- 6 hours ago
Mountain Men - Season 14 Episode 13 -
Tom Oar's Secrets From the Wild
Tom Oar's Secrets From the Wild
Category
😹
FunTranscript
00:00The man, the myth, the legend, I think I was born to be a mountain man, a mountain man for more
00:27than half a century. Tom Orr is a master of living off the land. When we first moved up here, there wasn't any jobs for a person to make a living up here. With skills perfected over a lifetime of lessons. You've got to keep pushing all the time to just survive.
00:57Hunting. Looks like a good one. Tanning. All right, we've got this. Trapping. There's a big set. These are hard-won skills.
01:09But true mastery lies in passing them on.
01:16That's his beaver casters. It's a set gland.
01:20From Montana's Yak Valley, these are Tom Orr's survival secrets. From a life lived wild and free.
01:34I've lived the life that I wanted to live. And I'll be a mountain man until the day I die.
01:40What does it take for a modern-day pioneer to thrive in the wild? The list is long. But it all begins with one essential skill. Hunting for wild game.
02:02Because in the mountains, those who can't feed themselves don't last long.
02:09After 40 years in the Yak Valley, I've learned some valuable lessons about life. Hunting is one of the major skills people need to know.
02:21And if you can't feed yourself, it's going to be a little hard to live up here.
02:29A successful hunter must know their surroundings and be able to read the land.
02:34A skill Tom Orr forged through decades of harsh winters and deep snow.
02:40We're looking for a whitetail buck. We'll harvest 100 pounds of meat out of that. It'll feed Nancy and I into the spring, you know.
02:48Hunt after hunt has given him the knowledge and experience to turn even the toughest conditions into an advantage.
02:57The new snowfall on the ground, you can see where all the critters are moving at.
03:02A lot of scion, even some scrapes and stuff that I found. So that means the bucks are starting to come into the rut.
03:08So they're up moving more in the daytime and stuff rather than laying down in the day.
03:13The rut is breeding season. A prime window for hunters to secure their winter meat.
03:21They're a lot easier to hunt when they've got sex on their mind.
03:26There's a bunch of deer. Looks like they might come right through here.
03:37Here's the buck. Here's the buck. Looks like a good one.
03:41On the left. Right through the brush.
03:43Oh, they're all moving.
03:56Even when the shot is true, a buck on the run can still get away.
04:16Did I not hit that shot?
04:19I go check him out here.
04:21A lot of things run through a person's mind when you pull that trigger.
04:32And there's blood, yeah. Looks like we put a bullet in him.
04:36Well, he splattered, didn't he?
04:39Makes a big difference to have a freezer full of free meat.
04:45There he is.
04:46There he is.
04:46All right, buddy. Sorry to do this to you. We needed you.
04:58It'll feed Nancy and I for several months, you know what I mean?
05:02Not only is there food, but there's a hide to tan that'll bring money.
05:06The antlers will make beautiful knife handles for my stone knife blades.
05:10It's a big benefit to us.
05:12Hunting's never a sure thing.
05:22It demands time, patience, and instinct.
05:26Over the years, Tom's found his edge in an age-old method.
05:31Handcrafted bows and arrows.
05:33I really like the bowhunt.
05:37I guess it's because of the primitive background that I'm interested in.
05:43There's a connection there that really appeals to me.
05:50The Kootenai tribe that originally settled the yak used wild rose stems to fashion arrows.
05:56Future arrow sheds.
05:58Because the wood is lightweight and pliable.
06:01You pick out the straightest-looking ones and you cut them.
06:07Montana has separate seasons for rifles and archery.
06:11Hunting during both can increase your chances of success.
06:14If you know how to handle each weapon.
06:18You want all your arrow shafts to be the same size around, or else they won't fly the same.
06:25I use bare grease and heat, and you heat these arrow shafts, and you bend them and hold them into place while they cool off, and they'll actually straighten out on you.
06:48You see, you can find lots of old arrow shafts in museums that have the teeth marks still in them.
07:06After I get them straight, though, then I have to deal with putting the fletchings on them.
07:13The feathers keep the arrow going in a straight line when it's firing from the bow.
07:19And then you have to put points on them, and cut knacks in the ends of them.
07:26I usually paint all my arrows also.
07:30The color makes it a little easier to find your arrows, especially in the snow conditions.
07:37Tom's homestead is surrounded by the Kootenay watershed, an intricate river system that attracts wildlife year-round, like elk and deer.
