00:00:05 Speaker 1: Welcome to this country Life. 00:00:06 Speaker 2: I'm your host, Brent Reeves from coon hunting to trot lining and just in general country living. 00:00:12 Speaker 1: I want you to stay a. 00:00:13 Speaker 2: While as I share my experiences in life lessons. This Country Life is presented by Case Knives from the store More Studio on Meat Eaters Podcast Network, bringing you the best outdoor podcast that. 00:00:27 Speaker 3: Airways have to offer. All right, friends, grab a chair or drop that tailgate. I've got some stores to share the things that make me happy from the moment I. 00:00:44 Speaker 2: Wake up in the morning and realize that I'm still amongst the living, I'm as happy as I'm gonna be all day. Don't interpret it that is it all being downhill from there. I don't mean that at all. I love living and being just about anywhere I am. I live by the advice my father gave me when I was a little boy that I've shared on here numerous times, and that is, there's no place that you can't have fun. If you're in a place that ain't fun, you make it fun. Today, I'm going to highlight the things that make me happy. It's a simple and short list that probably ain't going to shock anyone regardless. I'm gonna tell you all about it, but first, I'm going to tell you this story. 00:01:38 Speaker 1: Today's offering. 00:01:39 Speaker 2: Chris crosses this great nation of ours from Arkansas to California, back to Arkansas, back to California, and eventually to North Carolina. That's where native California and Zach Brady lives with his wife Holly and their children, Jack, Hattie and Clay. Zach works for the city of Charlotte and helps keep the water running every time someone turns on a faucet. He's on the admin's side of things there. But in this story, Zach and his family were vacationing with their grandpa, who'd moved to California from Blackrock, Arkansas when he was sixteen. Now William Mashburn, grandpa in this story, is taking the family back to Blackrock to see the old homestead and visit with family and friends. So, in Zach's words, in my voice, here we go. My grandfather has always been a hard man. He's a kind of man who doesn't say much but is fiercely loyal. It's also the kind of man that you probably don't want to work for. I like to describe him to his friends as a five foot four version of John Wayne his own trucking business in the California oil fields for thirty six years, and there was only one way to complete any task, William's way. If you ran into an issue with a truck and called over the radio for help, he would respond telling you exactly how it should be done. 00:03:19 Speaker 1: If you dare to argue to question. 00:03:21 Speaker 2: Him, he would hop in his old red forward and drive across the county to cheer you out and fire you, and then finished the job himself. The grace in it was that he would never do this over the radio. He would save you the embarrassment of the other drivers listening to you verbally getting bent over his knee. And that's the kind of man he was. That work ethic and drives come from his raisin in northeast Arkansas on the Black River. He is the oldest of seven kids and dropped out of school in the grade to take care of his family. He would work odd jobs, hunt and fish to provide for his parents and his siblings. His first job was to go fishing and then to sell that day's catch out of his cooler for higher than the market price. Every morning and evening he would be running trot lines for catfish and nets for buffalo. He has always enjoyed hunting, but fishing was his passion. He was always in a better mood with a rod and reel in his hand, and the only thing that magnified that mood even more was taking one of his grandkids with him, even when he was older and infeeble health. He had rigged up his john boat to be able to plug in his portable oxygen machine. He also installed two anchors attached two inches to the bow and the stern so he could sit in one spot and catch catfish so he didn't have to struggle to move. He's the one who talked our brothers, cousins, and I how to catch perch. One of my favorite pictures is of my brother and I five seven years old, respectfully clad and overalls, with a couple of strangers of perch, standing with Grandpa. We were back in Arkansas on a family vacation and he wanted to take us fishing. Driving down a country road, we crossed a creek and he pulled over. This should be the spot, he said, reaching back in his memory to a time when he was around our age. We got out and we stood on the side of the road as he rigged up our poles. Mine was red and my brother's yelling. We couldn't help but argue over who would catch the first, the largest, and the most fish. My younger brother, Brett won out handily. He has always been the better fisherman. That morning, we stood over this creek and fished until we ran out of worms. The perch were biting so quickly that Grandpa never even put a line in the water. He was too busy taking off fish and rebaiting our life. 00:06:09 Speaker 1: When we ran out. 00:06:10 Speaker 2: Of bait, we contended to drop empty hooks into the water and caught a few more fish to add to our stringer. It was one of those days that you dream of but could never see actually happened. It is a day I will never forget. We finished fishing and loaded up the old ford. We drove back to the house That afternoon. He showed us how to clean a fish, using a teaspoon from the kitchen drawer to de scale the perch, much to my grandmother's delight. Then we cut up our day's catch for the frying pan. I don't know what happened to that spoon, but I hope it was cleaned before it was put on the table. Those were the kinds of things that never seemed to cross Grandpa's mind. That night, we ate our field with our family, and we dreamt of the next with Grandpa. And according to Zach Brady Button will of California native who's keeping the water running on the right hand coast of the US of A, that's just how that happened. Zach sent this simple story about a day of fishing with his brother and his grandpa, along with an accompanying photograph that captured an image of that day from many years ago. It is only a glimpse, a snapshot of a memory, from a story that has traveled from coast to coast and now literally around the world. This simple message of spending time with family will bring joy and happiness to more people than me Zach, his brother Brett, or her late grandfather, mister William Mashburn will ever know, and knowing that should make us all happy. 