Bear Grease - Ep. 267: This Country Life - Gettin' Chilly Down South (Bonus!)

Episode Date: November 4, 2024

Brent and his friend and colleague, Austin “Chilly” Chleborad, have been on a whirlwind tour with MeatEater events in Venice, Louisiana, Knoxville, Tennessee, and finally Brent’s home state of Arkansas. They made a big leap from Brent’s first experience of catching tuna, to Chilly’s first time treeing coons, and they’re here talking about their adventures. Subscribe to the MeatEater Podcast Network on YouTube Connect with Brent and MeatEater MeatEater on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and Youtube Clips MeatEater Podcast Network on YouTube Shop This Country Life Merch Shop Bear Grease MerchSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Welcome to this country life. I'm your host, Brent Reeves. From coon hunting to trotlining and just general country living, I want you to stay a while as I share my experiences and life lessons. This country life is presented by Case Knives on Meat Eat Eater's Podcast Network, bringing you the best outdoor podcast that Airways have to offer. All right, friends, grab a chair or drop that tailgate. I've got some stories to share. Welcome to this country life podcast, Dear and Coon Camp Edition, 2024. My name is Brent Reeves, and my guest host, my guest co-host, today is none other.

Then Austin, Cleberad, better known as Chili, to all of us who know and love him, or Luke Grimes, as the guy next door has accused him of secretly being. Now, I have to say this before you start talking, Chili. I've never seen you and Luke Graves in the same room together, so the jury may still be out on that. I can't testify it either way. Anyway, welcome, brother. Thank you.

Thanks for having. I'm pretty excited to be here down in your home state. First question. Yeah. I mean, I've known you for two years now, almost two years. Yeah, a little, yeah. What does a meat eater production coordinator do? I handle all the camera equipment that we send out on shoots

for all of you guys and anything that we want to record or film most of that gear is coming from me and a lot of logistics that I go along with it. I've seen your office down there and it looks like some kind of... Oh, like a Best Buy. Yeah, a Best Buy store. There's gear and cases and stuff stacked everywhere.

You've got to keep up with all that. I certainly try, yeah. It's a lot. But it only took me a couple weeks to get. get all. Well, I know that you and I hit it off from the very beginning when we first met. And I've been trying to, I was like, dude, you got to come to Arkansas. I know you'll like it. Because you are from. I'm from South Dakota. Yeah. So this is all very foreign to be down here. A little bit different. Very different. Yeah. So white tail hunting as far, did you grow up doing a lot of that or any of it?

As far as hunting goes, yeah. White tail hunting, yes and no I would say the first deer I ever shot was a black hills white tail deer and predominantly white tail are are just in the in the black hills and the river bottoms but like so that was my first year and then I kind of as I got older transitions over to meal deer because that's just I just like doing that more that's your gig yeah so I shot a few white tail does never shot a white tail buck and then just focus on how are you hunting them up there how are you hunting meal deer up there we didn't have any tree stands growing up.

So it was kind of like, you know, when I was with my dad, he'd go out to the woods, he'd be like, all right, sit down, shut up, and just wait, hopefully a deer walks by. Okay. So you're hunting off the ground. Yeah. And then as I got older and started hunting by myself, I started walking around and kind of stalking and still hunting. Okay.

Well, before we get into all the differences and the stuff we've been doing, let's talk about what we've been doing for the last couple of weeks. for the last 14 days, as a matter of fact. You left Bozeman, I left Arkansas, we met the same day in New Orleans. Yep. And from there, we went to the tippy toe of Louisiana, down at Venice, Louisiana.

Did a bunch of insure and offshore fishing. Man, now, you may have done that before, there's a mosquito. We can talk about them in a minute. But have you ever done that kind of fishing before? Offshore, yes. Similarly, yes, in shore, no. Yeah.

Yeah. So speckled trout, sheep's head, which looks like they got, I mean, they're beautiful fish, but when you look at their teeth, they look like somebody's grandpa ordered some rubeckers from the, out of the catalog. I mean, that is the craziest looking teeth I ever seen. Yeah, they're rounded off. Yeah. And it's like little spears almost.

