Best Adventures

“Ya haven't been here a year, Bigfoot? Gosh, seems like you've always been here. And you also said something above that ties into something else I'm thinkin'. You'd be good at cowboy poetry readings, I bet. OK, so you aren't a cowboy, but you know what I mean. I guess it's a way of capturing the essence of an outdoor experience without the flowery words and similies (sp?), etc. -- just totally capturing it with your heart in plain ole English. Excellent!

Heck, one time I was at a mountain biking event and got to hear a mountain bike magazine columnist read some of his works. It's waaaaaaaay cool. Just another area to get you going on. (Do I get to be your agent??? Huh???)”

“Know what, Lizs? I am a cowboy, or I was raised that way. Grew up on a horse, ropin` and ridin`, but it didn`t pay enough. I wish it had, it was the one thing I was very good at.LOL

Yes, you can be my agent anytime you want the job.”

“I was rasied up on a sure enough working farm and if dad came up on you, you sure enough better be working. If the man had a hobby it was looking for more things to keep me busy, it seemed like. I decided if I ever had kids I`d do things a bit different.

I got the three kids up early one Saturday morning and I got `em dressed and fed up and loaded into the truck, headed for the woods. Well, they was all fed up with me talking to `em long before we got to the woods, but they don`t get a vote. We got there and piled out of the truck as quite as a bunch of drunk loggers back from a night on the town. There was no way we were going to see anything with all the racket the kids was making and me right in there telling `em to shush and keep it down and stop banging on that and would you put that down and leave her alone, it`s not your job to push her around like that and.... well you get the picture. We gather up our stuff and trip off into the woods, that only moments before had sleepy animals a plenty and now every critter worth it`s salt was on gard or out of the country. Not one to let little things like that get to me, I gathered up my little things and we were off for a day of trail walkin` and creek jumpin` fun. What a sight we must have been comin` in the woods like that with three flashlights shinin` in everey direction like they was and a bit of coon huntin` too by the looks of the lights hittin` the tops of the trees as they kept doing from time to time. I was walking in the middle of `em and trying to keep `em going the right way, but I just gave up and let the oldest boy go where he wanted and we tagged along behind him as best we could. I know we came by that one tree at least four times, but hey, we was makin` good time, at least light haddn`t caught us yet. I got the oldest boy to come to me and I got `em all to hunker down for a bit and let it get light so we could go more along the way we needed to be going. We ended up playing a couple games while we waited for it to get light. They`d each ask twenty questions at once and I`d give `em a shush, or hush and they`d just laugh at me, they were having the best of times playing with me like that. They couldn`t see in the dark how red my face was, well,.... when they hold that light up to your face and turn it on, everyones face looks red so, mine didn`t bother `em that much. Light did come at about the same time I`d about given up and was thinking up a new game to play with `em. I was thinking about playing cowboys an Indians with `em, it`s where you tie `em up and every now and then you shoot an arrow at `em if they don`t shut up, but it got light and I haddn`t quite got the bow made, let alone any arrows ready for such a game as that so, we got up and went on down the trail and I soon forgot all about it.

It haddn`t been light that long and I was wore slap out, how does their mother take `em anywhere? I get down in a good sized draw and decide to fix an early lunch and try an trick `em into an early day of it so I can go home and get some rest, what was I thinking? They gather up some sticks and help me clean off a place in an old road bed to build our fire. I go and cut them some cookin` sticks as soon as I get a fire up and they go to adding wood to it till they got it way up there when I get back to `em. The fire is either way to high to cook on or the sticks I bring back are way to short cause, you can`t get near that fire with out catchin` you hair on fire. We kill about an hour waiting on the fire to go back down enough to get within rock throwing distance of it and start in to cookin` some hotdogs. I get `em all lined out around the fire and help `em get started, then I go open `em up some beenie weenies to go with their dogs they`re burning to a crips. I get the buns out and they go to work on things and for the first time that day the kids are quiet. It hit me like a ton of bricks, so that`s why dad kept us kids so busy all the time? Oh well, you live and you learn and if I could just live long enough I had a feeling the kids were going to teach me a lot. We ended up having a great day and stayed till way after dark and it was the same crazy train coming back out of the woods that it was going in, but this time there was singing and laughter. It took the kids the better part of a day to teach me not to worry about things and just let go and have some fun. I loved the ride back into town that night and sure hated we haddn`t brought stuff along so we could have stayed out in the woods that night.

