Isaac – Trek to King’s Mountain Now Audible Book

17 May 2022
J. Wayne Fears

Isaac: Trek to King’s Mountain, by J. Wayne Fears, was first released in 2012, as an eBook for young adults (10- to 20-years old approx.) and later as a paperback. The publisher, Bannock Books, quickly found that interest in the little-known 1780 Battle of Kings Mountain (a turning point of the American Revolutionary War) extended well beyond that particular age group. Older readers were also buying this book. Over the years, requests from individuals who preferred to listen to their books steadily increased. Their requests were duly noted. This week, Bannock Books announced that  Isaac: Trek To King’s Mountain is now available in an audible version, read by the renowned professional voice of John Davenport. To get your copy of this audible book, click on https://www.audible.com/pd/Isaac-Audiobook/B09ZFB93KW

Isaac: Trek to King’s Mountain makes a great Fathers Day gift, graduation present, or exciting book to listen to while traveling, sitting on a beach, or enjoying with your grandchildren and others. This book is real history, told in the style of a timeless adventure story.

CHUFA FOR WILD TURKEY FOOD PLOTS

7 April 2022
J. Wayne Fears

There has been an explosion of interest in the management of wild turkeys since they now populate 49 of our 50 states and in southern Canada. One of the most frequent questions we get from land managers in states where wild turkey populations are fairly new is, “What can I plant in food plots to attract and nourish wild turkey on my land?”

Throughout most of the southern half of the U.S. and in many northern states, where the growing temperatures exceed 100 days, the answer is easy – chufa (Cyperus esculentus sativus). Chufa is an African variety of nutsedge, a warm-season perennial plant. When growing, chufa looks like a grass but the grass-like top is not the part of the plant that wild turkey love, it is the nut-like tuber growing under-ground that wild turkey, raccoon, feral hogs and bear love. Also waterfowl love it, but more about that at the end of this article.

Each plant can produce from a dozen to 100 of the acorn-size tubers.

The tubers are high in protein and carbohydrates. When wild turkey begin feeding on a food plot planted in chufa they will feed in the plot until all the tubers are eaten or the new growth of spring provides a more desirable food source. Chufas have a sweet taste and humans can also eat the tubers. Often during my wildlife management career I have had young biologists who ate about as many chufa’s as we planted.

According to Donnie Buckland, a turkey biologist with the National Wild Turkey Federation, who has a lot of experience with chufa, “Chufa is not only important to attract turkeys,” Buckland said, “it’s important for turkeys—hens especially—to go into the breeding and nesting seasons in a healthy state. The bottom line is it is a highly nutritious food for turkeys available at the right time of year [fall, winter and into spring]. This may be especially important when there is a shortage of soft and hard mast.”


Planting Season
Chufa is normally planted from April through June in the southern states and in April and May in the northern states. It needs to be planted so there will be no killing frost when the plant emerges from the soil. It matures in 95 to 110 days with no frost. As it matures, tubers develop underground. Turkeys dig up this food source in the fall and winter after the plant top dies. Caution should be used in areas where the ground freezes for long periods and snow covers the ground as chufa does not provide a winter food source under these conditions. The turkeys cannot dig the tubers up in frozen ground.

Soil Prep
Chufa does best when planted in moderately well-drained sandy, loamy or clay soils. The seed should be planted on well prepared soil free of weeds and other grasses. In the fall, lightly disk food plots planted in clay to break up the soil after the plant has matured so that the tubers are not locked into the tight soil. If it is too difficult to dig the tubers up turkey will abandon the food plot.

When planting chufa, plow or disk the food plot prior to planting. Fertilize and lime according to a soil test. If no soil test, lime the food plot with 1000 pounds of lime per acre into the broken up soil. Next, work 400 pounds of 10-10-10 or 13-13-13 fertilizer per acre into the soil.

Planting Rate
For those planting chufa for the first time it may come as a surprise that you are not planting typical seed, but the nut-like tubers.

Chufa tubers are small and are usually planted by broadcast or drilled. Also they can be planted with a planter in rows. However when planted in rows raccoons will start digging at one end of a row and feed on the entire row, soon eating the entire crop. Broadcasting is the most common way of planting chufa, using either a handheld seeder for small food plots or a larger pull-behind seeder behind a tractor or ATV for large food plots.

