Soul Survivor

            

             

                  Soul Survivor

   
                 I was remembering back when I was a little boy the other day,   I   grew up in a very small town in the southern most part of Texas.  I was raised by my Grandfather, and I was only about 9 yrs. old at the time.  
               
                     The year was 1966.

       Being raised on a small farm, I had a lot of chores to do and I learned a lot about animals, The animals  taught  me  a  lot about life,  

starting with the baby chicks hatching from their eggs.  
       

         We would use a light to candle the eggs so you can see the embryos growing inside the egg.  I remember how I would sometimes help the baby chicks, ducks and turkeys come out of their shell, by peeling off some of the broken egg shells.  But my Grandfather taught me not to peel too much of the broken egg shells  and to give the baby chicks a chance to come out on their own or else I could hurt them. 

   




I tried to always be present during the time the goats, sheep, cows or the horses were in labor,  It was so exciting,  There were times when the animals would have complications, my family would always worry and were ready to assist the animal during their labor. 

         There were a few times I remember that my Grandfather or one of my uncles would have to assist the animals during a breach birth and they would need to turn the baby animal around,  Hey,  I guarantee you,   you learn a lot when your just a kid growing up in a farm.  I think its a good thing for young children to grow up with animals on a farm, even if it means  cleaning the cages, and pens, feeding, and watering all the animals, taking the goats and sheep out to pasture, being responsible.        
                            It was all part of life back then, 
                                        All part of my life.

     

         
              My Grandfather owned his own business, it was a boot and leather store, and I grew up working in it as far back as I can remember.  Working with leather was a great experience as I still use that talent today.   I learned to sharpen a knife,  I learned how to make belts,  wallets and purses, saddles and chaps  and how to dye and tool  leather.  I helped my Grand father a lot in his shop,  he even taught me to make and to repair boots and women's shoes and how to use all the machines in the leather shop.  He taught me that I had to be precise and I had to use my talent,  that there was no room for mistakes.

       My Grandfather loved raising fighting roosters ( Game Cocks ) and every Sunday after church,  we would come home and load up the old station wagon with the roosters in their carrying cases, and we'd  head out to the fights.  I remember the long country drive out there to the fights,  it was heavily wooded and there was all kinds of wildlife along the way. 

  I showed an interest in the wilderness,  so my Grandfather decided I was old enough to learn some survivor skills. 

                                      

                           He taught me to start a fire,  and how to look for water.  He also taught me to make shelter, what kind of plants are good for you. 

    these plants are Edible  






"and bad plants"
                       I learned which are poisoness

 He showed me how to hunt and how to fish.  I learned how to shoot with a bow and arrow before I shot anything else,  I also learned to use a blow dart, I use to practice on the cactus fruit.   I think I was pretty good at it.   I then learned to shoot a shotgun , a single shot 410 shotgun, and I also learned to shoot a 22 pistol,  and 22 long rifle.   He told me to never point your gun in anybody's direction,  and never put your finger on the trigger until your ready to shoot.

                 I learned to dig up some mud clay from the edge of a river or lake to use so I can bake my fish,  no need for cooking utensils.    First start a fire and get some coals going,  which takes about 30 min. or so.   Once you have really good hot coals

going at the bottom of your fire,  then your ready to cook, make a big mud clay patty next to the fire, flatten it out leaving it nice and thick, then lay your gutted fish on the clay patty, skin and all, and cover your fish with more mud clay and slide the mud patty into the bottom of your fire into the hot coals with a big strong branch and wait.                  

         After about 20 min. or so the mud clay patty will start to crack,  that's when you know the fish inside is just about cooked.  Wait until the whole mud patty is dried and all cracked up then carefully use a good strong stick to slide out the mud patty from the coals.   Peel off the top layers of the the cracked mud clay and you will notice that the fish scales,  skin and all will stick to the cracked pieces you are peeling off,  leaving nothing but clean white fish on a sort of "clay plate" ready to eat!

