved away from Lascassas, Tennessee I kind of gave up the passing of knowledge to young adults until now. At present day I am mentoring my grandchildren and neighborhood youths in the art of Whitetail hunting and enjoying every minute of it. Each subject I talk to the youths about brings back a memory of my mentor and these memories are what keeps him alive for me to continue my teachings. He was 7/8 Cherokee Indian and could shoot a bow better than any man I know now so I know everything I was taught was better than anything you could ever get from reading books and TV shows. Today, I'm proud I had a teacher and dear friend willing to take the time to show me how to hunt whitetail deer and enjoy the woods and nature as it was meant to be. Our heritage was handed down to me by my mentor and I've passed it on throughout the years as it should be to many young adult hunters. Today my mentor has long ago passed but his spirit lives on through me and my mentoring of young adults. Be a good friend and mentor to some young adult and pass our heritage on to future generations of young hunters trying to learn our great sport as you did when you were young. Mentoring is a great feeling and it keeps our young adults out of trouble with the law. Thank You Charles Duke for passing on such a great heritage to me.

My First Hunting Trip.

Years have passed since the first hunting trip with my dad. I was only 13 years old and eager to go squirrel hunting with my dad. Though I didn't have my own gun yet I knew from my first trip out into the woods this was what I wanted to do the rest of my life. Anyway, it was fall of 1971 and the leaves had already began to change colors, there was a slight dew on the ground and the weather was a perfect cool morning air with no wind blowing. As we drove to a little country churchyard and parked, Dad explained that we would have to leave by 8:30 a.m. due to church starting. We were hunting the woods behind the church house which were full of big red fox squirrels. As the sun began coming up we could already hear the nuts dropping and the squirrels jumping from limb to limb. We sat by a large oak tree watching and waiting till we could get a clear shot at a squirrel stopped on a trunk or limb of a tree. Dad had given me a 410 single shot shotgun to hunt with and he was using a 22 bolt action with a scope. By 8:00 a.m. we had both taken our limits and was heading for home.It was a couple of years later in life that I found out that my mom didn't like any wild game that was all shot up with shotgun pellets so then was when I began hunting small game with only a 22. My birthday was in October and for my 13Th birthday my parents got me a 22 rifle which I learned to use well and took many a squirrel and rabbit with. To this day I still only hunt small game with a 22 rifle and enjoy every minute I can in the woods whether or not I take game home or not. Today I hunt big game with an occasional trip for small game but my preference is big game animals.

Spoonbill Fishing of Years Ago

The last tornado that went through Oklahoma wiped out a very large portion of the little town of Pitcher,Oklahoma where I spent alot of my childhood time at my grandparents homes. Though both my grandparents on both sides had passed on some years ago I still have relatives living in Oklahoma. As I watched the news that night of the devastating disaster of the tornado, I quickly found myself thinking back of when I would go down to the Neosho river in March fishing for spoonbill catfish. I would at times spend the better part of a morning casting a heavy 5 oz. sinker with a no.6 trebble hook from a 12 ft. Diawa rod and reel with 30 lb. test line trying to snatch one of the big monsters that circled in-front of the dam waiting for the water to rise up over the dam so they could move upstream to spawn. Many mornings I would catch my fish and be back home by 10:00 and even though the limit back then was 5 fish with no culling, I only took 3 fish to ensure the future of the fish population survived.
We had people who would come down during the run of the spoonbill catfish with buckets and pockets full of money just waiting for some fisherman to catch one of the large females of which carried large black eggs. These onlookers would buy the fish from the fisherman ( usually for $200.00 ) for the eggs which was turned into caviar ( imitation of coarse ). After the eggs were extracted from the fishes belly by knife, the fish was discarded to the ground and fair game for anyone that wanted it for the meat. This practice lead to the downfall of the spoonbill catfish population and within two years the limits were changed to 3 fish and wardens patrolled the river banks during the spoonbill catfish runs. It's been many years since I had the opportunity to go fishing for spoonbill even though we have them here in Tennessee, but I still get excited just thinking about the fun and pleasure I had as a child fishing for them in Oklahoma. Many of the fish I caught would weigh in the range of 35-75 lbs. and I never sold a single fish to anyone.

Bring Gas Prices Down

This was sent to me via e-mail see if it makes sense to you. THIS IS NOT THE 'DON'T BUY' GAS FOR ONE DAY, BUT IT WILL SHOW YOU HOW WE CAN GET GAS BACK DOWN TO $1.30 PER GALLON.