It just goes to show ya, a lot of great days don`t start out the way you want `em to, you just got to make the best of what you got!

You kids wait up for me, I want to tell her my side of it first!

Great times!”

“Darn it Big Foot, you better be saving this stuff!! If not, lizs and I will have to go through the archives and catch them before they disappear.

No "aw shucks" now Big Foot. Do as lizs said and find yourself a local or regional publication that could use a new voice on the outdoors or comment page. A good editor should be able to recognize good stories, and take care of the mechanical polishing. Just don't let 'em mess with your overall style. If I had a web-based magazine or journal, as I keep telling myself I should, I'd sign you up (couldn't pay anything of course, ha ha).

Seriously, Big Foot, an editor can always correct a writer's punctuation, but can't teach them to tell good stories. You've got the hard part pretty well in hand and are clearly getting better the more you post.”

“Pekka, I have started saving some of my stuff, but just the ones someone says things about. I don`t know a good one from the other. I don`t know how to go back and get the older ones, if I can find where I`ve written them it takes forever to get them to come up and it isn`t worth the trouble. My computer is just to slow, I guess, or I already got it to full of junk!LOL”

“Oh, Pekka, if you ever get the time, would you correct one of `em for me and send it to me at; white5@cswnet.com so, I could see what one should look like done right?

I know that`s a lot to ask of you, but I have no idea how they should be done. That`s not saying I`ll ever learn to do it right either!LOL

Again, Thanks!”

“Big Foot, I'll try to fit it in. May not be right away. I just spent all the time I was supposed to be correcting student papers on searching the web for a new computer for home and the Oscars are only 1:45 away! I'm a movie junkie, and despite the fact the show will probably be long and boring, it's like a holiday event for me.”

“Big Foot, I just saved the "Lover Trees" post to WordPerfect file and when I can, I'll edit and send it along.”

“Thanks Pekka!

I`m in no big hurry, I`d just like to see what all I`m doing wrong and then see if I can do one right.

Thank You!”

“It`s happened, the flowers are poping open and the trees are starting to leaf out again. Mother Nature is waking up and showing off her best and brightest colors, once again. Spring doesn`t last that long where I live so, you better not blink, or you`ll miss it.

The kids and I are out in the back yard playing and having a great time. The kids are very young and the three of `em are into everything and having the times of their lives. The little girl doesn`t like bugs and the boys are giving her a hard time with a worm they`ve uncovered.
She runs to me for protection and her little eyes are full of tears and she is shaking like a leaf. I shoo the boys off of her and try to explane the worm won`t hurt her, but she is having none of it.

Well, that gets me to thinking and I take her into the house with me while I look for a bit of string, but end up with some thread instead. I gather her back up and we go back out and I have to get on to the boys again to let her alone. It takes me a bit but I find what I`m looking for and I catch it without a lot of trouble. It`s a white headed bumble bee and they have no stinger, or mouth parts that can hurt anyone. I slip a small half knot over the back leg of the bee and then secure it with another half knot. I play out a bit of thread and break it off the spool and tie a fixed loop knot in the end of it for a finger to go into it. Well, by this time the boys are right there in the way asking questions and trying to help me with it. I try to get my little girl to slip her finger into the loop, but she`ll have no part of it and her lip starts to quiver so, I leave her alone and let my oldest son have it. He gets it fixed on his finger and I open my hand holdiing the bee and the fun starts. A bee kite and they`re off, firt the bee makes a run at my son and he hauls off. Then he quits running and the bee takes off the other way, draging a small boy behind it. Now they are both into it and going at it every where across the yard, with my other little boy right in there behind `em.

