00:00:05 Speaker 1: The next thing I know, she stands up, takes a running and I end up unloading twelve shots, well, eleven more shots. 00:00:12 Speaker 2: Up to that one. Four pooh, pooh, pooh, four more in. 00:00:15 Speaker 1: The chamber, and he looked like somebody's poping field mines, because I mean you can see the ground just exploding all over the place, poom poom. 00:00:24 Speaker 2: I don't know what. 00:00:25 Speaker 1: I don't know why am I a music man. I spoke with Daniel about it. He's like, when was the last time you said this thing? And I was like, what are you talking about? He's like, when was the last time did you shoot out a target? And I was like, do you mean they there? 00:00:40 Speaker 2: You know? 00:00:40 Speaker 1: He was like, came to find out, you know that apparently they're not like that on the money from factory and you have to decide. 00:00:47 Speaker 3: I mean, I'd like to introduce you to a man who claims to be a hybrid between a Costa Rican and an Alabama redneck. His name is Pablo Escavel, and he might be the most interesting man I've met since Johnny Johnston. He started with a slingshot in Central America and today he's what i'd call a true student of the white tailed deer, and he's on his way to becoming an accomplished Southern deer hunter. His refreshing perspective on America and our hunting and just living here in America is framed by the strict anti hunting laws of his native country, and it's exactly what I needed to hear. I have no doubt that you're going to enjoy Pablo, and I know that it's going to give you a new perspective. 00:01:37 Speaker 4: I really doubt that you're going to. 00:01:39 Speaker 3: Want to miss this very unique episode. 00:01:44 Speaker 1: Then I came to realize, you know a lot of people win the lottery, Well, this was my lottery. This was going to change the rest of my life. And if I'm not careful, I'm going to drop the potato like everybody else, and I will now have anything left. It was up to me to make the best out of it because the tools and resources were there for me. 00:02:06 Speaker 2: So are you going to go after them or are you not? 00:02:18 Speaker 3: My name is Klay nukemb and this is the Bear Grease Podcast, where we'll explore things forgotten but relevant, search for insight and unlikely places, and where we'll tell the story of Americans who live their lives close to the land presented by FHF gear, American made, purpose built hunting and fishing gear that's designed to be as rugged as the places we explore. In case you need a geographic refresher, Costa Rica is in Central America on the Central American Isthmus, located between Panama and Nicaragua. It's less than twenty thousand square miles and about the size of West Virginia. It's a tropical paradise with over eight hundred miles of coastline on the east the Atlantic and on the west the Pacific Ocean. I'd like for you to meet thirty six year old Pablo Escival. 00:03:22 Speaker 4: This is the start of his life story. 00:03:25 Speaker 1: My name is Pablouis quill. I was born and raised in Costa Rica. That's down there in Central America. For those who don't know, beautiful place, fishermen's paradise, you know. I was born in a small town. 00:03:39 Speaker 2: I was with a perfect balance. 00:03:42 Speaker 1: Have your forest, you have your rivers, you have your volcanoes, you have the beaches. Everything was like really nearby. Luckily, thanks to God, we had no internet, we had no cell phones, so it was all about being outside, running around man, and we're kids. We're like seven years old, eight years old, So you're going and start looking for everybody else. So you just go knocking on doors, Hey, so and so at home, Hey, we're going to the river. 00:04:14 Speaker 2: You want to go? 00:04:15 Speaker 1: And so we meet on the corner in an hour, and next thing you know, you will have ten kids and we all start trucking together through the mountain and as we go, we used to pick up like fruits and maybe dig for a few roots and edible things like that that we were just like gathering alone. Made it all the way to the rivers and spend all evening out there making a small fire, cooking whatever we were fishing, and then just coming back home. And you know, the time to be back was before the sun's out. I don't know why nobody has watches and that, and everybody knew we have to be home or we're fixing to get a whooping. So if we try to compare Costa Rican the States, you know, there's multiple aspects and in factors that they might have an influence on the outcome of this response right then, and one of the biggest is that, well, we cannot compare apples to oranges. You know, it's two different things, but you're going to have, like what we said, you have a clear division between the high class, the low class, and then the people the struggle. 00:05:32 Speaker 4: Right where would you fit in that? 00:05:35 Speaker 2: Oh, we were on the bottom. 00:05:36 Speaker 1: Like now once again, don't think about like just because you're poor, you're living on this house made out of cardboard boxes and you're all dirty and other stuff, because no, man, Like a lot of times people associate poverty with dirty NAIs and laziness. One thing is being dirty and lazy, and another thing is just being poor of economical resources. You could be poor economically, but you might be very rich mentally, and it's just a matter of time before everything that's gonna flip. So as we kept growing, you know, we venture a little bit more and for longer periods of time. On the on the forest, we start going into the rainforest on bicycles and things like that, just shocking along having fun. But somewhere along that route, somewhere between, I was a teenager and a kid somebody I don't know who or when I cannot recall. 00:06:39 Speaker 2: They introduced me to a sling shot. We didn't have. You know, hunting is. 00:06:44 Speaker 1: Illegal, right, it's still illegal up to this day, and owing a gun a firearm at the time, and I don't I don't keep up with the latest news, but at the time I know the system was designed literally to make you fail and see how much money can you slide on their need the table to get a permit. Now, like I said, they spent several years since I was departure from that place, and everything has changed, and I bet you the laws has changed as well. The only thing that hasn't changed is the culture of no hunting. But having a slim show was kind of like a the only gun, maybe a weapon, if we can say it like that. So I was I was introduced to it, and then in blow guns and the blowguns. 00:07:32 Speaker 2: I do remember the blowguns because we were like in third grade. 00:07:35 Speaker 1: It was nothing but a small piece of the curactain right that you using your you know what I'm talking about, Okay, one of those like at one inch in diameter, right, man, You will dig out some clay, just regglar clay, because it was clay everywhere. We used to make the pellets with our fingers and keep them in our pockets, right, so you will have you will keep them wet, like nice and moist on a plastic bag, so the clay didn't dry up upon it. And you just pulled them out, man. And it was funny because you will make him like it was like a muscle memory. You will just roll them up and it will be the perfect fit for that aluminum pipe. And men just aim at it and blow us hards. 