Ep. 425: American Loggers - Part 2: Teddy Villines

This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human. Hey, if you're in or around Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and you live for hunting season, you need to swing by the Meat Eater store in Milwaukee. We're stocked wall-to-wall with the gear we actually use in the field. First Light, FHF gear, Phelps game calls, and more. You'll find us at the Corners of Brookfield. Whether you're gearing up for the season, dialing in a setup, or just want to talk shop with people who love to hunt, this is your place. That's the Meat Eater Store Milwaukee at the corners of Brookfield. Stop in, get dialed, and get after it. And I said, Lord, save me. That's all I had time to do. And I hit timber. I hit it. It's like bombs went off. In part one of American Loggers, we met the cousins Cody and Kalen Valines, who are multi-generational loggers from the Ozarks. We heard about both of their fathers, Teddy and Eddie Valines, and how they've lived off the land, logging, hide-hunting coons, digging ginseng, raising cattle, selling firewood, even using horses and mules to skid logs until the 1990s. This episode is about Teddy Valines, Cody's father. a humble, lifelong logger, and a legend in his own right. And once again, this whole interview will be leading us to a single story of danger in an existential moment of clarity. I really doubt that you're going to want to miss this one. And hey, please check out the new Bear Grease YouTube channel and Instagram where we're putting up fresh content all the time. Me and Bear John are very excited about this, and thanks for all your support and kind words of encouragement, and thanks for helping us spread the word. my name is clay newcomb and this is the bear grease podcast where we'll explore things forgotten but relevant search for insight in unlikely places and where we'll tell the story of americans who live their lives close to the land brought to you by tekova's boots i'm a cowboy boot man and i've been wearing tecovas for years. They're the most comfortable boot I've ever put on. Good boots for good times. I'd like to introduce you to Teddy Valines. He's going to start us with a story about the generation of loggers before him. One about his father, Ari Valines. Well, I need an introduction in this logging business. It's a family from generations, my dad. The first stories that I ever heard logging was a little bitty feller and my dad and mom, which they lived on Buffalo, Steel Creek. And my dad was logging with Aunt Elv Henderson, Granny Henderson's husband. Mom would get up in the morning and cook breakfast and get Dad up. While he was eating, she would go to the barn harness these mules and feed them. He'd get done. He'd get on them and he'd ride plump down to Granny Henderson's to meet Frank. This story took place in the 1940s. Frank Henderson is the husband of Eva or Granny Henderson from episode 243 titled Ozarkian Martyr. She was the last holdout on the Buffalo River before it became a national park. Granny is the only woman in the Bear Grease Hall of Fame. Granny and Frank's house still stands today on public land in the Buffalo National River. Ted's father Ari worked with her husband. And so one morning she got him up and got him ready and And he took off, and he got down to Granny Henderson's Frank with no light on. He thought, well, he's overslept. And he went and knocked on the door, beating on the door. And Frank got up and said, Ari, my dad's name, said, what in the world are you doing? He said, well, he said, it's time to go logging. He said, man, it's just now midnight. He said, and Dad said, you know, they didn't have no alarm clocks or nothing. They just got up, you know, naturally. And so Dad said he laid on the floor until he got daylight, and then Frank went on logging. Just stop for a moment and imagine a time when people didn't use alarm clocks, but just got up naturally, as Ted described. Imagine Ari's wife, Cynthia Valines, after he left, her waiting for the sun to rise, only to eventually realize the night was still young and the sun was still hours from rising. Ted continues on about his dad. Yeah, you can go on back to my dad's wagon. And you've probably been down there to where the water comes out, past the Harper Place. down Buffalo? Yeah. Well, Dad had a pair of young mules, and his wagon was loaded. Well, he'd come up from the dug bank coming around. But he'd come around, and there was a big yellowjacket's nest, and one mule got in it. Well, they jerked the wagon, the back wheel, off below the road. They couldn't pull it. And they were hung up in that nest, and Dad said they was stinging his mules to death. Big, yellowjack, huge. Well, they was hung up and Dad said them mules was braying, throwing fits. He said they was literally stinging them to death. He jumped off the wagon, grabbed him a big rock and crawled under the wagon tongue, the pin that holds the, and beat the pin out of that tongue and let the mules loose, go free. Well, when he got to the house and pulled his clothes off, they counted 50 or 51 places blood was running out of him