Pet Taxidermy, Longbeard 101 and Legendary Beginnings

On this weeks episode of I Ain’t Even Lyin, join us as we hear from two experienced taxidermists and the most wild stories from their careers, learn the ways of the longbeard from a veteran turkey hunter and hear the origin story of a legend in the hunting industry and so much more!

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:14

Welcome to the I Neem Align Podcast. Hey, we're glad you're here. We hope you have a cup of coffee. Yes. We hope you are comfortable. And listen, if you're in your truck and you listen on your way to work, don't get in a wreck laughing so hard today. Because, man, I know we got some stories for you guys. I enjoyed last week a lot. No, well, it wasn't last week. It was two weeks ago. Yeah. And Austin was hilarious. Yes. He had some good stories. Maybe stories that you don't maybe want to recreate, but I'll tell you that were funny. And I had a great time. Didn't you have a good time? Sometimes you get in a bind sometimes. Sometimes.

SPEAKER_02 0:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 0:48

Sometimes you get kind of hungry.

SPEAKER_02 0:50

That's it. That's it. You got to put meat on the table. Now I'm Scott. This is Tommy. But our guest today, Mr. Court Jordan. Court Jordan. Inventor, taxidermist, and entrepreneur. This man right here is a very good friend of mine. In fact, I'll say this, Court. I was telling somebody, and I've told Tommy, but I've told a lot of people, because me and you traveled a little bit with some things we were selling. And honestly, Court, you're like an older brother to me. And the friendship, we may talk not talk to each other very many times in a distance of time, but once we talk, it's a connection that that really iron sharpens iron. And I really appreciate you and I love you, man. You too. I enjoyed our time we spent together.

SPEAKER_00 1:33

Yeah. We have some very good conversations.

SPEAKER_02 1:35

Yeah. Traveling the back row to the south, man. We covered a lot. Yes, we did. Outdoor stores. I mean, unbelievable, man, what we got to do. That was fun.

SPEAKER_01 1:44

So it's really cool. And I'm going to embarrass him just a little more. But if you don't know the name Court Jordan up to today, you will after this episode. Man, he's got some stories. I'm excited to just hear them. Um, he's been kind of holding out just so he can it can be fresh. You guys can get something fresh today, and it'll be fresh. Honestly, we'll be here in a lot of these stores for the very first time. And uh, we're excited. So uh without further ado, I I'd say we go ahead and and uh we get started. But I actually do I want to start because you're talking about um different shows that you guys did. And I don't I wasn't sure if I was gonna save this to the very end, but I'll go ahead and I'll just dive into it now. Yeah. Is uh Mr. Court, do you remember the time that we were at that? Uh was it the Buckmasters or was it World Deer Expo? One of the other, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:29

It was one of those two. It was the Buckmaster in Montgomery.

SPEAKER_01 2:31

Was it when I went blind? You remember that?

SPEAKER_02 2:34

You remember he had such a headache that I remember now. And Laura was with you, his wife, precious wife. And so what happened, Tommy? It was the first time.

SPEAKER_01 2:44

It had never happened, and I my all of a sudden my head started hurting, and I couldn't, I didn't know what it was. I had my head it was just a headache to me at the time. And then all of a sudden, um we turn around, or I turn around and I'm and I'm sitting in our booth at this at this show, and my vision starts to fade from the top down. And so I can't, I'm starting to be able to lose my vision. I can see out the bottom of my eyes, but I can't if I can't look up, I can't see out my peripheral up from like the middle of my eye up, and then eventually all my sight is gone, and I'm sitting in our booth completely blind.

SPEAKER_02 3:19

Now, how old do you reckon you were at that time?

SPEAKER_01 3:21

I was probably 14 or 15.

SPEAKER_02 3:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:23

I remember, and one thing I'll tell you, and I've been preaching on prayer to our youth department over the past couple weeks, and we'll continue doing that um for the for the next few weeks. And but one thing I can tell you is this is probably one of the very first encounters I've had with with um with prayer and intercession and the and and and and kind of interceding and and stepping in on the behalf of somebody else, or at least having someone do that for me. And I remember my vision going out, and it scared me so bad. I didn't know what was going on. I thought I was going blind. And and so I remember um you guys all your wife and you and and my boy's bad that he said let's pray for him. He did. So and he pr they prayed for me, and I tell you it wasn't 10 minutes my sight came back. And to a lot of people, they might just say, Well, that's that's just coincidence. I tell you what, I you you have to look it through the eyes of a 15 or 14-year-old boy and and and experiencing something you've never experienced, and the comfort that came behind that prayer, and the comfort that came behind knowing uh men and women of God that knew how to pray and and and and believed and had faith, and I I firmly believe. Now, uh I don't know what would have happened if they wouldn't have prayed, but I know one thing. They prayed and God came and He showed up and and I and I can I I could see after that. So it was such a very cool thing. That's something that's been impressed on me um all these years later. So, but um I'm excited to jump into some stories. So there goes my phone. I lost it. So I want to jump into you are both taxidermists. Um so I actually got both of your work in my own house. You mounted a turkey for me, and you've mounted uh several deer for me. And uh one thing I can say is you are both very good at your craft, but I'll uh taxidermy's cool and everybody has taxidermy, but not a lot of people get to to to see the things you guys have gotten to see over the years doing it for a living. Um, you did it for not as long as Coit has done it for a living, but um, you've seen things. I know you've told me some things, but at least before we got started, of some interesting things. So what is I want to hear from both of you, what is, and we'll start with Coit, the most interesting thing you've ever mounted for somebody.

SPEAKER_00 5:38

Probably the most interesting and the most beautiful combined was uh white caribou. They're normally brownish color. And what made it so cool was it was in full velvet. So the antlers look just like the the animal does. They the antlers are kind of white and uh hide is white, you know. In fact, there's a picture of it on my website if anybody wants to look at it. But it's uh a very cool animal. What's your website called? So people can go look at it. Just my name, just Court Jordan taxidermy.

SPEAKER_01 6:10

Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:11

Now, one of the neatest things I ever did, I had an aunt Vistin from Washington State. Visting here we live in Alabama at the time. And in Alabama, we live in these little country towns. There's this grasshopper that's about three inches long. He's black and orange. I don't know if y'all have ever seen her. It may be, it may be that rings the bell. It could be an Alabama thumper. So my wife and my aunt, who like I say, did I say she's a school teacher, are out looking at antiques and stuff, and they run across one of these.

SPEAKER_03 6:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:45

Well, they decide to capture it, and all they could find, I had some kind of an old net in the back of the car. So they get this three-inch grasshopper in the net to bring it home, tell me it's in the trunk, you know. So she wants to take it back to Washington State to show her students. So I mounted the three-inch grasshopper.

SPEAKER_02 7:04

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 7:05

I fixed it up with little straight pins on a piece of cardboard, you know, cleaned it out good. So uh that was that is cool. That was it was fun that you know something you know how to do was able to benefit somebody, and I'm sure her kids got a kick out of a giant grasshopper.

SPEAKER_01 7:19

That's cool. That's cool. Can you mount me a Georgia Thumper?