00:08:22 Speaker 2: You cool. 00:08:23 Speaker 1: Any kind of bird will not stand the chance like within twenty yards. Yes, there was solid hits, man, because you know them paleots are like semi wet, like they're not fully dry, so when they hit, they actually mushroom a little bit. At the time, we have no idea about ballistics, and we were putting them on place right, and we had the sling shots and we became pretty accurate with them. I was good at it, don't get me wrong. But I had friends, man, when we were kids. These guys were like legit, the snipers, and I'm now making this up. Man, These guys will hit like an aluminum can at forty or fifty yards with this sling shot. It was just like mind blowing. But for us it was like three or four guys. We were able to sneak upon this animal and it was like everybody's gonna release at the same time. In three two, one bloom, somebody's gonna hit him good enough that we're gonna be able to run and finish what we started, you know, And what do you hunt? 00:09:31 Speaker 2: So there's a bunch of costa ricas. 00:09:34 Speaker 1: It's man, that place has two percent of the total bio diversity of the world, just in that teeny tiny country. So like, seriously, there is so many things. There's one that it's called pisot. It's like it's like a raccoon. It has almost the same colors, but not quiet. We're kind of somewhere along elongated no. So there's another small mammal call down there. It was called watusa. It's like a big brat. 00:10:09 Speaker 2: If we can say it like that. 00:10:10 Speaker 1: There was another one that was called tip squinty, and those you know, they they dig holes and they live on the ground and they just come out for feeding and all that. And pigeons, well I call them pigeons, but those are DoBeS, you know, the purple ones everywhere, and man, anything else that micross our path on our way to where we were going was it was becoming prey. 00:10:41 Speaker 2: So around two thousand and five. 00:10:43 Speaker 1: You know, my mom comes to the States and she said, you stay where you're at, keep doing what you're doing. We're gonna apply for your documents and we're gonna we're gonna come back and pick you up and all that stuff. Well, I just kept on with my life. Dip down on me. I did not expect this to happen to actually go through. So I kept doing my thing, got done with high school. You know, you will get jobs here and there, like temporary jobs. I went out there on the coffee fields and work on the coffee fields, and it was an ipaer. Man, everything is gonna bite you's thing you and you know it is what it was work in a small like retail stores or just in construction in general, small timeframes, you know, because I wasn't I wasn't like really happy about it. 00:11:32 Speaker 2: And then this. 00:11:33 Speaker 1: Opportunity came along to go on sport fishing on a community college. So my goal was becoming a captain from a sport fishing baseball down there. That stuff is tremendously big, right so, and I love fishing, you know, so they. 00:11:50 Speaker 2: Go hand to him. 00:11:52 Speaker 1: So I got into it and I started doing the sport fishing man, and everything is good. So at the time, he's been already three or four years since she's gone, and I'm still waiting on the papers. Then about a couple years ago by then. 00:12:08 Speaker 5: She calls and she said, boy, we have an appointment of the US Embassy again once again. One honest, I just thought that we were gonna go inside, somebody was going to talk a little bit, and then we're gonna come back out, and she was gonna live, and I was gonna keep doing my thing. Next thing, you know, like three days later, I'm jumping on the plane. I'm twenty one, fixing to be twenty two, or knocking on twenty two, jumping on the plane towards the States. 00:12:45 Speaker 3: Pablo's mother had married an American and she got Pablo a meeting with the US Embassy, and afterwards he got his legal documentation as a permanent resident, which years later would lead to his US citizenship, which he has today. Let's go back to those first days in the United States. 00:13:05 Speaker 1: The picture that you get down there to the States is like what media sales is, right, the big cities, big cities, that's all ay. So I'm going to Alabama. Hey, no, big cities in Alabama. So we left Costa Rica Landon in Houston, Houston to hospital, made it home, and on my way back, I was like, where's the city, you know, like I really want to see all that made it to my step that place. Woke up in the morning having breakfast with my mom and him, my first time on the US, my first morning, man, and in September, I'm looking around so pretty. She said, hey, come on here, we've got to talk, right So I was like, my Stepdad's like, all boy, listen, we're gonna be We're gonna set in some standards right here. You got ninety days to make this happen. And I said, what is it? I said, you got to get a driver license, you got to save money to get a car, you have to get a job, and you need an apartment, and of course you have to learn English. So I just I laughed on my mom to be honest, I just kind of like give it a smirk, you know, And she said, like he's not joking, like he's being dead serious. So man, I wasn't shocked, And on the inside of me, I was like, this is like this seemed possible. I mean, like seriously, this is just out of this world. Well that day, later on that night, we went eating on this place in a Mexican restaurant, and he clicked. I was like, oh, man, yes, like these people speak Spanish and they also speak English. So and you know, I didn't speak any English at all, like none, not even your basic stuff, nothing, And he started with walking in the restaurand next day after we went eating right walking. Next day, I told my mom, can you can you take me out there? So I walked in there and I look at the manager and I said, man, I need a job. I said, I do anything you want. I will clean the dishes, I do the floors, but I need a job right now. And I said that. I was very clear about this. I said I do not speak English. He said, man, I like that attitude. I'm gonna make you a waiter. And I was like, dude, I literally just told you I don't speak English. He's like, no, don't don't worry. I'm gonna put you with this girl. She's gonna teach you. And little did I know that day, but god will, I was standing in front of my wife. 00:15:51 Speaker 2: Without even noticing. 00:15:53 Speaker 1: Right, she didn't like me at first because she said that I was really stubborn. Well, man, I don't know, I don't understand, Like I don't know what she's talking about. And she told them within a couple hours, I was going to be like well trained and ready to go. And know it was like a whole month that I was struggling, man, like it was. 00:16:17 Speaker 2: It was complicated. 