Bear Grease - Ep. 241: Render - When the Cat's Away. . .

Episode Date: August 14, 2024

This week on the Bear Grease Render, the BG Headquarters is taken over by Render crew members Josh "Landbridge" Spielmaker, Brent Reaves, Misty Newcomb, Bear Newcomb, and special guest River Newcomb, while host Clay Newcomb is gone in Alaska on a mountain goat hunt. Bear shows off his latest creation in his self-bow journey, Brent gives his opinion on goat's milk, and Misty talks about how River Newcomb got her name. Listen along as the crew discusses the first Buffalo River podcast and its impact on them. Connect with Clay and MeatEater Clay on Instagram MeatEater on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and Youtube Clips MeatEater Podcast Network on YouTube Shop Bear Grease MerchSee 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.

Well, here we are. Yep. Welcome to the bear grease render. I'm your host Clay Newcomb. No, actually, Clay is gone. He's gone. And so we have done a hostile takeover of the bear grease. Actually, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the trout grease render.

This episode will be all about fly fishing. So buckle in. Get ready to enjoy yourselves. It'll be like being on a boat ride. It's going to be awesome. Did y'all notice that at the end he said, look forward to being on the render with everybody next week?

He said that. False advertising. Yeah. False advertising. Great. Now there's going to be a lawsuit. Yeah. Thanks for bringing that up, Misty.

So sorry. Well, let me just introduce. I'm going to go from my right to the left here because we got a first timer here. Uh-oh. We have Dr. Misty Newcomb. Welcome. So good to be here.

To the bear grease render. So good to be here. This isn't your first time, right? No, not my first time. Great. We have Dr. Bear Newcomb. Yep. Here.

Dr. Baranukum. We have Mr. Brent Reeves. I'm not afraid of it. Mr. This Country Life, Brent Reeves. Y'all could be nurse. You got two doctors. Just called me nurse. I'm not sure how Bear earned the doctorate, but we'll just go with it.

And last but not least, we have Miss River Newcomb. We are outnumbered by. Newcomb's today. Everywhere. And you really, you missed an important nukem. Oh, that's right. Down on the floor here, we got Tim.

Tim Nukem. I am hoping that today we're going to have a little bit of sibling rivalry on the podcast. A little like straightening out like when Bear tells the story, River will be here to correct.

That's not true. That's everyone's favorite thing to listen to is people fire over. It's obscure details. This is Misty's life. Actually, it's not. I was actually thinking, will they fight? Because these two don't really.

So these two don't really. There's four Newcomb kids. There's four Newcomb. These are the two middle ones. These are middle children. Middle and best. Wait a minute. Go ahead.

Was that for both of you, middle and best, or is one of the middle children? Well, I was middle first. If you guys ever noticed that when Clay talks about the birth order of his kids, he always says, my middle daughter, River. Have you noticed that? Not my youngest daughter, River. I was wondered about that. Because I'm the middle.

Maybe we should have a counseling session today. She's an older daughter and a younger daughter and an older son and a younger son. But he always says my middle daughter, River. I've never noticed that either. It would be weird to call River. It's kind of interesting because we had two girls

and two boys and four kids in five and a half years. That was the, like, Willow was five and a half years old when Champ was born. So it's not like any. of them are massively spaced apart. But Willow and River were just really close together. They were. And our life, like we moved here where we live now, the Newcomb farm, when the girls were babies. And I was, I was pregnant with bear when we bought this piece of land. And, and so there's kind of like, in the Newcomb family, there's this first five years, and the girls were apart of both of them,

you know, about three of those years. And so there's kind of like, the first era, you know, the prequel to the Newcomb farm, and the girls were part of that. And then there was when we all moved out here and the boys came after. And so even though they're super close together, it is kind of like River and Willow are the oldest kids. They're collectively the oldest kids. Yeah. Well, the one Newcomb who is absent today is Mr. Clay Newcomb. He is currently in Alaska.

Rained in currently. Yeah, unfortunately. Oh, he is rained in? He hadn't heard today. He said yesterday that it was clear and they were, they stalked one, but he didn't get it. He's hunting a mountain goat. Yep. And he said they put a stalk on one but didn't get it.

He said it's going to be really tough. But he said that pretty much like with the goat costume that he has. So it. I think we need to visit this. Yeah. So, Brit's got a picture. Okay. Prit's got a picture there.

This was in the work. I just got home from from Bozeman. We had some meetings up there. And Clay went to Alaska from Bozeman. Well, they, we room together. And. Did he warn you before he pulled this out?

No. He walked around the corner. Me and Tony Peterson were sitting in there talking. We were fixing to go eat supper. And he walked around the corner and had this on his head. So about three weeks ago. Clay said, Clay sent me a picture of a mountain goat. And he said, I want you to make me a mountain goat hat.

I was like, what? He's like, I want you to make me a mountain goat hat. And so, I made him a mountain goat hat. It's a white beanie with horns and mountain goat ears. Yeah, I don't know how you did this, son. And then you take the first light leafy suit and spray white leafy scoot. leafy suit and painted it white. So Clay Newcomb is out wandering the mountains of Alaska.

Dressed up. Dressed up in a mountain goat costume. I want to call it a costume. Anecdotal to the hat, he pulled the white leafy suit out. Yeah. Freshly spray painted. It got quite a smell to it. Oh, yeah.

Yeah. Tony and I were like sitting in the corner or right behind Walmart huffing paint. to a sock is what it smelled like. I'm like, when did you paint that? And it was like more than ten minutes before he packed. It was like on the way, on the plane, on the way up here. It's Clay Newcomb for you right there. And I'm like, and you've known you've been going to Alaska for how many months?

But I didn't say that because it wasn't my first rodeo, as they say. So he's in Alaska right now. Yeah. We've taken over the render. We're really hoping he gets a go. I hope he gets a goat with a hat. I hope he can fool him. Yeah, he said, like, roughly it will work, like, two out of ten times.