07:46And where, over the years, Tom's perfected his archery skills.
07:52There's quite a few deer that move through here.
07:56So I'm going to go check this out.
08:00Fresh tracks there.
08:09Fresh snow makes tracking easier, but it can also make sneaking up on prey a lot harder.
08:17The snow kind of crunches, and them deer will hear that noise, and their first thing is to get the hell out of there.
08:30I've got to get within 20 yards with a bow in order to even take a shot.
08:38And you've got to make a good one.
08:39I think it's a buck taxi going on down towards the river.
08:52Tracking is a really neat deal if a person really knows what they're doing.
08:57It tells you a whole bunch about the animals.
09:00Every little track has its own little story.
09:11Finally, there was the buck.
09:13God, that sucker.
09:30My arrow fired straight and through it.
09:33When I hit him, oh, sorry about that, old man.
09:39And we've got meat in the frying pan.
09:42But what more can I say?
09:43Nestled deep in the northern Rockies, Montana's Yak Valley is one of the most remote pockets of wilderness in the country.
09:55While its natural resources are abundant, surviving here requires determination and skill.
10:02Something Tom Orr has honed since he and his wife Nancy moved here more than 40 years ago.
10:12We needed some way to make a living up here.
10:18While Tom quickly perfected his hunting skills, it didn't put any money in his pocket.
10:24Learning how to tan hides was critical to his staying power.
10:27The problem being, you couldn't make enough money by selling the raw hides to the fur people.
10:35There just wasn't enough money in it.
10:39And so when that started happening, we started tanning the furs that we caught.
10:48Tanning's been probably the biggest thing for us up here as far as making a living.
10:52And all this started when I bought a $3 book.
11:00In 1973, Tom discovered a 16-page $3 book on the shelves of an old trading post.
11:07Inside, he found the secrets of the ancient art of brain tanning,
11:12a technique that Native Americans have used for centuries.
11:15But becoming a master tanner didn't happen overnight.
11:19This was a very hard road for me to learn, you know, through that one little $3 book.
11:26After I learned, I started teaching and tanning to lots of people.
11:30But one of my favorite students has been Sean McAfee.
11:36Several winters ago, Tom taught his friend and business partner Sean McAfee the secrets to his trade.
11:43And the first step to tanning any hide is to harvest the brains.
11:49I've got two skulls, and we're going to take the brains out.
11:55Tom often uses the brains of mule deer that he harvests in the fall.
12:01The oils that are in the brain softens the skin until it's broken down and soft.
12:08What a doctor we'd make, huh?
12:12Lobotomy.
12:14Bear!
12:17They're going to take a while to thaw these suckers.
12:20The active ingredient in animal brains is an oil called lecithin that softens and seals the hide.
12:37It takes about six ounces of brains to tan and scan.
12:43All right, this is what it'll take.
12:45Round and round and round it goes.
12:53Don't smell bad if you hold your nose.
13:01Once the hide is fleshed...
13:03With brain-tanned skins, the epidermis is taken off.
13:08That's the layer of skin that's underneath the hair.
13:12It's soaked in the brain solution.
13:15And Tom's learned the hard way, that every pore in fiber must be fully saturated to craft leather strong enough to last generations.
13:22You can go to a museum, and you can find a 200-year-old war shirt that's been brain-tan, and it's still soft and flexible and tough and tight.
13:36All right, got to make sure all these brains all soak in, and we stick the ringing stick, and we're going to get rid of all this excess water.
13:45Ring it.
13:46Ring it.
13:47Ring it.
13:48Ring it.
13:49Ring it.
13:50That considered to be rung?
13:52Yeah, that's pretty well rung.
13:53And then we'll finish your ass.
13:54Let's do it.
13:55While Tom's tanned nearly every critter in the yak from muskrats to wolves, one of the biggest challenges he's ever tackled is a bison hide.
14:14Buffalo hides are a big, big project compared to deer skins, but they're worth it.
14:21I love what they're doing.
14:22Each bison hide can fetch up to $3,000 if tanned correctly, but the process is labor-intensive, and they're always a gamble.
14:33The hide only fetches top dollar if it's tanned with the fur intact.
14:38The thing I've got to do is just shave it all down and thin it so there's just enough hide to hold the hair on.
14:46When this hide come the other day, of course it was all covered with meat and fat and gristle.