00:16:20 Speaker 1: My first check man on the restaurant, my first check, it was like I want to say, it was like three hundred and ten bucks in the whole week and I did six days and I look at it, you know, and my stepdad was like, what was a matter of So I'm like and I was like, this is like this is my money, right? 00:16:39 Speaker 2: He said yeah? 00:16:41 Speaker 1: And I was like, man, how much is for a Lamborghini? And it was like like a two hundred and fifty thousand. I was like, man, I was being like the richest man in the world, you know, Like I was like, yeah, three hundred bucks. 00:16:53 Speaker 2: A week, it's gonna be a matter of no time. 00:16:56 Speaker 1: Then I look on the back and it says deductions and I was like, what is this, you know, and he's like, that's your taxes And I said, but what do y'all do this he said, what are you talking about? You have to pay taxes? And I was like, it says who the government? 00:17:11 Speaker 2: And I was like, but who told the government you gotta pay? 00:17:14 Speaker 1: Man? 00:17:14 Speaker 2: I was shown because I've never seen that before. And then I realized They're like, ah, boy, yeah, if you gotta if you want to make it happen, then you gotta go at it. 00:17:23 Speaker 1: So my my break was a two hour break, and throughout that time I had a dictionary and the driver license manual book with me, and I was trying so hard to make sense out of it, to try to translate it because it was I mean, it was it was there or not. Because here's the thing I was, I could go back. There was always a chance, there was always an option. 00:17:49 Speaker 2: Just just go back. 00:17:51 Speaker 1: But then what I was going to say, I just I came back because because it was hard. 00:17:57 Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying, I. 00:17:58 Speaker 1: Guess it's kind of like a pride maybe if we can say it like that. 00:18:03 Speaker 2: I just couldn't give up. 00:18:05 Speaker 1: And it was the first time in my life that I was actually like fully committing with heart and soul to something. Because you need greed man. There was a lot of days my first year was a nightmare, a nightmare of a year. I couldn't understand why I was pushing myself and why I was pushing this the way that I was doing it, what I was doing this for. Then I came to realize, you know a lot of people win the lottery. Well this was my lottery. I just want my lottery. This was going to change the rest of my life. And if I'm not careful, I'm going to drop the potato like everybody else, and I will now have anything left. It was up to me to make the best out of it, because the tools and resources were there for me. 00:18:55 Speaker 2: So are you gonna go after them? Or are you not? 00:18:59 Speaker 3: Life in America continues. Pablo works, he gets a car, he works hard to learn English. But remember the girl that helped him learn to wait tables and to speak English. Here's the story of how all that went down. I'd say this is a very personal story, but it paints the picture of the challenges that Pablo and his wife have overcome. 00:19:22 Speaker 1: So guy with my wife, man, and this is gonna be I'm gonna I'm just gonna throw it out there. 00:19:31 Speaker 2: This is what happened. Okay. 00:19:32 Speaker 1: So I like her and I was like, Lisen, honey, I really like you. Do you want to be my girlfriend? And she was like, my dad doesn't let me have boyfriends. And I was like, well, are you. 00:19:45 Speaker 4: Five good dads? 00:19:47 Speaker 2: I was like, what are you five? I was twenty one, she was nineteen. I said what is your dad? 00:19:53 Speaker 1: She said, my dad is sitting the right there, and I said, hold on, say can I go get this is straight? So I will go walking straight to him and I say, he is so nice to meet you. And I introduced myself to him and I said, man, I really like your daughter. I would like to see if I can get permission from you to go out on a day or maybe I mean just to the movie theaters. 00:20:12 Speaker 2: You're mother welcome to come out wheels. 00:20:15 Speaker 1: And the dude didn't say nothing, like he was dead quiet and I. 00:20:22 Speaker 2: Have no idea what's going on. I was like, what am I amazing? 00:20:27 Speaker 1: This is a cultural thing, like like this is this is like yes or this is a now and I just I ain't know. So I waited there for like a good forty five seconds to a minute, not a single war. He was just looking me straight in my eyes, and I was like good like and so I came back and she was hiding on the backside of the drinks machines. 00:20:50 Speaker 2: She said, what did you say? And I said nothing. She was like, oh my god, I'm in trouble. I was like, what, like, worry me, You're in trouble, you know. 00:21:00 Speaker 1: So he left, man, and I was like, that was the most awkward thing because I had the courage to go talk to you, and now you don't talk to me anyways. 00:21:11 Speaker 2: A couple of days go by, man, I'm just going to have. 00:21:16 Speaker 1: To say the way it is, a couple of days go by, she hasn't show up. 00:21:21 Speaker 2: The work, and I was like, what's going on with her? Right? 00:21:24 Speaker 1: The third day she comes work? She comes to work, So I said what happened? She said, my dad had won too many drinks and got them out at me because because you know, I've been talking to you, and he just kind of like slapped me a little too hard. 00:21:39 Speaker 2: So I said no. I said, you want to go with me today? Like? 00:21:44 Speaker 1: She said where? And I said I don't know, would you like to go? And she said yeah. 00:21:49 Speaker 2: Man. 00:21:49 Speaker 1: The only thing that I knew was a horse in a sombrero, you know. The regular had just to make it like the old western stuff. Somebody from the restaurant. Don't give her that my phone number. So the dad's calling me, blowing off, and I said, listen, man, calm down, let's let's talk this out. Like man, what about if we meet tomorrow and Walmart and Walmart sparking lot and we speak like man, he said, I want to kill you, you know whatever, I should walk to Walmart next day, man, And the dude jumps out of his car, flashing a nine milimeter ago, running towards me, and I was like, man, listen, I thought that I was stuck with somebody with different manners, you know, like I said, just go ahead and put that thing up before they call the cubs, because because if you're trying to impress somebody, that's the wrong impression. I said, would you please settle down? So the guy does, well, the dude starts crying, you know, he started crying I don't know where, and I'm like, now he got more awkward, like now it's weird. 00:23:00 Speaker 2: What's happening. 