Farmalls and Fishing Lures

I decided to write this today, on Veteran's Day, as a way to say thank you to all those who are currently serving, or have served in our Armed Forces. It's a reflection on the life of two men who meant the world to me, and influenced me in ways that I'm only now beginning to realize the depths of as I get older. Both of these men, my grandfathers, were veterans of World War II. They never talked much about their time in the service, but I do know both men were proud to have been able to serve our country in its time of need. Once again, to all the current members of our military, and to all those who have served in the past, you have my deepest respect and gratitude. Thank you for being willing to put your lives on the line to preserve the freedoms of our great nation.
- Joseph

As I sit here writing this on Veteran's Day, I can't help but feel immense gratitude to be able to live in the Untied States and for the freedoms that we enjoy. My love of the outdoors, and all the hunting and fishing that I spend my free time doing, would be impossible without the sacrifices of our veterans. I absolutely cannot find the words to say how thankful I am for all those who have put their lives on the line for our country. Thank you doesn't begin to be enough, but I hope that it is a start. With that in mind, I decided today to write a few words to reflect on the lives and influence of two men who were not only veterans of World War II, but also my grandfathers.

One of Pop's Tackle Boxes

I hope that you will indulge me in borrowing a little from a post I wrote a little over three years ago titled Pop's Lures. In that post I wrote about my maternal grandfather, "Pop", better known to everyone other than his grandchildren as Dick Hamrick. I talked about his love for fishing and how I used to bug him each and every day to go look through his tackle boxes and ask him to tell fishing stories. Pop's influence went deeper than just my love of fishing however. He was one of the gentlest, quietest men I've ever known. As a child, I don't think I ever remember him raising his voice or getting angry. He was as steady as a rock, and all of us grandchildren had no doubt that we were loved. His patience with a four year old who wanted to look at the same fishing lures day after day was an example that I only hope to be able to live up to.

Working the Garden

Both of my grandfathers loved to garden. My paternal grandfather, "Papaw", or Jim Hord to everyone else, raised beef cattle and a large garden every year. Pop had a small apple orchard, and also grew a vegetable garden. I think that its no coincidence that I became interested in agriculture and the FFA in high school, and went on to get my degree in Agricultural Education and become an agriculture teacher. My love for agriculture and farming began at a young age, walking with Pop through the orchard, helping both of them pick their gardens, and driving tractors and feeding cows with Papaw. Now I find myself almost unconsciously borrowing from both of their styles of gardening and even dress. Pop always wore wide brimmed hats while gardening, and Papaw was in overalls unless it was Sunday and he was going to church. The first time I found myself working in the garden with a pair of overalls on and a wide brimmed hat, I had to stop and laugh. I had never even thought about it at the time, but a more perfect example of the two of them combined would be hard to find.

The Farmall Cub

Papaw is the man that, along with my Dad, introduced me to hunting and to beef cattle. My earliest hunts were squirrel hunts with Dad, usually using Papaw's old single shot Remington .22 rifle. Papaw also had two Farmall tractors, along with an Allis Chalmers. I was driving all three of these tractors as soon as I was tall enough to work the clutch pedals. The old Farmall H and Allis Chalmers C are long gone, but I was lucky enough to inherit Papaw's Farmall Cub that he did most of his garden work with. The Cub sat in the barn at my Dad's house for years, not necessarily forgotten but not being used either. This past spring, a friend of mine and me got the old tractor running and brought it up to my house. Now that Farmall is back to plowing the garden, and once again I feel the intersection of my past as I use Papaw's old tractor to plow the garden in the same spot that Pop's garden used to be. My wife also claims she has never seen me smile quite as big as I did the first time that old tractor cranked after sitting for years.