This was sent by a retired Coca Cola executive. It came from one of his engineer buddies who retired from Halliburton. If you are tired of the gas prices going up AND they will continue to rise this summer, take time to read this please.

Phillip Hollsworth offered this good idea.
This makes MUCH MORE SENSE than the "don't buy gas on a certain day" campaign that was going around last April or May!
It's worth your consideration. Join the resistance!!!!
I hear we are going to hit close to $ 4.00 a gallon by next summer, and it might go higher!! Want gasoline prices to come down?

We need to take some intelligent, united action. The oil companies just laughed at that because they knew we wouldn't continue to "hurt" ourselves by refusing to buy gas.

It was more of an inconvenience to us than it was a problem for them.
BUT, whoever thought of this idea has come up with a plan that can really work. Please read on and join with us!

By now you're probably thinking gasoline priced at about $2.00 is super cheap. Me too! It is currently $3.19 for regular unleaded in my town.

Now that the oil companies and the OPEC nations have conditioned us to think that the cost of a gallon of gas is CHEAP at $1.50 - $1.75, we need to take aggressive action to teach them that BUYERS control the marketplace..not sellers.

With the price of gasoline going up more each day, we consumers need to take action.

The only way we are going to see the price of gas come down is if we hit someone in the pocketbook by not purchasing their gas! And, we can do that WITHOUT hurting ourselves.

How? Since we all rely on our cars, we can't just stop buying gas.

But we CAN have an impact on gas prices if we all act together to force a price war.

Here's the idea: For the rest of this year, DON'T purchase ANY gasoline from the two biggest companies (which now are one), EXXON and MOBIL.

If they are not selling any gas, they will be inclined to reduce their prices.
If they reduce their prices, the other companies will have to follow suit.

But to have an impact, we need to reach literally millions of Exxon and Mobil gas buyers. It's really simple to do! Now, don't wimp out on me at this point...keep reading and I'll explain how simple it is to reach millions of people!!

I am sending this note to 30 people. If each of us send it to at least ten more (30 x 10 = 300) ... and those 300 send it to at least ten more (300 x10 = 3,000)...and so on, by the time the message reaches the sixth group of people, we will have reached over THREE MILLION consumers.
If those three million get excited and pass this on to ten friends each, then 30 million people will have been contacted!

If it goes one level further, you guessed it..... THREE HUNDRED MILLION PEOPLE!!!

Again, all you have to do is send this to 10 people. That's all!

(If you don't understand how we can reach 300 million and all you have to do is send this to 10 people.... Well, let's face it, you just aren't a mathematician. But I am . so trust me on this one.

How long would all that take? If each of us sends this e-mail out to ten more people within one day of receipt, all 300 MILLION people could conceivably be contacted within the next 8 days !!!

I'll bet you didn't think you and I had that much potential, did you!
Acting together we can make a difference.

If this makes sense to you, please pass this message on. I suggest that we not buy from EXXON/MOBIL UNTIL THEY LOWER THEIR PRICES TO THE $2.00 RANGE AND KEEP THEM DOWN. THIS CAN REALLY WORK.

Keep it going!!!

Habitat For Humanity

First founded in 1942 by Farmer and Clarence Jordan, in a small interracial, Christian farming community outside Americus, Ga. . Then in 1965, a new idea called " Partnership Housing " in which those in need of adequate housing and volunteers would work together side by side to build simple, decent homes. The homes would be built on no profit and no interest charged loans. In 1968, Koinonia Farms laid out 42 half acre sites with a four acre community park and recreational area. Donations came in from around the country, homes were built and sold to families in need and the basic model began the Habitat For Humanity. In 1976 Habitat For Humanity International was born and in 1984 former U. S. President Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalyn joined the Habitat work trip. The present results on Habitat For Humanity is that more than 200,000 homes and more than 1,000,000 people in more than 3,000 communities worldwide have decent affordable shelter. An idea turned into reality by the grace of God and people working with people for the people of the world.

