Happy Sunday and good to be able to visit with you guys once again. We hope everybody is doing just fine and thanks for stopping in to see us again!
You know Deb and I had gone down to the ranch for a couple days, and boy we had a good time! We’d been trying to leave Wed. morning, and it just seemed as if things wouldn’t stop popping up and delaying the trip.
Thursday morning rolled around and dad-gum, we were still having kinks thrown our way. Finally about 3:30, that afternoon, Deb says, “If we’re going, then let’s load the dern truck and GO!” So, being the loving husband I am, I says, “Okay.”
It’s about an hour and a half drive from the house which isn’t long but, there’s about 30 miles of two-lane road between Hwy. 60 and Yeehaw Junction that’s heavily traveled and once you get behind a slower vehicle, well, you have to just poke along.
Once we got to the ranch though, it was “Shangri-La,” from Thursday afternoon until this (Sun.) morning. We’ve just unloaded and walked in the door. Deb says, “You going to help me unpack?” I just told her I had to come holler at you guys, and SURPRISINGLY, she just said…okay. Small wonders still amaze me!
Friday afternoon we rode around and saw several deer, but it was so hot, and man it has been awful dry as well. So, with this the case, the wildlife just weren’t moving around like they normally do. We saw a big ole boar hog Fri. afternoon as well, and I had no rifle on me.
My brother Shane was like, “I can’t believe you didn’t bring a gun, “and I said that I had, actually two, but not a rifle. He then shook his head and said, “Well, why did you bring pistols but NO rifles?” I told him, that’s easy enough to answer…Boogers! He said that there weren’t any boogers down here, and I just said…that’s what you say!
The very next morning, I was outside making a pot of coffee and frying Deb and I some bacon and eggs. Down there, I always build a little fire, and cook breakfast and boil some coffee over a campfire, though we have a nice mobile home we use when we go down, that is Mom and Dad’s “camp house” when they go.
Where I cook is about 20 yards from the trailer, and it sits between two big swamps out in a pasture. It was a beautiful morning and the day was just breaking, and the fog was hanging down all around me, especially along the edges of the swamp, where it was REALLY thick.
It was so quiet, and peaceful, and the birds were just beginning to sing, and you could hear the mama cows calling their babies. Actually to me, it is the prettiest time of the day!
Well Deb was still in bed, and I had the fire going and was drinking my first cup of coffee, and the bacon and eggs I’d just put down in the skillet. I was sitting there sippin my coffee and just thanking the good Lord for the many blessings he shares with us all.
All of a sudden, I hear the most awful commotion coming from up in the cypress trees back in the swamp furthest from me, and then hear something coming towards me, but can’t see it for the fog.
Then I see it firsthand. It was a man, an ole wild looking man! He had long hair a blowing in the wind, a big ole long beard, and he had fangs for teeth. That scoundrel was ridin’ on top of the biggest black bear I’d ever seen, and he was whippin’ that bear with a six foot rattlesnake, just a hollering, “Git up, git up here!”
I just stood there, my mouth open, and my feet wouldn’t move for the life of me. He rode that bear right up to where I stood, yanked back on the set of reigns he had in that bear’s mouth, slid that bear to a stop, throwed that dern rattlesnake down, and trotted over to my campfire, not saying a word.
The slightest of breezes woulda’ blowed me over, right then and there!
That dern Wildman, got to my fire, reached his ole gnarled and mangled hands right down into that hot grease, and eat them bacon and eggs without showing the first sign they were hot. He then grabbed that scaldin’ hot pot of coffee, and just gulped it down…not even blinking an eye! He’d not said a word!
He hopped back up on that bear, snatched up that snake, and went to kicking that bear with the heels of his feet, and just a whippin’ him with that ole snake, and they was off again, just that fast! I didn’t know what to think, it had all happened so very fast.
I just was watching him ride off, and right before he disappeared back into that ole foggy swamp, he whirled that bear around, and snatched back on the reigns to make that dern bear raise up on his hind legs. That bear was standing upright, and he was twirling that snake around above his head, cracking him ever once in a while like a whip! He then hollered back to me, “I hate to eat and run, son…but there’s a BAD son of a gun after me!”
I put out the fire, got Deb up outta’ bed, and told her to hurry up and get dressed, because I believe we’ll ride up to the chicken farm and see Shane this morning. I sure wasn’t wanting to be between those two swamps when that “bad so of a gun,” come through looking for the first visitor I’d had earlier!
So if you ever get down Yeehaw Junction way, dismiss my brother Shane’s commenting that, “there ain’t no boogers down here,” cause I for one, know of AT LEAST two!
Well, now that that’s off my chest. Shoot, it’d been a couple days since we had NO internet access down there, that I’d been able to story to you guys some, and to be honest it was killin’ me! So, there’s my first little fib already behind me.
In the next few days going along we’ve got since pictures and four videos to share with you. We didn’t get as many as we’d like to of, but this trip time was a little of a problem. Friday we were at Shane and Patty’s for quite a while, as we hadn’t seen those two for any length of time in what seemed like an awful long time.
Saturday evening they came down about 5 and then by the time we grilled it was getting late, and then had a thunderstorm. Being as the best time to get some pictures and video of the wildlife is early in the morning, or late in the evening, we just didn’t have the opportunity to do much of that.
The rain we got Saturday evening was the first rain we’d had down here in quite a long time, so we were thankful of it. Actually, Deb and I left there at about 7:15 this morning, and it was storming when we left. But again, we are very thankful for it!
When we got home everything looked so green and fresh here too. Red said we’d had rain starting around 2 Saturday aftrnoon, and we’d gotten more during the night. I called him about 6:15 this morning, and he told me it had just come another good rain! Thank you, Thank you, thank you!
This evening Deb and I have quite a bit of picking to do in the gardens. Tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, peppers, and there looks as if we’re going to pick several messes of string beans, our first of the year!
Well my friends, we had a great time, but it is good to be back home. We appreciate you guys soo much and we’re looking forward to sharing with you our experiences.
I had filmed a deer Saturday morning, and was talking about the impact coyotes had been playing on the wildlife and cattle here in Florida. I mean as soon as I finished that little video, I looked back behind me and saw the coyote trapper.
I stopped him and his granddaughter, who I falsely stated as being his daughter in the video. Anyway, his name is Ralph, and what a good guy he is. He gave us about a 7-8 minute video we’ll be sharing with you in a day or two. I found his input to be very informative, and interesting, and I believe you all will as well!
Well, that’s it for today, and I hope you all have a great day!
God Bless!
Doug and Deb