SPEAKER_00 7:23

That was the last one.

SPEAKER_01 7:24

That's the last one. Them things kind of stink a little bit. You're right. You know what they are. They do, they got an odor. They kind of smell funny.

SPEAKER_02 7:29

You know, you you throw them, I've seen them where they've a bunch of them around a river, you throw them in a river fish when you meet them. They won't. That's a fact. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:36

Because you think that'd be the perfect trial on for a big old catfish.

SPEAKER_01 7:40

I tell you what, though, you go on a squirrel hunting trip and you sitting around, you ain't killing no squirrels, them things start looking pretty appetizing. Look, you ain't never lived until you got you a until you run out of sausage, but you still got the hammock the hot dog buns left behind. And what you do is you put that thing on a stick and you kind of turn and roast that thing over. You slip the you you put that thing between two pieces of bread and mayonnaise and mustard, yeah, and you plug your nose and eat it, that's pretty good. Oh yeah, you survive on that, can't you? I'm just kidding, I've never done that. And uh, I probably won't ever try it. No, I guess I won't ever try it. What about you, Dad? What's the what's the craziest thing you've ever mined?

SPEAKER_02 8:17

Uh, I guess the craziest thing I ever minted was a house cat one time. And this is where that that sign place in Southworth on 77. Uh so it was a feed store called Ray's Farming Gardens, and I had a little tax army store shop in there, and I was uh probably 22, 23 years old. And old John Ray was the guy that owned it. That's old Chad Bass's great uncle. And uh, but he had the store feed and everything, and my I didn't even have no phone. So people would call the feed store to get me. This lady called and said, Hey, uh I got a house cat I want you to mount. And so back in the beginning, early days, was no the rule was no pets, you know, that's what I thought. But you can always make a lot more money on pets, but as you have seen. But uh so this lady said, uh, would you mount my cat? And I said, Nah, nah. She said, You're my last resort. You know, she's crying and all that stuff. They're always crying. Yeah. So I said, Well, I thought, man, I'll outprice her. I said, Well, I can do it. Now, this is back the early 80s. I said, I'll do it for $500. She said, Well, I gotta think about it. I said, I got away with that. She said, Okay, I'll do it. You know what I'm saying? It wasn't just that I thought she was gonna think for days. She brought him down and it had cat leukemia. They had shaved his belly and everything. And so I ended up ordering a form, I guess, from Touchstone, or somebody that had a cat that was setting up back then, may have been Van Dyke's. But they make animal like I understand, but there's not many of them, but this one was one that was sitting up. Yeah, it was a sitting form. Yeah, and I actually had to trim some of that old hair hide off of him a little bit, but I never forget it. When uh when when she came to pick him up, there was a bunch of people who used to hang around that feed store. And uh they knew she was coming to get him. There's a bunch of rednecks that knew me. And I was just a little old small holding wall in that feed store, and it was just paneling between me and the feed and then a bunch of rednecks. They'd bump on the wall, knock on it, and go, and that lady was going, What in the world's going on? She's trying to hold her cat. You know, he's mounted, he's sitting, but she's holding him, and I'm thinking, good night. And I I can't I'm trying not to laugh because they're over messing with me bad. And uh, so I got my $500.

SPEAKER_01 10:38

So Mr. Coy, you tell me, is mounting animals is that uncommon like pets, mounting pets, is that uncommon or is that more common than you think?

SPEAKER_00 10:49

It's uncommon. Now there was a show on TV a few years ago that you know they did it, and they did the process called freeze-dried.

SPEAKER_03 10:57

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 10:57

Because they don't make many forms.

SPEAKER_03 11:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:01

So uh I've had I've probably had I don't know, a dozen calls in my over 50 years of doing this. And I've actually mounted, I think, ain't I mounting four. And I would do like Scott. I would give them a big price, but they're always crying, they're always upset, and so you feel guilty. So several times, if it's not a big animal, and I wouldn't do a big animal, but like most of them have been cats, and uh not to outdo Scott or embarrassing, but my worst one only had three legs that I didn't one of them been amputated by. It only had three legs, I promise you.

SPEAKER_01 11:38

Did you have to cut the part of the form off of it? I mean, did you have to make it in the form because they don't make them for that? You can make them free legging, I guarantee you. I guarantee you not.

SPEAKER_00 11:47

She had four more at home that she'd already had mounted too. So there are people that oh my god. But you know, I don't mean this rude or anything, I shouldn't say it, but these kind of people, they kind of look different.

SPEAKER_02 11:59

You know, I don't I won't go any farther, but uh Well, I mean I guarantee it looks different in their house when you go up in there.

SPEAKER_00 12:05

I can't imagine walking in somebody's house and seeing four or five mounted house cats.

SPEAKER_02 12:09

I'd hate to be one of the cats that's alive walking around in there.

SPEAKER_00 12:12

You know, like hey, uh what's my future? That's exactly right.

SPEAKER_01 12:16

Hey, it wasn't long ago. I gotta be careful saying this. Surely they don't listen to this podcast, but I was so we recently got rid of our dog because we we just don't have time for our uh just time for the dog. We had the dog for many years, um, but we we're doing full-time ministry. We live 45 minutes away from the church. Yeah, and so every day we go to work and that dog is at the house, and so we felt really bad. We really enjoyed and and loved the dog, but we just didn't have time for the dog, and the dog deserved better because you could tell the dog just it was in the house all the time. You kind of tell the behavior of the dog was starting to change. And so for us, we need we were like, we need to find somebody that that wants our dog that's gonna take care of it. And we were vetting people. I told my wife, I said, if they ain't good people, we ain't we ain't giving the dog to us.

SPEAKER_02 13:01

Did you did you put out there we can give or give them to you alive or have him mounted and give them to you?

SPEAKER_01 13:05

No, no, it it goes it gets worse than that. So oh boy. So we knew our dog was going to a good house because we were talking to the lady and she said her dog had just died, and and she had another dog that was actually in the family of our dog that you got from us that got from the breeder.

SPEAKER_02 13:23

Really?

SPEAKER_01 13:24

And we were like, Oh, this is wonderful. Well, then she says, Oh, I love my dogs. I love all my dogs that I've ever had. I love them so much that I've had all my dogs cremated and I have all of their ashes sitting on the mantle by my bed. Wow. She got about four or five on the mantle of her bed. So I knew our little dog Indy was gonna be well taken care of.

SPEAKER_02 13:48

I guarantee you somebody that loves them that much. I guarantee you're gonna provide the high dollar dog food.

SPEAKER_01 13:53

No, they don't buy dog food.

SPEAKER_02 13:54

What? They cook for the day.

SPEAKER_01 13:55

They make their dog's food. Wow, that's serious finish. Yep, uh, we told them we we gave her dry food and and I probably said feed that to the catfish. Yeah, I left, I left feeling bad. I left feeling bad. So, but uh, so have you ever mounted a dog before?

SPEAKER_00 14:09

Oh yeah. Mounted several. Uh again on my website, there's a picture of a poodle laying there, happy as he can be. Yeah, that's cool. And I probably will never do any more. So don't go. Is that weird?

