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This
week’s Lightnin’ Ridge nature question for all those master naturalists out
there is… “Mountain lions do well when their number one food source, the
white-tail deer is plentiful. Another mammal, which is steadily increasing, is a
prey animal mountain lions would rather have than venison. Mountain lion
numbers might rise in the Ozarks solely because of this animal. What is that animal?
It
is likely the best time to discuss our spring Grizzled Old Outdoorsman’ Swap
Meet, because the fishing is getting good and in the next few columns I am apt
to be bragging about the fish I have been catching. Believe me you are going to be amazed at all the big fish I
am going to catch soon. But on
Saturday March 25, I will not be fishing.
I hope to be with lots of you folks at the Brighton Assembly of God
church gymnasium where we will have about fifty tables of outdoor gear for sale
at bargain prices.
Honest
to goodness, at that swap meet five or six years ago I saw and antique fishing
lure worth 60 or 70 dollars sell for three bucks! And I saw an antique muzzle-loader sell for about half of
its true value. The thing about
our swap meet is…there is no charge to get in and there is no charge for a
table. In this day and time, that
is unusual. There was a swap meet
in Springfield recently where they charged 85 dollars per table and five
dollars to each visitor who wanted to come in and buy something. But we have a hard time getting tables
for everyone who wants to bring something to sell. So if you want to be a ‘vendor’ you need to contact me soon.
We’ll
open at 8:30 in the morning and close things down at 2:00 in the afternoon. The church has a youth group that
prepares coffee and biscuits and gravy for breakfast, and then hamburgers, pork
sandwiches, potato chips, cake and pie for dinner. So therefore it is a great
way for them to make some money for the activities they undertake. And
this year we are going to have a room set up with antiques and various things
for sale which will help us with the Panther Creek Youth project we have set up
for underprivileged kids. You will
be able to hear about and see photos of what that place is, basically a no-cost
outdoor setting for those youngsters with a lodge and cabins on a 60 acre tract
along Panther Creek. And there
will be lots of items for sale, which will go toward paying electricity,
insurance and taxes there.
Out
on the main floor of the gymnasium I expect to have about 50 tables. One of them might be particularly
interesting to visitors who are into antique lure, rods, reels, etc. I think Jerry McCoy, from Lakeview
Arkansas probably knows more about those old, old lures than anyone in the
Midwest, and he will be there to buy and sell antique lures. But if you have some that you want to
keep, Jerry can tell you what they are, when they were made and what they are
worth.
This
year we will have lots of items for those folks who want to decorate a den or
office or cabin with art. We will
have many beautiful wildlife paintings of deer, bear, elk, eagles, wolves, etc.
hanging on the wall, 11 by 14 paintings in black wooden frames, for only ten
dollars. Already I have purchased
a half dozen for my own home. They
are really something. A woodworker,
Harold Mitchell will be coming from my boyhood town of Houston, Missouri with
handmade wooden bowls and other wood items that he sells for a great deal less
than they are worth. I saw his
work several years ago and kept after him until he agreed to come to our swap
meet. At his table, you will see some of the prettiest woodwork you have ever
seen.
Another
woodworker comes from Galena, Mo.
Dale Olson has been to every swap meet we have held, and he makes things
like birdhouses, bird feeders, jewelry boxes and many other things. He has been a favorite vendor of ladies
who come to our swap meet because he makes cutting boards that are absolutely
beautiful on a kitchen counter, and priced below their actual value, on account
of, Dale is a grizzled old outdoorsman like me who hasn’t been to the big
cities much and doesn’t realize how good he is at this stuff. We will also have
a fellow from down around Norfork Lake, who makes cedar cabin furniture and
picnic tables, with his handiwork displayed outside the door.
David
Preddy usually comes from southern Missouri with tanned furs, mounted predator
heads sitting on deer antler stands, fur caps like the earlier frontiersmen
wear, and I think Vernon Myers will be there with a whole table of handmade
knives. In fact many tables have
old antique knives, pocket knives like my grandfathers and the old-timers at
the pool hall use to carry. On
those tables which just have a hodge-podge of outdoor items, you will also see
good usable rods and reels, camp stoves, minnow buckets, bait traps, steel
traps, old carbide lamps, lanterns and duck decoys. There will also be vendors there selling turkey calls, duck
calls and predator calls, with some archery equipment as well.
Lure
makers who produce modern day lures also come, for example the Criddly lure
company from Pleasant Hope who makes all kinds of spinner baits, of all sizes
and I use their lures often because I catch fish on them. They are quite a bit different than
other spinning baits. Of course,
me being a grizzled old outdoorsman like I am, you might expect me to catch
fish on about anything, and I sure won’t argue that fact. I have never once written about the
lures I didn’t catch fish on, and I ain’t about to admit that ever happened!!
I
really want to contact ladies who do baking, and who make jelly and can pickles
and relish, because we notice how much attention such a table garners. We need that, because I don’t have time
to make muffins and cookies and such.
What I do hope to do is make some of my handmade turkey calls, the ones
I use myself. Thousands of
beginning turkey hunters have called up their first gobblers with my handmade
calls, and while I know that I can’t prove that, I also know that no one can
prove otherwise!!
I
just cannot get to all the other special things that will be there, but I
intend to put up for bids one of my Uncle Norten’s handmade sassafras paddles
and one of my grandfathers sassafras paddles made some time in the 1930’s. The money from those will help with
expenses at the Panther Creek Youth Retreat mentioned earlier.
Remember
that this event is free, there will be tables where visitors can set and relax
and drink coffee and eat dinner and have conversation with other folks. I’ll be there amongst ‘em, with my new
spring issue of the Lightnin’ Ridge outdoors magazine and all my books, which I
will sell as usual for about 2/3rds of the book store prices. I have a couple of new ones, so now
there are a total of nine. My
daughters and their mother will be there too, so this has become a family
affair. And the event gives me the
opportunity to meet and talk to those folks who read this column.
I
cannot thank enough the Brighton Assembly of God church for giving us this
opportunity year after year, and assistant pastor Mark Cross for all the help
he gives us to make this work so smoothly.
The
answer to the nature question… feral hogs!
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