COME ON FALL

   Even old Cissy girl is ready for fall. Seems like time we pulled out some decorations and put a couple of bales of hay and pumpkins on the front porch Cissy picked out her spot to enjoy the sunset. I don't blame her at all. There's a spot under my big oak tree that's looking pretty good to me too!

PAST, PRESENT, & FUTURE

   Finally! The finished product of my European mount of the 8 pointer I got last hunting season. This was my first time trying this procedure, but it won't be my last. I think it turned out quite well . Total cost was under 25 dollars. I even got a little plaque engraved with the date I harvested the buck.

   This past weekend I got to go bowhunting for the first time this season. It felt good early in the morning, but warmed up quickly. Fall temperatures are still a long way away. It was great to climb a tree again. My shooting lanes I cut looked good, but nothing co-operated and walked by.The forest is still green and bright. I need some cold weather and strong wind to change the color of the leaves and blow them to the ground.

  

  
   I know my time will come, and soon I hope. For now all I can do is be patient and keep on practicing. Soon enough I will wake up one morning to smoke coming out with my breath. That chill that runs down your spine and shakes you to the core. On that magic fall morning the leaves will helicopter down to the forest floor in an autumnal cascade of reds, yellows, and oranges. The old trails and new paths will come alive with the soft footfalls of heavy hooves and hopefully my arrow will find it's mark right behind the shoulderblade in the sweet spot of the heart. Legends will fall to make room for future kings to reign, and meat, fur, and horns will come home to Bullfrog Bottom once again.

   Past, present, and future hunting is a way of life. A legacy that goes back to the time of my ancestors who had to hunt to survive. To myself who lives to hunt and just spend time in the woods, and hopefully to be passed down to my children, and my children's children. It is a way of life.

   It is my life!

Jim Cobb Coleman.

LOOKING FOR CHANGE

   With this big storm front crawling across the country right now I'm looking for a change. Mainly a change in the weather. I'm really tired of hot weather. I'm tired of sweating all day, every day.

   They say after the rain a cold front will pass down on us and begin to cool us off. It's about time. September is over half way gone, we need some relief. I need October, bad! I need to smell smoke drifting slowly out my chimney from the oak wood burning inside. I need to see the orange glow of the flames and our Boston terrier sleeping in his bed in front of the hearth.

   After a long timeof working there seems to be no response at all, as usual. Do I continue? Do I stop? Sometimes I wonder what's the point? Like everything else I touch , It seems like it is a waste of time if no one ever notices.

   I wish things would change.

Jim Cobb.

I WONDER...

   The time has come the walrus said to talk of many things. So now I wonder.

   I wonder if summer will ever end ? It's September now in dixie, and the temps are still in the 90's, and boy is it humid. I wonder if soon fall will kick in and finally cool us off ? The leaves are slowly starting to turn yellow, but I'm ready for orange and reds.

   I wonder if deer season will be productive this year? Last year was a blessing, I never saw so many deer before. Hopefully this year will be better. My family needs as much meat as I can harvest to feed us next year.

   I wonder if life is moving too fast ? My son's have grown up over night it seems, they act like they no longer need the old man anymore. When just the other day I was the one they couldn't wait to run to and jump into my arms. My sweetheart doesn't act as sweet as she used to, there again there was a time I thought I warmed a heart where now it seems one grows colder each day. Dads doing well, but I fear tomorrow when the day may come when he no longer knows me by heart.

   I wonder am I growing older and colder myself, or do I just think too much ? I don't like change! Too much has changed in the last several years and not for the better. Friends and family are gone and life won't be the same without them.

   I need to slip back in time. Back to when the world was right. Back to when I was 22. 22 was a very good year. I was free to live, life was steady and secure. All the people you knew and loved were still right next door, or just a phone call away. You could see the light bounce in their eyes when you saw them and hear the love in their voices when you talked to them on the phone. Life was a joy then.

   I wonder what happened to all of us since then and how do you ever get back there? Can you ever get back that feeling of 22?

   I wonder....?

Jim Cobb.

IT WAS A GOOD WEEKEND , TATER !!!

   This past Labor Day weekend was great! All except for the fact that my boys had to work, and they couldn't be with us. Our air conditioner at home is down and we are currently waiting for the repair man to find time in his busy schedule to come and fix it. If he doesn't come by tomorrow, I'm going to go buy a window unit or 2 and forget about him. Early Saturday morning we loaded up the truck and trailer, and headed down to the hunting club for the weekend.

   Our weather is still very hot and extremely muggy. You become soaking wet with sweat by just going to the mailbox. Needless to say we enjoyed the AC in the truck on the way down. It has been a long hot week. By the time we got down and unloaded the supplies, food, ice chests, and 4 wheeler, we were pretty hot and tired.

   The good thing is that my AC in the camper works GREAT! We cooled off, took a couple of showers, and put on our Alabama game shirts and got ready to watch some football. We watched stacked games on tv. Two tv's sitting on top of each other, we watched the Bama and Auburn games at the same time with my cousin "Hawkeye".  Like I said , it was a great weekend, Bama won, Auburn lost, we stayed cool and got some rest.

