Playing with Fire...and Gas

Fire and gas don't mix! Or, at least if they do, you'll likely have a mess on your hands. We've got a couple reminders this week of just how big a mess you can make when you play with gas and fire. Don't miss this one! 

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SPEAKER_00 0:07

Roland, once again, welcome back to the Hunting Roots Podcast. I'm Brody Swisher. This is episode 245. Apologies for the late podcast post this week. It has been a week. We've had camps, uh, camps with church. We just wrapped up today, wrapped up our man, I don't even know how many annual the warrior camp we've been doing. Talking about the other day, it's pushing 10 years, gotta be pushing 10 years of warrior camp, uh collaborative effort with the crew at Special Ops excursions, serving the families of Special Ops troops over at Fort Campbell, and man, what a time uh it's been. Just an off-campus, off-post event that we do. Those families can come out and just hang out, bring their kiddos, drop them off, and uh just a great, great time doing everything A-Z hunting in the outdoors that we can cram in two days, and it's just a great time. Uh, but it has been a whirlwind week, and it's no sh no sign of slowing down. We got another one next week. Uh lots of good stuff happening next week, but it's busy, man. There's no light at the end of the tunnel just yet, but man, we thank God for it. It's been a great time just to uh encourage young people and just to invest in their lives, and so we don't take that for granted. Love the opportunities, and so just a really good week with those. We'll talk more about that in the days and weeks to come. And I want to encourage you to go check out uh the Brody Swisher, Instagram, um my personal page. You can see uh we'll have all kinds of photos, videos going up on that, uh, as well as Hunting Roots, Facebook, Instagram, check them out there. If we get some photos up, you can see kind of what we've been getting into, what all uh we've been up to here this last few days, last few weeks, and just what's coming down the line. Good stuff. Hey, this podcast is brought to you by the crew at On X. On XMaps.com is the website. You need to check it out there. Make sure you've got this app going on in your phone. It's the app uh that you're gonna want to have uh again, whether it's fishing season like we're in now, just wrapped up turkey, but now we're doing the fishing thing. Boat fishing, bass fishing, catfishing, whatever you got. Uh catfishing is hot and heavy right now in my part of the world, world, woods world. Catfishing is getting down with the get down. I've been seeing guys out at the lake doing their thing, and that's what we're gonna try to pivot to here and get some catfish in the freezer. Um looking forward to that, but I love the on X app because it allows you to do just that. You can go and mark your spots. And man, when I see, I'm gonna be honest with you. I'm gonna be honest with you, when I see guys that are there day after day after day after day, makes me think, hmm, I need to drop a pen. There's something to that. There's a fishing spot right there, and not trying to move in on the crappie beds or anything, but a lot of times it's that catfishing that's out there, and that's kind of what I key on. They're there year after year of catfish doing their thing. Onyx allows you to drop those pens on your spot or somebody else's, so check it out on XMaps.com. Also, big thanks to the crew at Mossyok, Mossyoak.com. Go check out the content there, articles, everything for summertime in the way of content to keep you rolling through the offseason. Also a great place to go and see the latest in swag and apparel. Everything, Mossyoak, check it out at mossyoe.com. So, as I just mentioned, just wrapped up week one of Warrior Camp and uh couple great days of all things archery. Uh we do BB gun safari for these guys, put them on a critter hunt, let them go, prowling the grounds looking for stuff, bringing back just whatever they can round up in their crit in their critter crate. Um teaching camping skills, fire building skills, uh, all kinds of stuff, again, just to get a lot of these kids out of the house, into the outdoors, and uh where they can learn and experience the good stuff God's blessed us with. And uh every year it blows my mind how many kids are have never done that. They've never been fishing, they've never been uh shooting a baby gun, whatever it is, and so just a cool time. Now, this year, I will say, this year had more students that were like, hey, I hunt with my dad. Hey, my dad's a big deer hunter, my dad's a big turkey hunter. Had one girl we