Been a rough 4 days for this old man. Wednesday I started having the same back pain I had back in April that resulted in me passing my first kidney stone on May 20. So I kinda knew what I was in store for. Thursday evening the pain was excruciating and I had the doc call me in some serious pain meds and I just stayed home, very medicated and drank everything in the house that would generate substantial urine. No relief till Saturday morning when I passed 2 stones and 10 minutes later I was pain free. YAY!!!.......for a little while any way. Felt so good I went squirrel hunting over on my place on Georgia Mtn and killed 1 while 1 gave me the slip.

This morning I go back and almost get that other tree rat but he gave me the slip again. Now all this is on top of the mountain above Lake Guntersville.....about 1.5 miles from water's edge. I stomped these woods as a youngster and up until I was 17 and moved. So, after Mr Squirrel disappeared I decided I'd go down toward Mill Hollow (we say Holler) to a place where 4 draws converge and dump water into a basin we always called the Minnow Trap (we say Minner) because my Granny used to trap minners there and walk on down to the lake and fish (back in the 60s and 70s). There are BIG beech trees there with several friends and family initials carved into them from WAY back. I decided I'd go see which ones were still readable.

Now this main hollow is a deep ravine with no cell signal. I convince myself that I survived the kidney stones yet again and I'm up for this, by myself and with no communications if I get hurt. So down the holler I go. About 2/3 way to the Minner Trap I roll my right ankle pretty bad. My history of ankle rolling goes way back and my doc says I have 'loose ankles" and that's why they roll but don't sustain much damage. I remember this and stand and convince myself that I'm good to go the last 1/3 of the 1 mile trek and tell myself that I can climb back out of this holler with no problem.

I see some rock outcrops that I haven't seen since my teen years and take in a few memories of me and my best friend, Rickey, walking/climbing these steep outcrops and all the fun we had back then. And then I step on a loose rock and roll my ankle again. Now all this time I'm just having mild pain but I have a very high tolerance for pain. No increase in pain so I continue on.

From the time I started down the Holler till I get to the Minner Trap takes a little over an hour. I find the 3 big Beech trees and see some faded carvings and some more recent initials. I finally find mine from 1974 but the oldest I find for my friend Rickey is 1984 and 1994. Several other old sets of initials. Some I know and a couple of sets that I don't know who they belong to.

Time to head back out and I can feel the ankle swelling inside my boot. No real pain though. I decide that it'll be easier to get up close to the top and avoid the rounded/slick/sometimes wet rocks in the old streambed that I came down all the way to journey's end. There's a game trail with a few deer tracks in it going up to a bench just under the bluff. I head up the trail.

I'm actually making better time going up than coming down and the ankle isn't bothering me too bad. The trail heads up steeper than I wanted to go but I know I'd be better off near the top so I keep going. Finally get to a real narrow point of bluff ledge too narrow for me to go around. I either have to go back down about 500 feet or crawl up a real steep slope covered with Huckleberry bushes.

Sitting there thinking about it I notice 2 slick bark little trees growing straight out of this rock outcrop. Now, the trail that Granny always walked (around the bluff about a half mile from this place) had a huge rock out from the bluff that had a Birch tree growing out of it. I was introduced to breaking small limbs off that tree and chewing on them for the wintergreenish flavor when I was about 8 or 9 years old. Can it be? I break a small twig and give it the smell test. Low and behold they are both Birch trees. I'm pretty tickled at finding 2 new Birch trees that nobody else has ever discovered. So, I cut a few small limbs into short pieces and stuff 'em in my backpack (oh yeah, I've been carrying this backpack (with insulated clothes from morning hunt) and squirrel rifle this whole time.

So, Birch harvested, I'm back to getting up this bad steep slope with the top of the mountain 150 feet above me. I have to actually crawl this last stretch because it's so steep but I have the Huckleberry bushes to pull myself up with. Ankle is hurting a little now but I make it to the top. I find my machete cut train and head up toward the truck. One of those machete cut Privet stobs tripped me and I roll the same ankle for the 3rd time and it hurts now. Limping pretty bad but making it.

250 yards later I'm at the truck and remember I need to fill the feeder with corn. One 50lb bag is all I can tolerate so that's all it gets. Ankle is hurting but I don't want to take the boot off and look. Head on home to put full set of brakes on '98 Tacoma. It's now 10:45 and all this started at daylight.

Get home, not gonna look at the ankle, got a brake job to do. Can't get the rear drums off so I just replace front rotors/pads and rotate the tires. Mechanic down the road will get the pleasure of doing the rear brakes. 4PM now and I come inside for my first cold beer of the day and decide to have a look at the ankle. It's about softball size and turning ugly colors, don't hurt too bad and I think I can limp thru 3 or 4 days and be good to go. I do have a serious limp though so may end up at doc later in the week.