The goat will think it's a goat. So, who knows, maybe he'll get one to think he's a goat. A goat with a bow. It's just really different than what I thought my life would look like. I'm just going to be honest. I never, as a little kid, thought, man, I'm going to grow up and marry a man who puts on goat suits and wanders around the woods. That never crossed my mind

that that would be a part of my life. I sent that picture to Alexis. She's like, oh, my gosh, did he lose a bet? Nope, that's voluntary. Yeah, that was his idea. I chose that. Yeah, so best of luck, Clay Newcomb. We wish you well.

You want to hear a story about goats? I do. This made me think of that. Well, I was a baby. I don't remember this part, but my grandmother told me, I was allergic to cows milk, and I couldn't drink it for a while. You know, that's not a thing.

Nobody's allergic to cows milk. They just think they are. Anyway, my grandmother, the liar that she is, apparently was getting a good deal on goat's milk. That's what the doctor prescribed me to drink, and she said it was canned goat's milk, and it was the foulest stench of anything. And this is a lady who, I mean, we raised chickens.

We had two big chicken houses. And aroma is putting it mildly what a chicken house smells. For those of you who have never been around a chicken house. It smells like everything the chicken laid except the egg. It's stout. Times 10,000. Yeah. So she said, I had to drink goat milk.

And she said she would open it with a can, what they call the church key, you know. You poke holes in the can. She said it was just terrible. Fast forward. 50-something years and a couple weeks ago, I'm down at some friends of mine down in the south end of Bradley County on the Sleen River.

And they are living what they call the riverstead life. They're right there on the river. They're raising goats, chickens, rabbits. They're making sausage from wild hogs they kill. My buddy's a forester. He works from home. She's a educational consultant

that contracts with different school districts and stuff. So a lot of the stuff that they do, they do at home, And they live there. And I think she told me they figured 85% of what they consume, they either catch it or grow it there on their place. And they have goats. My only reference to goats milk is the story from my grandmother. And she said, we went out fishing that morning.

We caught a bunch of fish. We come back. She said, I put some brownies in. They should be ready. Let's go in and have some brownies and milk. I'm like, hmm, you had me, let's go in and eat. Yeah. Regardless, let's go.

And we get in there, she pulls out these big plate of brownies and pours me a big cold glass of milk. And I took a bite and I thought, boy, this is going to be good. And as I'm getting that glass to my lips, I'm thinking, this came out of a goat. Yep. I'm sure. It came out of the goat. But I can't smell it. I don't smell anything.

So I took a sip. I'm like, hmm, I didn't die. I'm going to get a bigger drink. I took a drink and it tasted like milk. And I said, Lee is this goat's milk? She said, oh yeah, from this morning. It has been long enough.

She gets up at like four. Right. Milk's nice and cool. Pores it through a coffee filter sets at a nice box or refrigerator. And, man, I could not tell it. It didn't come from Elsie herself. It was tasted exactly like milk. Brownies and ghosts.

So when I was, when we first moved to Arkansas, I was no odor. 14. Our neighbor had a goat dairy. and I think she had like 60 goats she'd milk every day and people would come and I remember she gave me and I didn't know what to think like I didn't know what to expect and I took a drink of it and I was like this is delicious I loved it I thought it was great so does that mean the milk you were

drinking when you were a kid was just like real rotten I figured come out of a hog or something who knows you can put a label on anything but now I had a neighbor a neighbor who is an absolute health food nerd he's probably 112 years old he looks like he's 40 yeah but he walks up and down the street every day and he asked me about goat's milk i told him this story i told you all about when i was a kid and he said well it's better than that it's better he said i'm i'm going to bring you something he brought me a gallon oh oh wow but it was so sweet i couldn't hardly drink it it was like drinking simple syrup yeah i said man i can't drink it it's just too sweet And I'm, you know, I like sweet tea.

But I couldn't drink it. And I told him the deal about the goat milk smelling and stuff. He said, well, it only tastes like that if you shake it up. And I'm like, okay, so if you're on a level playing service. I've already called enough people liars today. I'm not going to see. I'm just telling you what the man told me. I'm just telling you what the man told me. But it was the sweet.

I told him you can take it back. You can put it back in the goat. I don't know, whatever you do with it. But the milk I drank. at Lee and Keith's house, Lee and Keith's house, Lee and Keith Brandon down there. It was, it tastes just like cows milk to me. Way to go, Lee and Keith. They got some good, healthy goats.

When we first moved here, I was really nervous that they were going to annex the house in city limits, and I was nervous they wouldn't let us keep animals if they did that. It took years. There was no rush, but I was nervous. It was going to happen really fast. And so basically the week after we bought this land, I went on Craigslist and bought a goat. Just one single go. Hurry up.

So that we could be considered farming. And we got it home and we asked the girls, I don't even know how we got the goat here, but we asked the girls, the girls were two and three. And we said, what should we name it? And they said, their name's Willow and River. And they said, we should name it after the one boyfriend that they had, which was Josh's son, David. David the goat. So we had a goat named David.

It's like naming your dog, John. Or your son, bear. Our tent. And we had the pig named after Uncle Jeff. That's right. So we had a goat named David, and that sucker was mean. And he hated women, and he hated children, and he hated anyone that had any visible weakness whatsoever. You would walk up, I mean, men he was good with unless they had a limp and he would go after him.

Women, he would, the second, I mean, he was a monster. We had a lot of animals like that. He was a very mean, aggressive goat. and he just smelled awful. And then we go to some fancy place a couple years later. David wasn't well-loved. I mean, I don't know if you could tell. David the goat.

David the goat was not well-love. And he actually ran away. I mean, I don't know. He's like probably wandering. He jumped a train. I don't know. He just one day he was gone and I was like, well, good riddins. And we could never find him.

We had a turkey that was really aggressive. We did have turkeys. We had roosters and we had goats. Oh, the rooster. Yeah. Captain. Yeah, there's a lot of aggression. A lot of violence here.

A lot of violence here at the Nucamp. It's like the okay garage. It's true. We had these turkeys that were just mean as can be, Tom and Albuquerque. And they were, they were. Wow. These dogs. And Albuquerque.

