Bear Grease - Ep. 425: American Loggers - Part 2: Teddy Villines

Episode Date: February 25, 2026

In this episode of the Bear Grease Podcast, host Clay Newcomb sits down with Teddy Villines, father to Cody Villines and uncle to Caylon Villines featured in the last episode.  He is a lifelong Ozark logger shaped by generations of hard work, handshake deals, and respect for the land. Teddy shares stories from a life spent in the woods, including close calls, brutal injuries, and a terrifying runaway log-truck wreck that forced him to confront who is truly in control. More than a logging story, this episode is about character, faith, and legacy. What it means to provide for your family, keep your word, and face life’s dangers with humility. Thank you to our sponsor, Tecovas. If you have comments on the show, send us a note to [e-mail] 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.

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In part one of American loggers, we met the cousins, Cody, and Kalin Valines, who are multi-generational loggers from the Ozarks. We heard about both of their fathers, Teddy and Eddie Villains, and how they've lived off the land, logging, hide hunting coons, digging ginseng, raising cattle selling firewood, even using horses and mules to skid logs until the 1990s. This episode is about Teddy Valines, Cody's father, a humble, lifelong logger and a legend in his own right. And once again, this whole interview will be leading us to a single story of danger in an existential moment. of clarity. I really doubt that you're going to want to miss this one. And hey, please check out the new

Bear Grease YouTube channel and Instagram, where we're putting up fresh content all the time. Me and Bear John are very excited about this. And thanks for all your support and kind words of encouragement. And thanks for helping to spread the word. My name is Clay Newcomb and this is the Bear Greece podcast, where we'll explore things forgotten but relevant, search for insight and unlikely places, and where we'll tell the story of Americans who live their lives close to the land. Brought to you by Tukovas boots. I'm a cowboy boot man, and I've been wearing Tocovas for years. They're the most comfortable boot I've ever put on. Good boots for good times. I'd like to introduce you to Teddy Velines. He's going to start us with a story about the

generation of loggers before him. One about his father, Arivillans. Well, I need an introduction in this logging business. It's a family from generation, my dad. The first stories that I ever heard logging was a little bitty feller. And my dad and mom, which they lived on Buffalo, Steel Creek. And my dad was logging with Aunt Elve Henderson, Granny Henderson's husband. And mom would get up at the morning and cook breakfast and get dad up.

And while he was eating, she would go to the barn, hornedies' mules, and feed him. And he'd get done. He'd get on them, and he'd ride plumb down to Granny Henderson's to meet Frank. This story took place in the 1940s. Frank Henderson is the husband of Eva or Granny Henderson from episode 243, titled Ozarkian Martyr. She was the last holdout on the Buffalo River before it became a national park. Granny is the only woman in the Bear Greece Hall of Fame. Granny and Frank's house still stands today on public land in the Buffalo National River.

Ted's father, Ari, worked with her husband. And so one morning she got him up and got him ready, and he took off, and he got down to Granny Henner from Frank. There wasn't no light on. So he's overslept. And he went and knocked on the door, beating on the door. And Frank got up and said, Ari, my dad's team, said, what in the world are you doing? He said, well, he said, it's time to go logging. He said, man, it's just now midnight.

And dad said, you know, they didn't have no alarm clocks or nothing. They just got up, you know, naturally. and so dad said he laid on the floor until he got daylight and him Frank went on logging. Just stop for a moment and imagine a time when people didn't use alarm clocks but just got up naturally as Ted described. Imagine Ari's wife, Cynthia Velines, after he left her waiting for the sun to rise only to eventually realize the night was still young and the sun was still hours from rising. Ted continues on about his dad. Yeah, you can go on back to my dad, a wagon. And you've probably been down there to the,

where the water comes out, past the Harper Place. Yeah, down Buffalo. Yeah. Well, dad had a pair of young mules, and his wagon was loaded. Well, he'd come up from the Doug Bank, come around. But he'd come around, and there was a big yellowjacket's nest. and one mule had got in it

well they jerked the wagon the back wheel off below the road they couldn't pull it and they were hung up in that nest and dad said they were stinging his mules to death big yellowjack huge well they just hung up and dad said them mules was braying throwing fits he said they was literally stinging them to death he jumped off the wagon

got in a big rock and crawled under the wagging tongue, the pen holds the, and beat the pen out of that tongue and let the mules loose go free. Well, when he got to the house and pulled his clothes off, they counted 50 or 51 places. Blood was running out of him besides all the stings that he'd got laying under there of beating that out. and one of they hadn't sunk. But that's the type of men that I grew up under. There's no quit, no backup, and you better not. I mean, that was just instill.