besides all the stings that he'd got laying under there of beating that out. And one they hadn't stunk. But that's the type of man that I grew up under. There's no quit, no backup, and you better not. I mean that would just instill. And me and my brother Ed, like little, but our whole lives, and we know how to push each other's trigger, I guess, because if you would stub up and say, I ain't going to quit, I'm going to do it, when the other one was wanting to quit, try something, well, that would make you mad. And it would either get done or bust. Dad worried about everything. He was the most particular man, had to be done right, and it had to be done in a hurry when he said move. But that's where I got my ethics. And these boys, Cody and Kayla, growing up, you treat everybody fair. You treat their place just like it's yours. Don't leave trash. And that's the way I was brought up in the logging business. But that was, and then six years old, I started following Dad in the logwoods, carrying a major stick, gassing on me and Ed, Kalen's dad, two years older. By nine years old, first year, Ed would drive the mule. I'd carry the skid dogs and hook the logs because Dad would let you. And by eight, nine years old, drive my own mule. I mean, they had skidding logs every summer. Time 14, 15. You've done a man of splitting stave bolts, cutting timber. We were rolling up skid poles up to them old two-ton trucks. Get stuck. No skidder, no nothing. You'd have to unload the logs. You'd hook mules to the front of it to try to pull it out. Wrap chains in your dual hook, get in tight, a tree, or a big old pole stuck under you. It was a rough life. But that was how you made a living. Yes, it was. I mean, in the old days, it was hard, physical. But I was just, I did everything but crosscut saw and wagging. They hadn't quit that long when I was going to the woods with Dad. Because Dad talked about the first two-man saw that he ever run. A two-man chainsaw. Yeah, a two-man chainsaw. And I did. We skidded logs with mules, places to steep that you would skid them and dump them off of one bench to another. Too steep to skid over, and then go down, re-skid them, and then take them to the truck. In stables, back then, you made them by hand. We cut a track at Kingston. My Uncle Zeb and my brother Hillard and Dad all had trucks. We made 21 loads of stables off of 40 acres. Many days, we have busted two loads of stay bolts and get out two or three loads of logs. And that was with three grown men and me, 16-year-old, down a grown man, because me and Dad busted most of them. Load them by hand. 180 is the lowest you ever put on a truck, up to 215, 220. All manual, and you push them from the ground up to the top of the truck. We get up and be at either Cass or Clarksville. at daylight, unload them, and be back to the woods and start the same old. Yeah, and that's how me and Ed bought our first car, summertime. We go to the woods and help them, and we'd meet a crew in Hall Hay, sometimes midnight, one o'clock, we get done, and we got a cent and a half a bell. And that summer, we made enough, we went in and bought a car together. Ted and his brother Ed would have bought that first car around 1973. I've heard Kalen say that Newton County, Arkansas is 30 years behind the times, and I think that checks out when you hear Teddy talk. He only 69 years old but his life sounds like he was raised in the 1930s But his childhood was in the 1960s and his teenage years in the 1970s I was doing it to raise the family. My dad, I mean, that's what they did, farmed. And wintertime, I mean, like I say, you didn't have no equipment. You didn't get to work a lot in the winter. You cut firewood. Me and Ed coon hunted, and back then, in fall, jinseng, we bought many groceries through the winter on coon hides and jinseng because we couldn't log. Now, we were poor. When me and her first got married, this was going to be, we ain't even got to log. Teddy's wife, Marie, is sitting across the room from him listening to this story. She and Teddy will have been married 49 years in June. We would drive out the little old store out there. A soda pop cost a quarter a Mountain Dew. We'd dig up a quarter, go out there and buy, which is a mile and a half out the road. Get a soda pop and split it for sweetening. Times were rough, but I always had a pack of hounds. We had visitors all through the company. we never thought about it. You just, I mean, that was life back then. Never went hungry. You paid your bills. But logging was, logging was our living. There's nothing that I like better than to walk through virgin forest, big timber, ride through it. But logging was our living. But I hate clear-cutting. Select-cut is what my whole life, My dad worked on his reputation. Honest. He never was out of timber. When me and Ed went in business, people knowed him, but we did the same. And I've never been without on my word. We signed one contract in my lifetime of logging. It was a huge track that others were involved that we had to sign papers. The rest of us has been a handshake and word of mouth. The handshake business of the Valines Login Company is still in effect