      

   My Grandfather also taught me to hunt,  he took me out  into the woods,  and as we were walking,  he suddenly stopped me and told me to keep quiet and not to move,  we stood there for about 10 min. or so,  not even moving a muscle.  Occasionally he would just put his finger to his mouth and jester to show me to keep quiet. 

     


 After a good little while there were birds singing and flapping around the trees above us,  and you could hear the little rodents skirmishing around the thick brush underneath. 








   He then cuffed his hands together and pressed them to his mouth,  he blew air into his hands and out came a toot that sounded almost like an owl at first,  but then very clearly you could hear the mimicked sound of the doves that were  in the distance coming out his hands,  after he mimicked several calls back to the doves, the doves would answer back as if to say " where are you ? "  just a few more calls and the doves flew into the trees above us.      

     

           He then said to me ," you see you don't have to go prancing around the woods scaring all the animals around".  " If you stand still and stay really quiet in the woods you'll see how quiet it really is out there, that's what the animals are use to, only quiet animal noises",  ' Not noisy clumsy walking and talking carelessly through the woods noises" .  He taught me how to make different bird calls, and how and why animals move around through different parts of the woods,  he showed me how to read their tracks,  and how to find and use the animal trails.

       After several months of teaching me some simple wilderness  survival techniques, and the difference between domestic and wild animal behaviors, he told me, that I was ready, and then,  that very next Sunday after church,

         

      we loaded up the roosters onto the old  station wagon and headed out to the rooster fights again, but this time it was going to be different, I was going to test out my survival skills in that thick wilderness, alone. Its a long country drive to the rooster fights from our home,  and I was excited and anxious.  After a long drive out,  my Grandfather  pulls over to the side of the road and tells me that I have to find my way to the location of the rooster fights from here.  I got out of the station wagon and looked around and said " where are we? "  

    

 I thought we were just going to go to the rooster fights and I was going to take off to the woods from there.  But my Grandfather had other plans for me.  I knew I had to be brave and not show any weakness.  He told me to remember and be sure to use my senses the way the animals do,  and to time myself.   He told me that when I get close enough to the fights that I should be able to hear the roosters crowing  in the distance,  and to just follow the sound.   He pointed in the direction of the rooster fights and told me that it was about 5 miles in that direction.

    

    O.K. loaded with a box of 22  bullets in my front pocket and a box of 410 shotgun shells in a leather pouch I had made, a 22 pistol in my belt, and a 410 single shot shotgun in my hands, a 22 long riffle with a sling on my back,  a can-tine full of water and I was as ready as I could be. 






                            










          My Grandfather smiled and said " Don't worry son I know you can do this."  I saw that look on his face, and that smile,  It took me back to the story's he would tell me about himself when he was only a boy about back in 1909.  WOW!  that's along time ago.

  

 























 He was around 9 or 10 yrs. old and he lived in a small village up in the mountains in central america.  The nearest town that they needed to go and get their main provisions from was about 10 miles away,  down the mountain, and through the jungle.  He told me how he and his older cousin would have to run errands to town sometimes,  and how dangerous it was back then. 

       Before they could make the trip to town they needed to plan ahead and go early enough to make it back in time before it got dark.  They would pack the sacks they needed to carry the errand back home in and stuff it in a makeshift back pack along with water and some dried meat for the trip. 

      Along the way they would encounter some fruit trees and kill something to eat,  the jungle was vast and very dense back then, still very primitive.  When I remember back now to the stories my grandfather would talk about and the way the land use to be where he was from,  I kind of see the setting of the movie called Apocalypto.  







               My Grandfather told me how there were Jaguars and mountain lions called Jaguarandi in the jungle, not to mention Javelina (wild pigs) Boars with huge sharp tusks.

      All he had for a weapon was a machete and a bow,  he had a dart gun, but he only used to hunt with,  but that he would mostly depended on his older 16 yr.old cousin to make the decisions and to pull them out of trouble.  Together they would fight off the jaguars that popped up occasionally  by using big sticks to slap the vegetation and the ground with,  yelling! really loud! and throwing small short branches and rocks towards it , and then eventually manage to scare the jaguar away.  