And me and my brother Ed, like little, but our whole lives. And we know how to push each other's trigger, I guess, because if you would stub up to say, I ain't going to quit, I'm going to do it. When the other than was wanting to quit, try something, well, that'd make you mad. And it would either get done or bust. Dad worried about everything. He was the most particular man, had to be done right, and it had to be done in a hurry. When he said, move.

But that's where I got my ethics. And these boys, Cody and Kalin, growing up, you treat everybody fair, you treat their place just like it's yours. don't leave trash, and that's the way I was brought up in logging business. But that was, and then six years old, I started following Dad in the logwoods, carrying a major stick, gas, and on me and Ed, Kalin's dad, two years older. By nine years old, first year, Ed would drive the mule. I'd carry the skid dogs and hook the logs, because Dad would let you. and by eight and nine years old driving my own mule.

I mean, they had skid and logs every summer. Time 14, 15. You've done a man that's splitting stave bolts, cutting timber. We were rolling up skid poles up to them old two-ton trucks. You get stuck, no skitter, no nothing. You'd have to unload the logs. You'd hook mules to the front of it to try to pull it out. Wrapped chains in your dual hook it and tie to a tree or a big old pole stuck under.

It was rough life. But that was how you made a living. Yes, it was, I mean, in the old days, it was hard, physical. But I was just tell, I did everything but cross-cut saw and wagon. They hadn't quit that long when I was going to the woods with Dad. Because Dad talked about the first two-men saw that he ever run. Two-Man Chainsaw. Yeah, two-man chainsaw.

And I did. We skidded logs with mules, places to steep that you would skid them and dump them off of one bench to another. Too steep to skid over and then go down and re-skid them dump, and then take them to the truck. And stables back then you made them by hand. We cut a track at Kingston, my uncle Zell and my brother Hillard and dad all had trucks. We made 21 loads of stables off of 40 acres.

Many days we have busted two loads of stables And get out two or three loads of logs And that was with three grown men And me, 16 year old, down a grown man Because me and dad busted most of them Loading by hand 180 is the lowest you ever put on a truck Up to 215, 220

All manual And you pushed them from the ground Up to the top of the truck We get up and be it Either Cass or Clarksful at daylight, unload them, and be back to the woods and start the same old. Yeah, and that's how me and Ed bought our first car, summertime. We go to the woods and help them, and we'd meet a crew in haul hay.

Sometimes midnight, 1 o'clock, we get done, and we got a cent and a half a bill. And that summer, we made enough, we went in and bought a car together. Ted and his brother Ed would have bought that first car around 1973. I've heard Kalin say that Newton County, Arkansas is 30 years behind the times, and I think that checks out when you hear Teddy talk. He's only 69 years old, but his life sounds like he was raised in the 1930s. But his childhood was in the 1960s and his teenage years in the 1970s. I was doing it to raise the family.

My dad, I mean, that's what they did, farmed. And wintertime, I mean, like I say, you didn't have no equipment. You didn't get to work a lot in the winter. You cut firewood. Me and Ed, coon hunted, and back then, false ginseng, you could, we bought many groceries through the winter on coon hides and ginseng because we couldn't log. Now, we were poor. when me and her first got married

this is going to be we ain't even got to the logs Teddy's wife Marie is sitting across the room from him listening to this story she and Teddy will have been married 49 years in June we would drive out a little old store out there

a soda pop cost a quarter a mountain dew we dig up a quarter to go out there and by which is a mile and half out the road get a soda pop and split it for sweetened. Time for rough. But I always had a pack of hounds. We had visitors all through the company.