The rate for broadcasting is 40- 50 pounds of chufas per acre. After the tubers are scattered cover them to a depth of 1-2-inches with a harrow or drag. If they are properly broadcast there will be 3 to 4 plants per square foot throughout the plot. If drilled, plant in 36-inch rows at a rate of 30 pounds per acre at 6-inch spacings.

If wild turkeys or raccoons find the tubers just after you plant they can eat the majority of your food plot before it comes up. Feral hogs, where found, can be a problem as well so keep that in mind when selecting a planting location. If this is the first time you have ever planted Chufa in your area it is a great idea to uncover a portion of the food plot once the plants come up by lightly disking to reveal the chufa tubers. Turkey may have a difficult time locating the tubers for the first time.

Waterfowl Also
A growing number of waterfowl managers are choosing chufa to plant in drawdown watering areas that are used to attract ducks. They plant the chufas right on the edges of the shallowest water where when flooded the water only will be about 6-inches deep. Once they find chufas they become a favorite food. The ducks swim in the shallow water, tip or dive to the flooded chufas and use their bills to pull the  chufas grass-like tops out of the mud so they can get to the tubers.

Chufas are one of the best food plot crops for wild turkey where it will grow. Many years, due to the demand, chufa seed, it can be difficult to find locally. There are not a lot of seed companies that offer chufas so it is best to line up a seed source well before planting season.

 

Editor’s Note: Before introducing chufa or any other new plant to your property, check with your county agricultural agent to make sure it is not considered to be an aggressive or undesirable plant for your area.

The Last Mountain Man

1 April 2022
J. Wayne Fears

This coming Monday, April 4th, we celebrate my late dad’s 118th birthday. George N. Fears, who passed away at the age of 94, was a great dad, husband, grandfather and Christian man. He was a woodsman’s woodsman. Here is part of an interview that writer Denise Huddleston wrote about him in 1976.

“My family was living in the hills of Lincoln County Tennessee in 1904 trying to keep a-living raising crops–especially corn when the news came of the “King Cotton” crop being grown in Alabama. My daddy packed us all in a two horse covered wagon in 1906 and we made the grueling journey to Alabama settling in a three room cabin on Hurricane Creek at the base of Tater Knob Mountain. Things were a bit better for us here, yet we still had little to show for our everyday struggles. Often, I hoed crops, trapped, picked cotton, and did the chores needing to be done around the homestead until I reached the age of ten. By then both my parents had died, I started gathering ginseng, which is a root to be found on the side of the mountain. We got pert near $7 a pound for the ginseng which back then was a lot of money”, laughs the elderly Fears which to the age of 74 has managed to keep a sparkle of the excitement of life in his aging eyes.


With a look of nostalgia Mr. Fears continues saying, “I kept on hunting the wild ginseng up to when I was a young man. “At that time, men were fixing up remote ginseng camps in the mountains which grew strictly oriental roots. The plants were laid up like onion beds. I worked in a camp just under the north end of Tater Knob Mountain as the camp hunter to provide meat for our camp meals. Also, I pulled grass and weeds from around the ginseng beds, watered them and finally harvested them. We didn’t have vats to wash them in like they do today so we just cut down a tree, carved out a basin and let that be our washtub. Ground squirrels and moles became my worst enemies for they’d make quick ruin of the entire crop if they were allowed to! Yep, ginseng helped me out a good deal then and whenever I get a chance, I still like to hunt for it.”

Showing me a fine display of ginseng in his backyard, George Fears reflects back even further, “The greater part of my living between 1914 and 1940 was made by digging sang, trapping and selling furs. I had to quit school at the end of the 8th grade to help provide for younger siblings. A man back then had to live the way he knew best and those were the only things I knew how to do then. Warm summers and extremely cold winters, I’d’ be out running traps knowing that if there wasn’t a possum or coon caught in a trap there’d be no food for that day. It was a rough living and sometimes lonely, yet I sure couldn’t take a wife and expect to support her and myself both when I could barely support me most of the time. For several years, I’d be living out on the mountain alone in a tent coming in only to sell my furs and buy flour, beans and coffee, the barest essentials. I’m a good bit older now, but if I lived farther out from the city, I’d be back out on Tater Knob Mountain running traps just like before”

He continued, “Coming in from the mountains, I found myself a job in a little country store. I tended to customers and help load supplies that were to last for the next week. Most of the business was done on weekends and even then not many folks came in for the Depression was upon us all. Flour, meal, coffee and salt were the main items to be sold for people who had to raise most of their own food because they didn’t have enough money to buy it. Matter of fact, folks used to live off $5.00 worth of groceries a week. So, when I wasn’t helping in the store, I’d be out on my horse with a pack mule traveling back up into the remote coves and hollows buying hide’s, sang roots and fur from mountain folk.