00:23:01 Speaker 1: Well, ask my little girl, and now you're taking my little girl blah blah blah, let me give you the blessing. And so I'm lost, right, I'm not following what's going on. So he grabs me. You know, the Hispanics, you know they do that like like they cross on the chest and all that. He does that, and I'm not making this up. He grabbed me by my face and kissed me on my mouth, and I froze do I froze on time? And I said that ain't hell or no? 00:23:34 Speaker 2: Why was that? You know? 00:23:35 Speaker 1: And my wife? And my wife is there looking at me. Oh, She's like, I'm sorry. And I said, man, that ain't no blessing. I said, what's wrong with you? 00:23:44 Speaker 2: And I was like, what kind of blessing is that? 00:23:47 Speaker 1: I said, that ain't no blessing, you know, And well it just kind of like kept going on and on. And it was a cultural thing because me, even though the weird Spanics, he was a little bit different. So she is from Mexico, they are both of them from Mexico, and I'm from Costa Rica. So you know, there's a cultural thing that I didn't even know that we had, right And as far as I know, all my Mexican friends they said that ain't no blasing. 00:24:17 Speaker 2: That keys was no blazing, dude. I'm still that. I will never forgive that on my life. 00:24:23 Speaker 3: Pablo and his wife have been married ever since. You can tell a lot about a man by the way he talks about his wife when she's not there, And I can tell you that Pablo goes on and on. 00:24:35 Speaker 4: About what a wonderful woman that she is. 00:24:38 Speaker 3: But the story rolls on and the next chapter begins when his mom and stepdad moved to the country out in rural Alabama. 00:24:53 Speaker 1: I have to find a way to keep my head busy, right, So I was like, oh, man, I really would love to to do some hunting or something like that. Well, my step that gives me a baby gun, that old trusty daisy, right, you know, the regular pump baby gun. 00:25:09 Speaker 2: Man man, man man. 00:25:11 Speaker 1: Then I'm having a blast and I'm talking to him and just communicating with him the hunting that we used to do. 00:25:20 Speaker 2: Right. 00:25:21 Speaker 1: Well, he doesn't understand much what I'm saying, but he knows that I'm somewhere along that line. 00:25:26 Speaker 2: He said, what about if you go handing and think you're a hunter? Education course? So I was like, what is that. 00:25:33 Speaker 1: He's like, so you can get a license and you can go hunting, and I was like, what are you mean? Now he did get my attention. He was like, you know, there's public land and I was like, how, I don't understand that. He was like, there's a piece of land where you can go and hunt. You don't have to pay, as long as you can comply. 00:25:53 Speaker 2: With the state and federal regulations. And I was like, how do I do that? Man? Don't deal right, I'm hunter, education, course, everything else. I'm running out there on the woods. 00:26:08 Speaker 4: So Pablo is gonna do some hunting. 00:26:11 Speaker 3: And when he got to America around two thousand and one, it was in the peak of the outdoor television era and he watched a lot of it. He saw big buck after big buck get killed on the edges the cornfields, as these shows often highlighted the best places in America to hunt, which was the Midwest. Little did he know that public land hunting in Alabama was going to be a little bit different. But he also picked up that scent was a big deal to these TV hunters. 00:26:46 Speaker 1: I do my first hunt, right, got ready, I'm ready, man, And I go to Walmart and I told these are what I told the lady. I said, dear scinth, that's what I asked her. I said, dear, And you know, on the hunting section and she was like, what, like, dear p, and I said, yeah, I guess I was really excited. 00:27:07 Speaker 2: I don't know. 00:27:07 Speaker 1: So she gives me that big bottle. So I go jumping my truck and running straight through the woods Man and I start spraying with it and. 00:27:17 Speaker 2: I'm I'm gagging. 00:27:19 Speaker 1: I'm having a bad time, and I'm like this crap is this tout? 00:27:25 Speaker 5: You know? 00:27:25 Speaker 2: Like, but in my mind I was like, you just gotta do what you gotta do. 00:27:31 Speaker 4: Well, so you've sprayed yourself. 00:27:33 Speaker 6: Yes, I'm spraying all over your body, doestress all over like cologne, just going at it, and I'm gagging, I'm doing everything, and I would really like cover up. Well, little did I know these guys were spraying sand killer And my. 00:27:50 Speaker 2: English was so broken and I was so. 00:27:52 Speaker 1: Ignorant that I thought that it was do estress or anyways. You know, I learned I'll earned the hard way because I came home and my wife was like, what is that smell? 00:28:05 Speaker 2: Get out? But the grace of God, thanks to the good Lord, I didn't kill anything because he would have been a mess. I was. 00:28:19 Speaker 1: I don't even know if I was in season, Like I said, I'm just out there and going at it. Most likely was both only and I have a firearm on my shoulders, like. 00:28:29 Speaker 2: He was a perfect recipe for a disaster. But it didn't happen. 00:28:34 Speaker 1: So you got to remember, I went three years, three old seasons, and that was in a dear nothing, and I go here in Alabama, in this public making a fool of myself. I'm making a fool of myself doing blinds in the middle of the fields, and I never saw it. 00:28:55 Speaker 2: There. 00:28:57 Speaker 3: For three years, Poplo hunted public land and Alabia and he never saw a deer. But he learned as much as he could about hunting, and a lot of it from television. 00:29:07 Speaker 4: But one fateful day things changed. 00:29:11 Speaker 1: I sit down that day, I'm climb, climb up, and I'm hunting a place that I've never been before that I have no clue why I picked up that tree. Anyways, there is a deer like I can't actually see a deer with horns. It's my first buck and the first deer that I seen on the US since I started hunting three years ago. I'm self dought with a bowl as well. I wanted a bowl really bad. I guess he just kind of connects with the sling shot kind of thing. 00:29:47 Speaker 4: Right, So you taught yourself how to shoot a boat. 00:29:49 Speaker 1: Yeah, man, I smoked my forearms so many times. Oh man, I heard so bad, and I shoot so many arrows, like through this iron of the house. 00:29:58 Speaker 2: And then God knows for. 00:30:00 Speaker 1: It else because you know, trying to trying to side up a boat with no experience. It's it's complicated, right, thanks to the good lower man. Because I said, some brodheads just shot disappear, you know, And. 00:30:15 Speaker 2: I was a good deal. 00:30:16 Speaker 1: There's no neighbors down down yonder because it could be anyways. Go with my boat, man and I and the thing starts walking my way. So I'm losing it. 00:30:29 Speaker 4: I never experienced public Alabama. 00:30:31 Speaker 1: I'm in public in Alabama. I'm losing it. Never experienced this before in my life. I got buck fever. Well, I don't know that it's bug fever. I think I'm having like a seizure attack or something. I don't know what's happening, but I'm just shaking, trying to put the release on and trying to draw in. And I'm like I've released, and I means like clean, clean. 