14:54Tom uses the same brain tanning solution on bison hides as he does on deer, but it requires a lot more.
15:02Fortunately, his wife Nancy also knows the secret recipe.
15:06A woman with a bucket of brains, huh?
15:09Right.
15:10Smart woman.
15:11What a girl.
15:12I'm just about ready for them brains.
15:14All these brains have to soak all the way through the whole hide, all the way to the hair.
15:22Once it dries out, we're gonna cut the hide off the frame.
15:27Well, she's coming.
15:30All right, we're getting here.
15:40The skin is always stiff from tanning, but for Tom to sell it, it has to be broken in.
15:48All right, so now I just gotta work it over a disc blade.
15:56The disc blade breaks down and softens the skin so it can be folded and worn.
16:01And the bigger the hide, the more effort it takes.
16:04Most tanners don't have a very long license tanning.
16:10Usually their shoulders go out on them from working heights and pull up and stuff.
16:15So there aren't very many old tanners.
16:18I'll bet I'm one of the oldest going here, really.
16:22I think we did it.
16:35There wasn't no spots on it where the hair slipped out, so I think we've been a real success.
16:42Now I didn't get after all the other stuff I've gotta do.
16:49I mean, you gotta keep pushing all the time to just survive out here.
16:55But at least we're living here in the woods doing what we wanna do.
17:00In the rugged wilderness of western Montana, survival isn't given, it's earned.
17:16One meal and one pelt at a time.
17:22For the mountain men who carved a life out of this land over a century ago, trapping wasn't just a trade.
17:28It was a way of life.
17:30And when Tom Orr put down roots here as a young man, he quickly honed the skill that has sustained frontiersmen for generations.
17:41Back in Illinois before I moved here, I started beaver trapping.
17:45There were lots of beaver back in Illinois.
17:47But in the Kootenai National Forest, we have two million acres of land.
17:53You gotta try to make that animal put his foot within an area like that.
18:01Yeah, that was one of the things I had to learn to do to make a living out here.
18:07I make good money off of beavers, though, because of all the things I do with the animal after I trap them.
18:14So beavers are real good for me.
18:18Beaver are beneficial to the ecosystem.
18:21But if the population gets out of control, they wreak havoc by damming up streams and destroying trees.
18:30Fortunately for Tom, his relentless dedication to the craft earned him a reputation as one of the best trappers around.
18:38Because he put in the long hours and mastered a skill few could rival.
18:45Lots of hard work involved with trapping. I mean, it's hard going.
18:54One winter, he braved the treacherous North Fork of the Yak River,
19:00chasing a nuisance colony that promised a big reward.
19:06But it required that he put every trick he'd mastered to the test.
19:13All right, this is the trickery of the whole deer right here, boys.
19:19And this is what the beavers do.
19:21They come up on the bank, they'll grab a bunch of grass and mud off the bottom,
19:25they'll put it up here on the edge like this, and then they'll climb up on top of it, and they'll excrete this beaver caster onto it.
19:33Well, this beaver caster that I'm using here is from a different place.
19:40The caster gland on the beaver is used to mark territories.
19:46About the same kind of deal as a dog coming up and peeing on your tire.
19:51So now the beavers that live here, they'll come swimming along and they'll smell that.
19:57They got hell of a noses on them.
19:59He'll come here to check out this new guy in town, piss him off, he'll be mad.
20:06They'll come and investigate it, and I bet you we'll have a beaver here.
20:16You can see the beaver dam here.
20:18Right in the middle of it is what they call the crossover.
20:22That's where the beavers cross the dam if they're going to go down below the dam.
20:26And it's usually a pretty good place to put one.
20:28This is what they call a dive stick.
20:41The object of it is, is the beaver will dive underneath these sticks, which will put him right into the trap.
20:47And the trap will clamp on him like that will kill him.
20:50That's the object of the 330 counter bear, it's called.
20:56Getting safety off.
20:59All right, it's ready to fire now.
21:03With fresh sign all around, Tom knew it was time to strike.
21:07So he set every trap in his arsenal and let them soak overnight.
21:12Oh, we got one, boys.
21:18Success.
21:19We got a beaver.
21:21Ooh, he's a big one.
21:24Nice head catch.
21:26That was that submerged trap with the dive stick.
21:29So he had to dive down and swim through it.
21:32That's close to 50 pounder.
21:34He's a big one.