We never thought about it. You just, I mean, that was life back then. Never went hungry. You paid your bills. But logging was, logging was her living. There's nothing that I like better than to walk through virgin forest big timber ride through it but logging was her living but i hate clear cutting select cut it's what my whole life my dad worked on his reputation honest he never was out of timber

when me and ed went in business people knowed him but we did the same and i never been without on my word We signed one contract in my lifetime of logging. It was a huge track that others was involved. We had to sign papers. The rest of there's been a handshake, word of mouth. The handshake business of the Veline's logging company is still in effect today. But the shake is coming from Cody and Kalin. This family's reputation has held for three generations,

and if they say they're going to do it, even if it hurts them, they do it. And man, when I hear that kind of character, I get excited. There are some flashy things in life that our culture wants to celebrate, but how about we celebrate genuine character? Do you remember what Eddie Villains told Kalin on the last episode? He said, if you're really being honest with people, you probably won't get rich. You'll just get by. Do you remember him talking about being content?

That was powerful stuff. Don't be duped by the trend. of the age. In a world that lacks character, strong character will stand out, and its potency is so ancient that there is no doubt that it will always rise to the top. 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, Iheart, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. Back to Teddy. But anyway, yeah, the logging. And then in the 90s we got our first skitter and well before that, He's talking about the winch truck. When we got our first winch truck,

Min Ed, we thought that was the greatest thing that ever was because we didn't have to throw them up skid poles. I mean, when Man Ed was young, about 14, 15, 16, people would just, I mean, they'd stand back. Men of Ed would load logs. We worked together. We'd grow up, hunted, everything together, same size. A little bit of guys.

But we could load them so fast. And, of course, them old big butts on big logs. you know, we'll gain ground. Well, you could grab that end and spin it backwards in other than shove and keep that log straight. We could put them on them trucks. We got to where we'd walk the skid poles, and you had to stack them on the trucks.

You had more poles on the trucks to stack them. We'd walk them in skid poles and roll them up in the other. And we'd get to the mill, we'd take them, people just stand back. We'd have to load the logs just as fast as work together a little, but that's all we know. And Dad would say, boys, he said, you're too little. He said, you're going to kill yourself. But we'd watch them.

You know, we just laughed, and you thought you was in your prime. Teddy knows that I've come here to hear one story, one that Cody said I had to hear. And once again, it's about danger in the logwoods. But before he gets to the big one, he tells me a few others. This one involves a bluff, which there are a lot of in Newton County. I can tell you a little story when I was logging by myself one time I was cutting around

a big high bluff and timber, the tops of it you know they was kind of falling hanging off the edge of the bluff around through there well I'd just go to turn to topping you know, whack, and well I went in to run

knock slash I mean and I feel one and I run out on a couple little old limbs, about big around as you lag, to top that tree, I happened to look down and I am scared to death of heights. That bluff had made a V, and I was standing on two little limbs looking down at least 50 to 70 foot off of that bluff. And I froze, panicked because I was terrified.

But that had, I'd fell atop. We just feed. And son, I like to never got back out on hard ground. This next story on the surface, you might think it highlights how tough Teddy is, and it will do that. But to me, it really highlights how serious these guys are about getting the job done. Oh, yeah, I'm my wife's over there. Like I said, there's so many accidents. Let me tell this one about my arms.

Logged by myself. No, I had a guy helping me. We got a load. A couple other guys was on the same track, and I'd go haul their locks. Well, I'd run a chainsaw. It's 24 each bar, long bar, and used to it, and I was way off in the canyon, way out there.

I run down there, and both of them was up on the hill working. Well, the chainsaw was sitting there, and I had to get me some standards before I go to loading. I jumped off, grabbed that chainsaw. and cranked it and there's a limb just right standing in the road just right for standards well I wrench over to cut that off

well hit the 20 each bar instead of 24 when I told it up the end of that bar tip hit that limb and kick back the handle bar was broke on the chainsaw the chain brake was broke

hit kick back right by my head and I dodged it and it went through, cut my shoulder, and the chain was still running inside my shoulder. I cut in me holding it here, trying to appear with my head. The chain break wouldn't stop the chain. And I finally got my finger and got it shut off. And I had to slide it out of my arm.