00:30:52 Speaker 2: Miss. 00:30:53 Speaker 1: I thought that he was dead because he took off running and I've seen the air on the ground clean, no blood. No, I mean, they're not telling how far away I was from that year. I was devastated, and I'm not gonna lie. I'm gonna be one hundred percent honest. I cry, man, and I cry like a kid because he heard so much. 00:31:16 Speaker 2: Man. I was like, I have worked so hard. 00:31:20 Speaker 1: I don't put myself through so much, and now that I had a chance, I blew it. Like me myself, I blew it. I don't know how to explain it. It's like I have done everything that I like that I have in my power to make it happen, and yet I'm sure handed. 00:31:40 Speaker 2: Well. 00:31:41 Speaker 1: But three days later, my wife is like, so, you ain't going back to the woods, and I was like, no, I'm not hunting again. I'm not doing that. I said, I'm not hunting again. That's just stupid. I'm not doing this. I don't know how they do whatever they do, but I don't understand it. It's probably not for me. And she said, what if you just go and walk in the forest and maybe clean your mind? And I was saying, I'm not doing that. 00:32:05 Speaker 2: Period. 00:32:06 Speaker 1: You know, she goes to work I was off the whole week, and it was about a lunchtime and I was like, you know what, She's probably right. I'm just gonna go and walk. And I grabbed my boat and I went walking, went to the place where I missed that book, and I was so upset still, you know, I was like, I cannot believe. 00:32:26 Speaker 2: I said, I'm just gonna see it for the heaving. They didn't even have my climber. 00:32:29 Speaker 1: Walk about one hundred yards south, sat on the ground and I was playing. 00:32:35 Speaker 2: With dirt and sticks with a log behind me. I previous hitting in front of me. I remember this like if it was yesterday. Well, it's getting that time. Son is going down. 00:32:48 Speaker 1: You start having a little bit of gray light here and there. There is a drainage to my right, and I can feel something pulling. 00:32:57 Speaker 2: Like a like a light breeze. Well that was the turmos kicking in. 00:33:02 Speaker 1: I have no clue about terminals, right, So I'm sitting by the drainage. My scent is being pulling away and I heard some noise and I immediately assume on my head. 00:33:12 Speaker 2: I said, that's squirrel. 00:33:14 Speaker 1: And I look up and that book is walking towards me, like like literally towards me in a straight line. Well, then I'm realizing, like I'm having a heart attack right now again, I cannot get my boat. I don't know where my release at. I'm fumbling on the ground while sitting down, fumbling on the ground, trying to get my stuff together. And then I raised my head up and that book is maybe fifteen yards away, looking straight at me, bobbing his head up and down like what is that? And he's about to belt. Man, I don't remember seeing the pip side. I don't remember not. I just remember hearing that distinctive both where it hits I think takes up running and piles up. 00:34:04 Speaker 2: Man. Now, if you talk about. 00:34:07 Speaker 1: Buck fever, I mean I was shaking, I was sweating. I was seriously thinking, like, they're gonna find those both dead right here, because I'm fixing the dye today. With him right there, I'm having a heart attack and I have to get out of here. 00:34:29 Speaker 2: So I got out. 00:34:31 Speaker 1: I literally just got out, walk all the way to my truck. I'm on public. 00:34:35 Speaker 4: Now, have you seen the deer go? 00:34:36 Speaker 2: No? I saw him. I saw him going down. 00:34:40 Speaker 4: So you really think he's falling down? 00:34:42 Speaker 3: Yes? 00:34:42 Speaker 1: Because I seen him tumbling so I said, he's dead. 00:34:46 Speaker 2: That's what I said. I said, he's dead. 00:34:47 Speaker 1: Them guys on the TV shows when they tumbled like that, they're dead. 00:34:52 Speaker 2: That's what I'm thinking. So I've run out. 00:34:54 Speaker 3: So you've watched enough Honey TV to know this is when they're fist pumping saying he's. 00:34:59 Speaker 4: Down, he down. 00:35:01 Speaker 1: I called my wife and I said, Honey, I just kill him, and I'm super pumped. 00:35:05 Speaker 2: And she was like, are you sure you kill him? Instead of being. 00:35:09 Speaker 3: Supportive, you know, she was like all wives saying, even when you've done it so many times, that's what my wife says, now. 00:35:15 Speaker 2: Man, and you sure. 00:35:18 Speaker 1: She got on my head back and I was like, you know what, She's probably right. I probably didn't kill him. He might just trip over and tumble. And then he stood up. Well, I said, I'm gonna go look for him. But by the time I didn't have ONIX or nothing like that. So now I'm in the dark looking for the spot where I was sitting on her where I shot at deer. 00:35:41 Speaker 2: So I'm I'm with a light man and he just the night. 00:35:45 Speaker 1: There's a blood trail about this big that I just keep walking over. No, I'm blind and looking for that bug just walking over the signs. So I stopped, man, and I'm about to cry again. And the thing is did abe from here to the door. I'm a small a point two and a half year old, a pointer, My first dear ever a buck, and I killed him with a bow from the ground. 00:36:14 Speaker 3: After three years of trial and error, he finally killed a buck. And this is when things started to change for him. He had a desire to learn more, but he needed some help. 00:36:28 Speaker 1: I was working on this small town doing a concrete job and this gentleman shows up. He's like, he said, hey, son, do you want to make some money Saturday? 00:36:37 Speaker 2: And we poured. 00:36:38 Speaker 1: Some concrete for this gentleman and I said, yeah, absolutely, So we got down pouring the concrete, doing the finishing and all that stuff. Suddenly my step that calls me. He's like, so let me show you something. Takes me on the back mister Tony's property on his shop and he opens the room and there is state records the nineties bo state rekers from the nineties. 00:37:04 Speaker 2: Big deer, big bugs. 00:37:07 Speaker 1: And I'm blown away and I was like, man, where did you kill him? 00:37:13 Speaker 2: That's the first thing I got. The guys here, Yes, he's there with he and he just smiling. 00:37:20 Speaker 1: So I introduced myself, shook his hand and all that stuff, and I said, did you sell them? Because that's what I first thought as well. I said, he probably selled these things, and he laughed even more. He was like, no, no, no, I don't sell them. You know, this is throughout the years what I have been able to Harvey. So I was like, where do you kill him? And He's like, oh, right out there. 00:37:38 Speaker 3: You know. 00:37:39 Speaker 1: And I was like, oh my god, well I have to go back to work because we're finishing the concrete. So god damn man came back home and I was blown away. I just couldn't stop thinking about it. 00:37:51 Speaker 2: And I was like, my goodness, the size of those bugs were phenomenal. I'm going to give me one. 00:37:57 Speaker 1: This is that's I mean, we're talking about like one under the seven inch bucks. 00:38:02 Speaker 2: Right. All the season goes. 00:38:05 Speaker 1: By, no success, So I go until Rick, Rick, do you remember that gentleman that we talked to, mister Tony Myers? 00:38:16 Speaker 2: I said yeah, I said, do you remember where he lived? 