A pig named Jeff and a goat named David. These were our early Newcomb Farm days. And they got to where they, you know, they would roost out here. Clay wanted, they looked wild, you know, but they were domestic turkeys. And one of them went to our neighbor's house. And their grandma, they were moving grandma in, and she had a cast on her hand. And the mean turkeys saw that and just went after her. And the neighbors thought they were wild turkeys.

And so they killed them. And the other neighbor saw all this and ran out and said, that's Clay's turkeys. Those are pet turkeys. And so they come to our house like head and hand. Very little. very ashamed of themselves, turkeys, and they're like, we thought they were wild. We were pumped.

I mean, I guess it was turkey season. I don't know. They were like, they were... And they gave us all Pokemon cards. They were like, here you go. That's what pay for it. And I wasn't a huge Pokemon fan, so I was like, I just want the feathers.

Give me the feathers, and y'all can, you know... What about the meat? Well, I did want the meat, but they did attack their grandma, you know? So I felt like we were kind of in dead. Can't ask for it. There's like some rule about that? You can't eat a turkey that's a tax card. You know, that's pretty well.

But I went to a fancy restaurant a couple years later after we had David and they served goat cheese. And everyone was talking about how great it was. And I got, I put some on my plate and it smelled like David. Yeah. And when I took a bite of it, it tasted like David smelled. And I was like, I am not interested in this business at all. She made some cheese down there.

It had no odor to it. I mean, these folks are, I mean, they're not doing this stuff. They're giving lessons on the internet. They're not taking them off of there. They, but I eat cheese that she had jalapeno goat cheese. Oh man, that sounds great. It didn't taste like David smelled. No, and I never smelled David, but it didn't smell like a goat.

You smelled David. I mean, it's a pretty standard smell. It's not like what was in that can. Okay. Yeah. All right. But no, it really wasn't. I mean, I don't know what she's doing down there, but I mean, it was the only thing between me and the goat was a coffee filter and ice box.

Or otherwise, you could have said, I got it out of the goat. Right. But that was it. I've never eaten mountain goat. but I am a little bit nervous that it's going to taste like David. You're going to have the David. Yeah. Well, I'm hoping you get the opportunity.

I hope I do too, yeah. 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 bag. 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 backwards. 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, Iheart, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. Bear, show us your latest project. Okay. So I made the bow.

That's what I showed the last couple weeks. Okay. This week I've got the arrow. so this is a rivercane arrow that I cut down. That shaft looks good, doesn't it, Brian? Very much so. I cut down probably 40 shafts and only about 12 of them work after drying them.

And so this one's pretty dry. Well, whenever you put them out in the sun to dry, at least the ones I cut down, if they're too small or if they're, I really don't know exactly what the issue is, but they'll shrivel up and then you bend them and some of them will just break and then some of them will bend

and pretty much they're pretty straight right off the bat but you have to like really micro straighten them or else they'll fly weird but yeah this one did you make that stone point that's a stone point uh these are turkey feathers from the

bushwhack turkey that I killed this year uh but yeah This is the second one I made. So it's not quite hunting worthy. Like there's some imperfections in the the fletchings, but arrows are tough because everything must be perfect. Have you shot it out of a bow yet? Not yet. I made it like last night.

You got some helix and that on the feathers there? Helix. Oh, helical. Yeah. Helical, yeah. Because you have to use all the feathers from the same wing because the feathers kind of curve and have like a natural. helical to him. How do you learn that?

YouTube. He's a doctor now. Well, that looks fantastic. Where'd you get the sine you? No sine you on this one. Actually, you'll like this. This is what... I don't know what size it is,

but this is a thread I tie flies with. I gave this arrow a whip finish. Oh, you finished it off. Very nice. Very nice. But yeah, it's not... I don't have any real sine you on there. What's holding the stone point on?

That is pine pitch and charcoal. Charcoal kind of hardens it, and the pine pitch is kind of just like natural glue. But, yeah, I've been using, on the other one I made, I used squirrel intestines that dried out, and it was actually pretty strong. And use that as kind of the cordage. This one I just used. I didn't have any left, so I just used the bow. You're gearing up for deer season?

Yeah, deer and bear season. So I'm hunting a bear this year with the self-bow and a stone point and probably either a river cane or bamboo arrow. But these are some of the points that I've made that I'm going to probably end up shooting them with. I'm going to get the arrows figured out a little better before I use these. But there's, so this one's a Clovis, which is what they would have used. Black. Yeah, dacite is what that stone is called.

Is this a local stone or is this a stone you got? That's a stone I bought. I don't really know where to get it. But that style of point is what they would have used to kill woolly mammoths, Clovis. And so I might end up being that one to kill a bear. Or I might use this one. I don't really know what style that is.

That's a good-looking stone point, bear. Yeah, that one is probably more effective than that one. the Clovis, but it would be cooler to kill one with the Clovis. This looks like the ones you see out west. Yeah, yeah. Sharp. It is sharp. How long does it take you to make one of those?

Probably 30 minutes. That's not bad. Yeah, but to make like this arrow takes like three and a half hours. So how many arrows are you going to have made for hunting season? As many as I can, but I need at least probably. five. Five. Like David,

when he gathered stones from the brook of Kidron. What's your max range? With carbon arrows, like 15 yards right now. I'd like to work out to 20, but just so that shooting 15 yards is easier. Because with a self-bow, everything's way slower than a compound.

Yeah, for sure. And you've got to have heavier arrows because it isn't as powerful and you need more penetration. And so, like, you shoot a, here at 20 yards. It's like... Like the one that bounced off.

It's like 40 yards away by the time the arrow gets there. But, or, yeah, it bounces off. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's awesome. That looks great. Hey, I was reading about hunting this week.

And I was on the Boone and Crockett website. Yeah. I got a little trivia for you guys. Oh. Top three states for White Tail. Who has the most Boone and Crockett record dear top three states? Kansas. Kansas.

Texas. Kansas, Texas. Not Iowa? Iowa, yeah. Iowa? I bet that's number one. Iowa, you think Iowa's number one? Yeah.

Any others? That's three. Okay. So I just want to say that Isaac Neal, when I asked him this question, he named all three. Oh, I don't doubt it. Yeah. You didn't introduce Dr. Neal.