And that muscle just fell off down. Well, I held it up early, got down there. and he cleaned my shirt out of my cousin as best I could cut my shirt and tied that muscle up I got on the loader and loaded me a load of logs come plumbow took me at least an hour or boar to get to the bill wasn't hurting wasn't bleeding bad

I got to the mill dumped a load of logs and I said sold this up for me and they got some butterfly stitches whatever. I had a first take it yet, saw milk. And taped that up, I got back in the truck, went back out there and hauled me another

load of logs. And the old boy that was helping me, I mean, he's a big cattle man and stuff, and I left my big truck sitting there and I drive my work truck there so he could drive, anyway just worked out. And I pulled up there to park my big truck, and it's nearly dark. And I hollered at him. I said, come here and sew this up. I said, you got some stitches.

You sold cows up. Well, he looked at that, and he gave me the awfulest cussing that I've ever had. And he said, you get to the doctor. Well, I come home, and she took me to the doctor. Never did hurt bad. The worst thing was them cleaning that up. But I got a big scar. That muscle just fell off.

How many stitches did they put in yet? Do you remember? Oh, no. It's plumb across. cross my... The scar's six, seven, each long. Yeah, but the bar,

I mean, he was running. That is a wild story. And Kalin once told me about his dad, Eddie, working for over a week with a broken ankle, the bone almost pushing through the skin,

but refusing to go to the doctor. He used Kalin's ankle brace from basketball and cinched it tight and hobbled around in the log woods until his family made him go to the doctor.

There's a fine line between glorifying foolishness and toughness. And I'd say these guys have weaved back and forth over that threshold most of their life. But they just knew they had to get the work done so that their families could eat. And I don't know this, but I doubt Teddy and Eddie had very good health insurance.

And you might have felt that burden before. I know that I have. Here's a story from Cody about his dad back when he had a temper. We were Kingston one. Yeah, probably to this day the wayst place I've ever been, as far as logging goes. We were putting in a new road. There's a little old holly there, and it was rough, and they had some big rocks, and there was a giant sycamore tree.

The only way to get a road in there was right through the middle of that sycamore tree. We could cut the tree, that wasn't no big deal, but we couldn't get that stump out, and a little 508 caterpillar skitter, which is not a very big skitter. So we got the broad idea. I don't know how we got the cable up there, but we got the cable way up in this sycamore tree, way up in it. And I was going to go out the road and pull while he worked on the stump on this thing with the dozer,

and we were going to bang it all out at once because that O'5 wasn't nowhere close to being enough to push this tree. So I get out there and I'm hooked onto it. He's pushing on the stump, and we got it to move it. We got it to moving enough I thought I was doing some good. Well, the road we had to build around that, to that point wasn't very wide. And I'm sitting in the middle of this new road.

And before I realize it, I'm getting off toward the side of this thing. And it's pretty good bank there. But I'm trying to get this tree out. And before I know it, I'm in a bind. This skitter's fixing to turn over. So I stopped. Well, Tensions was kind of getting high anyway.

We was almost to get this tree out, you know. And he's wanting me to pull. I was high-tempered back then. He's wanting me to pull. He's pushing. He's screaming. at me to pull. Well, Frankedale was working with us at this time. I told you about

Frank. And Frank was on the ground and Frank's telling me to pull, pull, pull, and then Frank stops telling me to pull because he sees I'm going to turn over. And Dad comes off the Dozer, here he comes. And I said, before you even get on there,

that sucker's going to turn over. He went right by me. On the skitter, he went, and you know what happened next. Me and Frankendale are standing there. I mean, we and Frank just basically got out of the way. And I'll never forget this as long as I live. This is just one of the people that know Frank Edel can see this picture.

Frank Edel's smoking one of the more where USA goals. He lit one up. And I'm standing there beside him, and we're standing there in the road. And Dad turns a skitter over. And he went from, okay, he's like this. He went over on his side, up on his top, and over on the other side. He turned it over. I mean, when it didn't go, you know, I turned, I turned the tractor over one time, and it was like slow motion.