Now my little girl starts to laughing at all this and she wants to play too so, I get another one done up and it`s the same thing all over, she`s not having any of it. I give the second one to my youngest son and off he goes with a smile so big I don`t know how to tell you about it. I go ahead and catch up another bee for me and I get it done and I start in playng with my little girl watching all this going on and she decides to give it a go. I place the loop over her tiny finger and she lights up as soon as the bee leaves my hand. She is laughing and cutting up just like the boys, but it doesn`t take her long to get enough of it and wants me to take it back. I go ahead and cut the bee free and let it go back to the safety of the flowers and trees. Getting the bees away from the boys won`t be as easy to do. I get the oldest one to give me his and we set it free too, but the little boy goes to crying when I try to get his. I tell him he can only play with it just a bit more, then we have to let it go so it can go eat and go back to it`s house. I can`t help it, I get to watching my little boy with the bee and I can`t tell who has who. The bee gets tired of flying and lands in the grass and my little boy gets down on the grass and crawls up to the bee and his nose is almost touching the bee. They stay this way for a bit, just looking at each other and then the bee takes back off again, the little boy right in there after it. It looks more like the bee has the boy because the boy never lets the string get tight.

I get the boy and the bee free of each other and tell the kids the differance between the white head bees and the black headed ones. Little did I know I`d started something that has lasted to this day.
To this very day my kids look forward to spring and bee flying season.

Funny kids and more great times!”

“Life is beautiful, eh???

BF,
I really like your prose.”

“Big Foot-
You really have talent!
Your stories brighten my day.
Thanks.”

“Hey, Thanks guys!
I thought I`d get blasted good for that one because, it doesn`t have anything to do with backpacking.

But, to me it has the stuff of life and it helped me get my kids to notice the little things. That started them off on their love for things wild and they still love to find new things and places to share with me.

Yes Flyguy6x, life is beautiful!”

“Open your eyes, fool. Life's a bitch and so am I. Now go do the right thing. 1-800-DRLAURA”

“It`s the wind swept sandy beaches down by the sea
sun, surf and wind worn the way it`s supposed to be
it`s the big open country with even bigger skies above
with mountains, clear streams and the things that I love
there`s wild things a plenty and flying things there too
fish of all kinds swim there in the deep pools of blue
with places so rugged that I don`t know what to say
and I a lone lost traveler that once passed that way

I get to thinking sometimes that I`m the only person to have ever seen some of the places I`ve been to. I tend to walk off the path because, I don`t want to see things the way others do. I want to come up on a thing and have it surprise me with a hidden view. I want to walk away feeling I`m the only one to see it for what it is, before I get through.

I spend a lot of time exploring the hills up in Caney Creek, behind Shady Lake and West of Albert Pike. I love the views and water falls, a hidden valley trail, or a hog back ridge so narrow you can flip a rock across it. Oh, it`s crazy to get off up there and away from everyone and everything that you know. You can lose track of time and get to thinking you`re the first person to ever see some of it and know how the first person felt that did. When you climb to the top of those mountain tops, you`re a long way away from everything, but the clouds. Some days you can almost reach up and sctarch the bottom of one of them. Then there`s days the clouds decend on you up there and close in on you and even sound seems to stop.

I got to the top of one of the ridges I love so much and made my camp just in back of the bluff, that over looks some of the best places there are to see. I got there early and pitched my tent and gatherd wood for the night and for some cooking later. I laid my sleeping sack out in the tent and decided to crawl into it for a rest. When I woke up it was just a bit before dark so, I made my way to the bluff`s edge and watched the sun go down and the night come on. I love seeing the shadows creep at first and then race away to paint the mountains and hills in black and gray, until all color is drained away and there`s only darkness. I stay watching this a bit too long and I pay for it trying to find my way back to the tent. I trip a few times and run into a limb here and there, but I do make it back and soon I have a small fire up and going good. I ease an old worn out coffee pot up to the side of the coals and hear it start to hiss. I love the sound of that and it isn`t long till I see the first bits of steam escaping the lid. It won`t be long now till it`s done so, I go about getting something ready to eat, knowing I`ll have a cup of coffee in a bit. It`s so dark, that away from the fire I can`t see a thing, it`s like all there is in the world that`s left is right there with me and the things in the dark don`t matter any more.

