Bear Grease - Ep. 13: Bear Grease [Render] - Cobras, Bulldozers, and Immortal Roosters

Episode Date: August 4, 2021

On this episode of the Bear Grease [Render], the crew starts out with a discussion on Clay's recent brush with the intoxicating power of a D6 Caterpillar bulldozer. They'll jump into a wild story of the Newcomb's near immortal rooster, which comes with a song. Finally, they discuss the "Snake Bit" episode and all the wild stories on the podcast. The crew learned a lot from Dr. Chris Jenkins of the Snake Talk Podcast, were shocked by Fred Lally's life, and were deeply impacted by Lisa Damron's story. You're not going to want to miss this laugh-filled, yet meaningful episode. Connect with Clay and MeatEaterClay on InstagramMeatEater on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YoutubeShop Bear Grease Merch Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. First Lights fieldware collection is made for the work that happens long before opening day and continues when the season ends. Products built for early mornings, full days and real use. Hard wearing where they need to be versatile where it matters. No shortcuts. Just gear designed for the work that earns the season.

Built to perform, built to last. Check out. First Light's new field. Worldware Gear at firstlight.com. My name is Clay Newcomb, and this is a production of the Bear Grease podcast called the Bear Grease Render, where we render down, dive deeper, and look behind the scenes of the actual Bear Grease podcast. Presented by FHF Gear, American Made, Purpose Built, Hunting and Fishing Gear that's designed to be as rugged as the places we explore. Yeah.

It's pretty big. My poor pigs. My poor pigs. Forget your pigs. I don't have AC in my truck. Do you really not? No. You don't have doors on your truck.

255. I'm telling me it's 250. I don't have doors. Welcome to the bear grease render. Really, welcome to the bear gree surrender. Yeah, Dan Rup doesn't have doors on this truck. No doors, no AC. Yeah, it's really hot here in Arkansas.

Over 100 degrees today is what I hear. Hey, did you guys know? Speaking of air conditioning, no doors on. on the truck. Did you boys know that I've been driving a D5 Caterpillar dozer for the last two days? I've spent like 10 hours, one day, two hours, one day, eight hours. Like going to the store and back? It's like an everyday driver for me now.

Yeah, I drive it to drive it into town. No. Did y'all see, did y'all know that I was doing that? I did. Well, we saw some video. So yes, we saw it. Man, I tell you what. You got a new appreciation for that.

If this outdoor media stuff does not work out, I know exactly what I'm going to be doing with my life. You like it? Bulldozer driver. Yeah. It's a little hard on the intestines, though. Not this one, man. Air conditioning is so cold, it would absolutely freeze you out. Get the hydraulic seat.

Very comfortable seat. Yeah, this is like a really nice dozer. And my dad's friend is the one who, let us use it, like, just like, let us use it. It's not, sure. What, you know, it's who you know, I guess. Man. Yeah.

And so, man, so over where we're doing this work, in the, it's actually in the washdaws. Wink, wink. Yeah. I'm getting a wink from the land bridge. For those of us, for those, for those people who aren't from this part of the world, like, it's super thick regrowth on this property. Very thick. Like, you couldn't shoot a bow.

20 yards in most places. And the topography is up and down. You know, there's a big draw that comes through our property and some hills and valleys. Anyway, but it's so thick. There's no view. I deeply value views. Like, and basically, long story short, I'm not going to get in all the details. Me and dad are building a cabin.

Me and dad are building a cabin over there at some point. And dad wanted the cabin down on the creek, okay, which it's not much of a creek. It's a small creek. Dry. It doesn't even slow the year. I wanted the cabin up on top of the ridge. But to do that, we had to build a pretty long road, about a quarter mile probably road. And I wanted a view.

And I did not know how good the view was going to be until I borrowed a cat five. Are you getting paid? Yeah, it feels like an ad. Yeah, that would be awesome. Caterpillar. I jumped in that thing. Now, I have driven big equipment before. I'm good on a track hoe and a backhoe.

And I'd never driven a dozer. And, man, I picked it up quick, and I'm like a professional dozer operator now. Wow. And we cleared about probably close to an acre of stuff so thick. you couldn't walk through it. And that dozer will flat knock over a tree that's about 14, 15 inches

in diameter. Just drive over it. I mean, I was pushing over pine trees that you could have built a house. All the dozer operators out there saying, you shouldn't be doing that. No, no, no. They're saying it's probably

they're pushing over bigger trees. Anyway, that was a lot of fun. What I appreciate about that story is how brazen you are in congratulating yourself for being a fantastic bulldozer driver. I mean, hey, if you got it, flam it. I mean, exactly.

It was just a ton of fun. He's in a sandbox in the size of the mountains. I'm steps ahead of everyone here. Wow. Here we go again. Round two. The sheer knowledge and wisdom. I don't know.

I don't even know how we can sit in the same room with this man. I said all that to say, that is why Gary Newcomb is not here today. because we've been working over there, and he had to go back down there today for some other stuff that was going on. So Gary Newcomb is not here. So now I will get into... I will get into introductions.

I won't tell who this voice is. To my right, Brent Reeves. Man, Brent had a home run appearance on the Bear Greece podcast this week. I'll say. What did you think? I'll say. We'll hear about it later.

Articulate, handsome. Say hi to everybody. Hello. Oh, everybody. Yeah. To his right, Daniel Roop. Dr. D. Roop. Hello.

Good to see you, man. Good to be here. The Land Bridge, Josh Spillmaker. I'm here. Still unqualified. Got that straight up shout-out on the Bear Grasbite. I did. I did.

Yeah. You didn't like coach him to say that, did you? No. Yeah. The actual Land Bridge does come up in conversation with a lot of people I run with. Wow. And they're not talking about Josh. It's pretty dang fascinating.

One day I'll do an entire Berger's podcast on the Lent. That's a brilliant idea. Oh, man. Get ready. Really? Is that going to be my moment? Is that going to be my moment? Probably.

Probably not. Probably not. Exactly. Don't count on it. Hey, listen, if you live in North America and you do not know about the Bering Land Bridge, then basically there is a. massive hole in your understanding of why you are here, the animals that are on this continent are here, and basically you are sort of irresponsible. That's my take on it.

Lots of generalized statements being thrown around. Really? Yeah. All positive in one direction. That dozer. That dozer. That's what happened to the land bridge. When I was on that dozer yesterday, I felt intoxicated with power. I think it may have shaped me Like in an unhealthy way We're all thinking that Man Okay, people have complained that we're talking over each other

This has been like one nonstop talking No no, we got to keep it up Forget those people We're gonna talk about reviews here in a minute Landbridge, Josh, good to see you Yes, good to be here Back from wherever he was Malachi Nichols

Dr. Nichols Good to see you man Good to see you. When Malachi walked in the day, I was like, you've been playing golf? Almost too hot. Brent, will you describe what he's wearing? He's got some socks from, they probably should have, I don't know how you describe it. It looks like a DNA pattern or something.

I'd say they come from Scotland. It looks like how. I think Dolly Parton's mama made those. Like that, to go with a coat of many colors. Maliki is known for his socks and has been for years. It's strong, man. Carry on. Chinoes.