So number three is Iowa. Iowa has over 1,100 Boone Crockett deer. Number two, anybody want to change your guess? Delaware. Definitely wrote out. Number two is Illinois. Illinois has over 1,300. Boone and Crooked deer.

But number one, number one, is none other than the cheese state. Wisconsin. Wisconsin has over 1,800 Boone and Crocket deer. Pretty crazy, huh? I would have thought Kansas would have been in there.

Well, I know a guy that a friend of mine, Josh Jensen, lives up in Minnesota, the Viking, I call him. And he makes a yearly pilgrimage to Wisconsin, and the deer hunt over there. And he sent me pictures before just... I think they've got huge numbers of deer

and huge deer. Yeah. So, anyway, I thought that was pretty interesting. Also, did you guys hear about this geyser at Yellowstone? Yeah. Let me see, I've got it. Pretty crazy.

I forgot the name of the actual geyser. It wasn't Bertha, was it? Brenda. Wasn't it a... Jeff. Jeff the guy If the Nucum's name Then it could have been oatmeal

Something else Dumb Yellowstone The pictures are pretty crazy It's It was sapphire pool And biscuit bacon Biscuit Basin

Biscuit Bacin That would be delicious That would be my address It's about two miles from From Old Faithful It blew up I mean it looks like someone dropped a bomb.

It said it threw stones that were hundreds of pounds. And if you look at the pictures, the walkways are just like obliterated. It looks like Vietnam. I mean, just, it was crazy. I took 50 kids over there last year. Did y'all go to that? I was there. We were really close to that one.

And I think one group actually went to that one. But I'm just kind of amazed what would have happened if they were eating bacon biscuits down there. It wouldn't have been a cool. That's what would have come up out of it. This biscuits. Wouldn't that be cool? Like manna from heaven. Yeah, sweet nectar.

Was there like a scientific explanation that we know of yet for why it did that? Apparently it builds up pressure every now and then and all those geysers. And it's so infrequent that I guess they don't worry about the people on the walkways. But it seems like maybe they should. Well, old faithful ever do that? They say it has in the past. Was there a warning? I mean, were there, because surely it wasn't just a situation where there was no one there.

Most of the people had cleared out, but I don't think it was a, it wasn't. I saw video of it. People were like, yeah, it was like video on each other. It was like, enough time for people to get away, but not, they hadn't like evacuated the area or anything. So they saw it coming. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. I think it was, it was more active than they expected it to be, and I think people, people got away from it.

Pretty crazy. Pretty crazy. Any hunting exploits lately, Bear? I've been hog hunting with the self-bow. Basically, I know a guy down here who's got some big hog problem on his property. And it's been real dry, and he's got two old Saddlers Ponds, just little mud holes out in the middle of the woods that are just covered with hog sign. But I've been going there the last week sitting on those mud holes,

and then late afternoon, I'll just start slipping down roads. And I've seen hogs every time I've went. I actually shot at one and missed him. I was sneaking in on this road, and I just hear a bunch of racket up the road, and I sneak up there, and there's a big group of them. And I'm filming this for a real. And I set my camera up on the ground.

This hunt, I didn't have a very good setup. I just kind of had like a phone holder. And I snuck into like seven yards from this little spotted hog. And I look back to make sure my camera's going and it had fallen over. And so I sneak back over there. I set the camera back up and kind of get it situated a little better this time. And as I'm sneaking back into where I was, I think there was one up above me that I didn't see. And it either saw me or smelled me or something.

but it just took off and all the other hogs took off with it and this little hog runs out to like 20 yards and stops and there's basically like a pocket you know he's covered in brush but there's a pocket just right over his vitals and I was like well

if I can get an arrow through that pocket he's dead if I don't it's just going to hit a limb and miss him he's not going to wound him yeah and so and I can kind of shoot at 20 yards, but I'm not, you know, like I wouldn't shoot at like a deer or something,

but invasive hogs, I'll take a shot at them. And I drew back and right as I committed to the shot, the pig starts running and I shoot, and I hit right in the pocket, but it just, at that point, it was like, yeah, it was right behind them. So I didn't get that one. But two days ago I was out there and just saw a ton of hogs.

a real big one, big tusks. And there's probably a group of like 20 of them, and I snuck into about 30 yards from them. They were crossing this road, and I was just slipping in, and I see where three big ones crossed the road. And I looked down the mountain, and there's the real big one with the tusks coming up that same trail.

And so I slipped trying to get to where they crossed, and my wind wasn't very good. It was just kind of like barely missing that hog. And so as it would move, I would move to kind of try and keep out in front of it, but the wind's just not that predictable. It kind of shifts. I got like 20 yards from it before it got to the road, and it smelled me.

And, you know, it stuck its head up. And it kind of blew like a deer, which was weird. But it kind of... It was weird. Yeah, it just kind of... and turn and started walking away. Yeah. Had like 10 piglets with it.

And they eventually, and I tried to kind of follow them, but I just couldn't walk as quiet as they could walk fast. My uncle killed this one just real evening before. Wow. That's a big hog. Yeah, it eased up into his, or he's been rooting up out in his pasture where his horses are.

I mean, that filled up the bucket on that tractor right there. That is a big hog. Is that, well. Large. Yeah. River, have you ever killed a hog? I did. I killed a hog when I was 12.

With what weapon? Oh, with the gun. Oh, yeah. With dogs. When you were 12. River was kind of a crazy wild girl, teenage girl, like out there with a knife, spearing pigs. Oh, yeah. Were you making nervous?

No, I didn't think I was going to get to kill it. Me and Shepard were, like, left behind and I put Shepard on my back because we couldn't keep up. And we were running through, like, bam. It was so hard. And I got there and dad was like, go. And I was just like, okay. Without hesitation. You had to move quick.

The dogs were, yeah, he was like, go quick. And I ran it. He was in like a little ditch. So it was an easy spot to get to. Oh, girl stalker knife. The first time I met Clay, it was the first time I came over to video him on a hog hunt, I mean a bear hunt a hundred years ago. and River was probably nine or ten.

