Country Life, the Good Life

     (This was written several years ago, but I decided to post it now here on the blog. It still rings true...)

Most big city folks have no idea what they are missing when it comes to living in this part of the country. 

One recent morning, the dogs not too long after daylight let me know it was time to get up. it was going to be another beautiful day.

I let them out for a brief jaunt, while I filled the trusty coffee maker. With coffee soon in hand and Augie and Buddy (the dogs) now vying for my attention. I settled down in a chair on the porch to watch the sun break over what I call Yellowbank Mountain in Breckenridge County.

The birds were excited too. I could even hear a couple bobwhite quail calling, and the doves were busy getting the day off to a fast start. Flowers were blooming among the weeds, and bees were already at work. (The weeds are part of nature, so it’s a good excuse not to pull or cut these vital parts of nature.)

Several errands called for a trip into town, and as usual I drove the backway through the country. A few miles down the road in a newly cut hayfield, a doe and her twin fawns cast an eye toward my truck, but generally ignored me.

“Wow, that would be a neAT photograph...If  they’ll just stay there...I doubt if they will,” I thought, but it was worth a chance. I slowly stopped the truck, reached down for a camera, turned back around toward the deer. But, Momma Doe already had led her youngsters a hundred yards back into the woods. Their speed must have been remarkable. I missed the photo, but the picture is firmly imprinted in my mind.

No more than a mile or two down the road, a tom turkey nonchalantly walked across the road. He gave me a look or two and wandered off into the woods.

For about five years, I worked in New York’s Wall Street District. It was an interesting experience to say the least. I spent about four months living in Greenwich Village before the family moved out anD joined me in an old home at Mt. Lakes, NJ.

There are some things I miss about the Big Apple and the whole metropolitan area. The bakeries and delicatessens were great, and they were lots of wonderful restaurants and good entertainment. What a lot of New Yorkers don’t realize is we have many of those things here as well as the wonderful outdoors, plus friendly people.

I was amazed early in my big city tour when a nice young lady working in the same office with me was surprised to learn Indianapolis and Louisville have art museums. She had never been more than 100 miles from New York City, and had no concept of life west of the Alleghenies.

I haven't had success in finding hard rolls and some other deli items back here in Kentuckiana, but the mother and fawn, and Kentucky barbecue, plus Bluegrass music make up for a lot. 

After that recent morning when I saw the deer and turkey, and the busy day which followed, I sat in the same chair and watched the sun go down on my Yellowbank Mountain to the tune of crickets and tree frogs, punctuated by an owl in the distance..

The Big City is a fun place to visit, and life there may be fine for some folks, but for me anything we don’t have here, we don’t need. Some hard rolls with butter sure would be good, though.

Labor Day passes, fall arrives

        Labor Day weekend marked the unofficial end of summer. There will be more warm weather, but it is the beginning of the end of the hot stuff. We’ve gone from 100 degrees to a morning long-sleeve shirt.

In 1894, Labor Day became a federal holiday. While some union people and other workers celebrate the day for reasons related to labor, for the most part it has gone the way of most other holidays in that it is a day off and a long weekend to have a good time.

Labor Day pretty much marks the end of summer, the time a guy is no longer supposed to wear white pants, and the start of college and pro football, as well as the kickoff of hunting seasons.

Leaves are beginning to swirl to the ground. Their color is changing. Particularly, the change is starting in my two Walnut trees out back. It may be part that fall is coming. It may be in part the serious dry weather we have experience the past several months.

This morning as I sat on the deck with my dog, Tyler, drinking coffee and enjoying the cool before another hot day. I heard four shots. Suddenly, I remembered early goose season has arrived. Someone may have goose for a Labor Day meal. Yes, fall is enroute.

After the extremely hot, dry summer, I look forward to fall. It probably is my favorite season. However, I have very little enthusiasm for what follows. Winter. 

It is true, Winter has some virtues, although the old mind struggles to enumerate many. It seems the number shrinks as my age increases.

However, summer really isn’t over. There will be more warm days and the water temperature is still warm. It is a time when big catfish are feeding prior to winter months. There isn’t a better time to land a big catfish. Their feeding frenzy, especially in rivers and big lakes, usually lasts through the middle of September when the water begins to cool.

And when the water begins to cool, it marks a time for crappie fishing action to pick up.

Once the leaves begin to turn color and drop, many anglers are ready to put away their rods and reels for the year, but if they do they will miss a lot of good fishing.