     Sometimes they would have to fight the jaguars for miles before they could finally discourage it to leave them alone.  It was always so exciting to here his story;s and the way he would tell them,  He told me there were many deaths caused by jaguars in the small villages nearby, and how many times, he said,  " I was very lucky" .  

      

             I guess what my Grandfather was trying to tell me was that, I have a handgun, and a shotgun and a 22 riffle, I've got a lot of protection, more than just an older cousin and a machete.  So with that in mind I took my shotgun in hand and looked around at my surroundings,  got my barrings  and started out into the thick thorny brush and mesquite trees surrounded by cactus plants,

 as I could here my Grandfathers station wagon drive away.

      

 After about 2 miles of noisy hiking and weaving through thorny brush trying to avoid cactus patches and at the same time trying NOT to loose my barrings so I wont get lost,  I came into a clearing and I stopped and took shelter under a big Ebony tree that stood tall at the edge thick Mesquite brush.


 In front of me was a large  patchy clearing   of open ground and thorny low cut brush for about a football field in distance straight ahead, then the thick wooded brush started again. 

       It was hot and you could here the buzzing sound of the giant cicada bugs (Chicharra) which sounds something like the buzzing sound of electricity on those big high wire lines. 

 I could see the heat waves  floating above the patchy ground in the clearing in front of me.  It made it seem as if it was hotter than it really was.  It was almost hypnotizing.   I could here the birds singing across the large clearing in front of me.  I could smell the sage and wild rosemary and cactus plants all around me,  the strong smell of mesquite trees blending  in perfectly with it all.

I cleared a spot under the thick shady canopy of the big Ebony tree.   I heard doves calling out their mating calls in the distance,  I guess I scared everything away as I approached through thick thorny brush breaking branches and pushing my way through to reach this clearing.  

I cuffed my hands together and blew into them trying to mimic the calls of the doves in the distance.  After a while it seemed to work, I got an answer from the doves across the way.  I called out and a dove would respond.  I just had to continue calling the dove until it would finally show up in the trees above me.

     

 The doves that came to the big Ebony tree were I was hiding,  are called Morning Doves,  I listened to their calls and learned to copy them,  it was exciting to learn their matting calls.  I knew I had to take a shot before they made me out, and fly away.  I shot one of doves and the noise from my shotgun scared off the other doves.   One bird was not going to be enough for lunch, I recoverd my dove and sat still again and listened carefully for more dove calls.

 

  After a few minuets passed I heard a different kind of call,  and it didn't sound like a dove at all.   It was more of a whistle,  I tried to copy the call and after a few try's I got it,  I kept whistling back and noticed it was getting closer,  it was coming towards me and it was on the ground,  it was a quail, a Bobwhite Quail and I could see it running towards my direction, taking cover under the scattered low cut bushes in the clearing along the way.

          Suddenly I saw the quail,  it was a  beautiful male and it was a lot closer now and there were a lot of female quail following him,  I called out to them and  watched them as they seemed to be looking for me, well not exactly me, but me as a quail calling back to them,  I saw how the females called out in a different way from the males,  so I copied the female call,  they kept ducking in and out of cover.  Finally they came out into the open.

 

        Seeing that they were all out in the open and really close about 15 to 20 yards away I decided to use my 22 rifle and see if the sound level of my 22 would not scare off the rest of the flock and make it possible for me to collect more than just one quail to eat.  I took aim and got the male bird,  the rest of the quail sat down in their tracks, they were stunned and didn't know what was happening,  and didn't dare move.  That gave me a chance to get another shot,  and then another.

        I shot only the birds I needed to eat as I was taught.  I dug a hole in the ground using a branch I found from a tree that was fallen.  I broke off the smaller branches so I could use it to dig a hole for my fire.   I made my fire in the hole and waited until the flames calmed down and the coals were hot.  I tore off a thick green branch from the big Ebony tree and I stuck my birds on the end of it.   I set the big green branch with my dove and 3 quail  just above the heat of the coals and started cooking my lunch.