were talking turkey decoys and turkey calling, and she's like, hey, here's how we do it. And she just takes a uh sits down there in the gravel and just rakes out a spot in the gravel, rakes all the rocks back, and then she grabs a so she's got just a clear spot of dust in the middle of the gravel parking lot, and she like she grabs one big rock. She said, Here's the gobbler. She grabs a medium-sized rock, here's a hen, here's what we do with our decoy. We put them like this, and when we put them like this, all the other turkeys come out of the woods and come to it. I mean, she's doing this whole coach's diagram. It was awesome. And uh there were some kids that were some uh serious hunters there. Uh I won't say serious, but their families were serious and they uh some up and comers, and so it was it was a pretty neat deal. Um all again, just everything we can cram into a couple days of of hunting in the outdoors, try to pour it on them. We had the crew from Herndon Archery, uh Brian Chesar and the crew from Herndon Archery. I don't know if I said that right again. Sheesher. Brian Schaezer, uh, the man over there at Hearndon Archery and Clarksville, and he I say Clarksville, other side of Clarksville, Oak Grove area. And um, and he he dude's jacked, first off. Big old dude, big old dude, and um just a a good guy when it comes to giving his time, investing his time. He and some of his staff came over again from the shop and uh spent time leading the kids, instructing the kids, helping on the archery range, 3D range there for them, and uh that was a good deal. Just a little archery booth there, they come by and shoot, and the kids rotate through the stations, and the archery's always, and we talk about it all the time, archery's always uh a top favorite session each time. They love to see the arrow fly and just the challenge of it, and so that was cool to see that again. So big thanks to Brian and the crew over there, Brian Scheser. I don't know how you spell it, not even sure how you really say it, but Sheeser, from what I understand now, is German for shooter, and so a fitting name for a dude that runs an archery shop, archery guru, to have a name that means shooter. Um but a good stuff there from those guys. And then big thanks obviously to to Daisy and Red Rider. Having a little Red Rider BB gun safari, a little BB gun shootout is always a good time. And popping balloons, popping pie plates, be you know, pop, popping uh Coke cans, whatever it is, man. It's it's a good time. Letting the BBs fly. And so uh just really enjoyed it once again. Again, we'll be back over there uh next week for round two, another group coming through. I guess we had twenty-nine kids, first aid, thirty-three, thirty-two, something like that today. Um so a great group of young men and young ladies. We'll be again posting up some pictures of all that here going on the next couple days we get caught up and dig out and uh some good stuff there. Hey, gonna keep it short and sweet this week, because I know again it is a late post going on the week, but just wanted to not let the week get by before we say hello and hang out a minute with you guys. Um but I just want to encourage you this week with uh the concept of playing with fire. Uh and not just playing with fire, playing with fire and particularly gas. I I say this um because last night, uh Linda see what it was. I hear in the last night or two, my days are all running like crazy now, but I just got a call from uh one of the students uh that we work with in the youth ministry here in our local community, and um I actually missed a text that uh or excuse me, missed the first the phone call, and I was getting cleaned up. It was pretty late at night. I was getting cleaned up, coming in from camp or whatever it was we were into, getting cleaned up in the shower, missed a text, or excuse me, missed a call, and then um the student's mom followed up with the text, said, Hey, he's trying to get in touch with you, um had kind of a crazy little accident this evening, and I'm thinking, little accident. Uh what's a crazy little accident you're calling about at this time of night? And so called the guy back and come to find out the boys, these are some hunting buddies, uh students in the area, come to find out the the boys had a little mishap with the with the burning incident, burning of some brush piles and treetops and brush piles, and had a big dozer pile or brush pile, whatever, piled up. And he goes on to say, hey, well, we were we were we had the diesel, you know, fuel trying to light the fire and uh you know just struggling to get the fire lit, I guess, and so they went with some gasoline.