And we went up to this one place where we could call home from in the mountains up there. Pretty scenic view there. And I was calling home, checking on Alexis, and Bailey was just a little baby back then. River is off in front of this wall where this walkway is, where this view is. And she's just running around all over the place like a monkey everywhere. Her shepherd was there. Bear John was there

They're just everywhere Like squirrels turned loose And I'm talking on the phone I'm looking down there I'm like dang it's some broken Beer bottles down there Look and then I see River go Fum

Right through them Probably barefoot As a duck Yeah River never wore shoes Back here Foon back through there I'm like I gotta go

I gotta get this kid out of this glass I'm going to find River get up out of there And Fine Oh no she was stepping all through it No problem whatsoever. River was barefoot all the time. I mean, we, it was actually, I was the principal at her school, and the teachers, parent

teacher conference would come around and one of the issues was we just can't ever find her shoes. She takes them off when she gets to school and we just need her to keep her shoes on. I'm not kidding. And it was, she was in her feet. Can I tell about your feet? That's quite a leader. She's got one of each. I've got sure what she's going to say. She's tough with it. They got like, they developed like a big. space in between them. If you walk on cold,

Shikia told me this. If you walk on cold floors long enough, your toes will spread apart. This is what your feet do naturally. They kind of come together now, right? Because you wear shoes. You're back to normal now. I don't know.

Normal is what she was doing. Well, I don't know if the cameras can see, but Mr. Brin is barefoot. Yeah, Brent's the pot. It's got some black over here. I never wear shoes at home. But I'm just saying, I don't walk.

through glass with them, bare feet. We tried not to let her walk through glass either, just in case anyone's listening that wants to take our kids away. Well, she's grown. Well, one of the reasons that we have Miss River Newcomb on the podcast today is because of the topic of the Bear Grease podcast. Is the Buffalo National River? She is a little bit named after that.

Yeah. Tell us about that, Misty. So Clay and I, you know, we have. had our kids, when we were young, we were in college, and we would literally take our Willow, we would meet at the parking lot of the university, and we'd swap the car that had the car seat. And I would take her home, and he would go to classes, and then he'd go work at a grocery store. And the year that I was pregnant with Willow, or with River, he got a new job, and that job had weekends off. And we had never had weekends off before.

And so he had weekends off. So on the weekends, after church, we'd get in his Jeep chair, and we'd go to the Buffalo River almost every single day that summer. The very first, my first trimester of pregnancy, we went and hiked Hockville Craig because it snowed, and we took Willow out there. Which is, if you've not been to Arkansas, that's definitely a place.

Google Less. Yeah. Hawksbill Craig is unbelievable. Yeah, and that was my first time to ever go. And I just remember I have a picture of Willow all wrapped up because it was snowing outside, and we put her in a backpack. And I was pregnant with River, and that was my first time to ever go to, That was, I think, my first time to ever go to the Buffalo National River.

And then after that, we just, we took advantage of every Sunday after church we'd go. And we were trying to figure out what to name her because we had no intention of having a theme, right? And it wasn't even until we named Willow Willow. We named her that because of the meaning of the name. But then people were like, oh, and your husband's name is Clay and your name is Misty. So kind of an earthy theme. So like Clay, Misty Willow and Amanda? I mean, I don't know, like it just didn't seem like your name.

Like you kind of had to be a little bit more thoughtful about the name. Your animals have the name. Your children would. So we kept trying to figure out what to name her. And, you know, we had kind of some pictures in our head of, and just about what this one would be like. And we were going out to the river. And I remember one day we were at church,

and I had written a name in my journal. And I just thought it was a little bit too wild. And we were at church. And Clay looked at me. I know he was thinking about going to the river afterwards. She was like, yeah, let's do that. And he wrote the exact same name down. And I was like, I've got that name written down.

And that's what we named her. River. River precious. And, you know, it was inspired by the Buffalo National River. We love that place. We loved, we loved it. And now we know that our joy came at a cost. That's right.

As most things do. Tell us, somebody telling me your impression. about the podcast. It's kind of heavy. Yeah. It is. It's, I'm really conflicted because of what I just shared.

You know, I mean, we have, we, we love, our family kind of made a commitment. I was one of those people that said,

I want to go to every national park with the kids. And we drug you guys along. And so instead of Christmas presents, every Christmas, we would take the kids to a national park. Skill makers in the Newcoms, get in the car.

Newmakers. Regardless of what the weather was, we'd take off. Shoot, yeah. And I remember. going to Utah and the guy talking about the land. I remember just being at a gas station and we were,

we told him what we were doing there. And he just kind of started talking about, well, this, you know, glad you are doing that, but this land. And he started telling us that this land was taken and that they're taking more land. And we didn't understand what he was saying. And now I kind of want to go back and research that.

Yeah. Because I'm wondering if it's not a similar situation. Yeah. Enjoy your hike. Try not to step on my grandpa's gray. Yeah. I know. But it is. I felt very conflicted about it and just kind of really realizing the cost that these things have.

It's something that, I mean, I have my little public landowner shirts. And I'm sure. I tell, I take kids out in national parks all the time, not just my own kids, but now other people's kids do. You know. And leave them. Random kids on the street. No, at the school I work at, because I just think this is, this is one of the greatest things that. that we have.

This is our land. You think about the, it is sad, man. It is absolutely a sad story. It's a wonderful way that America looks at conservation of parks and places. But you never hear the tale, the cost of it. It's like, man, we're letting the prisons are overcrowded. We need more prisons.

You want more prisons? I absolutely do. We're going to put one in your house, your town. Not here. Yeah, exactly. You know, it needs to be somewhere else. And you have such strong feelings about that. And I listen to that stuff.

I listened to Mr. Villains. And I knew the story of Granny Henderson, which would be more dealt into the next part. I was very familiar with her. I wasn't Mr. Villains. But I had heard that Merle Haggard song. But you think about that and you put yourself in their place, you know, and I think about like on all stories and stuff that

I tell it's all connected to a place and where I grew up that was belonged to our family. You know, I think it's Doug Durran says it's not ours. It's just really our turn. But in our turn, we had this special place in the river bottoms of the Slean River, which, you know, it would be terrible to have thought about them coming in and moving my grandparents out of there forcibly removing them from someplace. And that podcast was three minutes into it when I was thinking, yeah, yeah. Not only did we do that to the folks in the Buffalo River, we did that to the natives 100 years, 200 years before that. Right. You know, so who in turn did it to whoever else had it before they got there. Yeah.