21:35But that wasn't the only beaver Tom caught that day.
21:38Ha, he got a beaver.
21:42Hallelujah.
21:43We caught some beavers.
21:45All right.
21:46We got five beaver.
21:47That's as many beaver as what I've ever caught in one day, I think.
21:51All right.
21:52That's success.
21:55Hunting and trapping are vital survival skills in the mountains.
22:10But since the earliest mountain men blazed trails west, self-sufficiency was just as essential.
22:27With trade goods often scarce, they relied on their own resourcefulness, learning crafting techniques from Native American tribes, skills that became a way of life, just as they have for Tom and Nancy Orr.
22:42How are you doing there?
22:44You about got one then.
22:46Okay.
22:47We've learned over the years that the furs and stuff that we trap, we go ahead and tan them and usually make stuff out of them so we can make a better profit on what we catch.
23:02Trapping and tanning is kind of a thing.
23:07We've got to take our furs further than just to the furrier.
23:12I mean, if we just sold our furs to the furrier, I think we'd be starving.
23:22What have you liked making the best?
23:24Well, I kind of like doing the bows.
23:27That's kind of a neat thing to do.
23:30A couple pieces of wood.
23:34And hopefully it all works out to where it all comes together.
23:46Crafting a handmade bow is a test of patience and precision.
23:52Every curve, grain and fiber must be carefully shaped to create a weapon that is both powerful and resilient.
24:00Few possess the skill to craft a bow entirely by hand, because mastering the technique takes years.
24:08With the bow making, first you have to come out with the piece of wood that you're going to make the bow out of.
24:14You start with a log and you split it into pieces.
24:20You've got to trim it all down to shape it into the shape of the bow.
24:24And it's just a complicated thing to do.
24:33Many seasons ago, while working on a custom bow commission worth $1,000, it took Tom more than 24 hours just to hone the raw piece of wood into shape.
24:42Well, I make my bow out of wood like the old people did.
24:47Nancy then helped him reinforce the bow by adding deer sinew, a tough, fibrous tissue that Tom harvests near the spine of the animal.
24:57And the sinew reinforces the bow.
25:04The sinew is used for thousands of years as a sewing thread.
25:08There isn't hardly anything else in nature that is as strong as what sinew is.
25:13Tom's signature wrap on the bow is made from the skin of an eastern diamondback rattlesnake.
25:26It's been an all day and an all night deal here for the last couple of nights.
25:35The bow that I made, it's called a recurve bow.
25:38The final step is to attach the bow string crafted from durable hemp fiber.
25:48That's about a 40 pound draw.
25:55Then comes the moment of truth.
26:00All right, here we go here.
26:08From the time I was a kid, I was dreaming of bows and arrows and running around with traps and stuff.
26:20I was probably born 200 years too late and I'm still trying to live in the past, you know.
26:25All right.
26:29But bows aren't the only thing Tom crafts by hand.
26:31One of his best selling items is a pair of beaver hide mittens that can more than triple the profit from a single pelt.
26:40The pattern that we have is an old Eskimo pattern.
26:44The person that wanted the mittens wanted them with beaver fur back.
26:49But the palms of them are going to be made out of moose hide.
26:52So the fur will be on the outside of the mittens.
26:56All right.
27:09This will be the back of the mittens we're cutting out now.
27:12Fur is warm.
27:14That's all there is to it and that's why we use fur.
27:17Fur is a mountain man's material of choice.
27:22But making a clean cut through a dense hide like beaver takes a sharp blade and a steady hand.
27:28They're not pretty nice.
27:31Now all we gotta do is connect them all together.
27:37Once again, deer sinew is the threat of choice.
27:40It takes patience.
27:41But patience is a virtue.
27:42Patience is a very good thing to have.
27:43It's like we're about all done here except just filling these wells, huh?
27:47Turn that inside out.
27:48Nancy's got a real good eye for detail and stuff too.
27:53She'll go through it and pick out any bad spots.
27:54So she keeps it behind the stick.
27:55Ooh, that's nice.
27:56All right.
27:57They look nice.
27:58To the back of the back of the back of the back of the back of the back of the back of the
27:59these wells, huh?
28:02Turn that
28:03inside out. Nancy's
28:05got a real good eye for
28:06detail and stuff, too, and she'll go
28:09through it and pick out any bad spots.
28:11So she keeps me on the stick.
28:15Ooh, that's nice.
28:20All right.