     

 I noticed there was a lot of cactus around me, and they were loaded with cactus fruit all over them.  Prickly Pears is what they call them,  sweet and grainy tasting.  My Grandfather calls them, "Antun" (antoon)  I looked around for a long skinny stick  to use to get my prickly pears.   I carefully knocked off the darkest fruit in color and picked them up by stabbing them with my long skinny branch.   By stabbing the pears with my stick,  I can use my knife to carefully skin the prickly pears so I could eat them.    

       My fire started to die out and I knew that my birds were ready to eat, I finished my lunch and I put out my fire,  I covered it up with dirt.  I knew I still had a ways to go and the whole time that I was camped under that tree,  actually helped me to keep my barrings so I knew which way I was coming from and which way I had to go.

     

 I crossed the clearing in front of me and found my way into the next thick thorny bush of woods ahead of me.  I hiked for about 1/4 of a mile into the bush,  when I was suddenly startled by a loud noise that burst out so fast in front of me, snorting and breaking branches and bushes as they ran around under the cover of thick dense brush in front of me.  It happened so fast that I instinctively raised my shotgun really quick out of reflex in the of direction of the noise,  and fired at it blindly.  I felt the blood rush run from my head to my feet,  but luckily I scared them away as I could hear them running in the opposite direction away from me.

  It was a bunch of Javelinas that jumped out from where they were bedding. 

     The brush was so thick you couldn't see more than just the open space in front of you,  not more than 5' feet before the low thick brush would close down and block any kind of view.

      Just seconds after I shot my shotgun I realized that if I hadn't of taken that shot when I did,  the Javelinas might have not run away and instead," attack me."  How lucky can I get.  I kept my guard up as I started out again, still nervous and scared that they would come back or pop out again, I hurriedly continued to head out for my destination. 

       I must of walked about 1/2 mile more through the thick bush  when I came up to another clearing.  I stopped at the edge of the woods and looked up and down the patchy clearing.  I was still a little shaky from my earlier encounter with the Javelinas.

 I wanted to make sure the coast was clear before I walked out into the clearing, so I took my time and waited.  Suddenly I saw something move,what was it? it was hard to detect with all the low cut brush all around,  it really wasn't that far away,  then there it was in the clearing, maybe about 50 yards or so straight ahead of me

               
 Then there it was,coming out walking slow from behind a bush in the middle of the clearing and headed for another bush.   Its a mountain lion, " A.K.A." (Cougar).  It blended into the brush so well.  My heart started pounding in my chest, my mouth got dry and I could hardly swallow, but I had to be brave. I couldn't run away.  I had to hunt the lion.

 I wanted to show my Grandfather and the men at the rooster fights that I got a lion, and that I was brave.  I switched my shotgun for my 22 rifle, thinking I need to make a long shot and my shotgun is only close range.  I need to drink some water my mouth is just so dry I quickly took a drink from my can-tine,  I took up my rifle and aimed for the lion and just as I did,  the lion looked up in my direction as if he sensed me and looked intensively straight at me. I will never forget that look.

 

I shot at the lion and it jumped into the air about 5' feet high and yelled out a growl then landed  running down the clearing  to my left about 50 yards then cut straight across towards my side of the thick bushy woods.  I panicked and jumped out into the clearing ahead of me and headed for the nearest  low cut bush I could reach to hide behind of, keeping my eyes fixed on the thick brush where the lion ran in.  I was shaking and trying to keep myself  together. the thumping of my heart pounding in my chest, throbbing through my veins in my neck pulsating in my head seemed to me so loud that I felt as if all the animals around could hear it.
 I had to control myself,  I couldn't let the fear overwhelm me that way.   Then I remembered what my grandfather said to me before he drove away, " Use Your Senses," I was scared and " and when your scared", " the animals can sense it." 
 I swallowed down hard and fought back the fear, got my senses back and switched my 22 rifle for my close range shotgun,  I knew now that I would eventually have to be able to face the lion at close range in order to stop him,  The lion was too fast, and with a 22 pistol, I would not be able to stop the lion in time before he could jump me.  I had no other choice,  the shotgun was the only thing that could possibly stop him. " IF" I can get a solid shot, which means, I would have to be patient and not jump the gun and shoot too early at the lion .   