The reason I'm not, oh, okay. He goes up from his decorative socks to a pair of non-pleaded slacks. Comfortable anywhere from a night out on the town to a bear grease render. Accompanying that and finishing off his attire would be a white polo that has obviously been pressed sometime in the last five years. it looks good but he's actually got a polo polo that's what that is polo polo yeah i thought that was self-explanatory polo can be generic like you could buy polo from walmart okay that is a legit so that's the style that is the not only is it a polo shirt it is a polo shirt exactly is that better yeah bulldozer man yeah malicott great to have you back we told we told everybody

last time why you weren't here why wasn't i here i forgot it was because you got ousted out by Oh, yeah, by the land bridge. Yeah, we're back. Okay, and then our guest of honor, Misty Newcomb, my wife. Hello, Misty. Aw. How nice.

So sorry. He's so sorry for everybody else who did not get that introduction. No. I don't want to be Clay's wife. You should, you guys, you guys should start to cue in on nonverbal things that are happening in this room.

If you'll notice, Ms. Newcomb has a banjo in her lap. Always. Well, I was just going to say, just FYI, I got invited to play at my first non-beargreens gig. Oh. Pretty big deal. Don't tell them where they'll all go. It's true. Wow.

Yeah. I'll be. We're not inviting. I'll keep watching for the release of those tickets for the Arkansas Music Pavilion. Right. Exactly. Yeah. She's playing with Willie Nelson.

Oh, yeah. Nice. No, no, not true. Not true. Hey, iTunes and reviews on iTunes are big. in the podcast world. None of us podcasters know why, but we just all know that it is

because podcasters like continually beg people for ratings and reviews. None of us know why. It's kind of like being a North American and not knowing that you know, humans first came across a Bering Landbride. It's kind of irresponsible that I don't really understand why

iTunes ratings are important but they really are. And people have really come through big time for us. Yes. We've got a ton of through the other day. Well, I was going to bring up that one review. Josh texted me. This is the greatest podcast in history, two stars.

Yeah. So that's why I wanted to bring this up. Gary Newcomb. Just in. Yeah. No, I think it said instant hit. Love this. Like, it, like, just glowed.

I think it was in all caps. Yeah, it was just like, this is awesome. Two stars. I would like to hear what a good podcast was for that guy. Yeah, for real. Got a five-star. Yeah, I mean,

because, I mean, I'd like to hear what he would say about it, you know. Yeah. But it was, it was pretty impressive. Hey,

did you guys know that the Bear Grease podcast has a new official title sponsor? Did y'all catch it? Y'all didn't catch it? Caterpillar? I didn't know.

Caterpillar. No, F-H-F gear. Oh, yeah. I heard it. Did y'all hear that in the intro? Yes. It was F-H-F gear.

Yeah. Do y'all know what F-F-F stands for. No. Fish hunt fight. Oh. Fish hunt fight.

Yeah, so fish hunt fight gear. I've got some FHF stuff right here. Awesome. This is one of the Meteor companies. That's a pretty cool bag right there. This is a, this is a, yeah. Yeah, this is their, like, accessories pouch. So I use this.

Basically, FHF, they became known probably originally with their binocular harnesses. So it's a chest harnesses. chest harness, but they're making all kind of other stuff now. And so this is their their pouch. Like this is my turkey pouch. I got all my turkey calls. That would be a great fly fishing pack right there. Just slap that bad boy. They sell them. They've got them. I'm in. It looks perfect for hot tarts. They're very comfortable. Like you quit. If you wear one of these, I mean, you know, you might need more storage if you really were trying to carry a backpack. But man, everything's right here on your chest. But yeah, this is just their

Okay, housekeeping items here, okay. First Light is having their season opener sale, which is their biggest sale of the whole year, and it goes from August 3rd to August 5th. Okay. A bunch of stuff is on sale. It's their best sale the year. So if you're looking to get decked out and some first light stuff,

and I'll tell you what I'm going to talk about. So on social media, they just said, hey, we want you all to tell your top three pieces of gear, like your must-have pieces. Because sometimes it's confusing just with a clothing company that has all these different kind of complex systems and different things. It's just like, what do you get? Sawbuck pants, man. I wear sawbuck. It's to wonder I'm not wearing them today. I literally almost wear them every day.

sawbook pants that basically have a synthetic material on the back but a brush pant front and so they're kind of tough that you know you can you can they're kind of tough but they're also breathable lightweight absolutely love them brush guard in the front breathable in the back it's the wallet of pants it's the it's the union suit of hunting pants that's my dream pant right there you really would like number two Two is the Brooks Down sweater, which is, they call it a sweater, but I mean, it's a jacket. I've been jealous of that. Oh, yeah. Since you walked in with it. I'm going to be getting one of those. Well, it's a man, once it gets October, I will wear it every day from October through March. Are you going to wash it?

No, I'm not joking. No, I don't wash it. It's a jacket, Daniel. Daniel Blank stare Looking at me No It's so

I can see why this question Would have been relevant It's not really a sweater That you wear it That touches your skin It's a jacket But they call it Brooks down sweater Do you wash your jackets

Ever since Clay's been on the dozer He doesn't listen to any questions He just writes us off Brooks down sweater Okay And then the third one is the Corrigot Guide Pants. So you'll hear me talking about that. Corgett Guide Pant is basically their hot weather synthetic material pant.

It's awesome. Are they stretchy? Yeah, they're stretchy. That's what we wore in. Like yoga hunting pants. Yeah, like yoga hunting. Yeah. Yeah, I like them.

Hey, so we usually kind of have like story time on the podcast. And Misty and I have a story today. Oh. Yeah. A little treat here. And it's a timely story. Will you be telling it together? No, he's going to cut me off.

She don't know how to drive a bulldole. I'm going to start and he's going to say, let me tell this part. Misty will help me because Misty's a big part of the story. So Misty, please, feel free, feel free to chime in. Feel free to chime in. Do your story. We've had chickens for probably 15. years. And we've had an assortment, an assortment of roosters. And so all our kids will have

rooster stories and people's kids that have come over here, you know, for those of you wouldn't know, roosters are honorary and they will attack you. There's a variation. Some roosters are really bad about wanting to attack people. Some roosters aren't that bad at all. There's a spectrum of roosters. Exactly. And we've had a rooster that thought he was human and kind imprinted on clay and would follow them around on the phone and crow behind them. I guess we got to tell that story. I had a buddy that gave me a rooster, like a single rooster when we had no chickens. They had to get rid of this rooster because they had it in town and it was crowing. And the city made them say, you can't have that rooster. It's making racket. Your

neighbors are calling us. He brings it here, turns loose this bard rock rooster at my house. And the rooster has no other chickens and so like I'm the one that's here like walking around you're the closest thing to a chicken he's got he follows me around it's true every day and in this office I'm trying to make a living for bear hunting magazine scrapping away as an entrepreneur and I'm in here by myself and that rooster would stalk me watching me through the windows and as soon as I would get a phone call and that rooster would hear me talking in this building and would look at me And literally, I would take my, if I was on an important call, like someone I'm trying to, like, do business with that, like, doesn't know much about me. Like, I would, like, run out to try to get as far away as I could from that rooster.