SPEAKER_01 14:23

Is that tell me that that's gotta be weird um skinning out a dog. It's gross. It is a bad feeling, yeah. Is it like skinning out a coyote?

SPEAKER_02 14:31

No, no, coyotes stink, but but a lot of times what they'll do, now one the cat that I done for that lady, she put perfume all over. Unless it didn't stink. Why? Uh she had it put to sleep because it had cat leukemia, but it was it was just like don't put perfume on one.

SPEAKER_00 14:47

Yeah, yeah, just knowing what it is makes it. Yeah, yeah, it does give you. I don't I won't ever do another one.

SPEAKER_01 14:52

Okay. Yeah. Well, that that answers a lot of questions. So don't call you though if I need now, and I won't be calling it.

SPEAKER_02 14:58

And and let me say this, I'm gonna tell y'all this. What COIT is uh one of the best tax dermis that I know. And the other thing about it is he's a production guy. He gets done. You usually you're done before the next hunting so and most taxidermists that I know, I've never known it that way. In fact, do you know many that because you got a certain process that you've learned to do and it's worked for you. So how many do you think you've had this year to do?

SPEAKER_00 15:28

Oh, probably 130 to 140. And that's really about all you really want to do. Oh, yeah. I can't do any more than that in a year's time. Because you have the ducks and the robcats, yeah, coyotes, and fish. So it's a lot. Yeah, it is a lot.

SPEAKER_01 15:41

We'll say this. So if if you need something out, you better get on the wait list. He's got a limit. He's got a limit, so you better get on the wait list. Uh, you better go ahead and reserve and say, hey, I got a buck on camera, and he'll be dead by this time. He'll be on your front porch. Well, and another thing, too. Start reserving. You need to start selling reserve spots.

SPEAKER_02 15:57

Oh, well, he'll put deposits down. And this is the thing. You'll have him back before you shoot another one.

SPEAKER_01 16:02

There you go.

SPEAKER_02 16:03

Yeah, we'll get that. Unless you hunt at night. And and we don't promote that, okay? That's right.

SPEAKER_01 16:11

Yeah, we're against that.

SPEAKER_02 16:12

We're very much so. So uh Coit's got something he wants to kind of show us, too, that that's pretty interesting. You want to show you ahead and show us because we're on taxidermy. Let's take a look at it. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, let's take a look at this. This is something that uh he's the only one I know does this.

SPEAKER_00 16:27

Yeah, this is um something a fella had called me uh just a few years ago, four or five years ago, and said he had four grouper heads. He wanted me to mount them, you know, do European mounts, skull mounts. And I told him you can't do fish mounts. I had tried it and they come all to pieces. Tommy, you probably never did it. Maybe you did as a youngster, but Scott and I put together model airplanes. Yeah. Did you do that? Okay, with glue. These things come in about 50 pieces. You boil them and they come all apart.

SPEAKER_03 16:57

Oh.

SPEAKER_00 16:58

So I got no directions either, do you? But this guy that had the grouper heads actually had an old video showing you how to do it. Really? But it did it showed you how to boil them and how to get them all apart, but it didn't show where all the pieces went back together. Wow. And I looked online, usually you can find something you can't find locally online. I found pictures of skulls, never found one. But from the pictures, and I would boil them just a little bit and finally figure out where all the bones went together. But this is a Kabara snapper.

SPEAKER_02 17:25

A Kabara snapper. I can think it. So that is the coolest thing. Yeah, yeah. That is so cool. And so those of you that that are looking to have something mounted that you know, that's do well.

SPEAKER_01 17:39

Hold on, before you say that, do you do this for other people or is this a little more than what you want to do than you like doing?

SPEAKER_00 17:44

Well, I would do it right now because so far it hadn't really taken off. If I got a lot of business, I I couldn't handle it because it takes a pretty good while to do that. But yeah, I would do that.

SPEAKER_01 17:54

Yeah. I actually have a friend, his wife just caught, she caught a uh, she caught the female, she's got a uh uh she was they don't do a female record on Kabara Sniper or on Snap. Like really they don't do a whole lot of fish where it's where they do um cross between men and women. Yeah, it's it's honestly just that it's all one one grouping. They don't do w female and male, but she was only a few pounds off of off of beating, I think, the the male Kabara snapper. She caught it out in our golf.

SPEAKER_02 18:30

Really?

SPEAKER_01 18:31

Yes. Melissa Wiles. Oh, really? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:34

Phil. Yeah. Yeah, Phil, what do you think about how big a snapper was this in court? You know?

SPEAKER_00 18:39

I don't know. He's big. Some of the men down at the fish outs knew I wanted one and they got it in, they saved it. Uh I I wouldn't even guess because I don't I know they're stubby. You know what I mean? They're not a real he looks like he might weigh three or four hundred pounds, but turn the teeth straight toward the camera too.

SPEAKER_02 18:55

Just let them see that. Oh wow. Look at that, y'all. That's a bad dude right there now.

SPEAKER_01 18:59

Yeah. Man, some people's worry about sharks. I'm worried about Uncle Burst. No, me too. I joke will be took your leg.

SPEAKER_00 19:05

Yeah, that's a wicked looking. Yeah, the only other fish I know, if y'all watch river monsters.

SPEAKER_02 19:09

Oh, that bad. What is that? What's that type called?

SPEAKER_00 19:11

Jeremy Wade caught that uh tiger fish.

SPEAKER_02 19:15

Oh, that's a bad dude.

SPEAKER_00 19:16

And that thing looked like this kind of thing. Yeah, yeah. He was stubby like that, the body, and had teeth just like that.

SPEAKER_02 19:22

My goodness. Wow.

SPEAKER_01 19:23

Philip Wiles, Kabara Snapper. What you think about that? Hey, I guarantee you some people have seen the video because Phil has actually um on they went viral. Oh, really? So one guy had gone and took his video because they but people he said people thought he was saying, that's a bear sniper, but because he's so he's so redneck. But no, he um, but it it went viral. A lot of people, it was on a lot of the bigger fishing pages and stuff. Yeah, yeah, it was cool. It is really cool. So um, but uh listen, so before we get into another story, because I know we got um we're about to dive into some really interesting stuff. So what I want to do is we're gonna take a second, we're gonna go to our a break, we're gonna get a word from our sponsor, and then we'll be right back. You don't want to go anywhere, you're gonna want to stick around. Yeah. See in just a second. So today's sponsor is Creekside Farm and Outdoors. And man, let me tell you what. I know hunting season's over. I know that that that deer corn ain't something that everybody's looking to throw out right now because turkey season's in. But let me tell you something. If you have chickens, goats, cows, or anything like that, they got all the feed that you could possibly imagine. They got things for your spring food pots, your summer food pots.

SPEAKER_02 20:35

Yeah, they got the seeds, man, and stuff.

SPEAKER_01 20:37

They got what you need.

SPEAKER_02 20:38

Gardening, canning, all the stuff. Fishing knives.