Yeah. And they look like they're for grinding. Yeah. It's weird, man. I don't know. They're probably they're eating crabs and shrimp and stuff. they got to have them kind of teeth i don't know but everything down there you know at home here in arkansas just about every fish if you're going to pull him up out of the water you can you can

put your thumb in his mouth yeah you can do that in Louisiana but they're no telling what you're liable to get out of it probably lose the thumb yeah lose the thumb for it's all over with anyway that was great people we met down there that folks we were fishing with and where we were staying and Mr. Renee and all those folks down there was just such a great, great time. You couldn't want for more. Oh, yeah. As far as being people you never met before, they were very hospitable and very welcoming. Very much so.

They were just a pleasant to be around. Yeah, and they talk funny even compared to me, didn't they? Yeah, they're a little bit, they have a little bit more of an accent. I talked to Yonnas the other, on Monday before we came down later that week. He said, man, some of these folks down here makes you sound like. Yanke. The similar thing that you guys have, or some of your counterparts, local counterparts have, was Ms. Charlotte made me get a picture with her.

Yeah. Because she's like, I got to send this to my niece because we think you're Luke Grimes. And for those you don't know, Luke Grimes, Casey Dunner from Yellowstone. Not the first time I've gotten that compliment. I don't even know if it's compliment. Accusation. Yeah, there you go. But yeah, so I took a picture with Miss Charlotte.

We sent it to her niece, and she actually legitimately thought that I was Lou Grant. I haven't asked for his ID yet, so, I mean, who knows? We'll get to the bottom of this eventually. Sleeper agent, is what I know. All right. From there, if that wasn't enough, we get back on the airplane in New Orleans and fly straight to Knoxville, Tennessee.

Or not straight. I don't think you can go anywhere without a layover somewhere. But anyway, we wound up in Knoxville, Tennessee eventually. Yep. And that was a meat eater tailgate event right there by Neeland Stadium where the Tennessee volunteers play. And good gosh, what a good time. Oh, my God, it was great. Like a big show out of fans.

Yeah. A lot of people obviously there for the game. But tons of people wearing bear grease shirts. Some even had your new logo. Yeah, this country life logo. Yeah. Yeah. And which was just awesome to see.

Yeah, it was good. I've said all the time, you know, Clay gets to go to all these interesting places and do the stuff on the wonderful podcast he does. But he gets to interact and talk with people. And I just stare at a screen and read a script. Yeah. So it's really cool for me to get out and be able to talk to the folks that listen and hear what they like and the things that they want to hear and just get some feedback one-to-one or one-on-one. And, man, I tell you, it's just, it's very rewarding, especially the folks that bring their kids up there. Oh, yeah.

Oh, I feel like Santa Claus, man. I was holding youngans everywhere, getting their picture made. I feel like every time I looked over, Brent had, he had a baby in his hands, taking a picture. I'll tell you, man. I ain't worth 15 cents by myself, but I feel like a millionaire when I got a young of any kind in my hand. But we did some squirrel hunting up there. Yeah. Killed a few squirrels.

A guy they did some with Rich Froning. Rich Froning, yep. The fittest guy in America or a fittest guy in the world at one time or not. A couple times, yeah. Good fella, nice guy. Good place to kill some squirrels. We cooked some squirrels up. Yep.

And shared that. But from there, once we got that, we went to the ball game. I'm sure everybody's heard how the, if you're interested, how the Tennessee and Alabama football game went. Hey, camp. Oh, barn burner, man. I will admit I'm not a football guy. Right. At all.

But as far as being interested in a game, like that was like a head-to-head close game, the entire. The first half was like watching paint dry. It wasn't a whole lot going on. But in the second half, buddy, it was a totally different feeling. You could just feel a different vibe in there. Yeah. The lead was back and forth and back and forth and making big plays.

Yeah. Oh, it was, like, I was, for me to be actually interested in a football game and stay for the whole thing, I was like, okay, this is a pretty good game. Had it be good. And a hundred and two thousand people in there. Yeah, that was, that was, I didn't, I didn't conceptualize how many people were actually there. Obviously, every time the crowd roared, it was so loud. And my first thought was, man, getting out of here is going to suck. Yeah, I think I had a loose tooth when I left out of there, man. It was loud. But everybody was just so nice.