But he wouldn't crow until he heard me talk. So, like, people have memories of being, Clay, the first time I called Barrowney Magazine, all I could hear was that rooster growing. We would eat dinner with that rooster, and he would come up. the like around the dinner table. We'd be eating dinner and the

rooster would be outside of it Yeah we need it with the rooster I thought The two of you took him on a date night

Well we would sit there as a family And he'd come and look and stare And you'd kind of feel bad that you didn't invite him in Because he clearly

He was just really lonely Kind of like Hey guys am I not part of the family I mean he really was part of the family The most recent Rooster

has been a terrorist For the last three years And he's He is He's he's attacked me publicly. He has attacked pretty much every one of our kids. He has a particular thing with people in shorts.

So if you go running, he'll come and run after you. If you wear shorts and you're a white guy, you're in trouble. He can see you don't have any spurs. So, okay, we have this rooster and he's bad news, okay? He's been alive for three or four years. He's an old rooster because we got stories that go. Pretty far back. Well, there came a point when we decided years ago that this rooster was a liability to our place and he needed to go.

You'd open the door to feed it and it would just come out and attack you. And so being the good dad that I am, I delegated off the task of disposing of this rooster. Leadership. To shepherd-de-le-le-le-old. You delegating. My youngest son, who at the time would have been under 10 years old. Pretty good shot. And so being also a responsible father, I didn't give him a gun.

What did I give him to go dispatch the rooster? A bow. A bow. I gave Shepard Nook him a bow. He was pretty good with a bow. And we just said, Shepatch. Take care of the rooster. Okay.

Take care of the rooster. A wink. Shepard goes out, but he shoots this rooster. and he comes back in and he's all excited and he's like, I got him, Dad, and I was like, really good. And I said, I mean, he's dead, huh? And he said, well, he ran off into the woods. And before I go any further, let me say that anybody who's ever eaten a chicken

nugget or any kind of chicken that was raised in confinement agriculture has zero position to be able to judge the caretaking of our rooster. Okay. He's a little touchy about it. Yeah. Yeah. I don't want somebody being like, oh, you abused a rooster?

No. No. Shepard shoots the rooster with a bow. It's self-defense, basically. It really much self-defense. The rooster runs off, and I just think it's gone out in the woods and died, to be honest. That was your first mistake.

And I just thought, okay. Never underestimate a rooster. Well, man, right at dark when all the chickens start coming into the coop from way across the pasture. I look out there and I see the captain. That was his name. He's like General Custer. I see the captain.

His name is the captain. I see him limping across the field. With an arrow through him. No, no arrow. Limping across the field. And I go, Dadgum, that sucker still alive. And he limps all the way back into the coop.

And we had so much respect for him after this. Also, it humbled him. It humbled him. He was a little bit easier to handle. Like, you would open the door and he'd just be like, I'm just going to walk. I'm a lit bite. I mean, I'm not going to. A pattern began to establish itself.

Is this a way that Clay could be humbled? Ever since you drove that bulldozer. Wing him. Just wing him. So we kind of had empathy for him after this. We were like, well, maybe. You shot him. Well, maybe we'll let him live.

Because the next day, he was nicer. And for months, he didn't attack him. anyone. Years. Okay. And he kind of dialed back. Yeah. So the rooster gradually builds up whatever he lost and he starts getting real onry again. Okay. One day Misty and I are going somewhere. And it was hot. I remember I was dressed up in like the nicest clothes I own. Okay. I remember that I needed something way out by the mule pasture. I go, dog, gone it and I run, I jump out of the truck and run over to the mule pasture, running. And they're all the chickens.

And I'm inside. I bisect the chicken flock and they just go, the chickens just go flying in either direction. You know, I'm running right through the middle of this flock of chickens. Chicken's going right. Chicken's going left. The captain does not like that at all. Why would he? and he absolutely just goes full tilt spurring flying kicking I mean on me and if you've never

had that happen to you I've been pretty darn near charged by black bears and I this is scarier okay I mean he's spurring me and I mean I'm hollering I get out of here yeah and I kick him just as hard as I can kick him he goes across the yard hits the ground comes the ground coming comes back at me again. That's the thing about roosters. They don't stop. Oh, they're relentless. I say, I say Clay.

He is attacking me. Like, if it had been a small kid, I'd been afraid he to kill them. Well, I was standing in our orchard. And in our orchard, I'd trim some limbs. And there was a limb that was about five inches long and about as big around as a Coke can that was laying on the ground. That's a club. I pick it up. A shirt club is not enough.

I pick it up and just sling it sideways, just like that at him. I mean, I'm not trying to kill him. and I mean it just hits him right in the head that sucker goes down on his back wings start flopping feet are sticking straight up in the air he's circling the drain and I mean in his feet kick kick kick kick

limp Mrs. Captain there's been an accident the rooster is dead as a hammer and I go, dogana. I was like, I wasn't trying to kill him. What? Please don't try to not kill me. Dead is a hammer.

And so I walk over there and I'm upset. You check his pulse. I'm upset. I know what it looks like when something dies. And this rooster just died right here. And I know Misty's going to be upset. I go back to the truck. And I'm actually nervous about,

telling Misty. I get in the truck and I go, Misty, something's really sad just happened. I really do love my chickens, okay? It's true story. It's been an unfortunate accident.

I said, I just killed the captain. It was as if I lost my brother. Breaks into tears. Not kidding. He always, I think, exaggerates this part of a little bit.

I mean, there were sniffles. Breaking into tears. Sounds like I'm wailing and dashing of teeth. I mean, like tears came out of your eyes. And you said, oh my gosh, what happened? And I tell her, and she says, where's he at? And I say, he's laying right out there in the mule pasture.

Dead. Misty says, I want to see him. I want to see him. And we're dressed up in like the best clothes we've got, like I said. And I go, you want to see him? And I said, Misty, I don't think. I don't think you on it. And who wasn't the world that you need over by the mule pit?

There's a lot of unanswered questions. So many things wrong with this story. So finally she convinces me she wants to go see the dead cap. She just wants to, you know, part of grief, I guess. I got to say goodbye. So I go, okay, well, let's go over there. And so we walk over there and we come around the chicken coop. I'll never forget it.

I'll never forget it. Misty comes around the chicken coop and gains vista of the mule pasture. And she goes, there he is! Feathers waving. I mean, his back feather just... He is running through the mule pasture going after his girl. It's true story. Alive as he's ever been in his life.

True story. That's number two. That's twice. That's twice. It humbled him, though. Okay? We have a squirrel dog named Tim. Tim is one of the smartest animals we've ever interacted.

with incredibly smart he's a feist he's a squirrel dog anywhere there's drama Tim is involved in he loves it he loves drama like when the mules fight like he'll go out and start baying him sure for real when the pigs get out like he's the one telling us that the pigs are out like he's running Tim and the captain the captain attacks Tim Tim Tim will be eating his dog food the captain will come over and run Tim off his dog food and eat Tim's dog food so and Tim likes drama but he's he's He's a little bit. Well, so Tim has gotten to where he runs after the captain,

and they'll kind of get in a little fight. But Tim won't ever touch him, won't ever hurt him. Captain always wins. And Captain runs Tim off. Well, one day, Misty is out in the garden. Tim and the captain getting a fight, and the captain is winning. So they're fighting, and Captain keeps coming after Tim and scared him off, and Tim will go over just to harass him.