I owe a debt of gratitude that I could never begin to repay to these two men, for what they meant to a younger version of me, and for their continuing influence that I feel even today. They have both long since passed on from this world, but I can't help but feel Papaw riding along when I drive that old Farmall, or sometimes when I'm hoeing the corn I'll look up and can almost see Pop standing at the end of the row. Thank you for indulging me in a look back into my own past, and once again thank you to all the veterans out there, and especially to two very special veterans who I love dearly and miss greatly. Papaw and Pop, I hope Heaven has good fishing and fertile farmland. Maybe someday we can all three drive a tractor or catch a bass together again.

- Joseph

The Neighbors

We have some strange neighbors around our house. Some of them like to steal the pears and apples from our small backyard orchard. Others are pretty slow at getting around. There's one neighbor that we normally see only after dark. Some are noisy, and others hardly make a sound. Several of the neighbors like to fly, while some love climbing trees. Others are perfectly content to stay on the ground. Some of the neighbors ensure that our garden produces every year, while others help themselves to the harvest without being invited. Some can be a real pain, especially if you make them mad. Another one likes to hang out around our carport and enclosed porch. One of the neighbors even decided to move in and build a house in one of our ferns!

Now I'm sure you've all figured out by now that I didn't decide to write a blog post talking all about our human neighbors, all of whom are fine folks that we are fortunate to live near. No, this post is all about our neighbors from the animal kingdom. For some reason, the past several days have been great ones for wildlife watching around our house. Thanks to modern technology, and the ever-present iPhone, I now have a camera handy and accessible when the opportunity arises to take a picture of one of the neighbors. At the same time, I'll go ahead and apologize if some of the pictures in this post are not of the very best quality. Most of the pictures were taken while I was outside doing something else, and often they were situations where I had to snap a picture quickly or not at all. With that being said, allow me to introduce some of the neighbors.

The Pear Thieves

Doe Under the Pear Tree

 These neighbors are fond of pears, but also green beans, tomatoes, sweet potato vines, and almost anything else that I attempted to grow in the garden this year. The only things that they left me were my peppers, and they even nibbled on the tops of those! Ever since we moved in to our house, we have seen deer fairly frequently. Sometimes we will see them at night in the headlights as we're pulling into the driveway. This time of year however, the old pear and apple trees in the back yard tend to draw them out during daylight hours. They also conducted regular nocturnal raids on our garden this year. In years past we've had a little bit of damage from deer, but this year they wiped the garden out. If anyone has any effective methods for keeping deer out of a garden, I would love to hear them!

The Pollinators

Bumble Bee on Zinnia

This next neighbor is always a welcome sight in the garden. Bumble bees and honey bees are a fairly common sight around our house, and since the garden has past its prime now they have moved from the garden to my wife's flower beds. I'm always happy to see healthy populations of pollinators, even though I do have a healthy respect for their stings. Most of the time, however, we tend to get along pretty well. I try not to disturb them, and they stay busy moving from one bloom to another. 

The Slow Poke

Eastern Box Turtle

This neighbor tends to be fairly slow getting around. Even though he sometimes likes to sample the cantaloupe in the garden, he's a fairly easygoing neighbor. He's also the state reptile of North Carolina, and the only land turtle we have in our state. This eastern box turtle, (or one of his relatives) is a fairly infrequent visitor to our yard. Yesterday was the first time I've seen him this year, but chances are he could have been around when I wasn't there to see him. A quick bit of research showed me that box turtles are extremely long lived reptiles, and this makes me wonder if this is the same turtle I sometimes saw around our house (my grandparents' house then) when I was a young boy. Either way, I don't mind sacrificing the occasional bite from the garden if it'll help keep this slow moving neighbor around.

The Short-Lived Neighbor

Luna Moth

This next neighbor was photographed just by chance. As a young boy, I used to say that I wanted to be an entomologist when I grew up. I wound up an agriculture teacher instead, but somewhere deep down that fascination with bugs stayed with me. Maybe that's why I get such a thrill out of fly fishing for trout? All those stream insects to identify and match! Anyway, back to the subject at hand, I still enjoy seeing and identifying insects, even when they're not potential trout food. I can remember when I was young seeing a luna moth at my other grandparents' house one night, and being thrilled at seeing an insect that I had never seen before. I've only seen a few of these in the years since, possibly because the adults only live about a week and are mainly nocturnal. I was working in the yard yesterday when I just happened to spot this one on one of our pecan trees. They're big, impressive moths and I had to stop and take a picture. Somewhere inside, that little five year old entomologist was smiling from ear to ear!