today, but the shake is coming from Cody and Kalen. This family's reputation has held for three generations, and if they say they're going to do it, even if it hurts them, they do it. And man, when I hear that kind of character, I get excited. There are some flashy things in life that our culture wants to celebrate, but how about we celebrate genuine character? Do you remember what Eddie Valines told Kalen on the last episode? He said, if you're really being honest with people, you probably won't get rich. You'll just get by. Do you remember him talking about being content? That was powerful stuff. Don't be duped by the trends of the age. In a world that lacks character, strong character will stand out. and its potency is so ancient that there is no doubt that it will always rise to the top. Hey, if you're in or around Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and you live for hunting season, you need to swing by the Meat Eater store in Milwaukee. We're stocked wall to wall with the gear we actually use in the field. First Light, FHF gear, Phelps game calls, and more. You'll find us at the corners of Brookfield. Whether you're gearing up for the season, dialing in a setup, or just want to talk shop with people who love to hunt, this is your place. That's the Meat Eater Store Milwaukee at the corners of Brookfield. Stop in, get dialed, and get after it. Back to Teddy. But anyway, yeah, the logging. And then in the 90s, we got our first skidder and And well before that, he's talking about the winch truck. When we got our first winch truck, me and Ed, we thought that was the greatest thing that ever was because we didn't have to roll them up skid poles. I mean, when me and Ed was young, about 14, 15, 16, people would just, I mean, they'd stand back. Me and Ed would load logs. We worked together. We'd grow to hunt it, everything together, same size. Little bitty guys. But we could load them so fast. And, of course, them old big butts on big logs, you know, were gang ground. Well, you could grab that end and spin it backwards and other than shove and keep that log straight. We could put them on them trucks. We got to where we'd walk the skid poles, and you had to stack them on trucks. You had most poles on the trucks to stack them. We'd walk them skid poles and roll them up. And we'd get to the mill. We'd take them. People would just stand back. We'd unload the logs just as fast as work together a little. but that's all we know. And Dad would say, boys, he said, you know, there's too little. He said, you're going to kill yourself. But we'd watch them, you know, and we'd just laugh, and you thought you was in your prime. Teddy knows that I've come here to hear one story, one that Cody said I had to hear, and once again, it's about danger in the logwoods. But before he gets to the big one, he tells me a few others. This one involves a bluff, which there are a lot of in Newton County. I can tell you a funny little story. When I was logging by myself one time, I was cutting around a big high bluff, and the timber, the tops of it, you know, they was kind of falling, hanging off the edge of the bluff around through there. Well, I'd just go out there and top them, you know, whack them. Well, I went in a run, knock, slash, I mean, and I fell on, and I run out on a couple little old limbs, about as big around as you lag, to top that tree. I happened to look down, and I am scared to death of heights. That bluff had made a V, and I was standing on two little limbs, looking down at least 50 to 70 foot off of that bluff. And I froze, panicked, because I was terrified. But I'd fell atop where it just veed. And son, I like to never got back out on hard ground. This next story on the surface, You might think it highlights how tough Teddy is, and it will do that. But to me, it really highlights how serious these guys are about getting the job done. Oh, yeah, my wife's over there. Like I said, there's so many accidents. Let me tell this about my arm. Log by myself. No, I had a guy help me. We got a load. A couple other guys was on the same track, and I'd go haul their logs. Well, I run a chainsaw. It's 24-inch bar, long bar, and used to it. And I'm way off in the canyon, way out there. I run down there, and both of them was up on the hill working. Well, the chainsaw was sitting there, and I had to get me some standards before I go to loading. I jumped off, grabbed that chainsaw, and cranked it. And there's a limb just right, I was standing in the road just right for standards. Well, I wrenched over to cut that off. Well, it's a 20-inch bar instead of 24. When I throwed it up there, the end of that bar tip hit that limb and kicked back. The handlebar was broke on the chainsaw. The chain brake was broke. It kicked back right by my head, and I dodged it, and it went through, cut my shoulder, and the chain was still running inside my shoulder. by cutting me a hole in here, trying to appear with my head. The chain break wouldn't stop the chain. And I finally got my finger and got it shut off. And I had to slide it out of my arm. And that muscle just fell off, down. Well, I held it up where they got