Well, Tim's gone through puberty now and he's a little stronger, a little faster. And he, I think, unintentionally, bites Captain in the head. I mean, Captain goes down. And there's no, there's no flipping, there's no, and I go film it because I'm sent it to Clay because I think he's dead. Clay has seen the Captain dead and come.

Basically, Tim kills the Captain's dead. And he's, he, I think there might be a chance because Captain's died and come back a couple times. And so I want Clay to be. there for it. I also don't want to go mess with him too much because he's a mean rooster and he'll come after me. From the dead. Yes, exactly.

And so Clay comes home, I call him and I say, I think Captain's dead. But the way she said, she said, I think he's dead for real. And so I walk out in the field. This is a long time after it's happened. The captain is laid out flat. Like, I mean, he's not even

like chalk out line laid out. Rigamortus is set in. And I walk over. there and look at him and I see him breathing. What? I pick him up and I set him up on his feet like this. And he just kind of goes, and he kind of comes up, kind of comes to,

and he just sits there on the ground. And we just watch him and I'm like, he's alive. But I'm telling Misty, I'm like, he's very woozy this time. I'm like, he's going to die. Man. We move him to the pin. We kind of help him along.

He gets in the pin. He stays in the coop for two. two days, doesn't come out. He stayed in the coop for three days. Okay. Finally comes out and just sits outside of it. He literally stayed in the coop for three days. We brought him food.

And he, when he finally came out, he would see his girls like straight in front of me. And he would be trying to go after him and he would walk over here. He would walk sideways. He could walk a straight line. Something going on.

Did he come out on Easter morning? on the third day. He got lost his crow. His crow went from like full volume to like 20%. He lost it for a while and then it came back one day at about 20%. So I mean, he was really humble after that and pretty mellow. And then it just gradually built back up and that crow came back and his meanness came back. Three times, captain.

Literally. Is he still around? Well, that's why we're telling this. We're leading up to this moment. I think the captain is... We need to tell one more brief thing, and that is, Captain one time got his foot stuck in some wire, and we had to amputate his toe.

Yeah. His foot swole up one time real bad, and I went in there in the dark and grabbed him up and just... Because he was going to get him back. His toe was getting infected. He got where he was limping real bad. He had this big club foot because something was wrapped around his toe. I just cut his toe off, and within two days he didn't have a limp.

Did the toe grow back? back. Nope. He just had a big old club foot with, you know, a chicken has four toes, one off the back, three off the front. And he had the middle one gone. You can track him anywhere. Rock on. He's getting a rock on. Oh, man. Yeah, so we amputated his toe. Okay. When we were a few weeks ago, we were gone and we get a text from our daughter and she says, the captain is dead. It sounds like a news headline. The captain is dot is. I don't.

I told her, I said, I won't believe it until I see it with my own eyes. And sure enough, the captain is dead. From natural causes? We are quite certain that Tim got him. It's over. Well, Tim, again, Tim doesn't, we have chickens running around all the place. He doesn't attack. We think it was where we feed Tim.

So we think there was a skirmish around the food. There's a vendetta. So the captain is dead. And that is why Misty Newcomb and I wrote a song. about it. Oh, true story. True story. Excellent.

Hey. The song goes a little something like this. Oh, captain, oh, captain, your fearful trip is done. Oh, captain, oh, where have you gone? We'll miss your mighty crow more than you'll ever know. But we won't miss. your spurs That's right

Once Shepherd Shot you with a bow Once we had to Amputate your toe When that limb hits you on the head Lying in the field We watched you race from the dead

Oh Captain, oh Captain Your fearful trip is done Everybody. Oh, Captain, oh Captain, oh, where have you done? We'll miss your mighty crow more than you'll ever know. But we won't miss your spurs. We never thought your life would come to an end.

We thought you were immortal, my friend. We found your feathers by where we. beat him your fearful rival finally got him a win everybody oh captain

your fearful trip has done oh captain oh captain oh where have you gone we'll miss your mighty crow more than you'll ever know

but we won't miss your Spurs. Woo! Big finish. An appropriate, an appropriate tribute. On Blood Trails, the stories don't end when the hunt is over.

They just get darker. I've seen something in the road. I instantly thought it was a sleeping bed and there was a full of blood. Oh my God, he doesn't have a hit. Blood Trails is a true crime podcast born in the outdoors,

where the terrain is unforgiving, the evidence is scarce, and the truth gets buried under brush and silence. Indications were he should be right there, but he wasn't. This season, we're going deeper. From cold case files to whispered suspicions, from remote mountains to frozen backwoods. Each story begins in the wilderness and ends in darkness. Because out here, there are no witnesses, no cameras, just fragments and the people left. behind trying to piece them back together. He's not an honest person.

He's incapable of being honest. Somebody somewhere knows something. I'm Jordan Sillers. Season 2 of Blood Trails premieres April 16th. Follow now on Apple, I Heart, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, snake bit. Woo! Great podcast.

What'd you like about it, Josh? Well, you know, I was talking to somebody today. I don't walk around with too much of a fear. of too many things. Like, I don't get scared about, like, venomous spiders. I mean, we got brown recluses in our house. I mean, the people that come and visit, it's not like they run around. They're everywhere.

But they're everywhere around here. You know, black widows, you see them all the time. You know, dogs, like, I don't get scared around dogs. But there is something about snakes. And I remember reading a story when I was a kid in the Reader's Digest about this boy that was running through the woods and he jumps over this little creek and steps on this stick. and the stick ends up being a big rattlesnake and bites him and he just barely escapes with

his life. And I remember, like, even as a grown man, like, I've spent a lot of time in the woods, I won't walk through a field. I'll choose not to walk through a field sometimes because I'm leery of snakes. So, but it, there is, there's definitely like an emotional response you have. So hearing people talk about that is, it was good. It was very, it was very emotion evoking. What was your favorite section?

So to me, what I liked about this podcast was the diversity of the interviews because it was like lighthearted and kind of funny with Brent and with my dad. And then straight up crazy with Mr. Fred, who's like my new best friend. And then it went to like super serious at the end. Honestly, I have to say probably the most impacting part to me was the story at the end. and I'm always a like a student of I don't know if a student is a right word but I love to observe people and the way they respond to things and to hear this woman who this on the outside this tragic situation horrific you know the thing you would never wish on your enemy to happen to her but to her to talk about it and the way that she processed through it and then to to say you know there were days of when I didn't want to get out of bed because it was scared about snakes on the floor, to coming to this point of resolution inside of herself to say, this tragic thing happened to me,

but I'm not going to allow it to define the way that I live my life from this point on. That was very impacting to me. Yeah. Yeah. I agree. That was my favorite part to you. I thought she was inspirational. Yeah.