The Nighttime Noisemakers

Katydid on Hosta

For some reason, I've been seeing a fair number of these nocturnal neighbors during the day. However, every night I go to bed hearing their serenades outside the window. This must be a good year for katydids, because they do seem to be everywhere. These are another insect that reminds me of childhood, spending the night at my grandparents' house and sleeping with the windows open. Without fail, the katydids always provided a concert after the sun went down.

The Home Builder

This next neighbor is a next door neighbor, in this case living right next to our door. I'm not 100% confident on my bird identification, but as near as I can tell this nest belongs to a house sparrow. She is camera shy and doesn't want to hang around long enough to get a picture, but I did very carefully take a picture of the nest and eggs today. She always flies off the nest but only to the nearest perch, a crepe myrtle just a few feet away from our carport. It will be fun watching her and seeing her raise her babies. 

The Short Tempered Neighbors

Wasps on the Nest

These neighbors are the kind of neighbor most people avoid. They tend to build along the underside of our front porch roof, in the carport, and on the window sills. Every summer there are several wasp nests around our house, and as much as I try to have a live and let live attitude when it comes to the neighbors, these usually wind up getting evicted when they get too close to home. The only problem is it seems like when I get rid of a nest, a new one takes its place rather quickly. Evidently our house must be prime real estate for wasps!

The Camera Shy Neighbors

There are several more neighbors that didn't want to have their picture made for this blog post. We have an American toad that hangs out around our driveway at night. There is a five-lined skink that sometimes sneaks into our screen porch, and tends to give my wife a surprise from time to time. The yard is home to several gray squirrels, who love our pecan trees, and the last few days it seems the back yard is where the local crows are holding their morning meeting. With the exception of the damaged garden, I enjoy having all these neighbors around. For the most part, we all get along fairly well. 

- Joseph

Cabbage, Rabbits, and Giving Back

The last few weeks have been busy ones for me, which is the excuse I'm going to give for the recent lack of blog posts. It seems like this time of year would be a slow time for me as an outdoorsman, with deer season over and fishing possible but not likely for the next month or two. However, it's been just the opposite. Here's a rambling account of the month of January, as it relates to my outdoor pursuits.

Beagles working the thicket

A couple of Saturdays ago I went on another rabbit hunt, but this hunt involved lots of walking through some good looking rabbit cover with the dogs only jumping one rabbit. It was still a nice day to be outdoors with good dogs and good friends, and a walk in the woods is always worthwhile, rabbits or not. It was a mystery that we didn't jump more rabbits, because we were hunting areas that had been productive for us during past seasons. It seemed more like a deer hunt instead of a rabbit hunt, as we jumped deer several times during the course of the day. Luckily the dogs left the deer alone for the most part, although they did have to be called off of the first group of deer that we jumped.

Clay watching for a rabbit

In the meantime, the cabbage plants that my wife and I set out back during the fall were finally ready to be harvested. I'm not too much of a winter gardener but I do usually grow a few cabbage and occasionally some broccoli. There is something about being able to pick fresh vegetables in January that still amazes me, and the slaw and cooked cabbage was a nice compliment to a meal of pintos and cornbread on a cold night. I'm not sure if it's just the fact that we grew it or not, but cabbage from the garden always seems to have a different flavor than cabbage from the grocery store. It could be my imagination, but it does give me an excuse to plant a few every year.

My wife Trina with a winter cabbage from the garden

This past Saturday a good friend and I went squirrel hunting, but once again it turned out to be a nice walk in the woods carrying a .22 rifle. It was the day after we had experienced some nasty winter weather, and I think this might have affected the squirrel movement. We covered a lot of ground, and did manage to find some several rubbed trees that the deer had left behind, but we didn't see a single squirrel. We did hear two barred owls calling to each other, and found some fresh scratchings left behind by a flock of turkeys.