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SPEAKER_00 9:00

They d had the diesel fuel to get the fire going. If you don't know, diesel's kind of a slow burning deal. It's not as combustible uh as you would when you throw a match to fire uh to gas, you straight up gas. I mean, you're you're you're in a mess now. I'm telling you, it's it's it's bad news. Diesel is a different deal, and that's why D guys use diesel for their burn piles. They'll soak everything diesel, light it up, and let her burn. You put a match on uh or near gas in those fumes and gasoline, and it's a whole different deal. That sucker's blowing up in your face, and you better watch out. But anyway, these guys I think we're just gonna use, and I'm just I'm saying what I I understand. So if I if you're listening to this and you know the situation, you're like, he's making all this crap up. No, it's just what I've heard or understand. Um and I got, you know, w initially got the word from right from the horse's mouth, and uh the one involved. So I guess the diesel wasn't cutting it for them, so they they went to to the alternative of some straight-up gas, gonna pour some gas to it. And I I I don't know what all transpired. I I understand that maybe there was some gas poured on, and then they properly lit the uh whatever it was, they lit to throw to the gasoline. Um and the lighter of, again, this is the report I got, the lighter of the match, or the lighter of the paper, or whatever got tossed, um, did, you know, what he thought he needed to do, threw it, backed up real quick, made a good throw, got over there to it, everything kind of ignited, I guess, and he's he's good and he's clean, he's clear, he's away from all the gas and any issues. But then he looks back and his buddy is on fire. That's right, his buddy's on fire. He like, he did good. He got back, he's like, whoo! And if you've ever lit fire, or excuse me, lit gasoline, I've done it, ain't gonna lie, I've done it before. You throw a match to some gasoline that you just doused on whatever, uh, and it it'll do just like that. It's like woo. And it it's just you feel it, you hear it, and you see it obviously, and it's I guess like the Christmas tree on Christmas vacation. You know, the Griswold Christmas tree. When it went up, you heard it. Woo! And it lit up the whole room, and and that's kind of what happens when you put gas on a fire. Um or light up anything that's got gas to it. Well, uh whatever. Old boy turns around and his buddy's lit. His buddy's got his britches on fire and he's he's he's whatever. He you know, he's got gas on him, stood too close to the gas, uh, and he's lit up. So dude that lit the fire goes to run and jump on him, I guess, and knocks him to the ground. The old stop, drop, and roll comes into play here. You know what I'm saying? Stop, drop, and roll. We learned that as kids, uh, never ever needing it or using it, but I guess evidently in this situation, uh it was put into practice, knock him down to the ground and get him on, try to roll him up, get the fire put out, and uh at some point they managed to do that, but not before some major uh issues had transpired and and some some significant burning took place. And so when I'm talking to these guys the other night, they're like, hey, we're fixing to airlift him, because he's got now he's got some spots on his face and spots on different parts of his body, his legs up to his knees burnt, and uh we're fixing to airlift him and take him uh over to the burn unit. And I'm thinking, holy smokes, this is not just a man, I burnt my britches, burnt a hole in my britches, you know. This is this is some deal going on. And I guess maybe they thought everything was good, and then at looking back, I mean, you know, you're talking about your clothes melting to your body, and that stuff don't just stop. And you know, the flames may be gone, but if you burnt your skin and you burnt your body, you've got clothes that are that have burnt, they continue, from what I understand, they continue to burn and melt away. It's your flesh. And you don't, you know, just because you got the flame out doesn't mean your your your skin's gonna it stops. It's kind of like I guess a uh meat or anything else. I mean you you think about it, when you cook a steak and you you pull it off, it's still hot and it's still cooking. You gotta let it cool down. It's still cooking um you just leave it there, you know, whatever. You gotta let that sucker cool down and rest. Same thing with your body, I guess. When you you burn yourself, it it keeps cooking for a little bit. And anyway, these guys realize, hey, this is a bad situation, this is not good. I didn't just burn my pants, I burnt my body, I'm burning my flesh, and it's still melting, burning, whatever you'll call it. So the boys pack it up and they're