Through with dogs !!!

Here's another one off the CD that I just love .... it's a bit more contemporary with a kind a Latin feel to it. An odd mix that works out.

It's track 17 , Dan. Can't get it to upload. #5 is also great . One thing my wife and I noticed about many of the songs is that if you were to remove the Tibetan throat singing....alot of it sounds very 'mountain' . By 'mountain' I mean hillbilly. She was raised in Northern Appalachia and I hail from the Ozarks. Ergo , both of us are hillbillys.

For example #4, if you ripped the whole CD, Dan.... sounds very much like an old lover's ballad I can remember my grandfather playing on the dulcimer to my Grandmother . Out of humility and perhaps male pride... I never heard it played while I was in the same room. Only after I ( and incidentally, my parents ) had gone off to bed. Only while he and Grandmother were still awake .

But #2 and #17 are two of my favs off the CD.

Quote from LunkerBuster

pretty much everything you just said is awesome..

I love mountin music and the funniest thing is how diverse the genre is, from the ozarks to the high mountain bluegrass and to high country cajun all the way to the amazing mountain music from the high peaks of Columbia, just awesome.

I also think the story about your grandpa is amazing..a man's man who was still a romantic...baller.

what is this cd called, I have to give it a listen

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Feel my eyes tearing up a little here ...

My maternal Grandfather was a very interesting man ... tall and lithe and moved easy. He died when I was relatively young... but my Mother has said I have alot of his same charateristics . She has said that back when I was younger and out hunting , she'd look out the kitchen window and see me walking back to the house and was as if she was seeing the ghost of her Father. Said we carried a gun the same way,walked and moved similar . Most of these things are things I am unaware of. When I went into the service and took up smoking, Mom said we would smoke just the same. On the porch step, with arms draped over knees.

Genetics is an interesting thing.

One thing I remember vividly about my Grandfather is that anytime we went anywhere ; all the dogs came with us . He believed that hunting dogs are a members of a partnership and should be included in everything. So I can remember anytime we went into town, emptying the kennels so all the dogs could come along for the ride. From the Trigg hounds to the English Pointers....

Interestingly enough, both sides of my family despite being Scotch x Cherokee x Osage, had a curiously Black Forest tradition of placing boughs in the mouths of large animals taken . As soon as a deer or hog was taken, boughs of oak ar maple were placed in the deceased animals mouth. This is typically a Germanic tribe tradition... when I asked my Father about it ... he simply said some things just should be. Fair enough and have done it ever since. Sage for the smaller game like waterfowl, which is a Native American thing.

Anyway... the CD is by Okna Tsahan Zam Shaman Voices;Journey to the Steppe . Good stuff...

FWIW, I thought I knew what "hills folk" were until I visited my wife's family. Hat's off ....a whole different perspective on what it means to be a hillbilly. We're talking coal country. I felt eclectic amongst them . Like a regular Bohemian artisan ... and yet, I'd lay my life in the hands of 'em .

Direct quote " You wear those faggot sandals .... but any guy stabbin' pigs caught by dawg's gotta be awright; and to hear Alissa tell it , your dogs can point a bird or two....here drink this shit, it'll phuq you up..."

And it did, and I made friends .....

Quote from Toledo970

There's a book that my wife reads her fifth graders every year that you guys should read. It is right along these lines. As soon as you talked about the hills and the hunting dogs, it reminded me of that book. I'll see if I can text her and get the name of the book.

"Where the Red Fern Grows " ? Bet it is ....

Quote from pargo

Aaron, I believe there's a book in you.

Thanks...

I've been playing with the idea as of late. Suppose it'd be based on the factors, both pre-determined and learned behaviors , that shape us into being hunters. Why it's not a hobby or a past time ,but a need .

The idea came about one winter morning when I awoke early to the sound of our cats meowing plantively . They needed something was the sound they were making. Similar to the call they make when in their carriers and on the way to the vet. I opened my eyes and noticed both crouched on the window sill, heads erect and tails swishing ....watching the snow birds that frequent the shrub right outside my window . I thought to myself " Here are two well-fed, well-cared for cats who, right now, want through that window so bad it's driving them insane." The only answer was .... because they had to .