Good, the coffee`s done and it even tastes better than it`s been smelling and supper`s about ready too. I enjoy the time it takes me to get these few things done and it gives me time to think about things. It doesn`t take that long for me to understand that the world is full of things, good and bad, big and small and they`re just things and I shouldn`t let them get to me the way they do. Not a lot more time passes and I can`t think of a thing better than being out like this and how much I`ve come to love it.

I get the supper things done up and put away and finish off the last cup of coffee. The fire is almost out now and I make my way to the tent. I must have fell asleep as soon as I got undressed and into my sleeping sack. Some time in the night I heard a coyote howl and it was joyned in song by it`s mate, I wish it could have been wolves I was listining to, but they`ve been killed off long ago. The next time I wake up it`s to hear an old owl calling off in the distance and I about jump out of my sack when I hear another one that starts up right next to my camp, or it sounded like it was. I had to laugh when I figured out what had scared me, I guess I was still thinking about those wolves.

I woke up just as the sun was coming out, I`d over slept some and almost missed seeing it. I walked off to the edge of the bluff and sat down to drink it all in. I saw the shadows of the night race away from the sun as if they were afraid to be caught out like that and the color once more replace the darkness. Things change so fast up there on the top of everything and I spend the better part of the morning there. I see some turkeys fly down off a ridge and dissapear into the timber below. They just seem to flap their wings just a bit then cup the wind with their wings and glide down. Not long after that I see two deer out on a rock out cropping, I guess they`re trying to catch the sun too and warm up. I even see a coyote and wonder if it`s one of the ones I heard singing last night.

I get a fire going and have my dinner and coffee and start getting things ready to go back out. I get done cleaning things back up and everything put away and I pour the last of my coffee and water over my fire. I hate going back, it seems like I just got here and I`m already having to leave, but I have a lot of things to do and nothing will get done if I don`t get started.

There it is, it`s all those things again and here I am going back home to them. Oh well,.. it was nice to get away from it for a little while.”

“I`m as country as an old rock and don`t mind one bit you knowing it either. I`m very proud to have grown up in the country and to have come away with some good old country folk ways.

Change comes to everything, even an old rock. A rock is worn down by wind water and time. Given the time, the wind and the water will have their way with the rock and change it forever, or rub on it till it`s no more.

I don`t like change much, but I have seen change and been changed by the things I`ve had rub up, or off on me. At the ripe old age of nineteen I had everything in my life change forever and for the better. I married my childhood sweetheart and we never looked back.

Two country kids off to the big city on our honeymoon and us as lost as could be. We couldn`t stand it for long and hauled back to the house and got a few things together and headed up to the lake. We wanted to be alone and not crushed by the crowds we`d found ourselves off in.

We took an old coffee pot, coffee and sleeping bags, a tarp, an ax, a few can goods, some stuff to eat with, some cups, hotdogs and some bread and two oil lamps. We were good to go and off we went in my new truck to the lake.

It was the week after Thanksgiving and we had the whole lake to ourselves. It was nice and cold and we kept a fire going the whole time we were there. My new bride had never been camping and for sure not roughing it, like we were doing. It took her a little over a day to get used to being that alone, but she grew to love it almost as much as I did and we couldn`t have been happier.
There was nothing, or no one to keep our attention, but each-other and it was pure bliss.

We spent the days walking the woods and shore lines, in search of nothing, but new things to see.
I had seen it all before, but somehow I`d missed seeing it like I saw it with her at my side. Now, even the smallest thing wasn`t overlooked and we both found happiness in each new discovery. Without a doubt, we were the wildest things about, but we saw animals a plenty and birds everywhere.

It wasn`t long till we had run out of food, but I`d found some discarded fishing lines and old hooks and sinkers along the water`s edge. I made up a crude fishing rig and set in catching fish about as fast as I can tell you about it. I`d clean `em up and we`d either have to cook `em on a stick or in the coffee pot in just boiling water. We didn`t bring cooking oil or cornmeal, or salt and pepper, but we ate `em like they were good. Neither of us wanted to go home, or leave there till we just had to so, we just made do and did fine.