SPEAKER_01 20:43

Yes, they got fishing stuff too, buddy. Listen, isn't it burning that that thing is I don't know, those of you that listen to this and those that live in Panama City, if you like going to Academy Sports as a man, I mean who don't, right? Right. Or going to C and G sporting us or whatever, just to go in there and check out the man stuff.

SPEAKER_03 21:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:01

Let me tell you, you may not realize this or not, but if you live in Vernon around Vernon or in the Washington County area, you got your very own Academy life store. For you guys, you can go with anything by a cowboy has. Yeah, they got a cowboy, they got a cowboy hats, they got knives, they got a hunger, they got all you got all the things you can possibly get another thing too.

SPEAKER_02 21:23

You know, a lot of time if you go to an academy and you want she's going to make a colour. You better carry her in there. But you might not want to. She's gonna spend your money because they got the stuff in there. We've been doing it. Absolutely, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 21:35

Go to free summer farming outdoors, go buy you some sea, go play some summer food, give some babies, get chicken, get some chickens, get some turkeys, get whatever you can possibly take up. Just passive some companies and uh support and and and not only local they're they're they're people and so you're gonna check it out. Creekside Farming Outdoors information's up on the screen. So uh yeah, y'all check them out. Y'all ready to get back to the podcast? I'm ready to hear some stories. And we are back. Mr. Coik, I want to go and dive into something. So one thing y'all don't know is that Mr. Coick is um he actually got a very well-known hunter on his first deer. And I would go as far as saying y'all were pretty good buddies growing up over the years, huh? So can you kind of dive into who that would have been and and kind of lay down this the story of the first kill?

SPEAKER_00 22:35

Yeah. Um my dad was a Methodist preacher and we moved around a lot growing up. And uh he had retired early, had some problems in Montgomery, Alabama. So my senior unit year was at Lanier High School in Montgomery. And uh I met some different guys, one of them's name was Jackie Bushman. We all hit it off because we like kind of the same things, you know, and they knew I had a good place to hunt, and they didn't, so they started going to a place called Myrtlewood, Alabama with me. Um Myrtlewood is I don't know how to tell you, it's it's uh from Montgomery we'd go through Selma, and then it was about 50 miles on past Selma. But uh Jackie just went ape over hunting. He just really had a fit over it. So one hunting season, one weekend, we were up there, just he and I and my granddaddy, who we call Pop, you know, we were going hunting, and Jackie had never killed a deer. And the way we hunted, then we would hunt a little bit with rifles, but basically we would do like a one-man drive. You know, I knew the woods real well, been squirrel hunting all my life, and we had our own land. So I would put somebody out in a hollow, we'd call it, and I'd go to the other end and do a little walkthrough. Well, I did that, and uh, my granddaddy had taken Jackie and put him out to to where I told him to put him, and he'd kind of got on the other side of the hill with his shotgun. And I go walking through there, and his cowhorn comes running by Jackie. So that was the first deer he ever killed.

SPEAKER_02 24:20

That's cool stuff.

SPEAKER_00 24:21

That is so cool. It won't probably the next year he was hunting, he killed his first turkey with me. Now, the land we turkey hunted on was my uncle's land in the same general area. In fact, it was called, this is kind of crazy, it was called Half Acre. And the the story goes, the way that Half Acre got its name is that some old guy died and he didn't like his family, so he deeded a half acre of his land to the devil. Come on, wow. And so it was called Hell South Acre. Oh, really? Yeah, and over the years they dropped the hill. It's called Half Acre. Wow. And uh so uh the the turkey, these old time houses had what they called a dog trot in them. Yeah, you know what I'm talking about. It's that open air between the Yeah, and but two rooms, and they had that, and they tell me it was for ventilation so it wouldn't be so hot. Yeah, but that's the kind of we had several of those old houses, and we would sit in those, and it was clover in the spring that was natural red clover.

SPEAKER_03 25:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:18

So um he and I both doubled up on turkeys. So yeah, he killed his first deer in Turkey with me.

SPEAKER_02 25:24

My goodness. And you know, cool as that. The good thing was was really cool to me was when we were up at Buckmasters that time, Jackie comes up walking up with some friends, and he actually says, Here's Court Jordan, he's one carrying to kill. It wasn't like he wasn't embarrassed of it, he was proud that you was the guy that was there to introduce and I remember him doing that when we was at Buckmasters that time.

SPEAKER_01 25:46

So how long, I mean, did did when did you start seeing um because Jackie Bushman, he he's he's the man, right? Over Buckmasters. I mean, that's I mean, uh if you hunt, you know who Jackie Bushman is. I mean, you don't even have to hunt to know who he is. So did you start seeing kind of a hunger for that kind of wanting to make a living out of it at some point over the years as he got to hunt more? Is that something that happened later in life as you you guys separated um and went your own ways as you became adults?

SPEAKER_00 26:16

Yeah, we kind of separated like you do, like you said. But um we met up, my wife's family has a cabin up at Lake Martin, and after we hadn't seen each other for a few years, I had invited a group of four of us, and I'd invited them all up there for a weekend just to get together. And he told us then that he'd made a hunting video.

SPEAKER_03 26:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:35

And that was the first we'd heard about it. And next thing we know, you know, he's on TV. It's been very successful.

SPEAKER_01 26:41

That's cool. That's really neat. That's cool. That's really cool. So tell me about so I I know you you love to hunt, you love to fish, and and and you've got stories, countless stories, and honestly, one thing I do know about you is that you're a very good turkey hunter. Uh or at least you've given me a lot of advice over the years that's been very effective in the way that I turkey hunt and the different tactics that I use. Um but one thing that you've brought with you today, I I kind of want you to show off what you got, and this is so cool. Uh, I want you to kind of get that turkey call right there. And tell the story.

SPEAKER_02 27:18

Tell the story you got it, and all that kind of stuff, too.

SPEAKER_00 27:21

Um, I'd mention my granddaddy pop in Myrtlewood, Alabama. And Pop had, you know, an old country store where you got the penny cookies in the containers, you know, nothing's in the bag. The drinks are cold, they're in this big old box like this table, and you slide the top back, and there's cold water in there. And all the different coke and Pepsi products are sitting in that cold water. The cheese is a hook cheese on the counter. When people buy a piece, he g he tears a piece of white paper off. So we're talking way back there.

SPEAKER_03 27:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:52

You know, years ago. Well, Mr. Lynch, these you know, he started making turkey calls in 1940.

SPEAKER_03 27:58

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 27:59

So he would do, he would travel around selling turkey calls. Well, this is one that he made. It was a prototype. And he gave it to my granddaddy on one of the trips. Now he made the world champion turkey caller, you know, fool-proof and all that. But I've always cherished this because I remember it from the time I was a little kid. There was a lot of turkey calls in my granddaddy's house, and I remember this sitting there. I didn't know what it was.

SPEAKER_03 28:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:24

And then my granddaddy passed away, and then my dad got it, and he gave it to me. So this thing was made around in the 40s or 50s. There's no writing on it or anything. Yeah. But it just is pretty cool because I know Mr. Lynch made it as a prototype, and I don't know if he ever made it in production or not.

SPEAKER_02 28:39

Yeah. It's cool because I've never seen one like that.