After that observation ,I began paying more attention to other animals, in particular my dogs. I recalled the numerous times I returned home to find Fisher and Tenille sitting on their haunches staring up into our backyard oak waiting for the squirrel they knew was up there. Or the times they'd catch and kill one just for the satisfaction of it, as I have never seen them eat one.

Hell, two nights ago, I released Arliss and Tut into the backyard before I left for work . Probably around 10 o' clock or so. No sooner did I let them out into the backyard when both locked eyes onto the far back corner of my yard, behind the kennel pad and barn ..... ZOOOOM .... they were gone. I went and grabbed my flashlight and walked back there, just knowing they had engaged something . As I walked toward them , they came trotting up with that self-assured , smug look that only an excited dog can do. "You will love this ,Boss ", is what the look seems to say. Sure enough . Right behind my shop was a very dead, very large boar coon. Obviously, they killed it in very short order as I never heard a ruckus in the least. No barks,no growls, yips of pain....nothing. Upon showing it to me they trotted right back to the back door to be let back in to relax in their kennels. Chase and kill were over . Time to rest until next time.

Point is, dogs and cats have been domesticated for probably 4,000-5,000 years. Man kind has only ceased being a hunter/ gatherer/subsistence farmer in the past 100-200 years or so.Hell, a hundred years ago it would have been unwise for a white man to ride through where my house now sits. And yet, their are some who believe we should be able to just turn off our prey drive like it never existed .

I believe that would be akin to having a cat that is content to just watch a mouse scurry across the floor without so much as giving it a sideways glance . And their are some ,I hear, that will do just that . But they are damn few.Certainly not our fat Persian and Calico.

So that is the basic premise I am going to start on. I intend use my own experiences, those of friends and acquaintences, and historical archives as the basis.

It's something born into us. I'm sure all of us can relate to nights spent sleepless with anticipation of the following days hunt. It's just there, deep in us.

I also intend to explore it as a right of passage ritual. Rituals that are noticeably absent in our society in this day in age. Look at our rates of youth violence and other crime.
To equate this to the animal world ... several years ago their was a curious case of young,very dangerous bull elephants in , I wanna say, South Africa in a National Park. These bands of young marauders were becoming incredibly dangerous to the point that the Park quit giving tours. Even further , the population of white rhinos begin to drastically drop as the bulls began to target the rhinos. It was then that someone clued into the fact that all of these bulls had been orphaned during culling operations in other near-by parks.
They were then transplanted to other parks where they were essentially raised without any kind of guidance. So the Park brought in several large ,mature Bulls to take over the bachelor groups of teens .Bulls showed, made them earn their place and showed them the ropes.Problem solved.

I believe the two are inter-connected... rites of passage and acceptance into adult society as a peer after a sort of apprenticeship cycle culminating in one running a successful hunt of their own as well as answering a call in us to immerse into the wild places as a participant. One in the same.

Quote from pargo

You definitely have a book in you based on that sentence alone I just think you'll run out of steam with this subject because it is best felt and experienced rather than talked about. Hemingway wrote something to this effect. You being a hunter will lose focus writing about this subject because you'd be catering to those who don't know.

And that is the very thing that I've thought about, Dan . The only people who would read it are those who already relate.

Hemingway captured it well . A Spanish writer/philosopher by the surname Gasset wrote "Mediations on Hunting " also did a fine job of answering the 'why'. Great read .

I am afraid none of those who are fence sitters when it comes to comnsumptive outdoors pursuit would give it a second look. And that's who ought to be researching for themselves.

The people who laude the Sea Kittens are a lost cause.

Quote from pargo

Many times I wondered what is the correct motivation for creative writing. I can't come to a conclusion about it. Are you writing for your audience or are you writing to get it out of you..

Perhaps both ...:confused1:

Suppose a work of fiction would be easier as it's a bit of a crapshoot as to who your audience may be.

"Look at Angela's Ashes " for example. A psuedo work of fiction that was picked by many. Even Oprah.

DUDE !!! You know what would make a kick ass spearing vid song ?!!!

'Spiderman' by 'The Cure' !!!!

Their version of Jimi Hendrix's Purple Haze is awesome ,too.