You know, I just laid it over on its side. When this skitter turned over? It ended on its top. It was a hundred miles an hour. No, it went completely over. Yes, and landed on its top. On the other side. Yeah.

Because you came out like a gross squirrel. But anyway, this skitter goes, boom, boom, boom. I mean, it flopped. And I'll never forget as long as I live, Frankendell's, down there. He never got excited. He never even took a fast step. He's smoking a little cigarette. That skitter landed, and he went,

I'll be dang. And about the time Frank said that, Dad's head comes up out of that skitter. They don't have no doors on it. No. I mean, this is a pretty old-school rig. It was a little grapple, but it didn't have any doors on it. I mean, I'm scared to death.

That he's got a leg hanging out of door, whatever. his head pops out the other side and he comes out the cable broke the cable's hanging in his second more tree in a matter of less than five minutes we got the dozer hooked on the skitter we turn it back up on its wheels and we go back to the logging

back down on the steep field I mean it was just like we did it every day but I was hanging on no doors and I was clutched everything because I was ready to throw me out is tight and when I come to a stop I'm standing on my head is the way I wound up my feet stuck straight up and I was on my head when the skitter quit roller that's a wild story and I liked it when

cody said that teddy came out of the skitter like a gray squirrel 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 Phelps game calls.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. This has finally led us to the story that I came here to hear about. The story you want to get to that's tucks along probably. This and has got more purpose. It means more to me because it showed me who I was and who the one that's in control is. There was a stretch there where it was just me and him, just the two of us. A pretty long stretch. But we were running two trucks, two big trucks.

We're on a pretty good-sized track, I mean, a big piece of land. It took a, I mean, you had to drive around and you got up to this bluff. and there's only one gap in this bluff on top of that bluff was 120 acres 40 40 40 40 we were at the back so we're 3 quarters of a mile in there

I had a high diocally on my skitter it was giving me fits I couldn't find it one day I noticed that it was a little more wet back there so I got done skidding logs and dad's loading trucks and I thought I'm gonna find this high geoccal league

while he's loading these trucks so I get in there and I find it So he gets the trucks loaded, and I'm aware fighting with this hydroly coast. Well, I'm under the skitter, and it had been for 45 minutes. And he said, we may be able to get out of here. It's going to rain. And I said, let me get this fixed.

I've almost got it. I finally got it failed. So I'm still under there, gone with it, gom with it, gom with it. He said, we got to get out here. It's going to rain. I said, I almost got it. Finally, he said, we got the gold. So we jumped in the truck.

I was in the front. And when I say truck, Not talking about a trailer truck, 10-wheeler with a pup truck, both of us. And we head out of there. It's important to note that both log trucks are fully loaded with over 80,000 pounds of timber. And I think we're going to make it because it's flat. It's flat all the way across the top. You get to that bluff, go down the gap in the bluff, and it's a pretty good grade down through the field,

and you'll kind of level out again. I'm thinking the whole time we're going to get off here before it starts raining. like 100 yards before I get to the gap in the bluff, it starts raining. And I'm talking about, like the old boy on, old robin, them long drops. I mean, it starts pouring. And I break off the gap in the bluff,

and my Jake breaks on. I don't realize it, well, my Jake break has been on this whole time. Well, that's not good if it's slick. I took off flighting. Well, I got you up there and killed the Jake. I probably slid 10 foot max I just barely slid

and when I killed the Jake break I was fine I wasn't easing off the hill I don't think another thing about it I'm halfway down the hill I ain't had no more trouble and I wrenched down in the floorboard to get a drink I had a bottle of water

sitting in the floorboard and when I wrenched down to get that bottle of water I looked out the passenger side of that truck he's passing me high rate of speed it looked what it looked it looked like we were on the interstate and he's just blowing my doors off but he's on the right hands out of me over here he's out in the grass but the first thing and i'll never forget this as long as i as long as i live when i seen him it was like he's going 40 miles an hour there's not a tire on that truck turning they're all locked up he's sliding you can take it from that and then I'll tell the rest of it. Back up a little, show you the hardheaded, stubborn. Yes, he was fooling that line.