Crappie fishing can be goof in the fall as it is during the spring spawn. In fact, it can be just as much fun and productive as there are fewer people and boats on lakes and streams making noise and spooking the fish.

Fall crappie fishing can be a bit more challenging than spring action because often the fish are more scattered. They are harder to find. They also may be more unpredictable.

During the fall, the water temperature eventually becomes about the same at all levels and crappie can be found at most any depth. However, once you find them, they can be caught.

In the fall, crappie seem to prefer minnows over artificial baits as they starting feeding themselves for the coming cold-weather months--at least that is my experience.

If you decide to use artificial baits, it is a good idea to keep them smaller. One-to-two inch artificial minnows seem to work well.

If you are fishing clear water, crappie plugs, small jigs, bladebaits like Road Runners, work well. Often combining a lure with a live minnow will attract fish faster and more often.

Night fishing works well during early fall. Lights which attract bugs also attract fish.

A cookout with fried squirrel and fried crappie and homemade slaw-Uhmm...

9/11, I could have been there

My head is filled with thoughts related to 9/11. They are numerous and difficult to organize. That may be the case for many Americans.

I know exactly what I was doing when the first twin tower was hit. My wife Phyllis and I had made plans to attend an outdoor writer’s conference. We planned to take our motorhome, so I had scheduled some minor maintenance at a Tell City automotive garage.

When I arrived at the garage with the motorhome on the morning of 9/11, a radio was playing in the back of the shop. A newsman was talking about a plane crashing into a World Trade Center tower.  A short time later, the second plane hit. Being an old news guy and retired Air Force officer, it didn’t make sense. 

The rest of the day, and for several days, I was glued to the television and radio. It was hard to believe. I couldn’t get enough information.

The thoughts and mind-pictures from the scene poured into my head, and my heart. I felt for the victims, their families and their friends. And to me, the physical loss of the buildings also was like losing a friend.

For four years, I rode the train from Mt. Lakes, NJ, to Hoboken, then boarded the PATH (Port Authority Trans Hudson). Rode under the river to the train station in the basement of one the Twin Towers. Each evening, I made the reverse trip.

I can still see the escalators which carried me daily up from the lower level station. There were sandwich shops and restaurants. I often visited them for lunch.

There also were other restaurants higher in the building.. And if I remember right, in the early days of CNN, the network had an office there that covered Wall Street. I sometimes worked with its reporters.

Windows on the World was a wonderful restaurant atop one of the towers. The food was good, but the view was even more spectacular. I remember attending a Christmas party there. The view at night was breathtaking.

I worked about a block and a half away in media relations for AT&T. It still is hard for me to imagine or believe the towers are gone.

One day a wacky guy using suction cups on his hands and feet decided to climb one of the towers. Fred Heckman, the former news director of WIBC in Indianapolis, was a good friend. He called me and asked it I could see the climbing guy, who I think called himself,”The Human Fly.”

“Sure,” I said. The next thing I knew I was live on WIBC providing an account of the nutty guy’s climb. In fact, I did several reports for Fred.

I have many memories of the now missing beautiful buildings. I still see them in my mind.

Had the timing been a bit different, I could have been in one of the towers.

My fear is that something similar will happen again. It is hard to protect against people who have no respect for human dignity, for life, and freedom.

We do the best we can.

Meredith's first fish

My three-year-old granddaughter Meredith was on the phone. “Grandpa, I want to go fishing.”

How old is old enough to learn to fish? Five? Six? What about a youngster that just turned three this spring?

Three is probably a little young I thought, but I didn’t want to tell Meredith she is too young. I knew her mother, daughter Michelle had prompted her. Michelle has always been an outdoors woman, plus she wants to keep the old man busy.

So, I told, Meredith, “Sure. That’s great. We’ll go sometime.” I figured she would forget about the request.

Then last week on my birthday, Michelle called and wanted to know what I was planning for the day. “Oh, not much. I don’t celebrate birthdays these days. Your Mom and I may go out and eat this evening,” was my response.

She said, “We’ll if we come up, Meredith wants to know if you will take her fishing?’ She wants to talk to you.

“Happy birthday Grandpa. Will you take me fishing?”

Of course, the answer was “Yes”.

I headed out to purchase some red worms for bait, and next rigged a rod and reel. For panfish, I use a spinning rod and reel with six-pound test line. Sometime with youngsters, I suggest starting the old-fashioned way with a cane pole. Yes, you still can buy them.