You know, so it's just a long line of egregious behavior. Yep. Yeah. But, man, it's sad. I'm with Misty. I've been, you know, I've talked with Clay a lot about this podcast while he's been working on it. And it's such a, there's such a turmoil inside of me because I value, it's almost like I feel this sense of ownership of it myself now. But it's really, it wasn't mine to begin with.

And, you know, I think, I think there, I don't know if there's a right answer. You know, there's places that we've visited like, you know, if. you go up into southern Missouri, there's Elk River there. And it's absolutely beautiful river, free-flowing river, but it's just like you got these bars on the river, you got people partying down the river all the time, and it's just it's overrun with just commercialism. And I think, man,

would I have wanted the Buffalo River to turn into that? Absolutely not. And it actually might have. Exactly. Yeah. Exactly. And I think that was the part of the concern. you know, we can't, there's a lot of shoulda-woulda-cuda, or speculating on what could have happened.

But I'm, I mean, at the same time, I'm like, man, I'm grateful that I can go down to the buffalo. And I've got this, for the most part, pristine river that is beautiful. I can hike goats bluff. And it's absolutely breathtaking. It's, like Clay said in the podcast, it's the crown jewel of Arkansas. Well, you also have the aspect of people's enjoyment is different. You know, I love, and my friend, a buddy of mine, Michael Meeks and I used to camp up in a wildlife management area along the Buffalo. And for 20 years, and every spring, that's where we started turkey season was up there.

We killed a lot of turkeys. And I think about that place, and I think about what a great place to kill the turkey. And there are some other folks that have access to it and are like, oh, my gosh, I can't believe those people are killing turkeys up there. But they're enjoying that same stretch of property. So your interpretation of it is really, you know, to each individual, you know, people like us that would enjoy harvesting gain from the land and other folks that also have access and like being there would think, oh, that's a terrible thing to do. Don't kill those animals. You can go buy an animal, a dead animal at the store. And so a lot of people have a lot of different ways, but it's all connected to that one.

beautiful place up there. And I had never thought about the differences really of how people perceived things because forever growing up, I thought everybody grew up like I did. Yeah, right. So, but people look at, look at the same place, have a familiarity with a place and then look at it and interacting with it in two different ways, or a lot of different ways, really. I think, as I was thinking about it, I think the thing that, that, that, we have to recognize is that regardless of of whether the land was taken out, these people

made a sacrifice. It's a sacrifice that we benefit from and unfortunately the sacrifice was forced on them. But I think there's not anything we can do about it now except say thank you. Thanks to the Valians family. Thanks to these 2,000 families up and down 156 miles of river that had to make that decision.

And, you know, it's interesting because I, you know, I didn't grow up in one place. You know, we moved a lot. I don't have a history that's tied to a place or a land. You know, all my, all my families from up north, up in Michigan. And so I think, you know, when I moved to Arkansas, I felt like this is home to me. You know, I felt this immediate connection to the Ozarks. And, you know, I've talked about to some friends about the adoptive nature of the Ozarks, how it really draws you in and makes you a part of it.

And I think about that for the Buffalo River. And, you know, I appreciate the fact that willingly or unwillingly that these families have made the sacrifice for me to find a new home, you know. Yeah. Last spring, Clay Newcomb and I collaborated with Jason Phelps at Phelps game calls and building each of our own favorite turkey diaphragms called prime cuts. Now, I'm going to tell you, I love mine because it's easy to use. I'm not going to go, I'm not going to win a turkey calling contest.

It's just not going to happen. But when I run this call, I get the sounds that gobblers are looking for. I have a great turkey hunting track record. If you go listen to real turkeys out in the woods, they're not going to win calling contests, right? That's who I listen to. I can make those sounds on my cut. I also hunt with Phelps's cut,

and I hunt with Clay's cut because they're all three great cuts. Check out Prime Cuts at Phelpsgamecalls.com. I think you'll be glad you did, and you'll find out that the Steve Ronella cut is an easy-to-use cut for beginning callers who just want to start making good turkey noises and getting action. River, what do you think?

Yeah, I agree with what mom said that these national parks have been such a big part of our lives and we've gone all over the country going to different national parks and the narrative around it and the narrative that I heard going up was that this was like the preservation of American land

this is our land and you hear about like Theodore Roosevelt when he started the national park system and that's the narrative that I was taught in school and that I've experienced and I never even thought about about the people that lived there

And so then the other thing I was thinking about is how do you compensate people for that? If somebody came and to take the house that dad built when we were little kids, there's nothing. You can have my land when you pry it from my cold dad. Exactly. There's true. No amount of money you could give me that would be worth that. And so I just can't imagine if you had generations and generations. And so it's interesting to hear that side of the story.

And so there's two truths and not even sides, but there's the truth that we love this land. And it does feel like mine. And it's part of our lives and our history now. But then there's the truth that it was stolen. Right. It's really taken history. It's hard to 100% celebrate the acquisition of the land without mourning the loss of the family. Yeah, absolutely.

You know, in my conversations with Clay, Clay really felt a sense of being a steward of the story of the people from the land owners. He really wanted to just portray what they've done in a really honest way without, without, you know, celebrating the public lands without recognizing their story. And I think that's one of the key things that we can do now is just honor, honor them and to tell the story so that people are aware. So, yeah, because you can't, I mean, there's no change in it. It is what it is and what happened happened. And the only disservice we would do is to not talk about those folks and what they did and went through. Yeah, I think that that's the, I think that's one the values of, of bear grease and things like it is. It tells, it's, it's, it's, it's a storytelling

platform. And that's, that's what it is. And it allowed this side to be heard, this side that a lot of people don't know. Yeah. It allowed that to be heard. And, you know, there's, we'll, we'll continue to be told. There, there's more coming up. Yeah. Bear, what are your thoughts? I've got a couple points. Because Tess has got some thoughts too. Yeah.