And I seen that cloud. And I had a bad feeling. I just, which I was like my dad is nervous, antsy. But I just had a feeling, and I never told him. It was super dry. Yes, it was super dry. The dust was that deep. But there was a cloud, and I was getting mad at him,

which you can't tell him nothing, just like he did. He had to fix that line. When I did, and like, he said, and it's a good grade. It's a tenth of a mile from the top of that to the bottom of the field. And it came

a, it wasn't longer, it was a white out. It was absolutely wide out. And when I broke over, and he hadn't slid just a little bit, and the truck I was driving, the tars were hard, I mean didn't have tread. But when

I touched where he had slid, that truck left shot like you'd shot out of the cannon. It didn't just, when it slid, and I drove thousands of loads of logs out of the woods. I won't say I'm a good truck driver, but I've done it since 16 years old, all kinds of conditions, and I thought in myself.

I mean, I tried everything, what it left, and I know Jake Break ain't. I flipped the Jake Break. Nothing. You pulled out on the grass to keep him hitting me. No, I didn't. I didn't pull nothing. I had no control.

The road. He just took off. The road kind of curved left when you fell off the hill, the tracks. I mean, the road would made. You just missed me, this. And I pulled the levered trailer, nothing. I tried to gas it, and by then I was done. I thought I can handle this.

I can control it. I thought about gas and tried that. You couldn't ship gears. I tried, and it was going. and I, half over the hill, and I know there was one old tree out there in that field. There's a cemetery out there. Big old tree out there. And I thought, my only hope is to turn this thing over in the field.

Because at the end of that, there was nothing but huge timber at the end of the field. Big, sycamore. I know what kind of timber. And I know when I hit that, I was a dead man. I mean, I realized, and below that was War Eagle. And when you went through the timber, you went off the bluff and War Eagle. All that hit my mind when I was at least 40 mile an hour. And I thought, the only way I'm going to live, if I hit that tree out there, that's one tree.

It's right. It's hard you couldn't. And I cut the wheels as hard as I could cut them, and nothing happened. and there's a little old road coming out from the cemetery and that and then it was timber. I just cut the wheels back straight and I said, Lord, save me. That's all I had time to do. And I hit timber.

And the first one I hit was a big tall per semen, not a field for salmon. It was 12, 14 inches at the stop. I hit it as like the bombs went off. I shirred it off and hit one by. my window, the top end first and the butt. And I went, it shored the mirrors off, right again the doors, shared my stacks off of the truck.

It told me when I hit, it tore me out of the seat, and it told me right back in the seat. I grabbed the stirring wheel. And I thought, well, that timber, and I drugged, there was timber under me, and I went through that and hit the clearing, and I thought, next is War Eagle. I'm going off in it.

I can't remember if it's a bluff here, or hopefully it's, and I drug enough timber, I come to a dead stop in that little opening. And Cody was at my door, barely by the time I got, and he couldn't get in, and he got in on the passenger side,

and we sat there, and water was absolutely running under that truck, so deep. And he said, I don't know if my truck is still there or not. He said, on it, I wouldn't plumb off the hill. And he'd come running. When I looked over and seen him

going by me, of course, I knew what was going on. As I was going out the door, I jerked the bricks. And I'm running. I mean, it's raining like crazy. And I'm running down across that field. And while I'm running, I'm screaming. Lord help him. Lord help him. And it was like,

I mean, it's pouring. Pouring rain. But it was like it was dead silent. Like there's no noise at all. until he hit the woods when that truck hit the woods it was like

it sounded like a freight train I mean it was like a tornado just instantly just the office racket you've ever heard and all I can see is the back you know all I know is he's going through the timber I don't know what I'm going to find when I get there and I went running up to the driver's side

and I he's in there and I see I can't get in so I run around and go between the truck and the trailer and I bail up in the passenger side. Not a scratch on me. He's just sitting there looking at me like, not a bruise, not a scratch. But I split all that huge timber that if I did, of course it totaled the truck. And I had, I drugged trees under the trailer, big old root wads. And it bent the house and axle housing on the truck.

I mean, the whole big axle housing with the pumpkin, it bent. One of them plumbed back. And the Lord spoke to me. I'd got to the point that, which I was always self-confident. I mean, do. And I thought I could do. Got to leaving the Lord out of the picture. He spoke to me.

