If you keep on writing I'll keep on reading! Good stories there, I wished we were all sitting around a camp fire right now!
Can we include 2 legged critter creepyness?
Well here is one. Again set against the Eastern Kentucky (family calls it the UK) backdrop. But let me give some info on where my family is down there. We are about an hour south of Ashland KY in the mountain/hill area of eastern KY. Where my and my family's property is, is located in whats called a hollow or as they call it "holler" and is pretty much just an area between two hillsides. We own alot of land back in the holler and many hills that stretch back into alot of other hills and all have little streams running at the bottom. very unpopulated or almost unpopulated until you hit other hollers that connect to roads where other familys live. The area is really steep and really thick. My grandfather was a moonshiner and so are some of my family members and other familys around there. There are also alot of meth and pot growers in the area so you never know WHAT you could run into even on your own land...which luckily we own alot of. I could write a book about my time's here and what I have seen or done. And if your curious yes the area my family is in is what some would call "clannish" in an old family sense of the term (not that kkk stuff). Really close knit familys that dont trust outsiders and that includes mine, cuz you never know who else is watching.
Now thats out of the way. The story. I was walking with my younger brother up one of our hollers and getting way up into the backside of our property. I was carrying my .45 LC rifle and he a .22 because we have run into so much stuff up there you just feel better with some firepower. I came to a rise on the lower part of a hill and smelled smoke. Curious as we both were we investigated. we rounded another corner and came into a flat spot on the hill and thats when we saw a very active, very large still (on our land). Knowing what it was and that well....we shouldnt be there we started to turn around and head back...already feeling a bit creeped out. A few minutes into our walk we both felt something watching us. I looked up the hill and my brother asked "you feel that too?"....I agreed. we hastened our pace, but always keeping an eye up hill. As we worked our way back I saw something move up from us. We both stopped and got behind some tree's...watched, waited, listened.....nothing.
We came to a bend in the creek bed which we were now in and when we rounded it we looked up and saw a man and two dogs coming down from the hill. We both stood there anticipating what would happen next. My brother asked me "what should we do? who is he? did he see us? etc.." all I said was "just wait". The man and the dogs reached the bottom of the hill and started toward us. He must have been in his 50's or older but had a very odd look to his eyes. He stood about 20 yards from us and looked at our guns. After what felt like hours he asked "Where ya'll headed"...."home I replied". "Where might that be?" he asked..."down the holler a ways" I said. "What were yuins doing back up that farr? a long way from home aint it?" well I was a bit nervous about the question now and even more nervous from his tone...very prodding. I told him " scouting for deer season, looking for sign", he snapped back "what ya need guns for if you's is scouting". I simply said "never know what you'll run into in these hills....cant be too careful can you? besides....what are you doing on my land?" Now I was gettind defensive and pretty annoyed, no longer scarred. He backed off and realized we knew where our own land was and that he shouldnt be on it. "Just walking my dogs and went down the wrong side of the hill, saw you boys and figured i'd just walk out to the road with ya". Well to cut a long story short its a HELL of a long steep arse walk to get up to where he was and there werent any homes within a mile of walking or better and only old mining trails at the top. He mentioned he would just walk back up the holler where we came from and see if he could find his way home. My brother and I watched him walk around the corner and as we did we saw he had a holster on his back under his shirt. We watched our back the whole way home. Told my grandmother and parents but they never called anyone or did anything. "He'll move it now he know'd someone seen it" my grandmother said. This was only a few years ago but I am still super cautious....besides it wasnt the last still or "plants" I have come accross. Oh and if you were wondering about the dogs, they never acted aggressive or anything they simply sat next to him when he talked and moved when he did.
Bears have creeped me out, a cougar and other animals has creeped me out. But this guy and another fella I ran into on a different story creeped me out in an entirely different way. The way this guy talked, smiled, acted etc just gave me the heebie jeebies and my brother too...the whole confrontation maybe lasted 10 minutes or so and I didnt include all of what was said. However the feeling of "we need to get home NOW" ran through me like shit through a goose. My brother never said a word the whole time. I am a fairly large guy at 6'4 200+ but that doesnt mean I didnt hear banjo's playing when I saw that guy come down the hill at us.