       



             That lion ran so fast and covered a lot of ground in such a short time, that I knew I was to close to the woods where the lion had just jumped into,  and  that I had to get farther back.  Without any hesitation I quickly walked backwards constantly watching the woods in front of me, yet tripping over small clumps of thorny brush behind me,  but I had to keep it all under control.

          I could hear the lion growling and moving through the brush.  It was coming in my direction.  I was scared, I thought about the shot I took at it and I knew then that I really didn't  hurt it bad enough to stop it.  I thought I was going to kill a lion, but instead now I was being hunted by the lion.   

       Slowly I started to back out of the clearing and head to the other side of the woods.  I kept a sharp eye out for the lion as I got closer the other side of the clearing.  Then It came to me,  how will I be able to keep my distance from the lion in the thick thorny brush ahead of me if I can't even see more then 5' feet in front of me?

 

I reached the other side of the clearing opposite of the lion and saw that the brush was  way too thick  to enter, so I slowly followed the edge of the woods until I could find a clearing big enough to go into. 

 
       As I was walking side ways down the edge of the woods   looking for a clearing to enter,  I looked across the clearing, and on the other side I saw the lion at the edge of the woods under some thick brush just looking at me,

I quickly raised up my shotgun and shot it in his direction,  I could here the B.B.s from the shotgun hit the leaves and branches around the lion and the lion jumped back from the stings of the B.B.s and ducked back into the cover of the thick brush,  I knew that he was too far for the shotgun to hurt him, but I also knew that the shot gun was loud.  I quickly reloaded.

      I felt as if the noise of the shotgun scared the lion when I shot at it,  and I was happy enough to scare him back so I could leave and get away before he realized that it didn't really hurt him. The only way I could hurt him  with my shotgun was if he got close.   I was scared and I knew I was in a lot of trouble, I was not going to let this lion kill me. I had to be brave.  

       This was my chance,  I started walking at faster pace looking for an entrance through the thick woods in my way.  As I was walking I kept an eye on the last place I saw the lion go in.  I was so fixed on that area I last saw the lion,  that I neglected to look ahead for danger.  I must of walked a quick 40 to 60 yards when suddenly there he was again.  Peeking at me under a small mesquite tree right directly across the other side of the clearing in the same direction I was walking in.   He was keeping up with me,  he was following me,  looking for me to make a mistake,  like turning around and running.          I quickly raised my rifle and pointed at the lion again,  Boooom!!! I shot the loud shotgun at the lion and again he ran back and ducked for cover in the thick bush. 

        Again the opportunity to move on down the the path and find a way out arose,  and I had to take advantage of it.  Finally an entrance through the thicket appeared and I quickly stepped into it.

There were large gaps of low cut thick thorny  bushes and cactus running around to one side of the field  and to the other side of me there were trees,  lots of thick mesquite trees and bush really dense.      I chose to go on the side with all the cactus in the open field thinking that the cactus would give me a better chance to keep the lion from jumping me so easy.  As I started weaving my way around the cactus,  I noticed that it was as if I were in a maze I mean with dead ends and double back kind of maze.

        Every time I ran into a dead end, I turned around real quick pointing my shotgun in the direction I just came from thinking the lion would be right there around the bend following me.  I hated running into dead ends.  I was taking a long time and not really getting anywhere, but I knew this was the safer way to go.  Then I heard the lion growling again and it was to the one side of me where the thick mesquite trees were following the cactus field I was walking in.  Sometimes the cactus maze I was in would open up towards the trees where the lion was hiding and following me,  I would quickly get through those places as fast and careful as I could, nervously having to look both in front of me and behind myself. 