headed to the burn unit. And so been praying for those guys. I'm not mentioning their names. You may know them. Uh I won't mention them now. They did ask for prayers and everything, so just pray for that, but I'm not gonna mention the names because I don't know what all uh I don't know what all transpired. I heard the version, and I'm not calling um anybody anything as far as, you know, that's all I know is what I heard as far as the story goes. Now listen, I will say, because these are teenage boys, and I've been a teenage boy, and I still oftentimes act like a teenage boy, I often have wondered, is this what exactly went down? Not calling anybody liar, just saying uh sometimes uh the story might have been a little more significant, or there might have been some other details, or um, you know, whatever. Evidently these guys were saying that they had gotten their uh when they were filling up the gas cans, must have splashed some gas on their britches or in their boots, and uh when that fire got close, when that fire got rocking, uh either it tracked them back or something got on their clothes and there's there's enough uh gas on the britches that that's what ignited on this one fella. Um but also think, man, gas kind of uh evaporates pretty quickly. And so usually if it's you've had some time, if you've had some time for it to uh dry up whatever, I I don't know. Well, there must have been some significant amount of gas there. I don't know what the deal was. Um I'm I'm thinking there's more to the story. I'm gonna have to revisit my buddies and see exactly what went down and uh see if I hear a fresh version, a new version, uh, whatever. But uh man, it was just a reminder the other night as I was talking to these guys, just a reminder uh once again, because I'm like, dude, I've been there. I know all about that. I've I've done those foolish things, I've done that stupid stuff and uh played with fire, played with matches, played with gasoline and fire, and man, I've had some close calls. I think about a time, and I'll just tell you my story. The worst situation I've had was I was out at a fire pit at a rental house we were at when we first got married, first couple years of our marriage, and uh it was out in the country, and I had I think some old magazines or newspapers, I was just burned stuff from the office and from the desk, and I remember it had it piled up out there and I'd lit it, and you know, some of it burned, but I I guess evidently it got down to some of those glossy magazines, you know what I'm saying? The uh the magazines that aren't like newspaper, they're that glossy magazine, and if you don't know, that glossy stuff just doesn't burn like you would like it to until it gets really hot. It it's hard to get lit from a from a glossy magazine, hunting magazine, whatever. And evidently I, you know, I had thought the fire was out. I was like, okay, that didn't work. I'm fixing to pour some gas to this sucker and get this party started. I'm gonna light this thing up and get rid of all these magazines. And I had too many magazines, they were glossy, but there's also too many of them, so they're all stacked on top of each other, smothering, not burning. And so, boy, I brought I pull out the gas can. I think I'm smart. This is gonna be good. And I was in my young, I was probably 22-ish at the time, young 20s. Grab the gas can out of the garage, rental house, rental garage, grab the gas can out of the garage, and I walk up there to that fire pit. I'll never forget it, walk up there, and again, I it was just kind of just maybe smoking, but maybe not. I don't even know if it was smoking because I'm I'm I've heard the story all my life, where there's smoke, there's fire. So if it had been smoking much, I'd have been thinking, nope, don't do it. Whatever reason, this time I take the gas can. It was on the old school gas cans that are the good ones, had the big yellow nozzle, and I I remember walking up to the fire there, and I'm like, all right, let's get I'm I'm tired of playing. I don't play games, I'm tired of playing. Let's go. I'm gonna put the thing out there, and I start just tipping that gas can over, and I'm pouring it all over these pile of hunt magazines that are there that are not burning, pouring it all over there. Well, evidently some of that gasoline slid down through the bow hunting magazines and the turkey hunting magazines and all the different stuff, fishing game, and slid down there to the right spot where something was still lit up underneath the rest of it. And I remember like it was in slow motion. I just remember seeing seeing the fire pit just go and just kind of catching and just a flash right there. But I just remember, again, it felt like it was slow motion because I saw it coming up the stream. The fire was chasing up the stream of the gas