Just her story, how she processed it, and just how she moved forward with her life. And no sense of a resentment against anybody or the snake. It's unusual. Yeah. Like I listened to the. that interview just like you guys did like i didn't do that interview christ dr christ jenkins did which i owe him a big thank you and and i've told him that many times he interview he knew that woman or it didn't know her well but you know it he he knew of her knew the story and he was like man clay if we could get

this lady to tell her story it'd be really good and he worked with her and got the story so when i listen to the story, I was like shocked at just her demeanor. Yeah. Like and yeah he came in the house and talked about it. He was like, do you know what I did today? And he told me about here and like it was impacting. Yeah, it's not not normal. But what did you think, Malika? You know, the, the part that stuck out to me was when you were talking to one of the experts when he was talking about how how we respond to snakes is a learned trait. Yeah. And I think that's kind of really impactful. That's something that just if you think about there's many things that we do inside of life that are learned right right this it's not right or wrong but it's a learned trait and so how how we are

how we respond to snakes is something that's learned and then to see like that crazy guy it's like he's a learned trait that he can get bit and it's not going to not going to happen and nothing's going to happen to him and then you hear that woman like she learned to get over her fear yeah of snakes and be able to to sit next to one in that interview so I think that's the part that I like. Now, you don't have much background with snakes. Yeah, that's what I was, as I was listening to the podcast, it was almost like less relevant to me

because I didn't grow up walking through fields. I didn't grow up hunting. I didn't grow up with a lot of exposure to snakes. So I don't really have this extreme emotion, I would say, to snakes. And if I see a rattlesnake, I'm not stupid. Yeah. But, yeah, I have much exposure.

We put three snakes in this room for you today. Yeah, exactly. What was the first venomous snake you ever saw? Oh. And how old were you? I can't remember the first one. I mean, just ever since I was born. I remember vividly.

I was nine years old and it was a coral snake. Coral snake. Oh, wow. In Texas. Oh, wow. Very rare. Vividly remember it. Mr. Fred Lally's been dry bit by a coral snake.

I heard about that. Yeah. No, I don't remember the first one. So your mama, Malachi, didn't grow up telling you to watch out for snakes in Midland Texas. Never. Nope. You know, what's interesting, so I wanted to nerd out on it, but there was just too much. I actually cut out a ton of stuff out of this podcast.

Like, there's twice as much with Fred Lally and with Chris Jenkins. There is a, the dominant feature, and Chris said this, but when you understand the research projects, it's pretty interesting. The dominant reason we're afraid of snakes is learned behavior from parents. Sure. Like a toddler is not afraid of a snake. Like so it's, there is some genetic coding. Like, for instance, like chimpanzees do show slight fear to long, slithery type shapes. They do a lot of stuff with chimpanzees and primates in general to try to see.

But like a toddler, that's why if a toddler sees a snake on their ground, they might just walk over and grab it. How do you explain the cats and the cucumbers? come again. You know what I'm talking about. Have you ever watched this video? I'm talking about. I honestly probably hasn't ever seen this video. Half of the servers on this planet are full of videos of cats.

And then there's a cucumber on the floor. You lay a cucumber behind a house cat when it's unaware. It turns around and sees it and it will shoot sky hot. As much as you terrorize your rooster, I'm surprised you haven't laid a cucumber on a cat before. And they think it's a snake and they jump to heaven. How do you know they think it's a snake? Yeah, okay. I made that part of it.

You know they don't. Land bridge? You keep your land bridge trapped shut. I got to tell one story. One time one of my good friends was petrified of snakes. It was when we were in high school. We knew he was just like, I mean, he'd like punch in the face, you know, kind of scared if you messed with him with a snake. And we were working together on a peach orchard.

And on the way to the peach orchard, I saw a big black rat snake on the road. I got out and caught it. And it was just the perfect setup. I had a new toolbox in the back of the truck, you know, the kind that straddles over the back of your bed. And it was brand new. And so I was going to his house and it was the kind of thing where I'd be like, Adam, I got a brand new toolbox. I put that big snake in that toolbox, pull up to the peach orchard.

He comes over. I mean, it was just like so natural. I was just like, look at my toolbox. I picked that up yesterday. And he was like, oh, man, he jumps in the back of my truck. I probably got it. I was like, get in there and feel how that thing opens. And he gets in there and opens it and that snake is there.

And he comes unglued. It was great. He absolutely came unglued. Dan, what did you think? I could not believe. Fred, I just couldn't believe his story. One of the first thing he said was, well, I was 10 years old, and I was force feeding a pygmy rattles.

And you were sitting there and you're like, okay. And I was like, no. What? Force feeding it a squirrel leg. And I turned to get the other leg. And I was like, and the darn thing bit me. I'm sorry.

What in the world? It was just his whole experience. And then the other thing that I've just found super fascinating was when he was describing, driving down to Florida and stopping at those bridges. And some guy on the phone says, I'm sorry, and hey, I could use some, you know, I could use some cotton mouths.

Yeah. And he was like, every other bridge, I could pick up six, seven cotton mouse. And I'm like, sorry, what? Yeah. It was just nuts. Yeah, yeah. But so on the, growing up on the farm, my grandpa would regularly kill a copperhead and bring it out and show it to us or we'd see a rat snake or big king, you know, king snake,

we call it. And it's like, those are good snakes. Those are bad snakes. And so we just had, we were interacting with snakes all the time. it wasn't a big thing, but never once would you catch. Now, a grass snake or something like that, we would catch and have fun with. But you knew the bad ones. They'd cotton mouth.

We'd see them in the creek. It was like, you get out the creek when you see a cotton mouth. Yeah. That's why I don't like to swim in creeks. And there's certain characteristics that you know about certain snakes. Like, oh, you know, cotton mouths are aggressive. They'll come after you. You know, everybody's heard that.

Anybody knows anything about cotton mouths is they will jump out of the water. and bite your eyes. I've never seen one do that. No, no one ever has. Yeah, yeah. So Fred Lally was kind of a highlight.

Yeah, really hearing his whole take on everything. Man, it was just amazing. I did an hour and 45 minute interview with him. Wow. We talked for that long. I mean,

there was so much that I had to take out. Does he have like snake paraphernalian stuff around this house? Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. He still probably has snakes, doesn't he? Nope. He doesn't have snakes right now. Why?

I mean, he's just kind of... He's just done with it. But he's got, like, are they dried? Well, he's got lots of taxidermied snakes. Okay. Yeah. But he, uh, I told people on the render that I was going to tell what happened when he got bit by a banded Egyptian cobra.

He just kind of threw that one on me. Do you remember in the render? Oh, yeah. Or on the podcast I said, I'll tell you what happened. It was pretty standard. I mean, he, uh, he was feet. feeding it. And he was a new snake.

There's a new snake. And that's what the problem was. They hadn't acquainted with each other. He hadn't gotten the flute out yet. If you're not familiar with abandoned Egyptian and you just knew, you just bumped into them. Yeah. That's how they get you. Everybody knows that.

Well, he's a friend. Well, okay. And the other thing was is that I'm pretty sure he told me there were two of them in the same cage. Oh, what's in the world? He was feeding one and the other one got it. Hey, he's not the guy that had the rattlesnakes at the state fair, is he? He may have been. Yeah, Malachi's got a bandit Egyptian cobra pulled up.