00:08:00 Speaker 1: Thanks Sach. 00:08:09 Speaker 2: The conversation about a year ago, maybe longer, I don't know. Between my brother Tim and I bowled down to the things that make us happy. We talk plenty about the things that make us mad, a category that gets bigger with each passing day, and since we talk every day, if not multiple times during the day, our grievances get plenty of air. And that caused me to pause and reflect on the things that upset me or cause me aggravation, realizing that they're all things that I have zero control over. It was the reason I stopped watching the news. Why would I subject myself voluntarily to a stream of articles and stories that focus only on the worst things that happen every day. Someone said, and it wasn't Mark Twain, by the way, that if you don't read the paper, you're uninformed, and if you do, you're misinformed. Now you take out paper and drop in any form of information sharing source, and I will argue that that's all so correct, But I don't want to argue, so don't send me anything to the contrary. I spent thirty two years arguing with folks, mostly about whether or not they were going to jail, and I don't recall a single time I lost one of those arguments. 00:09:32 Speaker 1: I remember being. 00:09:33 Speaker 2: Touch and go a few times on exactly how I was going to prove my point. Anyway, what I focus on now are the things that make me happy and ever since I did, my life got a whole lot easier. That's a throwback to a frustrating time of my life when I was surrounded by inept and unqualified persons. Their appointments and positions had nothing to do with ability, a world where ability should have been the first qualification. I got through that by treading water, so to speak, and eventually deciding to do my dead level best while I was there and not use my contempt as a vessel or self pity for poor performance. Once I framed my mind around the realization that the only person who really controlled how I felt about anything was me, the rest got a. 00:10:28 Speaker 1: Whole lot better. 00:10:30 Speaker 2: Alexis and I also have a hard and fast rule that we've lived by for many years now. We don't talk about work after six pm. Up to that time, anything goes just let her rip. But when the big hand is on the twelve and the little one is on the six, that's all she wrote about work until tomorrow. 00:10:52 Speaker 1: What that did was. 00:10:53 Speaker 2: Allow us to shift our focus from negativity to things we enjoyed talking about. 00:10:59 Speaker 1: Now, over the last. 00:11:00 Speaker 2: Million and a half years or so that we've been married, that's what we do. We address the issue had on deal with it as best we can, control what we can and leave the rest up to the Good Lord to sort out for us. It's not easy, and I'm not saying we're walking around in utopia over here, because there's sometimes I wonder what planet she is from. I seriously doubt she ever questions anything I say or do, But who knows. What I'm saying is that it only takes a little. 00:11:31 Speaker 1: Effort to make a big difference. 00:11:34 Speaker 2: By prioritizing the things in my life that are important, the things that make me happy seem to fall into place. First and foremost is my faith. I have leaned more and more into what that means to me as I've gotten older. That's something that I worked out on my own, with Alexus's help through conversation and just watching her live life. She's a shining example of how to treat people, regardless of her home planet. I say all of that to start my list of things that makes me happy. My faith is the cornerstone. I'm not a preacher, and I'm not one that will stand anywhere and say I've got it all figured out, but I'll say this, once I've prioritized my relationship with my maker. The rest took care of itself. From there, it's my family. Family to me is a whole bunch of folks that share my DNA and a whole bunch of folks that don't. I live in the same zip code of very few humans who if asked under oaths if they were related to me, that they would have to answer yes. But I'm surrounded by more of them than you could fit in a school bus that I would take a bullet for. Their kids are my kids, Their celebrations are my celebrations. Their troubles are my troubles, and those feelings are reciprocated. So taking that into account, if my family is happy, I'm happy. 00:13:03 Speaker 1: Now. 00:13:04 Speaker 2: With that comes a heritage and the legacy of my raising, my identity of who I am and how I got to this place in my life. The list of influences is long and distinguished as how I got to where I am today, and I got here with as many bad decisions over the course of my journey as good ones. But there was always someone who had my best interest at heart. When I had reached the seemingly end of my rope or had painted myself into a corner, and I would call my dad and say I've made a mess and I don't know what to do. And to his credit, he never told me what to do. He'd say, now, you do it any way you want to. But if it was me, I'd do this regardless if I followed his advice or not. He never held that against me or brought that issue up again, no matter how it turned out. It was mine to own, not his to do for me. I've taken that same approach with my children, and for us it has worked well. I think I don't tell the grown ones what to do, and they come to me when they need advice or just for someone to listen. That has been the hardest part of me being a parent. Being a policeman, my job was to help people, and sometimes I had to try to solve their problems and give them away out of a bad situation. That helps resolve an immediate issue, but normally only delays further action. I can't tell you how many times I'd eventually wind up back at that same address, dealing with the same issue, until someone wound up spending the night in the stony, lonesome rubbing a nod on their head. Now, as a parent, I have to make myself, not fix the