down there. And he cleaned my shirt out of my cousin best he could, cut my shirt and tied that muscle up. I got on the loader, loaded me a load of logs. Come plumb out, it took me at least an hour or more to get to the bill. Wasn't hurting. Wasn't bleeding bad. I got to the mill, dumped a load of logs, and I said, sew this up for me. And they got some butterfly stitches, whatever. Had a first aid kit, a sawmill. And taped that up, I got back in the truck, went back out there, and hauled me another load of logs. And the old boy that was helping me, I mean, he's a big cattle man and stuff, and I left my big truck sitting there. And I drive my work truck there so he could drive. Anyway, it just worked out. And I pulled up there to park my big truck. It's nearly dark. And I hollered at him. I said, come here and sew this up. I said, you got some stitches. you sold cows up. Well, he looked at that, and he gave me the awfulest cussing that I've ever had. And he said, you get to the doctor. Well, I come home, and she took me to the doctor. Never did hurt bad. The worst thing was them cleaning that up. But I got a big scar. That muscle just fell off. How many stitches did they put in you? Do you remember? Oh, no. It's plumb across my... The scar is six, seven inches long. But the bars, I mean, it was running. That is a wild story. And Kalen once told me about his dad, Eddie, working for over a week with a broken ankle, the bone almost pushing through the skin, but refusing to go to the doctor. He used Kalen's ankle brace from basketball and cinched it tight and hobbled around in the logwoods until his family made him go to the doctor. There's a fine line between glorifying foolishness and toughness, And I'd say these guys have weaved back and forth over that threshold most of their life. But they just knew they had to get the work done so that their families could eat. And I don't know this, but I doubt Teddy and Eddie had very good health insurance. And you might have felt that burden before. I know that I have. Here a story from Cody about his dad back when he had a temper We were at Kingston wasn we Yeah probably to this day the greatest place I ever been as far as logging goes We were putting in a new road There's a little old holly there, and it was rough, and there's some big rocks, and there was a giant sycamore tree. The only way to get a road in there was right through the middle of that sycamore tree. We could cut the tree, that wasn't no big deal, but we couldn't get that stump out and a little 508 caterpillar skitter, which is not a very big skitter. So we got the right idea. I don't know how we got the cable up there, but we got the cable way up in this sycamore tree, way up in it. And I was going to go out the road and pull while he worked on the stump on this thing with the dozer, and we were going to bring it all out at once because that old five wasn't nowhere close to big enough to push this tree. So I get out there, and I'm hooked onto it. He's pushing on the stump, and we got it to moving. We got it to moving enough I thought I was doing some good. Well, the road we had to build around there to that point wasn't very wide. And I'm sitting in the middle of this new road. And before I realize it, I'm getting off toward the side of this thing. And it's pretty good bank there. But I'm trying to get this tree out. And before I know it, I'm in a bind. This skitter's fixing to turn over. So I stopped. Well, tensions was kind of getting high anyway. We was almost to get this tree out, you know. And he's wanting me to pull. I was high-tempered back then. He's wanting me to pull. He's pushing. He's screaming at me to pull. Well, Frank Adele was working with us at this time. I told you about Frank. And Frank was on the ground. And Frank's telling me to pull, pull, pull. And then Frank stops telling me to pull because he sees I'm going to turn over. And Dad comes off the dozer. Here he comes. And I said, before you even get on there, that sucker's going to turn over. He went right by me. On the skidder he went. and you know what happened next. Me and Frank-O-Dell are standing there. I mean, we and Frank just basically got out of the way. And I'll never forget this as long as I live. This is just one of those people that know Frank-O-Dell can see this picture. Frank-O-Dell's smoking one of the mobile USA Golds. He lit one up. And I'm standing there beside him, and we're standing there in the road, and Dad turns the skitter over. And he went from, okay, he's like this. he went over on his side up on his top and over on the other side he turned it over i mean it when it didn't go you know i've turned i turned the tractor over one time and it was like slow motion you know i just i just laid it over on its side when this skitter turned over it ended on its top it was a hundred miles an hour no it went completely over yes and landed on its top on the other side. Yeah. Because you came out like a gray squirrel. But anyway, this skitter goes boom, boom, boom. I mean, it flopped. And I'll never forget as long as I let Frank Adele stand there, he never got excited. He never even took a fast