Well, like that old rock, things do change and me right along with it all. Things in my life have changed a lot in just a short time, but I`ve never lost my love for the wild things, places, or her.”

“Dang it, Big Foot, you're gonna make me cry, ya ol' romantic. You sure know how to cut to the fundamentals.”

“I grew up in a family of 14 kids. It was a yours, mine, and ours deal. Anyway, we used to spread this huge tarp out and watch the meteor showers in Aug. We would just take all the sleeping bags and blankets we had (used them mainly for ground pads) and sleep out. After a lot of giggling and stupid jokes we would settle down and watch the sky. A few of my brothers knew a lot of constellations and would point them out . Eventually, we would start talking about what we wanted to do when we got older. That would start on the topic of being rich and what we would buy. That's been over 25 years ago but I can still remember how those nights sounded and smelled. I don't know why I thought of that, but it was a lot of fun.”

“Thanks Pekka!
I didn`t think anyone had seen it.

Willow, I grew up the same way, but there were only nine of us kids. We did the star thing and singing I see the moon and the moon sees me and star light, star bright, I wish I may, I wish I might! I wouldn`t take for that either!”

“Big Foot, I really enjoy your stories. I grew up in the country too. I think your story made me remember those tarp nights. Thank you.”

“Seek professional help.

1-800-DRLAURA”

“It`s true what they say, "the first, shall be the last"
I have had my day in the sun too, but my time is past
and once there wasn`t a thing I didn`t think I couldn`t do
that was then and this is now, I guess the saying is true
each to his own and here`s hoping you find your day in the sun
I`ve had many great days and so far this day has been a good one

It wasn`t that long ago that my oldest son came in and wanted to go backpacking. He got all of his stuff packed up and loaded in the back of his small car. Then he does something unexpected and he catches me off gard. He comes back in the house and asks me to go with him.

It`s been almost two years since I had the wreck and I`m just now getting out of a wheelchair and onto crutches. I can`t get far at all and I think he has lost his mind, but I say yes, before he can change his mind about asking me.

Now, my wife and other kids think I have lost my mind, but I`m going and nothing they say can talk me out of it either. He gets me into that little car of his and we`re off like a shot.

Half way there, I ask him where we`re going and he just laughs at me. He asks me if it matters and no, it doesn`t a bit. I`m just glad to be out and going somewhere away from four walls that have held me for so long.

Turns out he is taking me to a little place above Albert Pike, back close to the falls. It`s a beautiful place, back up in Caney Creek that I used to take him to when he was little.

He was so little back when I first took him there that he doesn`t even remember it. He thinks he has found this place on his own and I don`t tell him any different.

It`s in the middle of the night when we get to Albert Pike and the roads are in real bad shape. He has to slow way down just to keep from hitting all the potholes there are in the old road.

I didn`t think to tell you, but his poor old car is held together with short lengths of wire and very long prayers. He has gotten good at fixing it up, he has had to, he couldn`t afford much better while going off to school.

Well, the next pothole we hit leaves us in the dark, with the motor dead and us coming to a stop. My son jumps out and goes to working on it and sure enough it`s the wiring. He gets out his flashlight and starts in cutting up his speaker wires in the floorboard of his car and ties them into something else under the hood. It takes him the better part of an hour, but he gets it going again and we`re off once more. The fender on his rust bucket has cut his wires when he hit that pothole. The lights keep flickering on and off and the car just sputters almost out and then lunges on again.

The going is mighty slow, but we`re still going and come around a bend next to the mountain and there`s a guy standing in the dark and we all but hit him. Somehow we didn`t, but we almost did. Turns out he is having troubles too and asks if we`ll help him. Sure my son tells him and he goes to get in and sees there`s no room for him to. My son tells him to hop up on the hood and off we go again. His truck is dead in the middle of the road, about a mile up from us.
My son and the stranger get it going again in just a bit and we part ways, but not before the stranger trys to repay us, but my son won`t have any of that.

We get around the next set of curves and my son`s car quits again, but in no time he gets it running again and this time it gets us to where we want to be.
What a night and it still isn`t over yet, now my son makes camp in the dark and I can`t do a thing to help him.