A cane pole is a good way to start, but probably not for a three-year-old. There is danger in trying to swing the pole and a line with a razor-sharp dangling hook.

I went to my rod-reel stash and selected a closed faced reel. (Actually, it is one my wife uses.) It is easy to use and there is much less chance of tangling the line. I had decided I would do the casting (training for that will come later), and Meredith would do the retrieving of the line by cranking the reel handle to bring in the line, weight, bobber, hook and bait.

When I opened the box of wiggling worms and showed them to Meredith, I got an “uh” and a funny look on her face.

After explaining that bluegill like eating worms, I threaded one onto the hook, and cast to a nearby pole sticking up where a dock once existed. Almost instantly, something pulled the red and yellow bobber beneath the surface.

“Wind,” I said exclaimed as I helped her hold the rod with one hand and wind the reel handle with the other. She excitedly turned the handle and slowly brought a struggling gill to the bank.

“I got one, I got one, Mommy, I got one.”

We caught another, put another worm on the hook, and then the fishing slowed. 

“The fish aren’t biting,”, I explained. “Why do fish eat worms?”

“It’s just a food they like, but right now they aren’t hungry.”

“Why” was the response.

“Apparently, they just aren't hungry. Maybe they’re taking a rest.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know”

“Why”

I had no answer for that one. But, I was having fun.

We continued to fish, casting to several different locations. About 15 minutes later, we caught two more.

Meredith touched the fish as I explained how their fins can hurt. She also eventually touched a worm.

It is important with youngsters to make fishing fun. Try for panfish, which are easier to catch than bass. Be patient and don’t make it a chore. And don’t get exercised when they decide they want to throw rocks and sticks into the water.

I was surprised with Meredith’s attention span. I think it was as long as mine.

It never is too soon to involve kids in the outdoors. Most enjoy it from the time they can walk, maybe sooner. Meredith and her younger sister, Allison when they were babies liked riding outside in the stoller. When they were upset, a trip outdoors seemed to sooth them.

So what age is old enough to learn to fish. It depends on the youngster, but it may be sooner than you think. It was in my case.

Squirrel first of hunting seasons

         It seems like it should still be spring, and yet squirrel season is here already.  It’s the first of the fall hunting seasons, and opened Aug. 15 in the Hoosier state and a week later in Kentucky.

Squirrels are found throughout Indiana.  City parks and neighborhoods without predators spawn squirrels that will eat our of your hand, however squirrels hunted in woodlands almost seem like a different animal.

Any consistently successful squirrel hunter has a right to brag.  Squirrels in the wild are very wary, and most of them are taken by hunters in the first couple of weeks of the season even though here in the Hoosier state the bag limit is five and the season continues through Jan. 31 in Indiana and Feb. 29 in Kentucky.

Both gray and fox squirrels are found in southern Indiana and northern Kentucky, however there are more fox squirrels than grays.  The fox squirrel also is larger than the gray.  

The fox squirrel's tail is rust colored and the body's underneath is yellow or yellow-orange.  It tends to be stockier and longer than the gray with the average fox length a little over two feeling, including a foot long tail.  The weight usually is one- and-a-half to two pounds with some going as large at three pounds.

The fox squirrel runs with a lope a bit like a fox, however it probably gets its name from the red in its fur.

The hunter who rolls out of bed and makes it to the woods before daylight has the best chance at success.  Hunting is best during the first hour after daybreak, and during the hour just before dark.  

This time of year squirrels are found around nut trees gathering a winter food supply.  They take nuts from trees to store for the winter.  The nuts on the ground are eaten, but rarely stored.  Check under trees for cracked nut hulls to determine if squirrels are active in the area.

Squirrels use dens in trees, but also usually build a couple of leaf nests per year, and also "cooling" beds that are used in warm weather.  

Nests in tree tops are easy to spot and will help the hunter determine if squirrels are in the area.  However, no true hunter ever shoots a nest, even if he knows a squirrel is in it.  While it isn't illegal to shoot a nest, it certainly doesn't present much challenge and is not sporting.

Both shotguns and rifles are used for squirrel hunting.  Those deadeye hunter pride themselves in using a rifle and making a clean headshot, which does no damage to the meat.  There are even a few hunters who use bows, but it is tough shooting and usually means more lost arrows than squirrels for the skillet.

One of the best methods of hunting is to prescout and area to determine squirrels are present.  Then walk to the area before daylight, sit on the ground with your back against a tree and face west so that the rising sun will not blind him and will shine on the game.