I'm just damn glad I didn't have any squirrels to clean. Sittin here now chewing on a Birch twig and enjoying a cold Mich Ultra. I gotta admit, gettin old sucks and from here out I'm gonna have to realize/recognize reasonable limits especially when I'm goin it alone in the woods

What'd y'all do today?

I didn't even read that. Got to kidney stone and realized my strep throat wasn't that bad.

Pretty full day right there. Glad you made it out ok.

Sounds lovely! I'm familiar with the ankle problems myself. Hope I handle them as well when I'm your age. Thanks to you I loaded some 3006 rounds today. As we speak I'm sitting by a fire on the bench I made this weekend feeling pretty damn good about my limited wood working skills.

Very mild day compared to yours Wiley.

Church this a.m. then came home and ate a great home cooked meal prepared by the wife.

A buddy from work came over around 2 p.m. and I loaded him 2 rolls of hay with my tractor onto his trailer. He left and I came in and checked in on Aldeer.

Took a nap and went back to church tonight. Back on Aldeer now.

Other than the kidney stone and the thrice turned ankle sounds like you had a fun day!

Be careful out there.

Bet it hurts like H E double L in the morning.

I'm glad you were able to make lemonade out of a pretty crappy sack of lemons, Wiley. Keep that ankle elevated for a few days if you can.

I bet you're right Ken. I dread 0430

Kyle, I'm glad you're expanding your loading experience into other calibers. A little dose of confidence goes a long way at the bench ;-)

I got my right foot caught in the rear wheel of a Yamaha during a race. Was fine for an hour or so then I wanted to cut it off.
To answer the question my wife and I went on a Sunday drive up through Tennessee. Deer seemed to be everywhere including downtown Tullahoma.

Also saw this.

I hope you filled up Mr Patriot.

Sounds pretty rough Wiley. You wouldn't have got hurt at church.

Take 800 mg of ibuprofen before you go to bed and it should help with the pain in the morning.

I owe it all to you. I've done some .223 and 35rem. also. The 35rem will be my deer killer this year. I need to get my dillon mounted and going but I haven't found the time yet. I hope you don't feel bad in the morning.

Wiley, I've walked those same hollows all of my life. No way I could do it any more. Getting older sucks. My initials are probably on the very tree you went to. Did you make it to the river? I used to go to a cave down there that my pawpaw showed me many yrs ago. You have to slide on your belly to get in the opening then it opens up into a room about the size of a regular sized bedroom. Pretty neat all over that area. Pawpaw used to walk from his house to the Dam and across it to the New Hope side with his trusty breakdown 22 Browning rifle. They were definitely in much better shape than I have ever been/

Glad your ok. Those stones are the worst pain I've ever had. Now I drink a minimum of one gallon of water every day. Seems to cut down on the frequency of mine. I'd rather someone pull off my toe nails and soak my feet in salt water. Bad stuff bro.

My father in law has a guy working for him that was in the hospital Saturday night with kidney stones worked all day today then after he is finished up with the hides in the morning he's going back to the hospital to have it cut out

Brian I didn't go all the way to the river, just to that pool that all the draws fill with water. It was full but very little water in and out. I saw some initials in the trees that I couldn't relate to.....JC and RS I believe. looked like they were from the late 80s or into the 90s based on initials that also had dates. I've been in that cave you speak of but couldn't find it again if I had to. 4 of us went to different caves every weekend the summer of '73. We went anywhere from Ga Mtn to Parches Cove, Greenbrier Cove and Cotaco Valley. Had some seriously stupid happenings that scare the chit out of me now. My Grandaddy used to walk down to the dam nearly every day if the crops allowed. He loved walking that mountainside. I went with him as many times as I was allowed till I started school in '63. Lots of good memories in those woods.

I had one last year bout this time of the year. I drove myself to the hospital in tears. apparently I was jumping the curbs on McFarland BLVD, I don't remember. I do remember the pain meds they gave me first didn't do anything! They wanted to put a catheter in me when I freaked out. I was told that if I don't urinate that they would have to do it. I said, "I'm dehydrated, give me a f'n IV drip and I will be ready to piss in no time"

lol Needless to say I didn't pass it at the hospital but I did a few hours later at home. It was a feeling like I had to pee all the time.

Catheter is a scary word. When I had my knee surgery they wanted me to get up to go pee and I wouldnt do it. All the motivation I needed was the "C" word