Hunter Safety Instructor Badge

To top it all off, this week I have been helping teach Hunter Safety after school. This past summer a friend and fellow agriculture teacher and I took the course to become certified NC Hunter Safety Volunteer Instructors and this week marks the second time we have taught the class. I'm thoroughly enjoying teaching this, both because I love any chance to share my passion for the outdoors, and also because I feel like in some small way I'm helping preserve the outdoor lifestyle for future generations. It makes me feel good to know that some of my students share my love of the outdoors, and hopefully through that they will become motivated to become the next generation of sportsmen conservationists.

It has been a busy January for sure, but all the different directions my outdoor ramblings have taken me in this past month have only helped make it more interesting.

Thanks for stopping by!

- Joseph

Small Game Saturday

This past Saturday, with deer season over and Christmas and New Year's behind me, I got the opportunity to go rabbit hunting with some good friends. I've never owned any beagles myself, but I have been fortunate enough to have friends that have beagles and don't mind me tagging along. We started out around 9:00 am and the dogs jumped a rabbit within the first few minutes after we got into the briers.

Starting the Hunt

 From there on, it was steady action with the dogs jumping rabbits from all the likely places. For anyone who has never been rabbit hunting, let me say this - a running rabbit presents a pretty good challenge, especially if your shotgun skills are a little rusty like mine were. The last rabbit hunt I had been on was at the end of the season last February, so needless to say I missed more rabbits than I hit. I did manage one rabbit, but missed a few others. Fortunately my hunting companions were better shots than I was that day. In all, our group ended up with 10 rabbits, and there were a few that got away.

Dale with a rabbit

For me, rabbit hunting has always been about the dogs. I enjoy eating fried rabbit about as much as any wild game, but the big draw for me is seeing the beagles work out a trail and listening to their music as they trail a rabbit through the briers and brush. I have often said that if I had more time to work with them, I would like to get some beagles myself. For the present though, I'm thankful that I have friends who invite me to hunt with them. We had a successful morning, and jumped a dozen or so rabbits, along with a covey of quail. I was excited to see the bobwhites, because they have become scarce around home in the last several years.

Luke and Dale

 We had planned to wind up our hunt around 1:00 pm, and by 1:30 or so we had the dogs caught and loaded up. After the usual story telling around the tailgate, it was time to call it a day. My friend Luke and I had decided the day before that after we finished rabbit hunting, there would be plenty of time left in the day to go squirrel hunting for a few hours.

Tired after a day of hunting

Squirrel hunting was my introduction to the sport of hunting, and for several years was the main type of hunting I did. When I was young, there weren't that many deer around home, and there were even less when my Dad was growing up. Dad has never been a deer or turkey hunter, but squirrel, rabbit, and dove hunting were what he grew up doing. He introduced me to these when I was young, and I've never lost my enjoyment of small game hunting. I'm grateful that I was introduced to hunting this way, because squirrel hunting taught me skills that helped me when I decided to try hunting deer and turkeys, patience being among the key lessons.

Gray Squirrel

After everyone left from our rabbit hunt, Luke and I swapped our shotguns for .22 rifles and headed to the woods to see if we could have any success with the squirrels. We managed three in an hour or two of hunting, and it was a fitting end to the day. Then it was time to clean the squirrels and rabbits, and prepare for some good eating down the road. I can't think of a better way to spend a Saturday outdoors than with good friends and good dogs. I truly enjoy deer and turkey hunting, but I think that when I have children and the time comes to introduce them to hunting, it will be on a hardwood ridge with a .22 rifle or 20 gauge shotgun and hopefully a tree full of squirrels. I don't know of any better way to pass on the same values and appreciation of hunting and nature that Dad taught me many years ago.

Thanks for stopping by!

- Joseph