If no squirrels are seen after a 30 minute set, walk quietly through the woods.  Don't walk with a steady rhythm and pause frequently.  Listen, look, and wait for squirrel activity.  If all else fails, walk without concern for noise into a likely area, and then stop and sit quietly for 15 minutes.  Then, if there is no activity, head for some biscuits and gravy.

While a young fried squirrel is mighty tasty, the best part is squirrel gravy made from the drippings and browned flour coating left in the frying pan.  The gravy on mashed potatoes or biscuits is wonderful.

Hobby turns into wonderful Appalachian museum

John Rice Irwin is a remarkable man--a man of vision and passion--passion for preserving the mountain way of life. Although in his early years, some thought his passion was excessive, and that may have been putting it mildly.

Irwin, a former teacher and superintendent of schools, early in life was inspired by the beauty of the mountains and valleys of Anderson, TN,. He began collecting and preserving small bits of the culture. However, there was a time when Irwin’s family thought his passion was bordering on insanity.

“My four grandparents gave me my original appreciation for the mountain way of life...The collection started in 1962 when I went to an auction at the old Miller homestead on the Clinch River just below the Norris Dam. Somebody was bidding on an old cedar churn, and I heard them say they wanted to make a lamp out of it. Somebody else wanted an old wagon seat to make into a table.

“I thought, “How terrible! These things are part of our heritage and culture.” I started making trips into the mountains, buying almost everything I could. Eventually I got the old General Burch Cabin, rebuilt it, and furnished it in meticulous detail just the way it should be. I bought a second cabin, and a third.”

He bought many items and some were given to him. Soon his garage was filled and he kept buying and collecting. At one point, his family had a meeting to try to figure out how to slow down his spending and somehow limit the time he was spending on the process, including hours he spent with the hill people he learned to love. 

He kept learning, buying, and collecting, and now his family is glad he did. What started as an exhibit in two buildings has turned into an authentic Appalachian village, a unique monument to the mountain lifestyle, and in the process the stately appearing Irwin has himself become a legend.

His 65-acre Museum of Appalachia near Norris contains a collection of more than 35 authentic log cabins and buildings, including the Tennessee home of Mark Twain.

“It’s easy enough to bring in an old log cabin, set it up and get everything right from a structural standpoint,” said Irwin la few years ago as we shared lunch in the museum restaurant, which serves food raised in the three gardens on the grounds. ”It is much more difficult to get every item just the way it should be. It is such things as the handmade corner cupboard and the little items on the shelves that really represent the culture of the people in this area.”

Irwin has been building his unique museum, which now is operated by a non-profit organization, for more than 30 years. However with a grin, he acknowledged it all started as a hobby which got out and control and took over his life.

“The truth is that I never had any idea of establishing a museum,” he added. The artifacts he collected number more than a quarter million.

At age 80, John Rice has retired from active management at the museum. He has nearly completed an autobiography, which will be published next. 

The museum’s annual Tennessee Fall Homecoming is held the second full weekend of October (this year Oct. 7-9) and attracts thousands of visitors from around the world. It has some of the country’s top bluegrass and gospel bands and stars performing throughout the event on five different stages.

John Rice plans to attend the homecoming, and will sign his previously written books.

Located 16 miles north of Knoxville, it is only one mile off I75, and is open daily except Christmas Day. It is about a five-hour drive from this area, so an overnight stay is advised to have enough time to fully enjoy the museum.

Free brochures and more information may be obtained by calling 865-494-7680. There also is a website at www.museumofappalachia.org

It's not my birthday, it's opening day

For many years, Aug. 15 has been a special day. Yes, it’s my birthday, but that’s not what makes it special. It is the opening day of squirrel season in Indiana.

Most of the time it is a really hot day. It’s not the kind of day one normally thinks about hunting, but it is the opening day of the first of our hunting seasons. Even if just for a few minutes, I feel compelled to make it into the woods.

And, while I don’t expect to shoot a squirrel, heading to the woods is my symbolic gesture for starting a new hunting season.

Unfortunately, my right leg is gimpy. I really can’t walk the way I’ve always loved to do. I doubt I do much hunting today, but I may sit under a hickory tree with my rat terrier Tyler and remember those fun season openers of the past. I may not even take a gun, but I’ll be hunting in my mind.

Wow, wouldn’t fried squirrel gravy over biscuits be great tomorrow morning?