Dawg Hawg

 For those joining for the first time please read my first post before this one.


I couldn't have a better entry in this blog if I tried: Be warned now I do NOT censor as I feel it takes away from the experience. I tell it as it was.


It all started with a trip down to Texas through a connection of Nick's girlfriend Lisa Yeske. Her father, John Yeske, had worked with a guy on some buildings and he has ranch down in Northern Texas near Sulphur Springs. Through some absolute ridiculous preparation we were finally able to get the trip moving. Because of some extraneous circumstances (John and his wife Kristin blew a tire on the horse trailer) we were set behind schedule big time. Rachel, Poindexter, Lisa, and I stopped at the Kansas City Cabelas to burn some time to wait for them. In that time I finally managed to get my .17 hmr. For those who are uncertain what that is, it is a gun.
We finally managed to meet up with them and continue our journey. It got too late to make it down so we stopped at of all places on this planet, Antlers, Oklahoma.
The next morning we drove for about two more hours before we finally made it to our destination!

 We waited near the chicken barns before we got the chance to meet our host.
Sam Miller was nothing and everything I had expected. Being an acquaintance of John Yeske, we all knew he was going to be a great guy and he surely was. The next time I think of a Texan, it'll be Sam.
He had everything set up for us and instead of putting us in the hunting trailer he usually uses he set us up in his own home. Sam, his wife Lisa rank right up there with the most hospitable persons I have encountered. You felt comfortable and welcome in their home. Being a flora/fauna wonk I was astounded by the house. More Eastern Red Cedar than any non-Texan could handle. It was BEAUTIFUL. He fed us with some of the wild pork that had come off of his farm and was spectacular.

 This is Sam's Smoker...WOW

By that evening we had settled ourselves in and headed for the treestands. Just at dark the coyotes started singing and it raised the hair on the back of your neck. It was at that moment I was thankful for the .38 special handgun my uncle Rick sent with me as a sidearm. During their moon-song a shot rang out where Nick was sitting. It became too dark to see and I crawled out of my stand un-holstered my gun and shivered my way back to the truck.
Upon meeting up with Nick we found out he had shot but was unsure of a hit. We went back out with Sam spotlights and pistols in hand. No pig. Found out later that John Yeske had a brute of a boar in his sights but was unable to get a clean or clear shot because it was too dark to see. At about 9:00 John and Nick headed out to Dallas to fetch Dad who was on business and was just flying in from Orlando. They didn't even get back until 1am. Meal that night was smoke pork shoulder.  This was Day 1...

Day 2: Heat really pushed things back. The hogs were nocturnal because of the heat, and the big full moon provided at night. We spent most of time fishing in Sam's pond and lounging about while the girls were out on the horses.

We hunted the evenings and the same thing seemed to be the problem. Pigs no show. Meal that night was Pork tacos and birthday cake. It was Dad's birthday and Sam tried really hard to put him on a pig. Still turned out to be a great day on earth.Happy Birthday Dad, Love you.

 This is Sam Miller our host. He's chopping up smoked pork for those tacos.

Day 3: Morning hunt provided no pigs but plenty of excitement.Nick and I fished for the better part of the day and I was on fire and caught decent sized bass and managed to catch a small catfish on a spinner.

 Before I had even gotten out there that morning Nick pulled out a large crappie. With out a measuring tape we used the string on the camera. We marked it and later discovered his crappie was an astounding 15 inches!

While on the dock Nick got a call saying that Sam had put together an after dark hunt with some dogs. IT WAS ON!
 When we got back to the house sometime around noon, we were informed that Lisa Yeske had misplaced the keys to her Dad's truck. they looked absolutely everywhere but they were gone. John was then forced to actually drive a minivan. HA! He went into town and had keys made. after about an hour and half they came back and found that the new keys did in fact not work at all. They headed back to town and resolved the issue. Another hour later we have function keys.

We did the usual evening hunt in the stand and Rachel joined me on this hunt. No one saw pigs but it was time to get back to camp and get up by the road.

Evening Day 3/ Morning Day 4: This was the beginning of one of the craziest adventures I have had bestowed upon me. We get up to the horse stalls up by the tall stand and there are 4 guys and a kid getting their dogs ready. You could cut the tension with a knife. These guys are a completely different breed of people and you could see it while you watched them work. Harsh, yet honest, and definitely weathered as to the experience at hand. When talking to them they would stop what they were doing and listen to every word. Every response was started with a 'yessir'. It's hard to find a better group of people then these guys right here. I could tell this was going to be a blast! These guys had tracking devises on all the dogs and were able to know where the dogs were, how fast they were moving, and what direction they were heading. This would only come in handy later...
We were instructed to either get rid of or do not use any pistols that were present so I dropped my sidearm off with Rachel. We were given the lowdown on the situation and instructed on the chaos that would most likely ensue. When all things were settled and everyone was accounted for we headed out into the woods with dogs, headlamps, and knives...that's it.
We walked into the pines and then came across a trail that we followed down into a holler where we found some hog wallows in the creek. while standing around this one wallow, Nick looked down with his headlamp and said "OH. That's another snake." I have never seen guys move so fast. In one fluid motion three guys jump back and Sam drops his machete-knife right on it. We all got a laugh about that one. Not fifteen minutes later we came across another creek and down in it was a considerably larger Water Moccasin. One of the guys starts throwing dogs away from the snake because these things will kill a dog. The first throw of a knife just glances of the thing. One of the other guys finally steps on it's head and cuts it off. That thing was roughly as big around as my wrist and probably three feet long. Our adventure had just started...