Surprize Birthday Gift

The year was 1992 , early Feburaury and I was working a commercial plumbing job in Murfreesboro, Tenn.. My job had just played out as we finished the construction on the new city hall so my wife and I decided it was time for a change. We packed up everything we had and moved to Bushnell,Florida where I started a job at Ace Hardware in Wildwood,Florida until a training class as a correctional officer started in June after which I was hired on as a correctional officer in the kitchen at Marian Correctional Facility in Ocala,Florida. We were living near my brother-in-law ( Allen Cole ) who was also a correctional officer and my birthday was approaching in October but deer season was opening in September and one evening after work I was picked up by my wife,brother-in-law and sister-in-law and was told we were going to dinner but that my brother-in-law had to go get his bow worked on first. We got to this little country bow shop and as I walked in I began looking at all the bows and eqippment on the walls when the owner approached asking if he could help me. I told him I was just looking while waiting on my brother-in-law an the man told me he had a new bow that I might like.The man went in the back room and came out with a new PSE Blacklightening, handed it to me and ask what I thought of it. At that moment my wife stepped up and whispered in my ear that it was mine and happy birthday at which time the owner also fixed it up with arrows,sight,release,eye sight, broad heads, silencers and even took me outside to his range and helped me sight it in. Now you talk about someone that was blown away with surprize and happy, that was me. Today I still have the same PSE bow with eqippment and have killed a few nice deer with it. Perhaps one day I will buy a new bow but nothing I feel will ever compare to my Pse Blacklightening which I will continue to use till I can't shoot any more. Thank you Honey for giving me the best surprize birthday gift of a lifetime,one that I'll always charish.

The Old Farm House

Ive been sitting around the house this weekend trying to come up with a new memory from my past that might strike an idea for next years huntso here it is in a nut shell( or maybe something bigger). I've wrtten about dreams coming true and it put me to thinking about a dream I had several years ago which took place in Lascassas, Tn. on a farm with an old abandoned, weathered farm house standing in the middle of the property and the woods grown up all around it. As I dreamed I seen myself on a camping trip in which my hunting buddies and I stayed the weekend in the farm house to hunt the farm and the weather was cold. We awoke on saturday morning after a night of hard drinking ( beer and cheap wine ), got dressed and ready to go hunting, headed out the front door. Upon stepping off the end of the front porch we all paused to relief our stomachs of the nights drinks then headed off to our picked hunting sites. As we got to the back corner of the farm house, we spooked a small group of squirrels playing on the ground which in turn spooked a herd of deer that was feeding 45 yards from the farm house one of which was a really nice tall racked buck. As luck would have it nobody got a chance for a shot due to everyone with unloaded guns, slow reactions and very bad hang-overs. Now you can imagine 5 hunters hunting with hang-overs in the woods with guns-- that's SCARY and STUPID. Needless to say my drinking days while hunting are long over and has become a seldom ever drinker now but I still try to hunt every chance I get. I returned to this old farm house the following week and did manage to take a small buck but never returned again and the property has now been turned into a houseing development area---another lost hunting area due to mans greed for money.

Our Economy--- Past and Present

As I set here at my computer pondering my next post I find myself thinking about the economy of today and wondering how much longer it will be before we are put officially into a recession. Some folks say we are already there but thinking back I remember a day my parents had been digging through some of their old photographs and researching their genealogy. As they showed the photos to me they explained the photos were of some of my relatives back in the 1930's and 1940's during the recession period and you could tell from the photo that times were really hard on folks. Some of their photos went back into the 1800's and was of folks trading foods for goods or services. A document my parents showed me told of one relative at the time of his marriage bought acreage property with a house on it for .50 cents and a mule and a bushel of apples. If our economy doesn't get better soon that may be the way we will all end up. I've seen this trend for years now in the bigger cities as the homeless and starving stand on street corners and interstate off ramps holding signs asking for work for food or money and there seems to be no end in sight for this trend of life.Sure the government says it will help by building homes for the homeless but in Nashville,Tn. the plans for building a 200 room complex for the homeless was set aside to build a new sports arena costing billions of dollars which I see could go along way toward helping the homeless and the economy. But I just a country hick town fellow with little knowledge of how to foresee turning the economy around to make things better. Perhaps it's just the fact that the rich folk think if it doesn't make them money then why give the money to help. The way I see it if it comes down to it and the recession hits hard I'll help anyone except the rich then they'll have to pay me dearly for my help. Bush and the senate know what to do to prevent us from falling deeper into debt and having such a recession from happening but refuse to do the right thing until it's to late if it isn't all ready.Stocks have fallen all around the world due to an anticipated recession and the government just sits back waiting for it to happen.The economy is bad now but it will get worst before it gets better with no telling how long the recession will last.

I'm back

Thanks to each and everyone of you Im back up and getting ready to start my posting again folks. the heart felt encouragement and kindness everyone left on my last postings is all I could think about while I was gone except my hunting whitetails for the past 3 months that is. Be prepared for I'm back and don't plan on stopping again without a real tradgedy this time.