Hey, okay, this is, when Mr. Fred was telling me this story, this is what I imagined. Have you ever, do you know the unbeatable trick where you do like this to somebody? And then you slap them in the face? You wiggle your fingers up with your right hand. And then when they look at your hand, you slap them in the face with your left hand. And then if they catch on to it, you wiggle your fingers up. and they go to block because they know you're going to come up with the left, you hit them with the right.

You can't beat it. You got them. Just try to beat it, Brent. Okay. So at the situation, Mr. Fred with a band of Egyptian cobras, okay? He was feeding one, and this other one,

he said he just thought it was, as I understood, the story to be told. He just thought because he was messing with this one, that this one would be okay. And, I mean, you're talking about a guy that is not, assumptions about cobras. There was a time when he had, he was, this is totally legal.

This is in other states and other places. Statute of limitations is fully inspired. It's totally legal. He had like 2,500 rattlesnakes one time. Oh, my Lord. How do you take, how do you care for all those snakes? He would buy them by the ton. What?

Are you kidding me? No, it's real normal. Who has a ton of rattlesnakes for sale? And that was all in his left pocket. Yeah. that's actually how he got into snakes as he was a rattlesnake dealer. Wait a man. That's not how you.

You don't get into snakes by being a rattlesnake dealer. I'm sorry. He just started with a grass snake. It started with a grass snake. I've never been in. Grass snakes as a gateway snake there. No, no. He started dealing in rattlesnakes.

And I mean, people eat rattlesnakes. There's rattlesnakes skin business for making. for making boots for making belts. It's like totally legal. There's ways that they extract them. It's like hunting seasons. And basically he was dealing in rattlesnakes and he would keep the real cool ones. So he would get like too time.

I'm serious. How do you call rattlesnakes? He would keep the cool ones and he started realizing that people like to see the neat rattlesnakes, like the two-headed rattlesnakes, the white rattlesnakes. Is that a common thing? Is that a serious question? Is that a common thing for a two-haired rattlesnakes? two-headed snake.

It's a very uncommon. And that's why he would like travel across the country to go buy a two-headed wild snake. Yeah. And he's had several of them. Detour. But so anyway, this cobra bit him on the finger and hit him on the finger and hit him on the finger. And he goes to the hospital and like he always does, he doesn't always go to the hospital.

But when he went to the hospital, he said, I would like to. come sit in your waiting room and just be, I just want, so I'm not checking myself in, but I want to let you guys know why I'm sitting in your waiting room holding my hand. He said, I don't want antivenom, but yeah. Yeah, they just have banded cobra of anti-venom laying around? Well, I don't know. So he goes into the ER and they, so he basically says, I'm going to deny the treatment, but I'd like to stay here.

and they tell him no. And so he gets up and leaves, and they call the police. They call the police. And he said the police were looking for him in the town because, like, as if he'd done something like... Yeah, illegal. Well, there's a welfare concern, what that was.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It wasn't going to write him a ticket. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So anyway, that's how he got bit by a bandit Egyptian cobra. What a story. Yeah. He's a very nice. scout very very very knowledgeable just about he's fun to talk to a lot of these people that you meet

somehow you've met them on the road that's the yeah like i'm how much time do you just spend wandering the streets uh you're right it's a good question misty yeah clay says he's going for a run and we're just like okay so we'll hear some good stories tonight see you Tuesday brent what was your favorite part i learned a lot of stuff in there who would have thought a rattlesnake lived to be 50 years old. Oh, man, yeah. Doesn't that make you not want to kill one? I listen to it probably three times.

I've heard myself tell that story a million times, but I could only listen to the end once. I got through that one time. That was very, that lady is something. She is to be applauded for being strong enough to tell that story. I don't know if I could. Yeah. Yeah, I was so surprised that she lost the baby.

I kept waiting for that. I kept waiting for that. I kept waiting for that to get better. I know. The story to get better and it got worse the longer it went. Yeah. But I learned a lot of stuff from listening to Chris. And I listened, you know, I've listened to Snake Talk before.

Yeah, yeah. But a 50-year-old snake, that is, that's unreal. Yeah. But, you know, I grew up catching snakes. You know, me getting bit was, that was probably, I'd easily over 100 snakes I'd ever caught and nothing ever. happened and that one time you know it did and the one time the one wants to talk to me yeah the one time it did not the hundred times you didn't but I never you know I never I was

telling somebody earlier that I don't I don't never look for snakes when I worked in the woods before I got old enough to be a police officer and and do go that route I worked in the woods managing timber and you know we'd find rattlesnakes my friends would find rattlesnakes and but it was never, you know, like riding up on them on the cowboy movie and they're cold up over there just waiting to strike somebody. Now they were all stretched out like what Chris was talking about, except there was one occasion. We were working in the woods, painting some landlines, and there was a mound, a little mound of a dirt, probably 25, 30 feet away from this line. It was four of us. Two of us that were chopping trees and two of us that were painting and marking the different, or the border between two.

property owners and there was a ral snake over there that was striking it every time that we would move and he was like i said 25 or 30 feet away it was the most aggressive thing i'd ever seen he was striking when you were 30 feet away absolutely his name was the captain he was he was something man it was it was it was a big it was a big rattle snake what's the biggest rattle snake you've ever seen biggest than i ever seen was a problem almost six foot timber riler oh yeah if you ever seen the diamond back in Arkansas. I have not known. Okay, I got, so James Lawrence,

James Lawrence, one time on, I want to say November 28th in the 60s, killed a six, I'm going to say it was five foot plus, but I'm pretty sure he says it was six foot Diamondback Rattlesnake in Arkansas, which is rare. Look at that. That's a dandy. that's a dandy. Brent,

show me a picture of a big old rattlesnake. Yeah, this was... So I've never seen a diamond back rattlesnake in Arkansas, but there's reports of them. And I often, if you tell me you've seen a diamondback

rattlesnake in Arkansas, be prepared to feel my... To be challenged. Dozer. Feel the dozer. The dozer, because I'll be like, no, you didn't. So James Lawrence told me this.

And for those of you who wouldn't, you know, James Lawrence is one of them. my heroes. I mean, I believed him, but he just told me that one day, and I was just kind of like, okay, we were looking through his photo album two months ago, and I'll be dad gum. There's a six-foot diamond-back rattlesnake laid across the hood of like his, you know, 1965 Bronco, you know. He did see one. Sure enough, but the cool thing was is that he, or maybe not cool, the unique thing, was that he killed it on late November. He said it was, there was a frost on the ground, and he set on the ground deer hunting and the thing was

coiled up. I mean, within, he could have reached out and touched it. Oh my gosh. Sitting on a rock sunning. He said there was like a beam of sun coming, hitting this rock. And anyway, he killed it. Kind of out of itself. First time I ever saw someone handle a venomous snake was Mr. Claynecum.

Oh, really? Yeah. Oh, driving out and seeing a big, big old copperhead going across the road. And I remember locking up the and just charging out of the tree. charging out of the Jeep and grabbing the stick and pinning its head down. And I'm like, what are you doing?

He's like, I want to check this snake out, man. And yeah. Yeah, that's how it all starts. And next thing you know, he looks like you got a baseball mitt on your left hand. You know, my family, that was the one thing that gave them pause about me, about Clay. That was it. Yeah, that was it. Can you believe it?