28:22They look nice,
28:23Tom. You did a great job. Thank you.
28:26All right. Come get some
28:27coffee. All right. There's this
28:29something about the past that
28:31appeals to me and how these primitive
28:33people did the things they did,
28:35the way they did them.
28:37What a neat way it is for me to be
28:39able to try to eke out a
28:41living doing the same thing.
28:50Deep in the remote
28:51wilderness of western Montana,
28:53the land is quiet,
28:55but peace is never
28:57guaranteed. Here's
28:59survival is a daily battle
29:01and the shadow of predators
29:03loom large at every turn.
29:08For more than 40 years,
29:10Tom Orr has faced this
29:11unforgiving landscape
29:12and been tested
29:15time and time again.
29:16living here in the woods.
29:18Yeah, living here in the woods
29:20like this has really
29:22sharpened my
29:23my way of life.
29:26That's one of the
29:27things about living
29:29out here.
29:30We have to deal
29:32with the predators.
29:33One winter,
29:34the bears got way too close
29:36for comfort.
29:37We had a black bear
29:39break into the
29:40tanning shed
29:41though one time
29:42and went right through the window
29:44and
29:46what a mess he made
29:47of that place.
29:56After several days away
29:57from his homestead,
29:59Tom was returning
30:00with a fresh elk hide.
30:02only to find the remnants
30:11of an incursion
30:12that he had never expected.
30:15Look at this.
30:18What a mess.
30:19There's frames broken
30:25and holes and hides.
30:27Skins are torn up
30:29and ripped
30:29and lots of skins
30:31are ruined.
30:38Black bear hair.
30:41That's what it was.
30:45We've had bears come
30:47onto the deck and stuff
30:48but we've never had one
30:49actually break
30:50into the shop before.
30:51This is definitely
30:52a black bear.
30:54The thing that probably
30:55brought the bear in
30:57in the first place
30:58was these two fresh skins
31:00that had been set here
31:01because they still
31:03had blood in the hair
31:04and they weren't frozen
31:05so the smell
31:07was still good on them
31:08and he must have
31:09just smelled it.
31:12Bears are one thing
31:13you don't want to have
31:14coming around
31:15because they make
31:16a habit of it.
31:17If they come to your place
31:19one time
31:19and get some free chow
31:21they'll normally come back.
31:23Damn that bear.
31:25Damn that bear.
31:29In the aftermath
31:30of the break-in
31:31Tom and his friend
31:32Will Stringfellow
31:33got to work
31:34bear proofing
31:35the tanning shed
31:36with an added layer
31:38of plywood
31:39a reinforced security system
31:42and a specially designed
31:45unwelcome mat.
31:47You got your nails?
31:48Yep.
31:49Just for a little
31:50added insurance
31:51we're going to drive
31:51a bunch of nails
31:52through boards
31:54and we're going to put it
31:55underneath the window
31:56and underneath the door.
31:57I believe that's
32:06going to work
32:07Tom.
32:11Looks pretty good
32:12to me.
32:13Let's see what
32:13this looks like.
32:15Oh!
32:16Oh!
32:17I believe that'll do it.
32:18Yep.
32:18Really?
32:19I sure
32:20wouldn't want to
32:20step on it.
32:21Oh!
32:21Ooh, they're sharp.
32:24Ooh!
32:25Well, that should
32:26keep him off.
32:27That should be scary.
32:28That'll be great.
32:28You wouldn't be able
32:29to stand on that
32:29for very long.
32:34Well, looks like
32:35that should work, huh?
32:43Hopefully between
32:44all the new locks
32:45and the boarded
32:46up window
32:47we can keep
32:47this damn bear
32:48out of the shop.
32:49All right.
32:50Good deal, Tom.
32:51This is a place
33:00that we live
33:01in the wilderness
33:02and we
33:03we need to
33:04accept
33:06or expect
33:07all the things
33:07that may happen
33:09to us here.
33:11We've got
33:11lots of bears
33:12and lions
33:13and stuff
33:14that
33:14one of our
33:15biggest predators
33:16is the wolf.
33:18Haunted
33:19to the brink
33:19of extinction
33:20wolves were
33:21reintroduced
33:22to Montana
33:22in 1995.
33:25As their numbers
33:26increased
33:27so did the challenges
33:28they posed
33:29to those living
33:29in the wild.