can I'm pouring. And as I saw it coming, I lifted the gas can further away from the fire. You know, I had it down and just kind of close out in front of me, about my crotch level. And as the fire starts coming to that stream, coming up that stream and just growing and chasing up the stream, I'm lifting that gas can higher. I'm like, oh my gosh, oh my gosh. And I lift it up and I lift it up over my head, and again it's coming. I can't, I can't stop it. It's coming up that stream. There's nothing you can do because it's chasing and just licking right up that thing. And I realize this sucker's fixing to get my hand and it's gonna be all over me, and I don't want this gas on me. I'm gonna be in real trouble. So it's chasing it up, I'm lifting it up, you know, so it's seven foot up in the air now above my head as far as my armor reach. And right about the time it hits that gas can, I just chunk that gas can up in the air, up in the air and kind of away from me a little bit, not much, but away from me a little bit, and I just kind of turn and I I run from it, you know. I kind of it's chasing it, throwing it up in the air, a little bit away from me, and I'm headed back toward the house. This sucker's, you know, no telling what's fixing to happen. But I remember when that gas can, again, I threw it, it was at six, seven feet right there when I let it rip, and I'm throwing it higher as it probably went eight or nine feet up in the air, and then comes back and hit the concrete pavement from nine feet on the ground. And I just remember when it hit the ground, I don't remember the gas can, the sound of the gas can, but I just remember hearing woo and and feeling the explosion, I don't want to call it explosion, I guess it was, I mean it was the combustion, whatever you call it, when the fire went up and and hit that gas can, and when it came down and hit the ground, and I guess it just the the pressure, the ignition, all whatever it was, all at one time, hitting the ground, lighting, and the gas just pouring out all I mean, it went woof. And I mean, I didn't see it because I had turned away from it. I was kind of trying to run from it at the time, but I could feel the pressure, I could hear it, and and I could see just everything lit up. You know when lightning strikes and and it strikes and then it just lights the world up in the middle of dark and at night, it lights and it's like it lights the world up, and everything's daylight all of a sudden. I mean, this was daylight when it happened, but it was this major flash, like a bomb went off, uh like a lightning strike or something, just this big flash. Now my wife's inside. She's inside the house, and I mean it wasn't even a window out to where the side was. It was like a side window of the house uh that was not even, like I said, broadside to where I was, it was just over on the side of the house, a different side of the house from where this happened, but it was so bright and such a flash that she saw it. And the same thing. She's like, what was that? She just sees this big flash light up the yard. And I remember coming in, starting to come in, going back and forth, like I've got to call the fire department. Oh my gosh. And because there's fire everywhere, and it's just rolling, just burning. This gas can't burning. But as it's melting down this gas can, the gas is actually also, whether it was pouring out or it was melting it down, so now it's not being contained by the gas can, the gas is coming out of the gas can, it's burning huge, but it's also the gas is rolling down the driveway towards the garage. So now I'm freaking out thinking I am renting this house, not been in here that long, and I've got burning gasoline headed towards the garage. I'm fixing to burn this stinking place down, and I was oh my gosh, I was so panic mode thinking I'm fixing to burn the House down, fixing to burn the garage down for sure. Do I call the fire? I got to call the fire department. And then I'm thinking my wife's gonna kill me. Fire department's gonna kill me. This landlord's gonna kill me. I'm just thinking all the mess. It's I'm I'm fixing to be in a major, major mess. And I don't know. I've always kind of been like, is this time to pull the trigger? Is this panic mode where you you call the cops, where you call the paramedic, where you call the fire department? And I've been there several times uh because I love playing with fire, and I remember there's several times I was like, okay, don't call them yet. We got this. We can handle this. Uh and I've never been to that point where I've got to call 911 for my emergency, fortunately. One time I did run uh back in seventh or eighth grade. Uh we started a fire and we ran. I may have talked about that, I don't know, uh, on the podcast. But we ran. It was out of control. The fire pit was out of