   I also got to do some work around my deerstands. I marked the new trail leading into the stands, and macheted my way through the woods to open up the trail. I took my chain saw and removed a few trees to open up some shooting lanes.The woods are getting ready for Autumn. You can see it and feel it in the air, early in the morning and late in the evening. It's coming, it's just taking it's own sweet time.Some leaves are falling already, and some are just beginning to turn yellow.

   Late in the afternoon we fired up the grills and cooked us some delicious protein. A Boston butt was slow roasted on the grill, along with a stack of hamburgers and some boneless chicken. Tacos were prepared in the camper . We may not have everything we need in camp, but we always eat good.

   "Big Mama" needed the AC most of all this weekend, you see she is borderline asmatic, so she did alot of catching up on her chick-flicks while I was rambling around the woods on the 4-wheeler. At night we enjoyed a camp fire to help and try to run off the mosquitos that were trying to tote off the small children in camp.

   All in all we had a great time.One of our neighbors near the club was rolling up hay in his pasture. It reminded me of all the great times coming up from here on till the end of the year. Archery season opens next Saturday, college football is wide open now, soon mums, pumpkins, and hay bales will take over my front porch, and all the friends, family, and holidays we've been looking forward to seeing will be here.

Hang on, it gets rowdy from this point on!

I hope you get to enjoy it as much as I plan to.

   Jim Cobb Coleman.

P.S.---ROLL TIDE!

BACK AGAIN I HOPE

   Just when I thought it was safe to write again, a thunderstorm came and a flash of lightning fried our router and modem. We've been down ever since.

   But all's well that ends well! NOW, IT'S TIME !!!!! Fall is just around the corner and I can't wait. This Saturday The University of Alabama kicks off it's football season, and archery deer season starts in three weeks ! Slowly the leaves are beginning to turn yellow and a few are starting to fall. The days are getting shorter little by little, and Cracker Barrel restaurants already have their Christmas tree up. Fall is surely just around the corner.

   Down at the hunting club a logging crew has arrived and they are removing trees on around 300 acres. It should open up a good bit of land for hunting that hasn't been hunted in years. The work crew has widened the logging roads but their equipment has made the roads a lot more muddier especially since we've been getting rain about 3 times a week. It should make for an interesting season.

   I know I speak for my whole family when I say we can't wait for cooler weather. The temps here are still in the 90's. It's definitely the "DOG DAYS" of summer. We're ready for mums, & pumpkins, & falling leaves, and a fat doe easing through the woods at 20 yards. ROLL TIDE !!!

   Welcome to Autumn!

Jim Cobb Coleman.

BUSY , BUSY , BUSY !!!!

   I know , I know , I haven't posted anything new in a long time.  I'm sorry. I've been very busy , and we've had some computer issues lately. It has been running so slow that when I got a chance , late at night to write , the computer was soooo slow I couldn't access the site and finally gave up and went to bed. Hopefully that's all straight now.

   I've been involved in re-training to go back to work ( part time ) with the Bullfrog Bottom School Board to drive a school bus once again. I still have all the necessary endorsements on my CDL, I just needed a recert. class. For the last few weeks I've been driving a bus all over the Bullfrog Bottom community practicing procedures and just getting the feel of the bus back again. I finished my testing yesterday and passed with flying colors! Now I just wait for school to start in a few weeks.

   I've been going down to the hunting property and doing some scouting and brush clearing for the upcoming hunting season. I recently acquired a new piece of property to hunt this year and found some great sign on it. With a little bit of pruning I believe it will be a great place to hunt this fall. It has a lot of deer and hog sign on it.

   Going along with my year-long project of how to live and save money and survive as cheaply as possible on your own, I recently purchased a very needed piece of equipment. To access all of the areas on our hunting land I needed a ATV.  4 wheelers and UTV's have gotten very expensive!!! I know guys who have paid double for a ATV than I did for my first car. Prices range from 4 to over 10 thousand dollars. A poor man can't afford something like that just to creep through the woods on to help get a deer out with.

   The way I went about finding my ATV was to look for a used one. There are a lot of good deals out there on used ATV's right now. In todays economy, people need money. If someone can't afford to go hunting they don't need a 4 wheeler sitting in the garage taking up space and slowly dry rotting away. Sometimes , someone will get a new one and no longer want their old one. If you look around good deals can be found.

   I had been looking for a couple of years for a good , cheaply priced 4 wheeler. Finally I came across what I was looking for. A used, well kept, good running, cheaply priced 4 wheeler. My cousin "Hawkeye" heard about someone who had one for sale. I called the man and we made a deal. After meeting and an inspection of the ATV and a test drive. I became the new owner of a 24 year old $500.00 ATV. 

   Yes it's old , and needs a little work done on it. BUT !!! It's in great shape and runs very well. I drove it all over our 2,500 acre hunting property and it performed perfectly! Once I do the few repairs I know I need to do on it I'll have an almost new vehicle.The man I bought it from is in my hunting club and had just purchased a new UTV. He no longer needed this one. Within an hour of purchasing my ATV , he called me on the cell phone and I had to help pull his new UTV out of a sink hole. The 24 year old ATV never got stuck all weekend long!

   Bargains are out there. You just have to be patient and hunt for them. Like I've said there's more than one way to skin a cat. The money I saved by buying a used 4 wheeler will help me on other items my family will need and hopefully help me put more meat in my freezer and on my table for years to come.

   Keep on hunting! ( food & bargains )

Jim Cobb Coleman.