They really liked Clay. And when they found out that he... I was known as a bare-handed snake snatcher down where I came from. I mean, I'm being serious. I thought you were going to say that once my pastor from the pulpit called me out. I mean, like, he wasn't getting me in trouble. He was calling you. No, he wasn't.

He wasn't, I wasn't in trouble. He just was in his sermon. And he said, there's some people in this church that like to catch snakes with their hands. And everybody looked at me. Did they call you Titano boa? Well, I looked that thing out. I punched paws on the phone and looked that up right away. I was like, whoa.

42 feet long and 2,500 pounds. Holy car. There's not too many snakes that could eat a person. Well, there was the Titanic Bowl. I was like, whoa, that's the podcast I want to hear. I'm on the wrong podcast. Click that link. I'm going.

Titanic Boat. Are you pulling up the Titanic Boa? Malachi is like our fact checker. Malikai is sitting over there like wondering. if anything we've said is real. He's like, I'm from Texas. I don't believe this. Hey, Malachi, find out when that thing was a lot.

It looks like the Levi-16. They killed the last one in South Arkansas in 1936. 58 to 60 million years ago. Oh, wow. It came over on the land bridge, didn't it? I knew it, Malicca. It was the land-bridge. It had a tail on Camtack, his head in Alaska.

let's see, Misty, what was your general impression of the podcast? I thought it was good. I wasn't really sure how you were going to pull off a snake podcast and make it interesting and, you know, meaningful. I really wasn't sure how interesting it would be to me. But I thought it was interesting. I thought, like everybody said, the lady's story at the end had a human component to it that was almost tough to handle, but really admirable in terms of how. she handled it. And in that sense,

I thought it was really, really valuable. And I'm kind of like Malachi. I was interested in the human elements of it. But also, I thought it was interesting when he went through the list of things not to do with snakes. Yeah.

With snake bites, I for sure. I've heard all of them. Would have died. Yeah. I would have done all those things. He would have been pulling out a knife, cutting and sucking and sucking.

How you know what? And while she runs out of the woods. When I got bit, like when I got bit. to the emergency room. The doctor, my family doctor happened to be there. And we had stopped a deputy sheriff and informed on what was going on, you know, and to call the hospital and let them know we were coming.

So when we got there, it's just like Chris was saying, you know, call ahead. We got there. They were standing at the door waiting for us at the ER. And my family doctor was there. And he said, are you allergic to anything? He said, I can't think anything you're allergic to. I said, no, I'm not allergic to anything that I know of. So they gave me that anti-venom.

But the first thing that he did was he put my hand in a bag of ice for about 15 minutes. Then he pulled it out and took a scalpel like John Wayne. And that's the scar that you see on my thumb. Really? Really? He cut an X on there and squeezed my hand like he was milking a cow. Really? And pushing blood and venom out.

Yeah. That's the first. So what do you think? Do you think that was like not good medical practice, but for 1987 it was? He's the one who went to medical school. I can only attribute that I got my thumb today, and it's working by what he did. Because he got the swelling got, he got me with one thing, and my hand got so big that they thought they would have to cut. I can't mean what you call that.

But they make cuts in the top of it to relieve the pressure because they thought the skin was going to tear open. Wow. And that would have caused, you know, a lot of damage. A lot of trouble. But they said, you know, we're giving. At 30 more minutes, it's got to start going down or are we going to do that? And this was over like six hours. Wow.

And then it started going back down. And it went all way up to my bicep. Wow. You know, I'll tell you when I stopped catching snakes was when I got a family and hardly had a lick of health insurance if none. Yeah. There were large spans of our life when we had none, not because we chose them. that, but because, and I remember when I had my kids with me, I caught snakes.

The kids have seen me catch quite a few venomous snakes, but at one point I was like, you know what, this may not be the smartest thing for you to be doing, because I thought, I'm going to get bit by a snake, messing around with it, and not going to be able to work, because, you know, back when I was working by the sweat of my brow. In 87. Before I was playing music professionally. In 1987, two doses of antivenom cost $300. So I'd be interested to know what it cost today.

Malachi. Help us out. Hey, so I list somebody, Isaac Neal, my friend Isaac Neal, Missouri, the photographer, he sent me a podcast. And don't be tempted to send me a podcast, but I did listen to the podcast. Isaac sent me. This is because I had a long road trip. and it was about annavenom's. And do you all know how annavenom is made?

It's horse serum, isn't it? Well, see, I could have repeated that, but I really wouldn't have known what that meant. Okay, so the way they make annavenom is that there is a place here in the United States. They have 150 horses, and they have all the possible venomous snakes that people in the areas they're servicing

could, could be bit by. Okay, and let's say it's not even the United States. Banded Egyptian cobra? Well, that's, I got questions about that. I don't know. Because, but basically they take actual snakes, get venom from the snakes,

like a specific snake, a rattlesnake, copperhead. And then they inject small doses into a horse. And it actually makes them swell up and get a little bit sick. And then they do that for three weeks. and then they extract like so much blood out of that horse. And, you know, X, you know, one horse can produce X numbers of doses of anaventum. And it's not very much. I mean, it's like 15 doses of anaventum for like, you know, like this session with this horse, you know.

And so, and basically when you, they treat it in some other way. It's not like a blood transfusion. They do one more thing to it. Maybe a lot more. but basically it is horse blood and it has built an antibody to small amounts of that venom and a horse's blood is enough

like human blood that it just kind of goes in it's like hey we're on the same team we both got hair and feed our baby's milk and so they it it's how it works and that's what it equates to and basically that is antivinem

and the point of this podcast that I listened to that Isaac Neal sent me was that we've been doing that process for like over a hundred years. Like the medical technology basically has increased. So now they're doing studies on chemical antivenoms. And it was pretty, it was pretty, the podcast was okay.

You can, you could, I'm not going to say the name of it. There's no bear grease. No. But it was, uh, hey, true, that does. Clay, those are nuclear. Basically, snake venom is truly, and they said it, a nefarious chemical compound that has lots and lots of wild things that go into your body that makes. I mean, it has like real strategic things. Like there's a part of it that's designed to shut down your brain.

There's a part of it that's designed to shut down your muscles. There's a part of it that's designed to, you know, make your feet turn backwards. So when you think you're going forward, you're going backward. That's a joke. that didn't happen. But like basically one snake, Misty liked that, one type of snake might have many things

that venom does. And so you have to, if you're making a chemical, you have to find a solution for each one of those problems. So it's super complex. You might wake up with backwards feet. Yes.

No, but so with the antivenom with a horse, like the horse did all, all the work. Typical Western humans. Malki did you were able to quantify how much it costs? $300.

Worth now is $717. Really? $717. Is that what venom costs now? Anti- Antivim. You can get venom. I just inflation calculators.

He just did inflation up $300. Oh. I'm curious what it would cost. I bet it's beyond that. Oh, man. It's 10 grand. Six grand. That's my guest.

The other thing, and I didn't... $1. What I didn't talk about too much. Well, I did talk about it. Misty said that, you know, how are we going to make a podcast that was like interesting about snakes and stuff? Man, snakes, I said it in the podcast at the beginning. Snakes are a incredible and unique component that is a cog in the wheel of the human experience. I mean, it's just true.