He said, bud, you ain't in control of your life. You think you can get control. You don't have control. He does. All I had time to do was say, The question could be asked, what's the value in a man knowing who's in control of his life? Why is that life changing? And I think it goes back to essential truth.

If you think you're in control, but you're actually not, you're living in a disconnected state from reality. Acknowledgement of truth, beyond just the intellectual, aligns us and shifts the very place from which we see our life. The acknowledgement of God's control in a human's life has the power to change everything. And Teddy wouldn't know it, but this would set him up for what was going to come later in his life. Back to the story.

But you could look, and the grass was, oh, six eight inches, tall. You could look up through that field, and the grass was, you could track it. It was straight as you took an arrow and shot it. And I went about eighth of a mile before I stopped. And we estimated 40 to fit, not to exaggerate, but easy 40 to 50 mile an hour that I was sliding. Eighty-some thousand pounds off steep hill, slick grass.

I found out that he is the one. Man, it's not in control. There's somebody mightier than him that's giving breath of life. keeps him every day. It's been a good life. Lots of close calls. God's been good to us. These boys, it's in the blood.

The first story I heard my dad in the woods, but they're doing it right. I can say they're honest. You can go to the woods and they ain't trash and treat it like it would if it's our own. When people, when you talk about a lot of people, the first thing I think about is, oh, boy, so-and-so, he got.

got hurt bad in the logwoods or, you know, even got killed. That's not what I think about. I mean, there's been way more good days than we sit here and tell all these stories. I mean, you tell the cool stuff of what people want to hear about turning skiers over and wrecking trucks and all that stuff. There's way more days. There's way more good days. You know what I mean? There's been way, way more good days where you went to work, everything went smooth.

You sat down at lunchtime. You know, I can remember being kids when Dad and Eddie was working together. You know, we sat down at lunch and there's way more of those days that good days. Yeah. You know, those are actually the memories I have that I think about when I think about logging. It was fun. I mean, you worked hard. Yeah.

But, I mean, you sit down and talk or enjoyed. As we closed our conversation, Teddy reflected on his father and how he missed him. I thought it was interesting that he brought this up now. Most thing I miss the band I do to this day, which me and dad got, I was the youngest, the baby. And when he was older, I was with him helping him, you know, up to them. But going the old house up there. And he could look straight ahead and he'd cut his eyes around. they'd come in the door and he's in a good mood.

He'd cut his eyes at you in a little grin. And I can see that to this day. I never once in my life, ever hear my mom or dad tell me they love me. It didn't have to. I never, never heard him. But it didn't have to be told, coddle. It was just a lifestyle then. It's been a good life, blessed life.

Lots of hard work. Till the last few years, I spent more time outside than I was ever in a house. Because me and Ed was in the woods, coon hunting at night. That's why it hurts the bad now to be cooped up. Cooped up, he said. In early December 2025, Teddy was diagnosed with a fairly advanced melanoma cancer. It's times like these that stable. stabilization only comes from knowing and trusting who's in control.

And if you have ever wondered about Eddie Veline's, Teddy's brother, Kalen's dad, who spoke of being content and wondered why he wasn't on this episode. It's because four years ago, he was diagnosed with the rare and debilitating form of dementia. Eddie is just 70 years old, and he's still hanging on. like two pieces of stovewood split from the same log. Eddie is just as good and strong man as his little brother. I know that. And I thank the Lord every day.

God has been, I think, better than me than anybody in the world. I could tell that I should have been dead. He's brought me through it till now and this. And, man, he's been good to me through this too. please pray for Teddy and Eddie Vlines and it's my prayer that you and I can have the same faith, joy, hope, and contentment in the midst of life's challenges which inevitably will come. I can't thank you enough for listening to Bear Grease.

Please share this podcast with a friend and leave a review of our podcast wherever you listen. on behalf of Brent's This Country Life podcast and Lakes Backwoods University Keep the wild places wild because that's where the bears live 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 Rinella cut is an easy to use cut for beginning callers who just want to start making good turkey noises and getting action. This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed human.