Tess are squirrel dog in your back. Look at Tim. If I had thumbs, I let myself out. Well, so I was on that meal ride with Willard Velines going through there. And it was pretty wild. It was exactly how my dad described it on the podcast. It was like seeing like a lost civilization. And, you know, like, you'd go, you know, like, we'd be on, like, trails that, like, people would hike, like, real common trails.

And then they'd just jut off, and we'd go 200 yards off the trail, and there'd be, like, this, like, perfectly intact barn, but it just had vines growing on it and trees were over it. And even a lot of places that, like, you'd just go to, and it would look just, like, a cedar thicket or something. they would you know that was like an old field and it was interesting to see that because then I kind of think about like the places that I hunt where I have heard about the people that you know either got their land bought out or taken from them and it's just like these cedar thickets with houses in them and it's just like oh that used to be a field yeah and so it's pretty crazy to do that and to go up to Willardvilleyn's old home place yeah and seeing the foundation that they tore down

and that old cellar, it was just kind of crazy because it was like, usually whenever I go to the Buffalo River, you know, like if you're going like on like the trails and looking at the bluffs and stuff, like you're kind of a spectator of it.

But whenever we were actually there with like the locals who have, and you know, now they live like just outside the park. Right. It was like, it was just a different perspective on the Buffalo River

because it was just like people that actually live there. and have lived there and Willardville Lyons he lived there until he was like I can't remember but until he was a

you know I think he was 10 but it was just it was a unique perspective just because they would that was like it would be like coming back to this house

that I've lived at my whole life but just 70 years later and everything's torn down because they tore his house down right like it was just a

old rock foundation. There's still a smoke house and like a cellar, but it was just kind of, I would just have to imagine that that would be pretty crazy, like, just to actually experience that. But what else was crazy is, like he took us over to like the schoolhouse,

and, you know, he told us about how like this kid, 13-year-old kid burned the schoolhouse down like two times, and then they built it down by the river and then the river washed it away. But like you see like the foundations of the old schoolhouse and we actually walked. He took us on his route to school every day. Oh, really?

And, I mean, he literally had to cross the Buffalo River every single day to get to school and then go up one of those big mountains, go over it down on the other side, and he'd be at the school, but it was three miles. Like, it was literally the three-mile walk to school, and if the river was high, they'd take horses or float. Or if he saw smoke, he'd turn around and go back.

Yeah. That kid is a little fire. Yeah. And he said he set it on fire because he didn't want to go to school. Same. Identify with him. Yeah. And it was kind of, my dad asked Willard if they ever really recognized, like, if they ever really looked at the land as like, for its natural beauty that we would all look at it, you know, through that perspective of, you know, there's these big bluffs and it's this incredible place. and I think he was talking particularly about the waterfall.

What's the waterfall called? Inundon. Yeah. He said they used to. Hemden Hollow. He said him and his dad would go ride mules up there. And they always just thought it was just the waterfall. They never really thought much of it.

They just viewed the land more as like a provider almost. A resource. Yeah. And it was kind of interesting to see that perspective. because like whenever I walk around just the places around here, the woods that I mosey around in, I never really look to it as like,

I mean, I do recognize that it is like a incredible place and it's like just really anytime you're in the woods, like just something that's untouched is always pretty incredible. But it kind of shift, my perspective a little bit on the way that I would look at the places that I use as my resource, you know, like the places that I hunt. Right.

It's like if that was, and it very, I mean, like, it's really is like a, the place, the Ozarks are just an incredible place with big rocks and trees and overlooks. And it's like, I don't know, it was just kind of cool to see them the way that they looked at that. And now his, he said his dad never looked at it that way. His dad always just looked at it as this is the land we farm. This is how we live. And he said once they kind of started to, you know, once they made it to park,

then he said that he, you know, Mr. Willard could kind of, he started seeing it as this beautiful place. But he's even still, like you can tell his perspective was way different than ours. Yeah. Because he was actually a part of it. He wasn't a spectator. And you're so familiar with it too. I mean, it's something he looked at every day.

You see a bright, shiny object once a month. You're like, oh, wow. That gets my attention. You look at it every day. It's just something you walk by. You know, it's interesting. I wonder how much of that is also a generational dynamic. I think, I just think about even your parents.

God rest or souls. God rest your soul. God rest your soul. God help us. But I think about all the effort that's gone into making sure you do appreciate the little. I mean, like at nighttime when we'd get, when we'd come home from nine events, Clay would stop the kids going in the house and just say, guys, look up. Not everyone gets to see stars like this, because there's not a lot of lights out here. And you can really see it. And I just think, I wonder how much of that, yeah, is as a result of

what happened there and kind of just being able to see it through everyone else's eyes kind of creates a shift. And how much of that is a generational shift, even from what. Willard and his dad to the subsequent generation. When you're sitting on the front porch and looking down the hill at that beautiful stream down there, you think, man, that's pretty. But when you get down to the bottom and you're toting two buckets of water back up that. Yeah, exactly. God, I wish we lived somewhere.

Yeah, exactly. So perspective is relevant, I guess, to where you're standing. A lot of it. Man, how about Brooks Bluffins? Man, he has a great way of putting things in perspective. I was with Clay when he did that, when he did that interview. And it was kind of like a side note. where he talked about his grandparents being there.

His grandparents lived in the land that is now Norfolk Lake. And the story of them toting off his great-grandparents. I thought it was funny. I just picture them planking. But, I mean, it's really sad. And, you know, I think Clay mentions it in the podcast. It's like, you know, yeah, they did take the land. They did turn it into a park, but it could be underwater.