They got a place. I mean, you think of all these other animals. I mean, a snake. It just plays this part. And I, every time all these podcasts, it might feel like they're like really scripted. I didn't write that conclusion until the end, like, till like 20 minutes before I was done with the podcast. Because I really was like, what did I learn from this? And I thought about Genesis chapter one.

And I thought about the same. serpent deceiving the woman and that ultimately ended up being a pathway there's a redemptive side to that because you know and I do believe the Bible it taught us to learn to obey God I mean God said don't eat the fruit snake says eat the fruit it's okay just like you said about your mom eat the fruit man every mother except for Malachi's mom she's still good she's still good and she's still good

and she just and joy no no she was warning about other stuff so it didn't have to be a snake but no

really like juju's warning it's like taught me to pay attention and that warning was easy for me

to go she's right if she said clay don't you pick up that basketball don't pick I mean

that would be kind of like a hard thing to I'd be like come on I can pick up the basketball it's not that big a deal she tells me not to touch that snake and I get over there and I feel a little chill come up my spine I see that sucker strike I'm like she is a smart woman I mean it's nuanced yeah but I think it's deep and I think it's real

is that the negative things are very strategically placed in our life for a purpose and so there's two components there's two like this metaphorical snake I'm talking about now of like how the challenging things, the things that can kill us actually become key identifiers for the positive side of who we are. So you wouldn't look at Clay and be like, Clay is who he is because of snakes and his mother. But I am who I am because I learned to obey my mom. I obeyed my day. I mean, like much of my life was shaped by these people. And I find that to be true in a lot of life. but sometimes people become defined by the negative things. So, you know, that's like the whole, like, metaphorical side of this snake,

if we're looking at this snake as something bigger than an actual reptile. But when we're talking about an actual reptile, I love snakes. And so on the conservation side of what I was trying to do, it was just continue to tell people, like, you don't have to kill every snake you see. You know, the only snake I would kill, and I'll just be honest, is that if there was a big rattlesnake in my yard, like, actually, I wouldn't kill him. I'd catch him and take him somewhere.

I'd take him out in the mountains. If I, you know, the right snake in the right place, you know, I would kill in my yard. That's it. That's it. You had a big one in your yard in town, didn't you? Two years ago. Brent Reeves.

He sleeps with the fishes. He didn't make it. Brent lives in kind of a subdivision-type area. I live right to begin. of a subdivision right across from where I live it's about three or four hundred acres of woods and a big hayfield and they've been cutting hay out there this was in September because we were we were baiting we were baiting bears then yeah and

I'd come in and a neighbor comes up and knocks on the door so hey man you got a gun I'm like do I need one he's like we got a big there's a big snake cat there's a donkey bray one yeah he says we got it's a big rattlesnake out in your yard and I'm thinking okay there's not a rattlesnake out in my yard not where I live and I go outside and he wasn't kidding there's a huge rattlesnake in my yard well I all and at that time Bailey was six little girl was six so you know across the road he's good to go he can't he can't live in my yard yeah so that was the end of him and a matter of I talked to Chris Jenkins about that and Chris said you probably didn't err too far there yeah I mean there's a place for that but

In general, and I know you, if you're out in the mountains, you wouldn't kill a snake. No. I mean, so. I hate rats too much to kill a snake. It's true. It's true. That's... That is my identifier with a snake is that he's going to get rid of the rat problem.

Rats, I don't do rats. Don't do rats. No. Same. Same. Hey, before you close off, I've got a snake story about you getting bit, and I'm going to tell it right now, so you can cut it out if you want. Okay. So Shepard, when he's a little boy,

had, Clay got bit by a snake. And it wasn't like a bad bite. It wasn't a venomous snake. Yeah, and it didn't make the podcast. But Clay once got bit by a snake. Clay wasn't bit by lots of snakes, just not venomous. All right. So he got bit by a snake.

And Shepard was real, real interested in that. That really caught his attention and he would tell people. But it made my finger bleed. Yeah, it made his finger bleed. And Shepard wanted to tell everyone he saw about it. Shepard also had a spreeze. speech impediment at that age. And so he would run around and say,

my daddy got bitten a dinger by snake. A snake bit my daddy's dinger. For real. We carried him around. We tried to get him to tell people. I had a little cut on my thumb where this big black rat snake bit me on the thumb. And we would take Shepard around and we would say, tell them,

Misty would say, tell them what happened to your daddy. and he would say my daddy got bit right on the dinger he would say a snake bit my daddy's dinger Dinger Dinger

There you go Welcome to the render We hope you enjoyed your Stay Hey I will tell one more Snake story Once when I was in high school I was driving my brothers

1994 Mitsubishi Eclipse Which at the time was like a really sweet Like black tinted windows, like a multi-disc CD changer. Oh my goodness. He was like the coolest guy I knew. I was never that cool.

I drove like beat up trucks and stuff. He let me drive his Mitsubishi Eclipse. I was coming home and I saw a big copperhead that had been hit right on the tip of his tail on the road. And I mean, the snake was like fully alive, but he had been hit. and so I it was dark I slammed on the brakes I was by myself

got out caught the snake and but had to drive home and it was a standard it was a stick shift oh this is getting complicated I've got the snake in one hand I got to drive

with a stick sift and a standard and also I didn't have anything to put the snake in but I wanted to bring it home to show Gary Nukem and uh because it was a big one and uh

so I just I decided that I didn't want in the car with me because if it got loose in the dark while I was driving in my lap it could be a problem making a lot of good decisions so I drove with that copperhead hanging out the window and I drove with one hand and I would shift you know you just grab a gear real quick and put your hand back on the wheel shift grab a gear put your hand on the wheel oh while the snake is flapping out the window I drove all the way home with that snake flapping out the window get home take the you know Show Gary, we got a picture. I got a picture of that snake, me holding that snake.

And it got snake blood on the side of the car. And that snake blood never came out. Really? It was as if you had put like lacquer thinner on the car. And Zach Nookam was upset with me for a long time. Yeah, he was. That was black Mitsubishi eclipse. Exactly.

And it forever had this like cloudy section of paint where that snake blood did something. to the paint. Well, we're going fly fishing this weekend, me and Zach, so I'll bring that back up. Ask him about it. Hey, last thing, listen to Brent Reeves podcast, Nightlife Nation podcast. If you're interested in coon hunting, hearing some good stories, Brent has a cool podcast. Yep, man, two of the guys. Steve Fielder and Nick Gittleland.

Yep. Check out their podcast. And, man, thanks, guys. It was a lot of fun. Keep the wild places wild because I swear the rattlesnakes live and the bears live. Have you ever thought about a bear getting bit by a rattlesnake? Has that ever entered your mind? My brother's got a squirrel dog that hates him.

He got bit three times and four days. No way. This spring. His head looked like he'd been six rounds with Mike Tyson. Wow. And if he could find one now, he's going to try to kill it. Cannot keep him off of him. Mountain Curve.

They should name him captain. Captain, oh, Captain. First Lights fieldwear collection is made for the work that happens long before opening day and continues when the season ends. Products built for early mornings, full days in real use. Hard wearing where they need to be versatile where it matters. No shortcuts. Just gear designed for the work that earns the season.

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