In 1936 Fears, still working in the store and bartering for furs, applied to the TVA for a job which was two years in its’ coming.

“After coming off that mountain” Fears grins impishly, “I saw what I thought was the prettiest sight I’d ever seen in my life–a beautiful, young schoolteacher who I soon took to be my bride. We raised up two fine boys and I taught them the ways of the woods just as I was taught. Even today when they come visiting me, we haul off into the woods recapturing an era a long time gone”



Today, some 72 years since coming to Alabama, Mr. Fears is retired, living in a nice home raising his own ginseng, and occasionally setting his traps in the mountains. Some people may pass him by discounting him, “just an old man”, yet in his heart and soul he remembers the role he played in settling Alabama.


 

Happy Birthday, Dad. I love you… JW

My Dream Knife

29 March 2022
J. Wayne Fears


The tall lanky young man that sat in my living room was about to leave, after a pleasant visit, when he reached into his coat pocket and pulled out one of the best surprises of my life. In his deep unassuming voice he stated, as he handed a knife in a brown sheath to me, “I know we just never got the knife you really wanted, but I think you will like this one.” Pulling the knife from its sheath I was shocked, it really was the knife I have wanted for many years!

I have written many times that the knife I chose to use during my long career as a wildlife manager, hunting outfitter & guide, and outdoor writer was the USA made Schrade Old Timer model 125 OT, a large folding, lock-blade knife who’s USA made version long ago faded from outdoor gear catalogs. For over five decades I have depended upon that knife for most of my guiding and outdoor writing adventures.



My first 125OT was given to me in about 1970 by Henry Baer of the Schrade Walden Cutlery Co. with the challenge to try it as my knife while guiding big game hunters. He felt sure I would like it. I gave the knife a lot of hard use and it became my knife of choice. Made from 1095 high carbon steel, the 4 ½ -inch clip point blade held an edge well and was quick and easy to sharpen in the field. The contoured 5-inch handle fit my hand nicely. That knife saw much of the outdoor world with me, and it is still in good shape.

For many years I wished for a fixed blade belt knife design that had all the qualities of the 125OT but could never find one. Then I met Lucas Bullington (shown with me in the photo at the top of the page) of Lucas Forge (customhuntingknives.org), a master bladesmith who custom makes many high quality knifes including one called the Frontier Clip Point that was very similar to the knife of my dreams. I purchased a 3 ½-inch Frontier and liked it so much I later had Lucas make me one with a slightly larger 4 ½-inch handle with a 4-inch blade. It is really a good general purpose camp knife but still not quite the fixed-blade custom knife based on the 125OT I had wished for, that was until the surprise visit from Lucas.



Lucas and I decided to name the new knife “Old Guide” as I am an old guide and the idea for the design came from the Henry Baer’s Old Timer brand of knives. Since Lucas turned the Old Guide over to me, I have used it for farm chores, on turkey hunts, trout fishing trips and for camp chores. It rides well in the custom leather sheath, made by Lucas brother Ike Bullington, a master leather craftsman. I have cut hay bailing cord, sliced tomatoes, cleaned wild turkey, smeared mayonnaise on bread, cleaned fish and cut kindling with the Old Guide and I can say this is the knife I always wanted. The flat grind blade is hand forged from O-1 high carbon steel with a Lucas Forge aged finish. It holds an edge for long periods of use and can be sharpened quickly and easily in the field. The handsome handle is made from fancy curly maple with brass pins and a brass lanyard hole liner. Lucas contoured the handle, like the 125OT, to fit the users hand to minimize slippage.



I knew the Old Guide was a winner when after seeing it master woodsman Medrick Northrop contacted Lucas to see about having another made.  I don’t know how many moons I have left of living on the trail, but this will be my knife until that time comes, then one of my sons can slide it onto his belt. Thank you, Lucas, for my dream knife.