SPEAKER_01 28:42

No one. No. So and so essentially your your uh the paddle to the it's kind of like a a a um uh it's like a box call almost kind of type call, but it's like kind of uh it's kind of dismantled, like a dismantled box call kind of button. But if you got a striker, you drag the box across.

SPEAKER_00 29:05

Yeah, show us, show us what. Well, I've never really learned how to use it good. Uh Eddie Salter picked it up at a show we went to one time.

SPEAKER_03 29:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:13

And this thing sounds beautiful in the hands of a pro. He had obviously seen them before.

SPEAKER_03 29:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:19

But uh, yeah, the and the striker, I didn't have that, and I had a fellow makes trickery calls and understood what I needed, and he made me this striker. But the way you do it is you just rub the box on this striker, and I'm gonna I'm gonna embarrass myself because I'm sure I can't do it, but but it's got the sweetest little cluck, and you can make it as low as you want to. But it's just uh just has a lot of meaning to me.

SPEAKER_01 29:43

Man, how cool is that? So you got one of the probably one of the original, you got a prototype that like that's not manufacture, that's not that's not mass-produced turkey call right there. That is Mr. Lynch himself probably put that together in some wood shop that he had. How cool is that? You got a you got a piece of turkey history in your very hands.

SPEAKER_02 30:06

And the thing is, too, it's history from his grandfather, but it in in those days, there probably wasn't a bunch of uh outdoor stores. You would go and sell them by convenience stores or or the old country store is what he was doing. So that's pretty cool, man.

SPEAKER_01 30:20

Yeah. How cool is that? So I wanted uh I want to dive in. So you got some so since we're kind of in the turkey hunting vein right now, um, and and a lot of hunters right now are are in the woods. I will be finding myself in the woods in the in the next few days. I'm trying my best to to at least bag one bird. Um I don't normally get a lot of opportunities to get in the woods this time of year. Uh, I love turkey hunting. Turkey hunting is one of my first loves as far as hunting-wise goes, but it's been uh it's been a minute since I've been able to get on one. Yeah but uh but tell me this. So I want you to kind of lay down, so what what are things that you've learned over the years to maybe give um some advice to new hunters or hunters that have been doing this for a while, but have still kind of kind of trying to figure out what's what's some of the best things you've you've learned off of experience that every turkey hunter should know?

SPEAKER_00 31:14

Probably the number one thing is how good a turkey can see. They say he can see you blink your eye at a hundred yards, and I don't doubt it. And I've taken people hunting all my life, and my pet peeve is you try to tell them to be still, and they don't know what that means because this is what they do. And they're they they turn their head looking like this. Well, you turn your head like that, he's seen you.

SPEAKER_03 31:38

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:39

So the way you look for turkeys is you only move your eyes. Nothing moves on your whole body, but you can cover almost 180 degrees with just your eyes. A second real important thing people don't think about is they they want to face the goblin turkeys he's coming to them. What a terrible mistake. Because you don't know which way he's gonna end up turning.

SPEAKER_03 31:58

Right.

SPEAKER_00 31:58

And if he goes to your right and you're normally right-handed, just a little bit, you can't shoot. So you put your left shoulder to the goblin turkey always. Your left shoulder. Keep your gun in your lap. Don't pick your gun up when he gets 75 yards. Don't dare do that. He may stay there for an hour. Yeah, you can't hold the gun still. Point the gun toward the bird, lay it in your lap. When you got your left shoulder pointed toward the bird, you can you can move that gun 180 degrees left or right.

SPEAKER_03 32:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:27

Very easy to do. You don't pick up your gun until he's at 30 yards. Um if it's wide open, you wait till he gobbles and and snatch it up. But most of the time he he'll be going behind a tree or something, and the second the head goes behind the tree, you have to ease the gun up, and when the head steps out, you take it off.

SPEAKER_03 32:48

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:48

That's two of the biggest things I think people make mistakes. They don't know how to be still.

SPEAKER_03 32:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:53

And they get their gun up too early, and he ends up seeing them when he blocks up.

SPEAKER_01 32:58

So tell me this, because so I I was kind of fighting this the other day, and when you have a bird, when he gobbles to you, or are you are you waiting for him to respond to you after? Because a lot of times for me, like the other day, we had gone and I had called, but I caught aggressively, and I knew I could get one to shock. It's almost like hitting a crow uh locator or whatever, and I went off and and I kind of more did a a combo of of I did some Yelps and I went in and I cut at the end because I knew that there was a gobbler in the area because I I heard some faint tree roost uh tree root tree gobbles in the morning. Um, and so I I knew I could get him to shock, and so I got him to shock, but I couldn't get him to respond. Do you wait if you get one to shock gobble, or do you pursue that bird, or at least try to get more into his window, his circle, his his zone? Um, do you try to work to that bird, or do you wait?

SPEAKER_00 34:02

Of course, every turkey's different. You'll get lucky sometimes, and he'll gobble, and you'll call a few times and he's steady coming. That's rare. That's very rare. Most of the birds are with hens. He's gobbling because that's what he does, like a mullet jumping. Why does he do it? He just does it. Why does the turkey gobble? He just he likes to gobble because he can do it. He I'm the man. As far as him, yeah, he'll answer you, but he'll also answer. I was hunting one morning, and I was obviously close to this highway that had a steep grade on it. And when the 18-wheelers would go down that grade, I can't make that sound, but it was that gear and sound gear. Engine breaking. Yeah. Engine breaking.

SPEAKER_03 34:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:44

And this turkey would gobble his head off every time these trucks did it. And I thought it was one bird. So we're back and forth all morning. Nothing I could do. I was at a place I couldn't get any closer. So um to kind of answer your question, I would I'm just letting him know I'm here. You know, I've never been one to be real aggressive, I've never had it to work. But every once in a while I just let him know, you know, just a few soft yips. I'm still here. And sometimes he'd answer me, sometimes he wouldn't. Well, it was probably an hour later, all of a sudden, I I hear when this thing flew over my head. It was kind of down in the bottom, and I was up on a bluff, and he flies right over my head. It just shocks me. But when he lands, I can't see. And I'm turning around with my gun, you know, where'd he go? Where'd he go? All of a sudden, flop, flop, another one. There was two of them. That's why they were gobbling so much. There was two of them. It wasn't just one. And that one landed where I could see him and I and I killed that one. But I think you have to think like a turkey and picture what he's doing when he's out there just steady gobbling. He could be by himself, but I think most of the time the turkeys I food with are with hens. And there's really nothing you can do. You can move sometimes. That moving helps. I remember I've moved six or seven times, ended up killing a bird. Uh keep trying to get in front of him if the woods are where you can move like that. But uh I've I've been with the best. I've been fortunate. I've been with some guys that are the best. And here's what I found out about the best. Now, they they'll do the prettiest tree ups that crack a daylight you ever heard, and they'll have the wings over there, and they'll do the fly down with their real wings, they've dried. And they'll sit there and they'll rake the leaves when you scratch and they'll do it all, you know. And I'm sitting behind them learning, watching. I said, okay, because I will take them where I've had a bird that I couldn't call. That was what I was blessed to do. That bird didn't come to them either.