Oh, totally. It was just a very accommodating place. Hunter Spencer, our graphic artist for meat eater that designed a lot of the stuff that you see and this country life logo for sure, but a lot of the meat eater stuff that you see, the T-shirts and stuff, Hunter's the guy that does that. And he is a Tennessee alum. Oh, yeah. man, he was hard to handle there at the end.

He wanted to rush the field. Yeah, I think he did. I think he did. And for those of you who also don't know this, Mr. Reeves over here decided to show up to the Tennessee game with his Razorbacks T-shirt on because, if you want to tell them, Tennessee has the only loss this year or two. It just hadn't to be, it's just a coincidence that it was the University of Arkansas.

I wasn't trying to start any trouble or anything. It was just the only clean T-shirt I had, so I just wore it. It wasn't on purpose. It was just a coincidence. Last spring, Clay Newcomb and I collaborated with Jason Phelps at Phelps game calls in 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 great environment a lot of fun was glad to be there but i was glad when we hit the plane again you two stops later we're in little rock an hour and a half later we're

at the 2024 coon and deer camp in augusta arkansas my friend randle whitmore's camp A famous Coon Club that our Coon Camp that his father, Mr. Dick Whitmore, owned for years. And it's been featured in a couple films that Clay and I've shot down here. We were Coon Hunting and Squirrel Hunt. So there's some history of the stuff that in some of the films that we did that's available on the Meet Eat Eat or YouTube channel. You can see those films there and hear a little bit more about this place. But it's an iconic place. It's an iconic structure.

It's been a lot of just for the people down here that appreciate this kind of stuff, it's just a great place to be. Oh, yeah. And we hit the ground running, man. Public ground, public land, deer hunting with Michael's, Michael got us the muzzleloaders. We hit the ground and we took off. Oh, yeah. It was, we just, I mean, we came in here.

We cooked some dinner. Yep. And went to bed, woke up, started hunting. And it was great. I mean, I, and what else was it? It was hot. Very hot. Incrementally hotter every day.

And we've got some cameras out on public land. We know other folks that are hunting. There's a guy next door to us that's hunting here, a bow hunter from out of state. He's got running cameras everywhere and no deer moving during the day, hardly at all. No. No. And which that's to be expected. Yeah.

obviously. But yeah, I mean, I guess I wouldn't say that I'm disheartened at it. Like, you got to, you know, work with the way you dealt. Yeah. And so, but there is the, the cool thing for me or the most reassuring thing, it was like, just the amount of sign. Yeah. On this public plan that we were on. And just when you see that much sign on public, you're like, okay, well, this is not, like, this is not a total bust.

No. I'm not, like, coming down here wasting my time. Yeah, it's not a guard. hole. You know, it's not a garhole. And we would, you know, it wasn't like we were the only two folks here, but everybody that we were around that were hunting and was hunting around us, they were very respectful of each other's place where they were. And just, it was just not to be that the game just wasn't stirring. Yeah, that was the biggest thing, you know, like up in Montana, you will run into people and people will go out of their way to come talk to you. Yeah. But like down here, what I've noticed is like you're hunting on a smaller chunk of land. and you might run into somebody or see someone parked there, but people aren't encroaching on one another, which is, again, like, so reassuring and, like, makes me actually want to hunt down here again.

Yeah, well, I mean, it's just a lot of fun. And everybody gets, you know, we've got to share this place. Oh, totally. If we're going to keep access to it, we're going to have to do that. But two days or three hunts, actually, morning, afternoon, morning, not one deer scene. We got picked cameras out. We're seeing a few deer moving at night.

They're just not moving. But what was moving, mosquitoes. Y'all ever have experienced mosquitoes like this in South Dakota or Montana? Man, I cannot. Montana, yeah. I'd say you get on the rivers. You're floating on rivers during a certain time of year. Like, they'll be out.