33:32Every winter since
33:33Tom Orr
33:34has gone head to head
33:35with the apex predator
33:36sometimes within feet
33:38of his own doorstep.
33:39The population keeps growing
33:44and we're the ones
33:46that need to manage
33:48the amount of wolves
33:50that we have.
33:52I'm licensed
33:53by the state of Montana
33:55to trap wolves.
33:57One winter
33:58with wolves surrounding
33:59his homestead
34:00Tom pushed back.
34:02I love wolves
34:05but
34:05I'm going to do
34:07all I can do
34:08to protect
34:08whatever I have
34:09to protect from.
34:10Laying traps
34:11strategically around
34:12his property
34:13and checking them
34:14daily.
34:19We have a wolf
34:20tracks there.
34:24Hoping to restore
34:26the balance.
34:26Don't move.
34:31We got a wolf.
34:33When you see
34:34that you've got
34:35a wolf
34:36caught in a trap
34:37the first thing
34:38you want to do
34:38is kill it.
34:45There wasn't
34:46time to think.
34:47I just shot.
34:52When you walk up
34:53to an animal
34:54in a trap
34:54or an animal
34:56that could bite you
34:57you ought to make
34:58sure that
34:58the things
34:59are going to be
35:00running your way
35:01not the animal's way.
35:03Hey.
35:14He's dead.
35:21Actually
35:22trapping the wolf
35:23it was a big
35:26experience for me.
35:28I still
35:28respect the animals
35:30but I think
35:31it was looking
35:31for an easy meal.
35:34We don't want
35:35anything to go
35:35to waste
35:36so we might as well
35:37keep the height.
35:39If any of them
35:40have to go
35:41it's the ones
35:42that come around
35:43people
35:44it made me feel
35:46good at least
35:46about being able
35:47to keep them
35:48off my place.
35:49this is my home
35:51this is where
35:52I live
35:52and I'll
35:53protect it
35:53with my life.
36:01As time
36:02marches on
36:03Tom makes use
36:04of every moment
36:05he's got left
36:05in the mountains
36:06and while he
36:08might not be
36:08working his
36:09trap line
36:09like he used
36:10to
36:10he's doing
36:11everything he
36:12can to leave
36:13a lasting
36:13legacy.
36:14Well I know
36:16that I'm a
36:16dying breed
36:17but the things
36:19that I've learned
36:19I feel like
36:21I should
36:21pass them on
36:23and I try
36:24to pass them
36:25on whenever
36:25I can.
36:28A legend
36:28in the Yak
36:29Valley
36:30he's taught
36:30many a thing
36:31or two
36:32about trapping
36:32and tanning
36:33but one of
36:34his favorite
36:35students by far
36:36has been
36:3612 year old
36:37Hank McAfee.
36:39One of the
36:40highlights of
36:41my life
36:42has been
36:42teaching Hank
36:43how to do
36:44all this
36:45stuff.
36:47He's my
36:48star student
36:49at the time.
36:55Three winters
36:56ago
36:56Tom taught
36:58Hank a skill
36:59that helped
36:59men settle
37:00the West
37:00how to skin
37:02a beaver
37:02the way
37:04trappers did
37:04when pelts
37:05were as good
37:05as gold.
37:08Alright.
37:10What is that
37:10for?