    Then I saw him!  He was creeping around the other side of the cactus stalking me,  my heart started racing again my mouth quickly dried up and I felt as if the moment of truth was here.  He  was on the other side of the cactus walking faster.  I just kept on walking as fast as I had to to keep up with the lion and try to get a shot through the cactus before we would connect on the next opening ahead.  There! I saw a glimpse of him just a few steps ahead of me,  I raised my shotgun and stepped up my pace so I could get a shot.  There he is!! I shot through the cactus and pieces of cactus went flying as the shot I took opened up a large space through the cactus.         I missed, he was still running ahead of me I could barely make him out,  he was so fast and I was trying really hard to keep up and get another shot,  when suddenly he was gone,  just like that.  Not even a sound as I stood there like a statue trying not to move, struggling to control my breathing and listening as hard as I could as I gasped for air taking big breaths  then  quickly stop and hold my breath for a few seconds so I can hear better then gasping for air again, I did that a few times trying real hard to listen to any noise around, eyes wide open now, I felt a rush but I wasn't so scared this time.  The lion ran from me and my loud shotgun noise.  

       I  guessed at that time that I was about 3 miles into the woods and I had been slowed down a lot by the lion.  It was starting to get late and I really needed to make up time and get moving before it got dark.

   The next mile or so I kept the lion at a distance,  he wouldn't go away, he just kept on following me, and I had to just keep shooting at him in order to keep him back far enough to keep on going.  I ran into many spots where it was wide open and there were only small clumps of cactus here and there.  Then the thick bush and trees to my side that were following the open cactus field I was walking in,  ended and turned into open fields of low scattered clumps of  brush and thorns. 

      The only cover now was the cactus field I was in, and the lion was sharing it with me.  As I kept on walking the cactus field started thinning out.  Quickly I'd jog to the nearest clump of cactus in front of me looking around everywhere for any glimpse of the lion.  I could see a clearing coming up and it wasn't very big.  I ran out into the middle of the clearing and there was a mound of dirt and grass and weeds there about 3' foot high.   There was bushy woods surrounding the clearing,  It was about 50 yards of clearing in circumference around the mound I was on.

       I kneel ed  down on top of the mound and looked all around me, I don't see the lion. my shot gun shells were low, I only had 3 left.  I'm not going to give up!  I have my pistol! and if the lion jumps on me I'll just keep shooting him in the body.  I heard the growl,  it came from behind me in the thick woods.  I quickly turned around to face the thick covered woods, how did he get around me so fast?  I yelled at the lion hiding in there, "GET OUT OF HERE STUPID LION!!!!"  " LEAVE ME ALONE!!!!  I was angry now and I was ready to fight. the dusk was starting to set in and It was very hard to see if  anything was hiding in those woods.  Every time the lion growled at me I wood shoot my 22 rifle in that direction,  I still had some 22 bullets left.  I couldn't get the lion to come out,  and it was already getting dark.  I was stuck there and I couldn't move.  I didn't have a flashlight and I didn't think I would need one.  The lion was not in my plans, I didn't expect to run into one, well not like this. 

     Its dark now and I can't see anything in the direction of the woods.  The only thing I can do is shoot into the direction I hear noises at,  I kept my shotgun  ready to grab,  my pistol is in my belt,  and I'm shooting with my 22 rifle.  I'm running out of bullets now, I got to come up with a plan.  What am I going to do?

   What was that noise? a plane? a crop duster?  I could hear the sound of a motor in the distance,   is that a car or something?                YES!!! I could see the lights of a vehicle coming my way!  Then the lion growled.  I turned around and saw the eyes glow from the lights of the vehicle,  it was out in the open right in the middle between me and the woods I didn't even know it was so close.  It crouched back from the bright lights of the vehicle as it arrived just beside me when suddenly a burst of of gun fire flashed out from above me, it was my grandfather and some of the men from rooster fights and they were on the bed of a truck shooting the lion from above the cab.  I made it!                                                                              The lion was dead and I survived.                                                       A time in my life I will never forget. A story I will pass down to my children and to my grandchildren Chapter 1 of  "THE SOUL SURVIVOR.