I can't say growing up in South Dakota that, like, I've ever been attacked that way by mosquitoes. But, you know, in October. In October, yeah. And so it's like I was sitting there. I think you and I had separated and we were doing our own thing. And I'm pretty much covered head and toe, just, you know, trying to hide all my skin tone and my hands are exposed.

And yeah, they are tore up. And I'm, I can see all the bunch of. Yeah, I texted. I think we were texting and we were like, we're done. Now, we hadn't talked about this part yet, but it was like an hour before dark. He was like, how's it going over there? And I'm like, mosquitoes. And you said, yeah, me too.

And I was waiting. I was just like, please, please say, let's go to the truck. Yeah. I think it's what you were probably waiting on me to say. I don't know. Yeah. I was kind of like going to be the first one to punk out, but I was sitting over there swat mosquitoes. I wasn't even hunting deer at that point.

Yeah, no, it was pretty much done deal. So we talked to Michael. Michael checks as Michael Rosem. He checks on us. What did y'all see? Nothing. He's all right. Let's go Coon Hunt tonight.

So what did you think about that? Oh my God. That was so foreign. But just kind of the coolest thing to be a part of. And like I've never felt so like useless in a way. Because like it's like I'm just sitting there and like obviously we have dogs. We had whalen and heck. heck is

Mikey's dog and Whalen's obviously yours and both just dang good dogs and they're just going to work and doing all this

and then finding these coons and training them and like that was so cool to witness but again I'm just like

I don't know what I should be doing right now and I'm just I'd kind of just wait and then you two were like let's go

and so we go well I was you know I've been talking to you about it you've been asking me questions about coon hunting

for well two years, almost two years. And however, was it anything, was it just what you expected, like I had described to you? Was it different? Was it, how'd you take it? I think, I think like the cool, the biggest, like, catalyst that I got, like, I finally came to realize

was when we actually got here and we were sitting down and I turned to you and I go, like, Brent, like, what is the deal with Coon hunting? Like, because obviously when people go hunting, they're looking for, like, that specific buck. elk bear whatever and i'm just like having a hard time trying to find the appeal of a raccoon like is the tail size is the amount of rings on it what is it and and you're like oh man it has nothing to do with the coon yeah it has everything to do with a dog and like watching him work in that

relationship and just like having a solid tree and walker coo dog and uh and like mikey attested to this as well um and that was just like oh okay this like it doesn't matter that matter about the coon. It doesn't matter if we fill the buggy up with them or not. And that was, I think, the coolest part for me. It was just kind of really just like ego checking myself. Like, it's not about shooting something. It's about it. Oh, absolutely. You know, my friends, Jason Dooby, Buddy Woodbury up in northwest part of the United States, they like to chase cats, links and, you know, and treat them the same, using the same methods that we do down here. So it's not the species you're after.

It's just that relationship with that handling. And you, I mean, we stopped by my house to get all kind of rearrange or stuff and pick wailing up and bring him up to the camp. And you saw how my family interacts with that dog and treats that dog. I mean, he's just, he's not a hammer or a tool to pull out of a drawer when you want to go try a tree or coon. He's part of our family. Yeah, he certainly is. And that whole relationship is just what is. It's what's so special and so much fun.

Yeah, and to see that, like, being carried over into different, like, roles, like, whether he is out there hunting with you or at home with the family, laying on the couch. Yeah. But, like, yeah, it's, like, it's the same mentality of, like, it's all about the interaction and the relationship that you guys are building with. Well, it's just so rewarding to me. And there's good to be found in anything.

If you just pay attention to the details and that's where the goodness is, is in the details. And that's what I like. That's what I, I like the little things. Yeah. When I was training that dog, or he's more or less trained to self, I just give him the opportunity. But to see when he figured out what his purpose in life was the reason he was on this planet, it was to be there and witness is, oh, my gosh, this is so much fun. And you pet me when I'm barking.

at this coon up a tree. Yeah. You know, that is his reward. Right. Is me praising him. And to see that turn on, it's just a, it's just a special deal. Oh, and this, yeah, the way he responds to you. Like, the very last run that we did yesterday was cool to see it because I think he was

probably on a trail and but he was going kind of a direction that you didn't want him to go. Yeah. And he was about to cross a river that you didn't want him to cross. Yep. I think we, what, mapped out like almost three quarter or a quarter of a mile away. Oh, went how far he was. Yeah. over that.