00:38:20 Speaker 1: He said, uh, I don't know. I said, does he still living in that place? He said, I don't know. And I said, well, I know how the conky looks like because I was the one who pour it, and I had a really good visual of how the house it is. Something is going to happen. I'm gonna find mister Tony or I'm gonna end up shot. So I went all the way back and I was like, this is the house, man, and I pull up knock on the front door. 00:38:50 Speaker 2: Nobody came out, and I was about to give up, and I said, no, hold on, I remember. I remember we walked. 00:38:57 Speaker 1: On the backside, and I was like, ah, here we go, yeah, fixing the catch a nine or a thirty eight. You know, as I'm fixing the deer, walk on the backside. 00:39:07 Speaker 2: Knock on the door. Miss Donna, his wife, she comes out. She's like can I help you? And I was like, hey, you know, I don't know if you remember me. 00:39:15 Speaker 1: She was like no, I Doug, but Donny is honting he'd be back later on. I waited for mister Tony outside man, and then he came back in and. 00:39:24 Speaker 2: I was like, mister Tony. 00:39:26 Speaker 1: He was like, hey, buddy, I remember you, amazing, and then we start talking and and he just kind of like start giving me a different point of view, because this man, you have to remember, this is a grown man with the experience of a five year old on the woods. 00:39:45 Speaker 2: He said, do you know how to read a map? Know, sir? Do you know how to look for your feet trees? I have no clue. What is that? 00:39:53 Speaker 1: I have no idea. So he's like, ad, so this is this is a white oak, this is a red old. Then that's when I realized, like, if I really want to get into this, I'm gonna have to. 00:40:05 Speaker 2: Go for it. 00:40:05 Speaker 3: So this guy is in this. This is the second time you've met him. You were doing concrete at his house. Yeah, second time that you've met him, and he's like really opening up to you. 00:40:15 Speaker 4: Yes, he's like brought you into his house. 00:40:17 Speaker 3: Yeah. 00:40:18 Speaker 1: Man, that's the that's the craziest thing ever. Mister Donny took me in like. 00:40:22 Speaker 4: Literally, and so you're standing back around all these. 00:40:26 Speaker 1: Looking around, and he was like, buddy, I need you to understand. That's the first thing that. 00:40:31 Speaker 2: He told me. 00:40:32 Speaker 1: He said, this has been a lifetime of honey, and I've been very lucky and very blissed. He said, you you're gonna kill one. He was trying to be optimistic with me. He said, you're gonna kill one, but you have to understand that this is a process and he has to be respected. You cannot rush you. And I was like, Okay, we are into something right here. M That's when he's took me straight in too basic feed trees. I have no clue what a feed tree. Trying to buying a book is this trees and bushes from Alabama so I could get familiar with the species because I have no clue. 00:41:15 Speaker 2: God done with that. 00:41:16 Speaker 1: He says, do you know anything about the mating season the roods? 00:41:21 Speaker 2: And I was like, not really. 00:41:23 Speaker 3: Hey, let me stop your Yeah, I want to go I want to go back, and I'm gonna. I think it's like to me, the social dynamic of him inviting a stranger into his home, Yeah. 00:41:35 Speaker 4: I think that. I think that's really cool. 00:41:37 Speaker 3: You've also entered into like almost a secret society almost that maybe you're not even aware of that. People would be secretive often about their success and how they hunt, and I think that's probably less today than it's ever been because of the Internet. And it's like, but at the same time, this must be a pretty extraordinary guy, I would say, because if you I bet, if you would have done that ten times to ten different people that had big trophy rooms with white tailed deer and you walked up knocked on their door. 00:42:10 Speaker 4: Nine of those ten would have been. 00:42:12 Speaker 2: Like ten out of ten, get out of here. 00:42:14 Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, I mean this guy, this guy is special. 00:42:17 Speaker 1: Mister Tunney, mister Dounney's it's nothing but a good old country boy. 00:42:23 Speaker 2: Do you know what I'm saying? 00:42:24 Speaker 1: Like like he's a Christian, a great man, and I guess he's so in these younger man Maybe he's so something that nobody else did. 00:42:36 Speaker 4: Yeah, I don't know. 00:42:37 Speaker 2: I don't know how to explain it. 00:42:38 Speaker 4: How old were you at that time? 00:42:40 Speaker 1: I'm what twenty six, twenty five, twenty six somewhere in there. 00:42:44 Speaker 4: And at this time as your English, it's good. 00:42:48 Speaker 1: I mean he hasn't never been pretty good, you know what I've You know, I'm fluent the noough where we can have these kind of conversations and all that. But you know, I'm always going to have an accent. I just don't know how goot raight of I won't be able to get rid of. 00:43:02 Speaker 2: You know, That's what it is. 00:43:03 Speaker 1: And I guess mister Tony says this desperation on my face. So mister Tony go ahead and gives me his his teachings a little bit at the time, right while introduced me to some other local agents like mister Jamie McKay, mister Michael Perry. 00:43:26 Speaker 2: Then the ball keeps wrong. 00:43:27 Speaker 3: He starts introducing yes, his friends, Yes that he thinks can help you. 00:43:31 Speaker 1: Yes, I cannot name everybody on this list, you know, because this podcast it will be two days long. But it was like a snowball effect where everybody was trying to help me a little bit. And trust me, Clay, I never wanted a free ride, but I really wanted to learn the only thing that I was like, I was craving, like desperate for the knowledge. But especially was on the Woodsman's ships. And you have to remember, like we just mentioned, you know, topography and seasons, completely different habitats. I was coming into a bran new into a bran new place, and I was like, they are reading in between the lines, and I don't even know where the line begins. Like I don't even know where the lines start. So I need to understand how to get this straight. So my thing was they knowledge. That's what I wanted to know, especially when They're like, oh man, this white oak is fixing a drop, And I was like, what is a white oak? And what is it gonna drop? I was gonna drop acorns? And what about acorns is a very valuable source of fuel nutrients? Some people are gonna argue that it does and it doesn't, but the deer is gonna eat it. And how do you hunt these places? Well, access routes and what about access route? Then you got fun, you got terrimials? What is a termoil? 00:45:06 Speaker 3: This is pretty phenomenal that mister Tony and these guys gathered around and helped Pablo like they did. They literally took him into the woods and started to teach him how to hunt. But he wasn't looking for a handout. He wanted to learn so he could go do it on his own. So all the while that he's being mentored, he's out trying to kill more deer by himself, and he's coming back and reporting to his mentors, and gradually he starts. 