control. We were camping, we burnt acres down in the old neighborhood down there in Cordova. We bailed, we ran. Heard the sirens coming, people, and we just we just ease on out of there, act like we didn't do nothing. So I've been there before where you better call the cops or call the fire department or run or something. I I've been there before, but I knew this was a time where I've got a mess and that gasoline going toward the garage. And finally it had the the fire burned everything up and it never made it to the garage. I mean, we weren't talking very far at all. Uh I feel like we were within five or six feet of that fire to the garage, and then it finally burned up the gas, and there was no gas rolling down the driveway anymore. And um, but I remember I remember going in, my wife coming out, kind of met her at the door, and she's like, what in the world? And I don't remember if I had singed eyebrows or hair, but I mean she could smell it. She could smell it, and you know, just i it was just such a bad deal. Such a bad deal. And it could have been so much worse. Um and so that is the closest I've come to a bad, bad deal. And I learned my lesson that day. Do not do not pour gas on a fire. Don't ever pour gas even close to a fire. Don't pour gas on what you think was a fire that's no longer. I mean, it's just it gets bad. It gets ugly in a hurry. And so um I'm praying for those guys. And that's just your friendly reminder this week. Don't be playing with fire. Uh don't be messing with fire and gasoline. Go back with a diesel. When you think you're just gonna help it out with the gas, I've done it. Let me just let me just give it a little bit of this. I like to throw gas on fire. I've always liked it, you know, but then again, ever since that time, I'm like, mm, that right there cost you. That'll cost you, and so don't do it. Hey, there's a Bible verse that talks about this very thing. It's Proverbs chapter 6. Listen to it. Proverbs chapter 6, verse 27. It says this can a man take fire into his bosom or against his chest? Can a make man take fire in his bosom and his clothes not be burned? Or can a man walk on hot coals and his feet not be scorched? Okay, just one of the proverbs. You probably heard it before. If you play with fire, you're gonna get burnt, right? That's where this is coming from. Can a man take fire in his bosom and his clothes not be burned? It's saying, hey, if you play with fire, you're gonna get burnt. If you play with fire, you're gonna get burnt. Now, this is talking about uh sexual temptation, adultery. Um, talking about adultery, and you know, the next verse goes on to say, so is the man or the one who goes into his neighbor's wife. Whoever touches her will not go unpunished. He's talking about, again, that adultery. Playing with fire. And and man, it's just such a great reminder to us. Don't mess with it. I mean, literally, don't play with fire. We're talking about that. Don't play with gas and fire, don't they don't mix. But also playing with fire, doing those things you know you ought not do, uh, fire being sin. Think about it from that standpoint. If you play with sin, you're gonna get burned. You know what I'm saying? You might think, I've got this, I can handle this, I'm good, I'm on this, but eventually, it's gonna bite you. It's gonna burn you. And and a lot of times we do that. You know, some of you listen to this, and I'm I've thought the same thing. Hey, I've got this, I've I've played with fire, I've thrown fire, uh, I've thrown gas on fire, and I've done some of those things. Yeah, and you got away with it some, and you've never had it get you, you know, as of yet, but the more you do it, the more you relax, the more you think I've got this, no problem, it's not a big deal. Then you have one of those deals where you've got a gas can burning in your yard, and you realize, oh man, I've messed up this time. And man, that's how sin is. It gets us, it eats us up, it burns us up, and you think you're good, and maybe one time you are okay, maybe one time you get by, maybe one time you get away with it, but sin's right back there, knocking on your door. The devil's a tempter, and and and sooner or later it's gonna bite you. You keep playing with fire, it's gonna bite you. So I want to encourage you guys with that this week. What is it that you got going on? What is those things that you're doing that you know good and well, man, I'm playing with fire, and this is gonna catch up to me. This is gonna get me. This is gonna burn me. And uh don't let it get there. Identify it, say no to it, get away from it before you get burnt. All right, good word this week from the word. Guys, I want to encourage you, as I always do, chase him with all your heart, soul, and strength. And we'll see you right back here on the next one. Shoot straight. God bless you.