You know what I mean? You never get to see it again. It could be Niagara Falls. Exactly. Where there's just like merchants everywhere. I mean, that's why they created the National Park System is they didn't want it to be commercialized, beautiful places like that to be commercialized like Niagara Falls was. There's a place out that we used to go to in Edisto Island, South Carolina,

is a place that we would vacation in the summer. of the summertime. And there's no city water there. If you, the potable water that you get to drink and cook with, you have to go to the center of town and they have a big, we used to call them water buffaloes in the

service, but it's a big tank with spigots in it that you get city water out of. And they won't put any kind of commercial watering system there to keep that kind of stuff from having. There's like one grocery store. It's a resort place. There are people that have beach houses and

homes that they enjoy but they keep it from there's no motels no condominiums no stuff like that they keep down the footprint so small that people are coming in they want to come in and enjoy it not enjoy the motels the hotels no arcades and there's nothing like that and so there's a little bit of a you know there there always is a trade-off there always is a trade-off you know i think i think you know, we've got these lands that are underwater now, Beaver Lake, and Arkansas has four, I think four big lakes, Bull Shoals, Beaver, Wachita, DeGrae. And, you know, that's all land that we'll probably never see again. At the same time, it's like, I'm a trout fly fishing guide. I make part of my living. I make part of my living under that dam.

You know what I mean? It's like, yeah, I mean, there's always a trade-off. And I think one of the biggest things we can do is just recognize it. Just recognize it. I wanted to, where's my phone? I wanted to read an email I got from a listener. Really great, I think, well-written email. he is a road engineer and his name is Nash.

I don't know where he's from, I didn't say. But he said, hey, Clay, love the episode on the Buffalo River. I'm a roadway engineer. In my field, we constantly have to consider the pros and cons of the roadways and intersections that we design. At times, we do have to look at the displacement of businesses or family homes. We have to decide whether one home or business is worth preserving over the efficiency of travel through an area. This is not an easy decision to come to, and it can be easy from the outside to look in and say, why is this road so important? And as roadway engineers, it's our job to explain it.

Every project has its own specifics, but take, for instance, the interstate system we've built in this country. Now, this project was way before my time as I'm only 24, but could you imagine the time it would take to get good shipped across the country without the interstate system? And with this time, would also come huge price increases. It would be easy to see how much more expensive going to the grocery store would be for every American. The interstate system undoubtedly displaced many Americans and cost billions of dollars in taxpayer money, but it's done so much good for the American people. Personally, when designing a project, I always look at the project from every angle and alternative I can before deciding to displace a business or home.

But sometimes when weighing the cost and benefits, the greater good ends up being to displace. A few years ago, I worked on a state project that split a large family property directly in half. The poor lady that owned the land was so upset with the project and gave the construction workers and inspectors. Myself included a hard time when the project was being constructed. The state attempted multiple times to have conversations with her to design the project in a way that would satisfy her, but she would refuse to cooperate negotiations, and eventually the state would use eminent domain. It was such a sad story, but the project has reduced the congestion in multiple nearby towns and has shortened the time that the workman has to get home to his family after a long day of work.

I love the work that I do and hope to make the best judgment calls to help the best, to help the communities as a whole. But it's always a difficult decision to take away a homeland or business places. I just think, you know, it's a tough position to be in, you know. Somebody's got to do that job. Yeah, I'm glad it's not. Again, I'm glad it's not me. For real. I thought the comments on the podcast really, if you look on Instagram when Clay posted, I just

kind of wanted to see if people would say things like that, you know, that's a good, I hadn't seen that email, that's a good email, that's a good, it's a different perspective. What it seems like is that people are saying overwhelmingly, we were caught up in this, this, you know, this happened to my grandparents, this happened to, and a lot of people across the U.S. have that story. And, and so, yeah, these are tough tradeoffs. And I think it's, it's meaningful to people to be able to let their story be told, unfettered by the context. I really, I'm looking forward to this next next podcast because I think it's going to be pretty pretty revealing.

And I have to say, like the way that things were handled, I think in large part were not good, at best. And, you know, I think there's plenty of stories that even we didn't, we weren't able to capture where things weren't handled in the best way. And people were taking advantage of. So I'm excited to hear what's coming next. Same. Any other thoughts?

When Misty was making her last point there, I got to thinking, I wonder how many people, if you're not so connected to the land or not so familiar with it, I wonder how many people would pass by it and think, well, that place has always been there. Right. Yeah. It's true. You know, you never give a thought to the people that were there beforehand. And we've talked about in several episodes and history book and school about how the Native Americans were treated. But how many, you know, until I got old enough to really figure out, well, that's only been there 40 years. Right.

Wasn't there somebody living there? You know, what happened to them? Or the story of the TVA, you know, the Tennessee Valley Authority. All the was even a scene and what is that old brother, where art thou when they flooded that? I mean, you know, that stuff really happened to homes. And there's places on Heber's at Greer's Ferry Lake, you know, and those big lakes were good fishing spots. And you can see now through sonar and stuff that you can get on the boat.

You can see that's a house down there. Somebody lived there. Their kids played in that yard where that structure is. Yeah. Man, it's a lot to think about. You know, I think we have a responsibility. to tell this story so that the mistakes of the past aren't repeated. You know, I think that's one of the key things that that's really important because, you know,

you can just keep doing the same thing over and over again. But, you know, we want to make the right decisions. And so anyway. Yeah. I noticed one thing. No one was interrupted telling a story today or making it apply. Especially. Interesting.

talking. Just saying, I don't know that there's... I don't know that there's a common denominator. I don't know if there's a common denominator there, but there was no interruptions today. I love it. I love it. Maybe we'll just kick Clay off a podcast. Who?

Clay... Clay... Clyde. Clyde. Clyde. Clyde. Clyde Newcomb. He's a good, good talker. Well, I want to thank you guys for being here.

Appreciate it. I feel like this has been a great podcast, great, great render. Clay should be back on the next one in his goat hat. I hope he wears the goat hat the entire next render. I think he owes us that for the false advertising. That's right. That's right. So it'll look good.

We'll make him wear the leafy suit and the hat. We might not want him to wear the leafy suit. Probably still smells. It's pretty small, closed-in space. It's true. Open a window. All right. Well, thanks.

Thanks, everybody for listening. We'll see what's the tagline. Keep the wild places wild because that's where the bears are. That's right. And the goats. 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 Lights new fieldware gear at firstlight.com. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.