SPEAKER_03 36:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:38

So I realized, man, it ain't in the call and just in the knowing. But these guys that kill all these birds, a lot of times they've been hunting that same land for a long time. They got chufa patches. Well, they get in between the chufa patch and the bird, and they may have ten goblin birds. Who knows which one they're gonna kill? So the people that kill them, they know the woods.

SPEAKER_03 36:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:55

So for me and you to go to like y'all do travel around turkey hunting, you you've done something when you kill one.

SPEAKER_03 37:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:02

You can stay with him late in the season. You've heard this before, the hens will go to Sitting, and then he'll come straight to you in the afternoon. Um, if you if there's two together and you kill one of them, that one I killed, I could have gone back the next morning and easily killed that other one. They'll come to you when when their buddies killed, if you forget to.

SPEAKER_01 37:19

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 37:19

So that's a few little ideas.

SPEAKER_01 37:22

Something interesting, uh, just uh just an interesting story, um, in which, by the way, that's gonna help me out a lot in the morning when I go, because I'm going in the morning, and I'm gonna see if I can get on a bird, because I've got the itch. But that reminds me of a story. So we did uh we went out of state one time. We were in Oklahoma, and we're hunting Oklahoma, and well, beautiful part about Oklahoma, it's very, it's very rangy, it's hilly, it's got a lot of hills, and and it's very open, very open grassland. And so we had set up on this um public ground that had overlooked a a private farmer's field. And so we'd set up, and we knew some birds were working and maneuvering around that area, so we had set up on this bluff, kind of like you know, like you're talking about set up on bluffs, just trying to get above them, calling down to them. And we were missed of the day before we had we had watched this big old gobbler strutting in this field with these hens. We watched them go up to roost, and we went back the next morning. We're like, we're gonna get on this bird. Well, we're up on this hill, and we start calling to this bird, and he's fired up. He's he's he's hammered, but it's kind of more like you're saying he's just gobbling because he can't. He's got all he could need. Why would he leave the five to ten hens he's got when he's he's the man in town, he's gonna leave for just one. So, but the interesting part was we were getting it, and he would slowly kind of move. He would the hens and the gobblers would kind of ease close, but then they'd kind of pitcher off. But they were a good ways away. And I remember because um you could see on this guy's fence he would have posted signs on the fence. I guess turkey hunters naturally come over there pretty often. Yeah. Well, we were set up, you know, we're set up right, and we're on the we're on the public ground, and this guy comes into the field while we're hunting and sees us on top of the hill, gets his truck, and runs into the flock of turkeys. Drives his truck right through them, and he's spinning them all around like trying to, he just flew off. Everyone gone. Well, that's the last day. We and so naturally you're tired because you get up early every morning trying to hunt, and it's the last day, and so you're just trying to get some rest before you have to leave. And so we got our packs and our vests, and we're laying on our vests, we're taking a nap. Well, all of a sudden, we hear this faint gobble. And the way the hill was set up, Trevor looks at me and he's like, You hear that? So, uh we look up, we ease up, and that gobbler is easing up that hill, coming straight to us because we had been calling earlier, and he knew where that hen was, and his hens had just got run off. So he's coming up that hill, and all of a sudden what I do is we're we're we're laying down, and I've got a turkey, a gobbler decoy above my head, and I'm laying in the grass, I'm just moving it back and forth like this, and he comes, and man, he is mad as a hornet. He comes, I promise you, that that joker got to about five to ten yards. I could see under his belly, and me and Trevor side by side, I could see under his belly, and Trevor shoots over that decoy. We're sit, we're set right, it's safe, and he shoots and kills that bird. But that's the crazy, yeah. The old farmer run through and run him off because I guess he was trying to ruin the hunt, but he actually helped us out a lot more than he thought.

SPEAKER_02 40:38

And that's the same state that he killed that gobbler that you mined for. That's cool. Keep him in Oklahoma.

SPEAKER_01 40:44

The banded turkey, yeah. From he was banded in Oklahoma State, you know, at Oklahoma State University. Wow.

SPEAKER_03 40:50

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 40:50

Yeah, so that was really cool. That's cool. So um, but so before we before we start winding down, one thing I want to go ahead and talk about is some fishing. Because I know you bought you both like to fish. I know we talked about the Kabura Snapper, but I want to dive into um I know you'll have some fishing stories, and it's about fishing time. The bet the bass are bedding and uh or right or this no they're sp are they're spawning. Bed and spinning spawning with it, same thing.

SPEAKER_02 41:15

So depending on what part of the country you're from.

SPEAKER_01 41:17

And I think snapper season is about to come in if it ain't yeah, if it ain't in already. So, so kind of go into what kind of fishing stories you got for me today.

SPEAKER_00 41:28

Well, I'll tell what I shouldn't tell, but I will. So I'm working at this paper mill. I got about 90 vending machines. That was my job before I moved to Panama City. And I'd run a company there. So I went around and in a paper mill, one thing you learn quick is all these guys do what they call government jobs. You know what that is in a paper mill?

SPEAKER_02 41:47

Oh, what is that?

SPEAKER_00 41:48

A government job means you're doing something for yourself or for your brother.

SPEAKER_02 41:51

So you you're you're on the clock.

SPEAKER_00 41:53

Yeah. So especially, you know, they I don't know, they just do a lot of stuff. So anyway, I'm filling up a vending machine, you know, a coke machine, snack machines, all that stuff. And this guy comes up to me, well, he's in the process of making this big old troubled hook. And he happens to tell me the pond he's going to. Now, this is this is a long time ago. This was back in the late 70s, you know. You know, you knew the names of the ponds and everything. So he it was called Mr. Willie Williams Pond. He said, Man, there's two 10-pounders bedding. Uh-oh. Well, that's only about 10 o'clock. He don't get off work, his shelf don't end to 2 o'clock. Come on. So that van didn't go far that day. I didn't live but a mile from the paper mill. Yeah. Quick as that little van could get me to my house, getting my old 69 share of day three speed with them gears on the copper. Three on the tree. Yes, sir. That little sucker was burning at the Willie Williams pond. When I'd been pitching that pond for years, I had the treble hook tied on. And I knew they wanted on the dam. I knew the shot. I knew where the bass bedded. Sure enough, five minutes. Come on. Treble hook. See, I shouldn't tell this, but I was young. I knew you know I wouldn't do it now. Yeah. Uh-huh. So pitch a treble hook, bam. You know, you set your drag real loose if you ever done that. Because you better let him go. You ain't gonna hold him. Come on. I ease him in. He didn't weigh 10, but he weighed about seven, seven and a half.

SPEAKER_03 43:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 43:24

I throw him up on the bank, it starts pouring down the rain. I can't see the other one because it's raining. I'm looking at my watch, you know, man. I got to hurry up for it. Finally it quits. And I look out there and I got that first one quick. Well, this one would spook every time I hit the water. Oh, yeah. I kept casting, kept casting, and finally I got caught the second one. So as quick as I could, because he he was gonna be traveling on the same road I was to get to that point. So I had to be at my house by the time he got off. And I made it to my house. So you didn't want to pass him on the road. I didn't want to pass him. But I avoided him, you know, for a day or two. Because I don't think he would have ever put two and two together, but he did the next time I saw him. He said, You know, them bass were gone when I got back. So I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_02 44:09

Must have got through spawning.