00:45:32 Speaker 4: To kill more and more deer. 00:45:36 Speaker 3: But this next story really gives a data point on what it's like to start from zero. 00:45:44 Speaker 1: I never own a high power rifle in my life, nor a gun. Ain't my life. Rt it down to beaveryone. So Rick and my mother Flora Christmas, they come home. They're like, someone, we got a pressent for you. 00:45:58 Speaker 2: This is Remington. 00:45:59 Speaker 1: Seven thirty or six, and I'm losing my mind. I'm static, like I can't believe this is what you're gonna use for honey. I said, great, Well, thanks to the Good Lord. The first few seasons, I didn't kill anything because apparently, you know, you got to follow some state rules when it comes to like seasons for rifles on this area, and all that, thanks to God, never happened. Then I learned, like I was like, okay, keep having issues throughout the years, man, I keep missing, man, what happened? 00:46:34 Speaker 2: You know, just kind of. 00:46:35 Speaker 1: Like we're straight up honesty right here. So I get with Daniel Williams and I'm talking with him. He's like, go right here in this spot, man, it's a lot of good actions. 00:46:47 Speaker 2: So I get to it. 00:46:47 Speaker 1: There's a good scrape, I mean, war out, I said, great, climb up. Two hours later, three hours later, five those came up, and man, I let him go boom. You know, good she piles She didn't pile up. She just kinda like hunch over and lay down on the side. So I said, good she did. So I text Daniel and I said, Daniel, I just shot a dough. 00:47:11 Speaker 2: He was like, what are you dude? What are you dune? What are you shooting dollars for? Is this? This is the rot? You know? 00:47:18 Speaker 1: So I was like, god, you know, he's He's right, dang it. 00:47:24 Speaker 2: There ain't nothing that I can do about it now. 00:47:27 Speaker 1: But next thing I know, she stands up, takes off running, and I end up unloading twelve shots, well, eleven more shots up to that one. 00:47:35 Speaker 2: Four pooh pooh poom four. 00:47:37 Speaker 1: More in the chamber and he looked like somebody's poping field mines, because I mean you can see the ground. 00:47:43 Speaker 2: Just sticks bloading all over the place, boom boom. I don't know what. I don't know why am I music man? 00:47:49 Speaker 1: So I said whatever, And I spoke with Daniel about it. He's like, when was the last time you saw this thing? And I was like, what are you talking about? When was the last time did you shoot at a target? And I was like, do you mean a there? 00:48:05 Speaker 2: You know? 00:48:06 Speaker 1: He was like, came to find out, you know that apparently they're not like they're on the money from factory and you have to decide him in. And so he's a okay, let's hold on a second. When was the last time that you clean this thing? And I say, how you cleaning the rifle? Keep in mind he's been with me for ten years, none stop missing and shooting, right, So we look at like I said, man, we look at the barrel through the light. 00:48:35 Speaker 2: He pulled the ball down. 00:48:37 Speaker 1: And look and he looks like the entrance of a coal mine. They just go over up with all kinds of grime and dirt. And so that day I learned a very valuable lesson that It was like, you have to take care of your guns. And so we went to well, got to clean, got it all, and go to the rifle range and at one hundred yards, I, I'm not hitting the paper, like there's no talent what the thing was? So we backed it up to twenty five and I was hitting like in the top of the paper. 00:49:09 Speaker 4: That is a funny story. 00:49:11 Speaker 3: And I mean, how would you know that a scope rifle didn't come from the factory sided in unless somebody told you. 00:49:18 Speaker 4: I think there are a lot of things that we take for granted. 00:49:22 Speaker 3: But mister Tony and a big crew of the generous Alabama men continue to mentor Pablo, and the lessons start taking root. 00:49:32 Speaker 1: So this is a new piece that I never been to before. And you have a trail, man, and uh walk all the way. Well, there's a dead end and there's a swamp, and I'm talking about like cat tails, you know, head high previage head and you name it. I was like, let me just venture a little. 00:49:54 Speaker 2: Bit into it. 00:49:55 Speaker 1: It has to be a way through because I could see way down you owner room the backside. I could see the trees, like big trees. So I was like, that has to be solid ground. 00:50:06 Speaker 2: There was. 00:50:07 Speaker 1: I didn't have onntings at the time, and I didn't know how to get to on the other side because it was no road access from the other side. So I said, man, I'm just gonna power through. And I started walking on that swamp. Well out of nowhere there was a trail, a small trail. Something's been going through here. I don't know if it's raccoons or whatever. Something that's been going through here. Now, keep this in mind, is a wetline, right, and I have hunting. 00:50:34 Speaker 2: Boots, not rubber boots. 00:50:36 Speaker 1: Suddenly I'm all the way up to knee high on water. So I'm walking all the way up. The trail gets a little bit wider, and I just kept walking and I was like, let's see how far I can go to bow my hand back back on my back. At the time, I'm already introduced with the saddle being more comfortable and all that stuff. So I'm walking with my whole gear, thinking I'm fixing a set up this evening, and it's and suddenly it's getting a little deeper. Now I'm like halfway through my times, right So I was like, man, hold on a second, let me see how deep it is right here. And I said, I'm kind of like a feeling with my food. 00:51:18 Speaker 2: Man. 00:51:19 Speaker 1: Next thing, you know, I'm completely submerged, Like I'm submerged and I don't know what's happening. And I got my boat in my hand and I'm trying to reach out for out of the surface underwater. No, I'm under water, and I'm jumping just to gap somewhere. And I was like, if I let go my boat, it's going to disappear. If I let go my pack, it's going to be disappear. 00:51:43 Speaker 2: Man. 00:51:43 Speaker 1: I don't know how I was able to grab a tree like a steak that it was just out there and I was able to pull myself back to short. 00:51:52 Speaker 2: I said, Okay, that's not the way to go. And this is the crazy thing. 00:51:56 Speaker 1: You will not notice that, like I said, it would just stay whole rather so. 00:52:00 Speaker 4: A beer hole. 00:52:01 Speaker 2: Right. 00:52:01 Speaker 1: Yeah, So I learned how to like go around the kpwalking. 00:52:06 Speaker 2: Man. I siled for the evening. 00:52:08 Speaker 1: I was gonna come back home because I was soaking with and it was cold, and I was like, heck with it, man, it's what it is. 00:52:15 Speaker 2: Might as well let's go ahead and sit down this evening see if we can see something. Well, A spike comes. 00:52:21 Speaker 4: Out and man, I drew climbed the tree. 00:52:24 Speaker 1: No, I sat on the ground, yes, because I was, like I said, sucking with my phone was dead. 00:52:30 Speaker 2: I was just there. 