step. He's smoking a little cigarette. That skitter landed and he went, I'll be dying. And about the time Frank said that, dad's head comes up out of that skitter. It don't have no doors on it. No. I mean, this is a pretty old school rig. It was a little grapple, but it didn't have any doors on it. I mean, I'm scared to death that he's got a leg hanging out a door, whatever. His head pops out the other side, and he comes out. The cable broke. The cable's hanging in his second more tree. In a matter of less than five minutes, we got the dozer hooked on the skidder. We turn it back up on his wheels, and we go back to logging. Back down on the steep hill. I mean, it was just like we did it every day. But I was hanging on, no doors, and I was clutching everything because I was afraid he'd throw me out. It's tight, and when I come to a stop, I'm standing on my head is the way I wound up. My feet stuck straight up, and I was on my head when the skidder quit rolling. That's a wild story, and I liked it when Cody said that Teddy came out of the skidder like a gray squirrel. Hey, if you're in or around Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and you live for hunting season, you need to swing by the Meat Eater store in Milwaukee. We're stocked wall to wall with the gear we actually use in the field. First Light, FHF gear, Phelps game calls, and more. You'll find us at the corners of Brookfield. Whether you're gearing up for the season, dialing in a setup, or just want to talk shop with people who love to hunt, this is your place. That's the Meat Eater Store Milwaukee at the corners of Brookfield. Stop in, get dialed, and get after it. This has finally led us to the story that I came here to hear about. The story you want to get to that's tucks along probably. This one has got more purpose. It means more to me because it showed me who I was and who the one that's in control is. There was a stretch there where it was just me and him, just the two of us, a pretty long stretch. But we were running two trucks, two big trucks. We were on a pretty good-sized track, I mean, a big piece of land. It took a—I mean, you had to drive around, and you got to this bluff, and there's only one gap in this bluff. On top of that bluff was 120 acres, 40, 40, 40. We were at the back, so we were three-quarters of a mile in there. I had a hydrocoly on my skitter. It was giving me fits. I couldn't find it. One day, I noticed it was a little more wet back there. So I got done skidding logs, and Dad's loading trucks. And I thought, I'm going to find this hydrocoly while he's loading these trucks. So I get in there, and I find it. so he gets the trucks loaded and i'm over we're fighting with this hydraulic hose well i'm under the skidder and had been for 45 minutes and he said we better get out of here it's gonna rain and i said let me get this fixed i've almost got it i finally got it found so i'm still under there gomming with it gomming with it he said we got to get out here it's gonna rain i said i almost got it finally he said we got to go so we jumped in the truck i was in the front and when i say truck not talking about a trailer truck 10 wheeler with a pup trailer both of us and we head out of there it's important to note that both log trucks are fully loaded with over 80 000 pounds of timber and i think we're going to make it because it's flat it's flat all the way across the top you get to that bluff go down the gap in the bluff and it's a pretty good grade down through the field and you'll kind of level out again i'm thinking the whole time we're gonna get off here before it starts raining like a hundred yards before i get to the gap in the bluff it starts raining and i'm talking about like the old boy on old robin them long drops i mean it starts pouring and i break off the gap in the bluff and uh my jake break's on i don't realize it but my jake break has been on this whole time well that's not good if it's slick i took off flying. Well, I reached up there and killed the Jake. I probably slid 10 foot max. I just barely slid. And when I killed the Jake break, I was fine. I went easing off the hill. I don't think another thing about it. I'm halfway down the hill. I ain't had no more trouble. And I reached down in the floorboard to get a drink. I had a bottle of water sitting in the floorboard. And when I reached down to get that bottle of water, I looked out the passenger side of that truck. He's passing me. High rate of speed. It looked like we were on the interstate and he's just blowing my doors off. But he's on the right hand side of me over here. He's out in the grass. But the first thing, and I'll never forget this as long as I live. When I seen him, it was like, he's going 40 miles an hour. there's not a tire on that truck turning they're all locked up he's sliding you can take it from there and then i'll tell the rest of it back up a little show you the hard-headed stubborns yes he was full of that line and i and i seen that cloud and i had a bad feeling i just which i was like my dad is nervous antsy but i just had a feeling and i never told him it was super dry Yes, it was super dry. The