SPEAKER_01 44:11

That's crazy. Isn't that terrible?

SPEAKER_02 44:13

That's stuff. I got one for you. Yeah. All right. So I like to fly fish more than I do anything. But I like that it, especially when I was in the garage door business, and a lot of times you kind of wind down. And fly fishing, we fly fish in the evening, popping bugs, catching uh brim and all that kind of stuff. So I went one day, and this particular hunt fishing trip was most unbelievable. I've had a lot of them, but this in here just sticks out in my mind. The most unbelievable fishing trip that I did not catch the fish. So I don't know if y'all can see that bass behind Tommy. That is a huge bass. But but uh I'm fishing, and this fish that I'm talking about was bigger than that. Probably another foot longer. I know it's hard to believe. Y'all look at it and see, but this is, I mean, people exaggerate, but I'm just telling you. You sure you weren't fishing saltwater? No, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_01 45:04

Maybe a Goliath group is what you're doing.

SPEAKER_02 45:07

I'm telling you right now, I'm fishing in E Confiner Creek. So I'm I'm fly fishing Deer Point Lake, but the wind's blowing and it ain't got dark yet. So I got it where it's about three o'clock. So I went up the freshwater cutoff. You know, you come in on the uh west side of the lake by Thorpsland and go on up mouth of Cedar Creek goes to the left, to the right, so freshwater cutoff, and it runs over on over to uh E Confiner. So I get in E Confiner and I pull up through there and I get on this uh just unbelievable area where it starts getting closer because a lot of that's flooded from when they dammed it up, but you still see the old creek bed as it curves through there. But I'm getting on up there where you start seeing shoreline pretty pretty ways up the creek. It's just beautiful. Had three deer swim across, and I'm thinking, man, that's beautiful. I'm peaceful, been working, but I see all this. So I'm riding on up, and y'all was talking about turkeys a while ago. There was an owl that started hooting. It was probably about 3:30, about 4 o'clock then. He hooted, and I heard a gobbler gobble. I'm thinking, man, I'm hearing all this wildlife at school. So I started noticing this log that was jetting out into the creek. And I thought, well, I better go around that. So I'm trying to uh troll up that way. And I notice, I mean, with all the wildlife, I'm throwing my my rubber worm, you know, and uh ain't caught nothing. And I looked and here comes a squirrel, and he starts coming down that log. I thought, good night, he's gonna swim the creek himself, just like him deer. But no, he stops right there at the water, and I notice he picks up what maybe a sawtooth acorn that's the biggest acorn, one of them giants. He picks that thing up, starts eating. That's just right there on the log, right there by the edge of the water. He comes down the log, picks it up, starts gnawing on it. And I thought, good night, man, this is beautiful. And all of a sudden, I'm 20 yards from it. All of a sudden, it's like an explosion happened. I mean, the whole thing come apart. I thought, what in the world? And the a bass four foot long, he he was longer than that, come out of the water and didn't even touch the log squirrel, acorn, and everything in the water. Yes, yes, goes down, yeah. I mean, unbelievable. I'm in awe. I'm thinking, man, I'm just awestruck. I'm thinking, what in the world? This big old bass has eaten. I ain't got nothing but a little old mouse. I get in my tackle box, a little rubber mouse. I tied it on, I threw the mouse all around. So I got past it, probably 30 yards, fishing on past it. I'm thinking, I ain't never gonna catch that joker. And I hear another explosion. And I look back over at the log again. I thought, what's he come over and eat another squirrel? The Joker jumps up on the log and lays there and spits that acorn back out up on the log and jumps back in the water. I mean, who would have ever thought that joker would be that smart? Sure enough, it's still probably up there now, hope he can find her.

SPEAKER_01 48:05

I'm trying to think of words to say. I don't even know how to respond to that story.

SPEAKER_02 48:12

There you go. There you go. Well, so if you go up and you can find her and you see an acorn on the log, you might want to get caught snatch hook out. Four bass long bass, four foot. He's probably six foot long. His head big as a 30-gallon jet uh barrel. You don't hear people say a five-gallon bucket, it's a 30-gallon barrel.

SPEAKER_01 48:32

My goodness. Well, on that note, one big thing that we want to do here on the podcast is we always want to make sure that though we have a lot of fun and we cut up and have a lot of jokes and and have a good time. I want to make sure that we always uh give honor where honor is due and give and and give praise where praise is due and and uh the Bible calls us to be living sacrifices holy and dedicated unto the Lord. And so I want to make sure that everything that I do, everything I put my hands to, I do it as unto the Lord, and be that living sacrifice he calls me to be. And uh by doing that, I don't want to do this podcast unless Jesus Jesus can be shared and that he can be glorified at the end of it. Um, because if it wasn't for him, I wouldn't be here, I wouldn't do what I do, and I wouldn't have the opportunities that we've had. And so one big thing that's important to me is the Bible says we overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony. And I think it's always special for someone to share their story because you never know that their story, though it's not only freeing for them and a reminder that they are overcomers because that because God is faithful and that God brought them through the that a season of their life that was difficult and brought them into victory, we can also be encouraged, and other people can be encouraged by hearing that story and thinking to themselves that if they can make it, maybe I can make it too.

SPEAKER_03 49:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 49:58

So what I want to do is I love for people to share their testimonies, and um, I know you got one.

SPEAKER_00 50:04

My dad was a Methodist minister. I was in church every morning, every Wednesday night, and every Sunday night all my life. And I knew right and wrong. I never touched anything bad to drink or smoked or anything like that, you know, never cussed, was straight as an arrow. When uh I started college, I was just seventeen, and they had the draft back then. Well, I was scared to death of getting drafted, I don't know why. Couldn't stand the thought of four years in the army. So I you could join the National Guard. So I joined the National Guard and went went off and went to San Antonio, Texas to basic training for six weeks, and I went to Keysler Air Force Base for four months. Well when you're straight you don't fit. You know, especially in the military. So it was okay at basic because you couldn't do anything, but we get to Keysler and all you gotta do is show up for class six hours a day. The rest of the time you're free. So we all my buddies said we meet at the bowling alley, you know, five o'clock. So I get to the bowling alley and there were seven or eight of us that had gone through basic to Keysler together, to Tech school. Well, there was two pictures of beer on the table, and everybody had a chair, they were all sitting there, and there was an empty glass at my chair. And I remember looking down and sitting down going enough enough. Well, after that, three three months of that, three or four months of all kinds of a lot of stuff to do at Keysler at night. Get, you know, you can just do stuff you shouldn't do. And then I went into college, same thing. A lot of stuff there you shouldn't do. So I was not living right. Well, the Lord in his mercy sometimes, or who knows, maybe it's just circumstances of life. But I begin in not to talk about anything real deep, but people need because people can relate to this. I had some anxiety issues. Anxiety is a terrible thing. Pain you can live with, anxiety you can't. It's a fear thing, it's horrible. Well, I I knew who Jesus was. I had I knew I was wrong, and uh and I and I used to feel guilty because I I tell people I didn't turn back to to God because I loved him, I turned back to him because I was desperate. Yeah, I was hurting. But um, but I I started serving the Lord again because of that and uh got over it. I'd quit college because of it. It really messed my life up. But um I've done fine since then. And I would just encourage people to tell you, you know, I'm I'm not big on denominations, and denominations are wonderful. They're they're all churches, you know. Jesus told or Paul, maybe it was Paul in the Bible one time, he said if they're not against us, they're for us, you know. So but uh man, people just need to read the Bible. I read the I'll encourage you to read the Living Bible. It's a wonderful version that talks in more English, it's easy to understand, and then you can pick up another version if you want to study it later. But I my wife would give me a copy of the Living Bible. So I I read the Bible, understood it, and I realized, hey, I need a relationship with the Holy Spirit because Jesus said, you know, he told his disciples when they said, Where are you going? He said, Hey, it's better if I go away. Because if I don't leave, I won't send a comforter.