The next morning comes early and my son wants to do a long day hike, but he is worried about me. Sweet kid, you got to love a kid like him! I talk him into going on and tell him I`ll be alright on my own and I am, but he keeps coming back to check on me and just makes short hikes instead.

The next day he decides to start in early and work on his car so it`ll get us back out of there. He finds the problem and goes to work on it, the wiring has burnt out going to the fans that cool it too and he fixes that while he`s at it. He ends up hauling water from a little over two miles away and it takes him about three trips to get enough to fill it back up.

We spend our last evening there talking and him still doing everything for me like I was his little kid. He won`t even let me help him fix the evening meal, he wants to do it all.

That night the weather takes a turn for the worst and we`re caught up in a Tornado. We`re down in such a big draw that we didn`t even know how bad it was till the next morning.

Well, it got light and there were small trees down everywhere. The torndo didn`t set down good and just the high winds had caused most of the damage. We had an ax and small saw with us and the trees he couldn`t move he had to cut out of the way. He worked like that for over two and a half hours to get us back out of there and onto the main road. It was awful and raining the whole time, but he never once complaned. He`d just grin at me and ask me if I was alright, how could I not be with a son like him? We met up with another man cutting his way to us and my son and him cut the last trees out of the road. And while the three of us were talking the rain stoped and the sun came out.

What a beautiful day!”

“I think I was dissed by Dr. Laura .......WOW ........What an honor! Yippeee!!”

“Big Foot, I think we have a lot in common. I know exactly how it feels to finally be able to get out and do stuff after being really sick for a while. It's like you appreciate everything so much more. I 'm just not as good as you are at expressing things. :)”

“My sensitivity meter has maxed out. I don't want to undo your therapy Big Foot, but all these touchy feely details give me the creeps.

I would suggest you share these feelings with your family, but something tells me they have already heard it.”

“Thanks Willow, we do seem to share some things alike in our lives and I love the way you tell it.

Bacpac, I`m sorry my writing bothers you and yes, my family knows how I feel about them.”

“Big Foot - that was a really beautiful story. You're lucky to have such a great son.”

“m-nuts, Thank You!
He is a sweet young man, I wish I could take credit for that, but he is his own man.”

“BF, I don't think anyone likes to see a grown man cry. I can hear you reaching out and the best advice I can give is to stop standing in that puddle of piss, put on a clean shirt and get out of the house. Drive down to Dallas watch a baseball game and trash a hotel room. Do something different.”

“Bacpac, I know you`re trying to help me, I understood it for that and Thanks!

I`m just doing about all I can do for right now. Later I`ll take your advice and act on it in a big way, but for now I have to play the cards I`ve been dealt. I`m doing my best to bluff, but I didn`t get left with much of a hand to stand on. I do know you mean well!”

“I`ve lost myself in fitful sleep
I`m falling fast, long and deep
the bed moves and starts to shake
try as I might, I still can`t awake
seems I get all caught up in la la land
and things don`t work the way I planed
cause sleep now has me in it`s grip
and I`m in for another rotten trip
there are powers that be and the ripper eats
I try to flee, but I`m caught in the sheets
I`m all done in and I`ve lost the war of wits
caught in moments of gray, where nothing fits”

“Oops,....I`m sorry about that, it got away from me!LOL
I was going to write a story under that poem I just wrote and I decided I didn`t like the poem and I thought I hit clear entries,.. I guess I hit the wrong thing again.”

“Great stories, Bigfoot. I stayed up late and read them all.It's contributions like that and Phil's photo page effort that make this a great group- even for those of us that are somewhat out of the nieghbourhood.”

“bc trailguy, Thank You so much!
I never know if anyone reads them and I feel stupid writing them, but it makes me so happy if anyone likes then.

Thanks for that, you made my day!”

“Today seems a lot like yesterday was, but everyday it seems like things are changing so fast and not always for the better either. What happened to the world I came into?

My five younger brothers and I decided to haul off on our horses and do some exploring up in the hills out in back of our place so, we six boys tore off up there as fast as we could sneak away from the folks and our three sisters that were supposed to be watching out for us boys.