And then, yeah, Brent just starts, like, doing his recall. And, like, that dog just came right back. Yeah, he actually took him a little while because he's tired. Yeah, because he was so far. But he had actually gone and was on the other side of the White River. Yeah. And we called him back. I hollered.

Michael hollered. He's louder than I am. Yeah. And but Whelan heard it. And back he came. Yeah. So, yeah, it's pretty cool. So Michael comes to our rescue again.

And last night and says, hey, you know, Coon hunting's fun. Y'all came here to kill a deer. Yep. Come to my place, my lease, and see if we can't get you a deer. Because obviously public land hunting is good,

and we love it, and we do a lot of it. But if there is a chance, if you can put the odds on your side, it's going to be on a place where access is limited. And you got feed out for them, so we're going to go. We're going to try to,

in the ninth inning, the bottom of the night, we're going to try to smash a white tail that you can take back to Montana. Yeah. No, and we certainly did just that. We tried. And I think anybody in their right mind, if someone offered to give them an opportunity on some private land, I'd say 99 out of 100 people would probably do that.

Absolutely. If you're trying to fill the freezer, and that's what we were trying to do is put some deer meat in the freezer for you to take home. Freezers running low. Yeah. Elkhatton up there was a little rough this year. But we get up there. Yeah. it's still hot very there's still wild animals and they're they ain't reading the script no no we did

have a little bit of like uh hey maybe this is going to happen moment yeah um we had well the first year that we saw across the river behind us yeah couldn't really make out what it was and for those of you wondering i was we were looking for bucks but i was more than happy to take a dough and that was that was that was the goal. It's just to fill the freezer and bring some meat back home. But so we were like, oh, maybe this first one was a dough. So we got pretty excited. The second one that crossed, we could tell us a little forky. So we were getting getting pretty amped up to maybe do, again, do dish that, puts me in the freezer. Yep. They came out. We could see that the dough grew a set of spikes in the span of time she hit the bank

Can she walk behind those trees and got to where we could see her? Yeah, yeah, she knew that she wanted to grow some horns. Yeah, she was a heap. Yeah, so we didn't. We wound up not getting to get a shoot a deer. No, but it was fun. That was a cool thing too because I've actually never experienced that either. And I think a lot of people are going to say, like, well, you obviously don't do enough hunting.

But I've never been in a stand and like just observed deer. that close. Yeah. You know, I've shot a fair share of deer, but just watching them with them having no idea that you're there is pretty incredible. Yeah, we were hunting in a buddy stand. And, I mean, that spike before it left, I mean, they were both of them were within 30 yards of where we were at.

At one time, as they're walking by us, they're within 10 or 12 yards. And then the spike walks up almost to the bottom of the tree. and I mean he's you could have hit him with a rock oh yeah he definitely knew something was up but I think he's just a little too inexperienced to be like okay this is not yeah not normal but had a great time you got to do some stuff you don't normally get to do

and I think you should take me pheasant hunting yeah in South Dakota because you've never done that I've never done that I've never experienced that so take me up there and we won't kill some pheasins and and we'll be even. It'll be good as this deer hunt you went on.

Yeah. I can just take you to the sage grass spot. Yeah. You don't see any pheasants. No, yeah. Deal, you got it. Well, this has been a lot of fun. We've got to get our stuff cleaned up

and head to the airport in the morning and get you back to Bozeman, back to your project to your... Production coordinator. Production coordinating. You can get that stuff squared away. Oh, yeah. And I appreciate you being here,

buddy. Well, thanks for having. It's all, you're always welcome here. And we thank you for for watching the first, maybe annual, maybe reoccurring. Chili and Brent Coon and Deer Camp podcast, 25 is next. Twenty five is next. Y'all be careful. See you. 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, 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. FirstLight's new fieldware gear at firstlight.com.