SPEAKER_03 53:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 53:20

So I developed a relationship with the Holy Spirit, which is current to this day in my life. Um, it's it's just the presence of Jesus living in you, nothing complicated.

SPEAKER_03 53:28

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 53:29

Different churches make it sometimes complicated.

SPEAKER_03 53:31

Yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 53:32

But uh my testimony is that um to live without God, I don't know how people do it. My marriage is secure. April the 6th, my wife and I were married for 48 years. I love her to death. I can't imagine not having her.

SPEAKER_02 53:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 53:46

And I don't know if I could have kept her.

SPEAKER_02 53:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 53:48

Because I'm a man, you know, yeah. There's a lot of things to distract us out there. So uh if you whether you're hurting her, if your life's happy, it doesn't matter. I mean, there this life is short and temporary, and uh heaven lasts forever. Isn't that amazing? Yes, that's a long time.

SPEAKER_01 54:05

Yes, one thing I really love about that is that I I listened to a guy, he was he was he was speaking and he said, How often believers go their entire life settling for less than what God has for them? And the sense of what he's saying is is that he was to a point in his life, he never grew up really seeking the Holy Spirit or seeking um seeking the the the having it the presence of him in his life, and he said, I I've lived my whole life not knowing what it was like to have a relationship with the Holy Spirit and him to empower me and strengthen me. The Bible says that the Holy Spirit that he that he guideth into all truth. Yeah, that he's a guide, that he's that he helps, he influences, he's he's the he's the uh the Bible calls him Jesus referred to him as the advocate, he's the advocate in place of Jesus to guide us, lead us, direct us, teach us, and do all these things. God has something in store for you, and you may be settling for less than what he has for you. Yeah, and so I would strongly encourage you, you don't have to do life alone. God is with you, but also it helps because there's so much more for you than you possibly could ever imagine. That's right. And that there is an advocate and a comforter and a guide that you have access to. It just sometimes takes seeking and looking for. The Bible says, you seek me, you'll find me.

SPEAKER_02 55:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 55:29

When you search for me with all your heart.

SPEAKER_02 55:31

That's right.

SPEAKER_01 55:32

So start looking for it.

SPEAKER_02 55:33

That's it. Start seeking him. Ask him to show himself to you. You know, that's a that's a that's a wonderful thing. And I know a lot of these people that are watching this, a lot of times are watching a lot of them, they don't have, they're not of faith. But the thing is, don't just cut this off just because we're talking about the Lord, because I'm gonna tell you something. Somewhere something's gonna stick in your life and you are or get to where you're going, you know, those guys really are having fun. And they're really just real people. And that's all it is. We're real people, we're not religious people, we're real people. Yeah, you know, we're not going around acting different than we do normally every day. Uh this is how we live. And uh, and the friendships that you have that are pure, these are pure friendships. So I really appreciate it, Corey. Thank you so much. It's been good.

SPEAKER_00 56:16

Enjoyed it. Yeah, thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_01 56:19

It was a blast. I had fun. I want we you coming back on the podcast. I'm gonna have you back. Yeah, we you coming back. That's that's what's happening. We're gonna have a part two of this. But yeah, um, and I know you got plenty of knowledge and and and stories, and and we just run out of time today. But dad, if you want to finish out and you want to pray over us and close us out in prayer, that would be great. I'll do it.

SPEAKER_02 56:39

Lord Jesus, we thank you for this day. I thank you, Lord, for my great friend Cloyd Jordan, uh, who has been a wonderful friend to me, like an older brother, Lord. I thank you, Lord, uh, for this podcast and this opportunity to reach people and uh and just laugh with them and just learn something uh from people that's got some more little more knowledge than I do about hunting and fishing and those kind of things, Lord. I ask you, God, just to touch uh Tommy and his family and Court and his family and each and every one that's watching today. God, let them be just see you in the sky or at night or whatever's going on in their lives. Let them see you today. And I thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.

SPEAKER_01 57:24

Amen. Amen. Amen. You ain't gonna you ain't gonna run off, are you? We gotta say goodbye. You did this last week. I know. You were about to dip out last week. Me and Austin were sitting here and and you took the headphones off. You about to take your headphones off again?

SPEAKER_02 57:36

Just about it. You asked me to pray when you get through praying. Going, you know, uh usually at the end. That's like asking the blessing. Let's go ahead and get the fourth. Hey, listen, the people deserve for you to tell them goodbye. Hey. I'm out of coffee again. That's what it was. I had a coffee. Yeah. So look. Enjoy your day. Get you another cup of coffee. And if you didn't get it all, because there's so much knowledge coming from this man right here. Listen to it again. Listen to it again.

SPEAKER_01 58:06

Listen to it again. That's good stuff. Y'all get out, y'all go kill y'all a turkey, go kill your bird, and then get it. And you better call coy before it gets too late or or call coy and say, who do I need to take my bird to if you can't do it?

SPEAKER_02 58:18

You doing them road things, ain't coy.

SPEAKER_00 58:20

Yeah, it's good. It's called a wall strip mount. The wings, the tail, the back, and the beard, and the feet. It looks cool. It's really cool.

SPEAKER_02 58:28

Then you ain't gotta pay as much as you would for a turkey man. Yeah. Still gonna pay something, but you know.

SPEAKER_01 58:33

Y'all give for the call. Listen, we're glad you're glad you come out. And that snapper? What's the name of this? Kabir.

SPEAKER_02 58:39

Kabir.

SPEAKER_01 58:39

Kaber.

SPEAKER_02 58:41

It's a shame that I'm a kid. I don't even know what that is.

SPEAKER_01 58:43

I don't even know what that is. You need me to put that out?

SPEAKER_02 58:46

No. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 58:47

I just want check. Just watch it. Hey, y'all have a great Tuesday. We hope you have a wonderful workday. And uh, we hope that you are blessed. Y'all have a great day, and we will see you next time on the Animal Man podcast. Don't be a stranger. We'll see you next time.