We thought those hills and woods went on forever and ever and had no end to them, but in truth there were only about four thousand acres there under old and mostly long forgotten fences. We never guessed that one time all of that land had been under a plow at one time and was part of a much larger family farm that had lost most of their living members.

We hit an old game trail that snaked it`s way up the side of those hills after crossing the Blue Bayou River, more like a big, very deep clear creek that flowed along the foothills.

We had the times of our lives back off up there and we could look down and see our farm from a rock bluff that jutted out over the side of a clift.

We played cowboys and Indians, hide and seek on horseback and any other crazy thing we could dream up. We spent so much time up there when we could steal away that we decided to build a corral and bunkhouse. There was no one to stop us from ourselves so, we did it!

We tore into cutting down scycimore pole trees (sp), (they look a lot like aspen trees) to build the fences and pole structure for the bunk house and the rafters with.

I was the oldest boy and I should have known better and been the one to keep us out of trouble, but hey, I was fourteen years old and to busy having fun to ever think of things like that. Besides, I`m pretty sure it was my idea to build it in the first place.

We pinched my dad`s stack of tin, he`d been saving it to build another barn that he`d never got around to doing and enough nails, hammers, an old ax, post-hole-diggers and hay-wire to more than get the job done.

To say we were living large wouldn`t half cover it and we even managed to keep it our secret for a few months too, but a few of our friends got let in on it and in no time flat we had boys coming out of the woodwork wanting to jion in on the fun so, we let `em!

We made a few additions to it along the way and it took on the look of a fort somehow, but that was alright too! We had it for over a year before we were found out, or sold out by my sisters that were pretty good trackers in their own right.

We were made to take it all down and bring back all of the tin and make it look like it never had ever happened. About four months later these two very old men show up at our house and it turns out they own that land and timber up there in those hills. They had found our hide-out just a few months after us six boys had built it and they loved it and they admitted they had spent time there watching us boys going about building on it and adding to it and they even spent time there when we weren`t there. Turns out they too were kids at heart and asked us boys to build it back if we didn`t mind doing it. Are you kidding?

Those old men even bought us new tin for the roof and helped us build a fire ring out of rocks and they hauled us firewood up there too. They gave us the run of the place and helped us build some bunks and things so we could overnight in the place. That place spawned many great adventures and was one of the best parts of my growing up.

You don`t run into many good men like those two were these days. Now days us six boys would have been hauled off to court, if our dad didn`t kill us first. Now I`m not saying I miss everything about the old days, but I do miss somethings and those old folks with their often better ways!”

“I miss those days too. Great story.”

“Hey Thanks!

I only wrote that to keep this thread from going away. It was all true, but not much of an adventure, but it was the reason I had so many things happen later on in life!

Thanks for putting up with me!”

“Cut from the same bolt of cloth? I don`t know about all of that, but I do see threads of it here and there.

I never in my wildest dreams figured I`d be around this long. I burned the candle at both ends and across the middle at times too. I took that living everyday thingie like it was your last to the next leval and beyond a bunch,...

I never used to understand that tried and true thing much either so, I had to try `er all, to see was it true! Some of my tests should have been done in a lab, but not much if anything works out like you think it`ll do.

If you can think it up, chances are I did too, but unlike folks with a working brain, I had to try it or bust. I went through more clothes, shoes and things I had no business messin` with, much to my folks discust.

To every living thing there`s a season and to all there comes a turn. I knew I`d only get one chance at most wild things like that so, burn it baby, let it burn!

I didn`t know fear so, I didn`t scare that easily, nothing stoped me, not even the fear of death. I ran head long into trouble and wild things that would later make it hard to ever catch my breath.

I never saw anything wrong with what I did and why it caused the floks to come undone like they`d do. I guess you just don`t see a thing like that till it one day comes back to bite you.

I don`t know where they get it, but the three kids are into something all of the time and I have to watch `em like a hawlk. They`re into stuff always and their mother seems not to notice we no longer have knives in the house, or a hammer, or nails and there`s never a scrap of wood big enough for anything and even some of the tin off of the out building`s missing.