00:52:32 Speaker 1: A spike comes out and I drill and kill him with my bowl. Man, and I'm pumped. I mean, I was like, let's go, you know, soaking with I'm cold. Forget all that. I just kill another bug, right, a spike. Some people would say like, no, let him go, no kill spike. I'm not ashamed. I will kill a spike. So like everybody used to said that, I was on the Spike Management University, you know, because I just keep racking up his spikes. 00:53:05 Speaker 3: I think this story shows Pablo's grit to keep hunting even though he was soaking wet. 00:53:10 Speaker 4: Not many people would have done that. That was a few years back. 00:53:15 Speaker 3: Here Pablo tells us more about his mentorship. Things start to get serious when he starts talking about his perspective on America and human nature. 00:53:27 Speaker 2: Well, this season is over now. 00:53:31 Speaker 1: Stim just caught a scout, do some scout and it started walking along that mountain. Mister Michael Perry and Daniel Williams too. Let's let's all go hands down, you know, Let's let's go ahead and start looking for the signs that you're missing. And that's when I actually started like learning. 00:53:49 Speaker 4: So these guys are taking you public lands on public. 00:53:53 Speaker 2: This is when you're generous people, no, absolutely like. 00:53:56 Speaker 1: And the worst thing is that at the time I didn't understood how much or how big this was. I was just like a sponge observing everything that they were saying. That's what I wanted. I just want to know, how what do you guys do? How do y'all get so good at and all these things that I feel that what I believe is they just kind of like took my game from from like from like being on zero all the way to being maybe like in a low intermediate where I'm at now, where I kind of understand what I do and I kind of see the things that I didn't before. This is pretty much the result of everybody else that has helped me in one way or another, navigating my way through the woods, you know, like to the point where, like what we say downside, if you can kill them down south, you can kill them anywhere else, you know, to the point where now I'm applying on out of state tags, where I'm expanding my horizon where I'm able to like keep living this dream man that I just don't want to. 00:55:09 Speaker 2: Wake up from. 00:55:10 Speaker 1: Like that, I open my eyes every morning and I'm like, yes, thank you God. With everything we complain about, with everything that we fuss, we are living somebody else's dream life. 00:55:26 Speaker 2: Somebody else would die for live where we are living, you. 00:55:30 Speaker 1: Know, And unfortunately there's a lot of entitlement and a lot of times the people don't realize like this is the greatest country of the world, like in every single aspect, and we have to be able to be more thankful for the things that we have and quit asking for everything the way that we do, because now I'm on the same boat. 00:55:55 Speaker 3: You know. 00:55:56 Speaker 1: It's contagious, and a lot of times to try to pull that eat break and remind myself this is where. 00:56:03 Speaker 2: You're coming from and this is where you are. You got to remember, you. 00:56:08 Speaker 1: Know, And and then I come back and just kind of like I realized, like, yeah, it's entitledment these contagious you know. 00:56:18 Speaker 3: Human nature is so interesting because we quickly calibrate to the circumstances and it's almost like people need. 00:56:27 Speaker 4: To have a problem, yes, you know. 00:56:30 Speaker 3: So it's like if you're living at this level and your problems are really existential, like a lot of poverty and no jobs and maybe no food, there's you know, you're discontent, and then its scales at every level. So I'm not just talking about you know, I'm talking about me too. I Mean, if twenty years ago you told me where I was going to be now, I would be like, no way. But then now I still have problems that I think are big. But what I'm here and you say, and with your story it's so poignant, is that you've lived in two worlds that were. 00:57:06 Speaker 1: Stuff different because I get a different perspective than everybody else has. We're never gonna have enough time to you know, thank God for the things that we do, the things that we have, right, but on these cases, look around and look. 00:57:20 Speaker 2: The way that we look, the way that we live. 00:57:23 Speaker 1: What a privilege is to have a job that you can complain about. What a privilege is to open your closet and not knowing what to wear because you have so much. This is the perspective from an outsider that I now. I realized all this stuff, and it's it's like a reminder for me all the time. What a privilege not knowing what to eat because there's so much that we can eat and we can choose. Right, once again claiming with everything that we complain, we leave somebody else dream life and we do not appreciate what we have because we take it for granted. And I'm including myself in that category. Man, I'm not making enough money. Man, I don't have the newest struck. Man, I ain't killing the biggest book. So I feel this Sometimes we just got to stop for a moment, just stop and look around and just remember that there's always somebody you know, very very bad shape compared with you. 00:58:31 Speaker 2: You know, just be more grateful. That's that's it. Just be more grateful. 00:58:40 Speaker 3: Last year Pablo had the best deer season of his life. He tagged out on bucks in Alabama on public land and traveled out of the state and killed a buck in Mississippi, and a couple of those bucks were really nice, like one hundred and twenty inch type deer. Pablo is an incredible guy, what an incredible story. I'm so grateful to him for telling it to us. As we close, I'd like to throw out some food for thought. When I think about Pablo's story, it could be siloed into a single conclusion that his life was made so much better because he moved to America, kind of seeing it as this place saved him, and from an external framework it did. He has a nicer house, a nicer truck, more upward mobility. But as valuable as those things are, here's the big question is that the most accurate way to gauge the human existence is it gauged on a quality of life that is simply driven by economics. If so, America is the greatest nation on earth. But I think to truly evaluate human life. We've got to look at a bigger, more complex question. I recently heard somebody say that wherever there is economic prosperity and blessing, spirits shrivel, but where there is poverty and suffering, spirits grow. I think Pablo's roots gave him something that is very hard to get unless you've been near the bottom. I can't thank you enough for listening to Bear Grease prints, this country life podcast and coming up real soon Old Lake Pickles Backwards University. Thank you all so much, and if you enjoyed Pablo's story, please share this podcast with a friend and leave us a review on iTunes. Remember keep the wild places wild, because that's where the bears live.