things for them. Life is hard. Anything worth having should be something you have to work for. Appreciation for something that I've worked for his head and shoulders above anything I've ever been given. And if I got it at the end of the struggle, well that's even better. And when I see my children work and struggle for something that they won't even if they come up a little short, the sense of pride I have in them can't be measured. The pride they have in themselves and the value they've placed on what they've accomplished is equally important. Even when the goal is missed, the knowledge that they did everything possible to succeed allows them to stand knowing they were bested not by lack of effort. The traditions of those that came before me that I hold dear are as important to me as anything, and sitting together at meal time sharing the events and things that go on in our lives, passing the torch to the next generation of the stories and important things that were handed to me. Next is a good dog. I've been privileged to have held in close company, A handful of dogs that deserve more than a story or a passive reference as having been just good dogs. I think of Peanut, Luke, zach, Anne, and Anna, and they have all been more than. 00:16:22 Speaker 1: Just a good dog. 00:16:23 Speaker 2: They serve as a catalyst that triggers a million memories of moments and people, a lot of them, Like a lot of those dogs have passed on. Old Whaling's doing great and laying at. 00:16:37 Speaker 1: My feet as we speak. 00:16:39 Speaker 2: The good ones serve as a gentle reminder the devotion should be a two way street. Last night, Whaling and I took our new tree and walker puppy Jesse out for their first time together. 00:16:52 Speaker 1: Jesse's been out three times in total and. 00:16:54 Speaker 2: Has about as much of a clue about treeing a coon as I would have driving a submarine. I've taken her out with her litter mate that Michael has, and that was like us having them a book to read. They don't know what they're supposed to do. So when I took her out with Whaling, the dog she sees every day, she was way more relaxed and took off into the night in her own direction. At one point she was almost six hundred yards away from me in the opposite direction of Whaling. These are all good things. That I'll go into detail when I talk about her progression later on. The point of that story is that having a good dog is like anything else worth having. It takes a commitment for me to put her in the best scenario, developing the best way she can. That's where the bond is built. That's where the communication between us is formed, because I can promise you she's watching and reacting to me as much or more than I am to her. 00:17:56 Speaker 1: Whaling. 00:17:56 Speaker 2: And I built that bond night after night when I brought him home on the eve of a chaotic mess that was the COVID shutdown. Since then, we've become more than just a couple of coon hunters. He's family, and regardless of the day I have good or bad, he is the constant companion that doesn't care if I kill the moose, missed a wolf, burnt the biscuits, or won the lottery. He don't even care if I smell bad. A dog, a good one, can add so much flavor and joy to your life that it's no wonder the aliens orbit in the Earth, observing how we interact with them, think the dogs must be in charge. Those four legged mooches ain't bringing me food or giving me a bath. Even when I do smell bad, My happiness comes from seeing a dog that I've had a modicum of input in developing into a solid hunting partner. There's nothing more frustrating or rewarding than the key to the whole thing. It's patience. How about a well seasoned skillet. I guard one in our kitchen like that thing is gold, because to me it is. We have a standalone shelf with enough cast iron items stacked on it to run a restaurant. There's two pieces, above all else in that collection that I'm thinking about having buried with me. One is a Dutch oven that my dad has cooked so many fish in that Pythagoras himself would be scratching his head and drawing in the dirt trying to cipher how many fish he took to their last swimming party In that pot of hot peanut oil. I have done a number on them myself, And until I bought a big double basket cage and fryar from the folks down in Homer, Louisiana, Dad's was. 00:19:49 Speaker 1: The only one I used. 00:19:51 Speaker 2: I still use it some, but if I'm feeding more than just me, the bigger one is just a lot easier, but the connection I have to Dad's well goes without saying. The second piece is an old skillet that was given to me by my mother in law. It is so slick a fly couldn't land on it without busting is behind. I keep it in top shape and wipe it out every time I use it. There's something very satisfying about pouring in a mixture of cornmeal, buttermilk and eggs and the other goodies that go into a sizzling skillet. 00:20:25 Speaker 1: Of preheated bacon grease. 00:20:28 Speaker 2: The best part is after about twenty minutes, when you take that skillet out of the oven and turn it upside down, and a hard, dark, bottom crusted pone of corn bread lands on a plate, the bottom of the corn bread crunchy and perfectly intact, the skillet shining and reflecting light like a mirror. 00:20:49 Speaker 1: And I know in my. 00:20:50 Speaker 2: Heart that my grandmother is smiling with pride. That skillet sits on the stove waiting to be called into action. I'm at the age where I have a favorite burner. That skillet stands there, vigilantly, silent, hovering over the gas burner, anticipating the flames that will transform whatever I drop in there into something good. Properly seasoned cast iron is the original nonstick skillet. That's a simple list of items, not the whole list, but neither included anything that runs off electricity or requires Wi Fi. And it only took me about fifty years to weed through the things that don't really matter to see clearly the things that do. I hope your journey is faster, though was equally the same results. Be thankful, be kind, and be delight for someone else. Thank you so much for listening to me, Clay and Lake and until next week. 00:21:56 Speaker 1: This is Brent Reeves. Sign it off. Y'all, be careful. I don