37:11This is
37:11our beaver
37:12skinning trough
37:13this is where
37:14we put our
37:15beaver
37:15when we skin
37:16him
37:16like an
37:17operating
37:17table
37:18why don't
37:18you grab
37:19that beaver
37:19and stick
37:20him in
37:20this trough
37:21it's real
37:23it's real
37:23important to
37:24pass the
37:25knowledge
37:25on
37:26how there
37:27aren't
37:27going to
37:27be no
37:27trappers
37:28if you
37:29don't teach
37:29the kids
37:29how to do
37:30it
37:30you know
37:31we've got
37:32to have
37:32trappers
37:33the first
37:34first thing
37:34we're going
37:34to do
37:35go around
37:36on four
37:37legs
37:38and not
37:40only that
37:40but we're
37:41going to
37:42cut his
37:42tail right
37:43off
37:43are we
37:45both going
37:45to be
37:45using
37:46knives
37:46well
37:47no
37:47probably
37:48just one
37:48of us
37:49will be
37:49okay
37:50Hank
37:51he's
37:52he's
37:53into this
37:54I think
37:54are we
37:55going to
37:55skin the
37:55guts
37:55out too
37:56I hope
37:57not
37:57we're
37:57going to
37:57try not
37:58to cut
37:58the guts
37:59but I
38:00didn't want
38:01to stick
38:01a knife
38:02in his
38:02hand
38:03and just
38:03turn him
38:04loose
38:04because
38:05beaver
38:06are real
38:07real hard
38:07to skin
38:08but watching
38:10me
38:11gives him
38:12some idea
38:12of what
38:13to do
38:14when the
38:14time comes
38:15for him
38:15to get
38:16out there
38:16and be
38:17doing it
38:18himself
38:18you grab
38:20that beaver's
38:21foot
38:21and hold
38:23it over
38:23this way
38:24and
38:26up
38:26boy
38:26back
38:28when I
38:28really
38:29first
38:29started
38:30I was
38:30pretty
38:30much
38:31self
38:31taught
38:31it's
38:32neat
38:32if you
38:33have
38:33somebody
38:33to
38:34show
38:34you
38:35it
38:35took
38:36them
38:36so
38:36damn
38:37long
38:37to
38:37learn
38:38because
38:38it took
38:38me
38:39all right
38:41we got him
38:43what's the next
38:44process now
38:44we're going to
38:45take him out
38:45put him on
38:45the flushing block
38:46and scrape
38:47the meat
38:47and fat
38:48off
38:48you can
38:50see the
38:50interest
38:51that boiled
38:51up in the
38:52kid
38:52all we got
38:53to do
38:53is just
38:54finish
38:54teaching him
38:55a few
38:55more
38:55things
38:56and we'll
38:56have
38:56you
38:57all right
38:58we'll take
38:58this out
38:59and we'll
38:59get it a little
39:00cleaner
39:00all right
39:12we got him
39:14we got him
39:15honey
39:15we're going to
39:16take him
39:17now
39:17we'll put him
39:18on a hoop
39:18tom is
39:24my favorite
39:24teacher
39:25because
39:25he's
39:26this really
39:26crafty
39:27guy
39:27he's
39:28super cool
39:28to hang
39:29out with
39:29we did it
39:31didn't we
39:31yeah
39:32it's really neat
39:33to have
39:34somebody young
39:35like that
39:36that is
39:36interested
39:37i mean
39:37most kids
39:38they're doing
39:39their
39:40whatever they
39:42call
39:42telephones
39:45or whatever
39:45you know
39:46most kids
39:46don't even
39:47know what
39:47trapping is
39:48passing down
39:54the old ways
39:54to hang
39:55is just part
39:55of the legacy
39:56tom's work
39:57to preserve
39:57but to see
39:59the full weight
40:00of his years
40:00in the mountains
40:01you head
40:03to the
40:03willow bend
40:04trading post
40:04where he
40:05sells his
40:06goods
40:06thank you
40:10okay
40:13always love
40:15coming in
40:15here
40:16well this
40:18place gets
40:19better all
40:19the time
40:20you know
40:20that's where
40:22his hands
40:22have left
40:23their mark
40:23on every
40:24square inch
40:24rough
40:26hewn
40:26beams
40:27hand-carved
40:28tools
40:29and custom
40:30gear
40:31built to
40:31last through
40:32a hundred
40:32winters
40:33it's more
40:35than a place
40:36to barter
40:36it's a living
40:38museum of
40:39mountain
40:39craftsmanship
40:40each piece
40:42telling a story
40:43of survival
40:43patience
40:45and pride
40:47we better
40:50go home
40:51and do
40:51more work
40:52all right
40:53sounds good
40:54you still
40:56got stuff
40:56to do
40:57all right
41:01all right
41:02we've got a
41:03good life
41:03we've got a
41:04pretty damn
41:05good life
41:05if this ain't
41:07living you kick
41:08me out
41:08I've been
41:10mountain man
41:11for a long
41:11time
41:12and I've been
41:15very happy
41:16with
41:16what my life
41:18has been
41:18all the hell
41:21I have success
41:22right there
41:22if you're happy
41:23with what you're
41:24doing
41:24you can ask
41:25for more
41:25than that
41:26I'll be a
41:27mountain man
41:28until the day
41:28I die
41:29go home
41:30I'll be a
41:30happy
41:31I'll be a
41:31happy
41:32home
41:33I'll be a
41:34happy
41:35home
41:36I'll be a
41:36happy
41:37home
Be the first to comment