Well,... I remembered being young and doing crazy things so, I got to watching the kids a mite closer and sure enough I caught the little scamps scurryin` off with a load of food stuff, matches, coffee and pots and pans.

I found their stash under the boy`s beds and never dreamed they had my precious daughter caught up in their wild times, but I was later to find out she was just as wild as them.

I didn`t let on to `em I was on to `em, but I ratted `em out to their mother and I had all I could do to keep her from asking `em about it. She just couldn`t believe her precious kids were planning their next great adventure. That`s so funny, why didn`t I get a mother like that?

Sure enough before we got out of bed the next morning I woke up `cause I heard the boys whispering and banging around in their room. They`d waited until Saturday morning to haul off to the woods next to our house and I snuck out the back of the house just before they did. I was supprised to see three young folks scampering out of the front yard and going down the drive out front.

I fell off in behind `em a ways back and it was all I could do to keep from laughing at `em. They were so cute going down the road and each one of `em under a much larger burden of stuff than I had uncovered in their room. I couldn`t help but wonder where they`d stashed all of it until now and why their mother , or I haddn`t caught on to `em sooner.

They had a pig trail of sorts worked out through the hardwoods and honeysuckle, rattan, muskiedine vines and briars. the trail snaked it`s way down and across a creek and I spotted some of my lumber there, where they`d built a foot bridge. I jumped across, not trusting my weight on it and I heard one of `em say,.. what was that sound? I just knew I`d given myself away, but the rest didn`t hear it or think it was anything out of the way and they continued on.

When they got to where they were going they shucked their loads of goodies and went about getting a fire up and they had coffee on in just a bit. That coffee they had cooking in that pan smelled so good I thought about giving myself up then just to have a cup of it, but I didn`t. Why does coffee cooked out like that smell so much better than it does cooked in a house?

In no time the three of my little critters were into their cups and laughing and talking in whispers. I know the light of their fire must be playing off my face because it sure was their`s. The little devils looked like little Angels with their fases glowing like that. I think I had a smile goin` on that`d almost match their`s, as I sat and watched then there.

The sun was almost up, but the moon haddn`t left it`s place in the sky as of yet and it was the start of a perfect day. I only wish they`d asked me along as they went about getting breakfast up and going.

Little cutters, they didn`t bring any cooking oil, but it didn`t slow `em down any either as they fried eggs off in the pan they`d just done up their coffee in. I`d never seen toast cooked off on a stick before that either, but it worked well enough for them seemed like.

About that time it got light enough to see what had brought `em back here in the first place. It`s was a tree-house up in an old oak tree and there was the rest of my missing lumber and tin.

It looked like they had it going on so as soon as they put their fire out, I snuck back off up to the house to get their mother up and a camera.

Yup, they`re just like their mother, but with a hint of me in there too!LOL”

“Nice remembrances, Bill! But waaaaaaaaaay too many disclaimers in front of the story. lol ;-)

So was this incident when you started getting called Big Foot???”

“LOL,.. Lizs,. I knew that was way to much rot at the start of that thing, but I figured it`d max Bacpac out and he wouldn`t read the rest of it and get on to me again!LOL

I don`t know why I even started it like that, but the way you see `em`s the way I write, but HEY, no one ever accused me of havin` any smarts!LOL”

“LOL,.. see,... I told you I didn`t have smarts,.. No,.. I got the Big Foot nick when I was very young and much wilder. My so-called friends got together and put that on me saying it was `cause I was the wildest thing that walks the woods.”

“Just bringing this thread back up so it didn`t get Matt`s ax,...”

“Hey I remember you!!!”

“Hiya Pedxing!
I miss talking to you, I do hope we can get caught back up one of these days.

Take care!”

“He lives!

My fellow Arkansan really does exist!

Welcome back, bigfoot.”

“Backpacking in the Beartooth Mountains in Montana!!!!

That place is just mind blowing!


8)”

“Bigfoot - How are you doing? Able to get out at all?”

“Hello Big Foot I hope all is well and you have been able to get out on the trail.

8)”

“A Big Foot sighting!

What, no poetry?”

“Solo 5 days in the Pecos Wilderness, many moons ago during a time of personal difficulty.”