dust was that deep. But there was a cloud, and I was getting mad at him, which you can't tell him nothing, just like his dad. He had to fix that line. When I did, and like he said, and it's a good grade, it's a tenth of a mile from the top of that to the bottom of the field. And it came, it wasn't longer, it was a wide out. It was absolutely wide out. and when I broke over and he hadn't slid just a little bit and the truck I was driving the tars were hard I mean didn't have tread but when I touched where he had slid that truck left shot like you'd shot out of a cannon he didn't just when it slid and I drove thousands of loads of logs out of the woods I won't say I'm a good truck driver but I've done it since 16 years old all kinds of conditions, and I thought in myself. I mean, I tried everything, but it left, and I know jake break ain't. I flipped the jake break. Nothing. You pulled out on the grass to keep from hitting me. No. You didn't? I didn't pull nothing. I had no control. It just took off. The road kind of curved left when you fell off the hill, the tracks. I mean, the road we'd made. You just missed me, Liv. and I pulled the lever of the trailer. Nothing. I tried to gas it, and by then I was done. I thought, I can handle this. I can control it. I thought about gas and tried that. You couldn't shift gears. I tried, and it was going, and I halfway over the hill, and I know there was one old tree out there in that field. There's a cemetery out there. Big old tree out there. and I thought my only hope is to turn this thing over in the field. Because at the end of that, there was nothing but huge timber at the end of the field. Big sycamore. I know what kind of timber, and I know when I hit that, I was a dead man. I mean I realized And below that was War Eagle And when you went through the timber you went off the bluff and War Eagle All that hit my mind when I was at least 40 miles an hour And I thought, the only way I'm going to live, if I hit that tree out there, that's one tree. It was rain as hard you couldn't. And I cut the wheels as hard as I could cut them, and nothing happened. and there's a little old road coming out of the cemetery and that and then it was timber. I just cut the wheels back straight and I said, Lord, save me. That's all I had time to do. And I hit timber. And the first one I hit was a big tall persimmon, not a field persimmon. It was 12, 14 inches at the stop. I hit it, it was like bombs went off. I shirred it off and it went by. my window, the top end first and the butt. And I went, it shirred the mirrors off, right again the doors, shirred the stacks off of the truck. It throwed me when I hit, it throwed me out of the seat, and it throwed me right back in the seat. I grabbed the steering wheel, and I thought, well, that timber. And I drugged, there was timber under me, and I went through that and hid the clearing, and I thought, next is War Eagle, I'm going off in it. I can't remember if it's a bluff here or hopefully it's, and I drug enough timber, I come to a dead stop in that little opening. And Cody was at my door, barely by the time I got, and he couldn't get in. And he got in on the passenger side. And we sat there and water was absolutely running under that truck, so deep. and he said, I don't know if my truck is still there or not. He said, I jerked the brake on it. I wouldn't plumb off the hill, and he come running. When I looked over and seen him going by me, of course, I knew what was going on. As I was going out the door, I jerked the brakes, and I'm running. I mean, it's raining like crazy, and I'm running down across that field, and while I'm running, I'm screaming, Lord help him, Lord help him. And it was like, I mean, it's pouring, pouring rain. But it was like it was dead silent. Like there's no noise at all. Until he hit the woods. When that truck hit the woods, it was like, it sounded like a freight train. I mean, it was like a tornado. Just instantly, just the awfulest wreck that you've ever heard. And all I can see is the back. You know, all I know is he's going through the timber. I don't know what I'm going to find when I get there. and I went running up to the driver's side, and he's in there, and I see I can't get in. So I run around and go between the truck and the trailer, and I bail up in the passenger side. Not a scratch on me? He's just sitting there looking at me like, what's that? Not a bruise, not a scratch, but I split all that huge timber. Of course, it totaled the truck, and I drug trees under the trailer, big old root wads, and it bent the housing, axle housing on the truck. I mean, the whole big axle housing with the pumpkin. It bent one of them plumb back. And the Lord spoke to me. I got to the point that, which I was always self-confident, I mean do, and I thought I could do. I got to leaving the Lord out of the picture. He spoke to me. He said, Bud, you ain't in control of your life. You think you can get control? You don't have control. He does. All I had time to do was say, Lord, save me. The question could be asked, what's the value in a man knowing who's in control of his life? Why is that life changing? And