 We stuck with the group as they tried all of their tricks and took us to all of the honey holes trying to find us a pig. These guys could tell when their dogs were barking, even from 200+ yards away, not only which dog it was but what they were doing. Verbatim: "Aw he's just lost." and "Damn thing's chasin' a deer." We got out of the forested area and got back onto Sam's driveway when the dogs just started freaking out. Cut 'em loose!!! There was a flurry of dogs and flashes of a pig and then they were gone. We chased after these dogs for another hour or so and they started filtering back to us. We stopped in a bog area waiting for the last two dogs to come back. Dad had figured now would be a great time to put in some eye drops. Just checking your phone, or taking a pee, you get caught with your pants down. Dad no more than took off the glass and finished one eye, one of the dogs bayed. Pig. I grabbed dad and said we have to go, and he hadn't even put his glasses back on yet. We went just tearing through the woods and came to a cedar thicket that was by far thicker shit than I have ever encountered. Not only were there cedars but thorns and lots of them. We hit this thicket and all hell broke loose. There were dogs barking and sqaulin' and you could hear the ruckus of a fight. One of the guys says "Okay, cut her loose". There was one dog throughout the evening they never unleashed. This dog was the only one with a Kevlar chest piece. When I asked about this dog they said this one's job is to hold onto the ear of a pig and stop it from running. When they released that dog it was gone in a flash. We all heard when the dog got to the pig because the pig started squealing and grunting. I did my best to keep up with the crew and even managed to get past Nick. We tore through the brambles and the grunts were closer and closer. I have never in my life been that scared shit-less. I was sure that boar was going to tear a hole in the brush and run right at me. We stumble our way through and the sight I come upon was like something on primetime TV. There are four or five dogs latched onto this boar doing their best to try and tear it apart. One of the guys rams into the back end of the boar and knocked it over. He them lays over the neck of this pig lifts up the front leg, looks at me and says "right here boy".


This is the part where if you are squeamish in any way shape or form stop reading and do something else. Skip ahead where I clean it back up. This is my documentation you don't have to read it.


I take my homemade knife out of the sheath and plunge it into the side of the pig. Upon the first thrust I get a warm sensation on my face and arms. I was so shocked as to what was going on I was oblivious to the fact that the guy on the pig was telling me to finish the job and to not quit now. This happened in a matter of seconds.

CONTINUE HERE

When the boar finally expired there was whoopin' and hollerin'. This was something I had on my 'bucket-list' and I accomplished it with a great bunch of people. I will say this is the part where I have never seen my father look at me the way he did at that moment. Shock, astonishment, all order of disheveled. His arms were hamburger from the brambles tearing him up. In the light I could see the gleam adventure in his eye. I was unbelievably happy he was there with me.

The reference of time I want to make clear here is the time between meeting up at the tower stand at the beginning to dad's eye drops was about three hours. After that it was between three to five minutes from dogs baying to dead pig.

We started back for camp and waited for the four-wheelers to be shuttled back to get the pig. When they collected them and headed back Dad and I got held back and lost them on the trail. We could hear the four-wheelers but there was no way we could see them. We tried to make our way through the brush but the realization that we were unbelievably lost crept into our heads. We headed back to the trail and waited for them.

When we got the pig back to the house we took more pictures with the crew and hung the boar in Sam's meat shop. We got the entire crew in the picture.

Morning of day 4 continued: After we butchered pig and showered Dad and I were up until 3am and we were awoken at 6am to get the show on the road and head back home. We were up tower just about to leave after getting the horses in the trailer when Sam came up on his four-wheeler. He started to cuss out John for about leaving without "letting a man keep his word". At some point during day two he had showed us some of the petrified wood that he pulled out of the ground when they dredged his pond. He had told Nick and I that he would send some home with us. Well, he was a man of his word and he handed us two spectacular chucks or petrified wood covered in crystals. We said our goodbye's and thank you's and we headed back home.

Sometime along the ride home Nick gets a text from Lisa Yeske. Remember those keys she lost? Between the seats.

This was an adventure I will remember for the rest of my life and I am glad I got to share it with every single person that was involved. I cannot thank Sam Miller and his family enough for the opportunity to hunt and for their stellar hospitality. I also cannot thank John Yeske enough for putting this together and for introducing us to Sam. Without these two guys meeting on the job I would have never been able to do this.


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