Speaker 1: The summer of twenty seventeen, I had a day off
and I was fishing on the Lower Mississippi River near Osceola, Arkansas.
I was anchored in the water below a sandbar when
a summer storm started brewing. I watched it for a while,
trying to decide what track it was going to take,
whether to run from it or see if it would
go around me. I knew it wasn't going around me
when the wind hit me, swinging the boat on the
anchor line right into the current. I gathered my gear
and reeled in my lines, knowing that wind was bringing
a nasty storm with it. I started the motor and
I went up river away from the storm a couple
of miles until I found what I was looking for.
On that part of the river, the banks are separated
from the main channel by small islands and places. Most
are just old sandbars, but I knew about one with
some trees at the upper end. They might block the wind,
and the low overhanging willows is a place I could
park the boat and avoid some of the rain. I
tied off and I wrapped a tarp around myself just
as the rain started, and I hunkered down to wait
it out. I looked up into a cove created by
the island, and I noticed something moving on the bank
two hundred yards away. Now I'm only guessing, but it
looked like it was eight feet tall. It was dark,
and it was hairy. It walked down the bank until
it was waste deep in the water, and then slowly
began walking around, indifferent to the rain and wind, and
it was working its way toward the end of the cove.
I was wondering what the heck this thing was doing
and what I was looking at when I realized what
it was doing. Now, Asian carp are an invasive species
in the river. If they're startled, several will jump straight
out of the water. Sometimes they'll land in your boat.
This thing was scaring the carps so that they would jump,
and then he was swatting them onto the bank with
his hand. I saw it connect with several the fish,
flying pinwheel style toward the bank, and then the rain
fell in buckets. I could hardly see this thing anymore.
The last I saw of it, though, it was gathering
its meal from the bank, and I could make out
that it was heading up into the trees with a
mess of fish in its big hands. I think that
creature had a good meal that afternoon. Uh, just one
story in this podcast. I thought this was great. I
kind of identified with it because I've been on the
river several times up in that part of the country.
That's a wide area of the Mississippi River. It moves
pretty fast through there. You know, there's some pockets in
the Mississippi River that are eighty and one hundred feet deep.
All my life, I thought that river was maybe ten
feet deep the most. But I was involved in the
steel industry, the steel making industry for a while, and
all those mills that are being built and producing steel
on the Mississippi River up there close to Osceola and
Blivel when they build their harbors. There was a guy
there one time telling me, he goes man, that river's
one hundred feet deep in that spot. I couldn't believe that.
That just blew me away, and it scared me because
I always thought, well, if I ever if you ever
come out of the boat and the Mississippi River, you're
probably gonna be okay. But there's suckholes, and there's whirlpools,
and there's debris floating down the river. All the time.
Just get to the bank as quick as you can.
But I never knew it was that deep, and that's
where all those big snapping turtles go. I don't know.
It just kind of spook me. Anything underwater that you
can't see is kind of spooky. It's kind of like sharks.
You know you can't see them, but you know they're
gonna come up from the bottom in each you. But anyway,
I love the story. I thought it was really good,
and I put some chickens in this video. People have
been asking to see my chickens. I quit showing them
about a year ago because for years every other video
I did, I would show the chickens only because I'm
not a visual YouTube creator. I don't create a lot
of visual stuff. I kind of like doing that, but
with this podcast it's not necessary, so I just concentrate
on reading the stories. But it was kind of the
only thing around my house I could film, and I
just didn't realize how much people like to watch chickens.
I guess if you don't have any around your place,
it's fun to watch them pack around. And if I'm honest,
in the summertime, I'll take breaks and put out a
lawn chair right here in front of my little work shock,
and I'll just watch the chickens scratch around. This time
of year, they don't there's not a lot of insects
and things around for them to forge on, so I
feed them a little more scratch just to keep them
full fat and happy, keep them laying eggs. And they
are laying eggs. Anyway, it's fun to have them around.
And there's the chickens, and I'll do more chicken videos.
It doesn't take me long to go out and throw
some scratch out and show the chickens. So I'll show
more of the chickens, and I'll start putting the GoPro
on and getting our bike rides in the morning with
the dogs. I don't you know, I don't have all
my dogs anymore. My two big ones died and I've
just got two little ones and one medium sized dog.
So it's uh. I guess they're fun to watch too. Anyway.
I just I had no idea of people love to
watch these chickens, but there it is. Now you got
some chickens. So anyway, it's only story. I'm putting this podcast.
I got some things to do today. I'll be back
tomorrow and I may put another one out, but they
will start coming at a more regular interval. And I
appreciate you so much for hanging with me, and we'll
see you guys on the next one. Thanks,