I think it goes back to essential truth. If you think you're in control, but you're actually not, you're living in a disconnected state from reality. Acknowledgement of truth beyond just the intellectual aligns us and shifts the very place from which we see our life. The acknowledgement of God's control in a human's life has the power to change everything. And Teddy wouldn't know it, but this would set him up for what was going to come later in his life. Back to the story. But you could look, and the grass was, oh, six, eight inches tall. You could look up through that field, and the grass was, you could track it. It was straight as you took an arrow and shot it. And I went about an eighth of a mile before I stopped. and we estimated 40 to 50, not to exaggerate, but easy 40 to 50 mile an hour that I was sliding, 80-some thousand pounds off a steep hill, slick grass. I found out that he is the one. A man is not in control. There's somebody mightier than him that's giving breath of life and keeps him every day. It's been a good life. Lots of close calls. God's been good to us. These boys, it's in the blood. The first story I heard from my dad in the woods, but they're doing it right. I can say they're honest. You can go to the woods and they ain't trash and treat it like it would if it's our own. When people, when you talk about logging, a lot of people, the first thing they think about is, oh boy, so-and-so, he got hurt bad in the logwoods. Their Eno even got killed. That's not what I think about. I mean, there's been way more good days than we sit here and tell all these stories. I mean, you tell the cool stuff, what people want to hear about turning skitters over and wrecking trucks and all that stuff. There's way more days. There's way more good days. You know what I mean? There's been way, way more good days where you went to work, everything went smooth. You sat down at lunchtime. You know, I can remember being kids when Dad and Eddie was working together. You know, we'd sit down at lunch, and there's way more of those days than good days. Yeah. You know, those are actually the memories I have that I think about when I think about logging. It was fun. It's fun, yeah. You worked hard. Yeah. But, I mean, yeah, you sit down and talk or enjoy. As we closed our conversation, Teddy reflected on his father and how he missed him. I thought it was interesting that he brought this up now. Most thing I miss about him, I do to this day. Which me and dad got, I was the youngest, the baby. And when he was older, I was with him, helping him, you know, up to then. but going to the old house up there and he could look straight ahead and he'd cut his eyes going around and they'd come in the door and if he's in a good mood he'd cut his eyes at you and a little grin and I can see that to this day. I never once in my life ever hear my mom or dad tell me they love me. Didn't have to. I never heard them. but didn't have to be told. It was just a lifestyle then. It's been a good life, a blessed life, lots of hard work. Until the last few years, I spent more time outside than I was ever in a house. Because me and Ed was in the woods coon hunting at night. That's why it hurts so bad now to be cooped up. cooped up, he said. In early December 2025, Teddy was diagnosed with a fairly advanced melanoma cancer. It's times like these that stabilization only comes from knowing and trusting who's in control. And if you have ever wondered about Eddie Valines, Teddy's brother, Kalen's dad who spoke of being content and wondered why he wasn't on this episode it's because four years ago he was diagnosed with the rare and debilitating form of dementia Eddie is just 70 years old and he's still hanging on like two pieces of stove wood split from the same log Eddie is just as good and strong man as his little brother I know that and I thank the Lord every day God has been I think better than me than anybody in the world I could tell that I should have been dead He's brought me through it till now and this and man He's been good to me through this too Please pray for Teddy and Eddie Velines and it's my prayer that you and I can have the same faith, joy, hope, and contentment in the midst of life's challenges, which inevitably will come. I can't thank you enough for listening to Bear Grease. Please share this podcast with a friend and leave a review of our podcast wherever you listen. On behalf of Brent's This Country Life podcast and lakes backwoods university keep the wild places wild because that's where the bears live hey if you're in or around milwaukee wisconsin and you live for hunting season you need to swing by the meat eater store in milwaukee we're stocked wall to wall with the gear we actually use in the field. First light, FHF gear, Phelps game calls, and more. You'll find us at the Corners of Brookfield. Whether you're gearing up for the season, dialing in a setup, or just want to talk shop with people who love to hunt, this is your place. That's the Meat Eater Store Milwaukee at the Corners of Brookfield. Stop in, get dialed, and get after it. This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed Human