Whats your awesome list look like?

[Danzn Bar]

Very impressive posts here, but Eric, your first post deserves an standing "O"!!!

I've been married for 32 great years to my nurse I had when I had knee surgery from a football injury.  I was never getting married, and after five months of meeting that nurse I was!   Guess it was meant to be.  She also catches more Croppie than I do and helped me raise two great girls, who fishes pretty good tooo.  All of that and two granddaughters later I can't wait for what's next.

DBar

[JW_Halverson]

JW is an actor with 2000 apprearances?

Yup. Repertory theatre.  Worked 5  month stretchs twice a year without a day off and lotsa matinees on weekends.  It defined not having a life.  Learning 10 pages of scripts daily, 14 hour days the norm. One thousand nine hundred and seventy-two performances and only twice did a director say "good job".  On the other hand, I think I have been called things that Marine Corps Drill Instructors are afraid to say. Let's just say that nice people are rare in theatre and leave it at that.  But I met one, loved her, lost her without the chance to be there like Eric was for his, and promptly train-wrecked myself. And that's it.

[wildman]

Very cool thread, I will throw in my two cents for what its worth.IN no certain order first few probably the hardest.
I spent two days this summer looking for a friends 3yr old grandson that drown in the river below my house finding him the second night.Very relieved and horrible at the same time
Last Nov. I had a hunting accident shooting my SUPER AWESOME wife with a .54 cal round ball. Kept my S#$T together and got her out of the woods and all is well.
Lost my little brother in car crash
Ruined an awesome friendship of 20 years
Trained a tittled several labs before I was 30 had my own bloodline
Had my own piece of hunting paradise paid for by 39
Climbed lots of rocks from coast to coast
Hiked lots of trails from coast to coast
Paddled more awesome rivers than I can count
Called a coyote in by mouth in green plaid no camo and shot with a recurve at 7yds on the ground
Built my home from the ground up using old cabins and barns
Raise 60% of my own food
Have the privilage of being married to the most Awesome lady in the world who is by my side on almost all adventures, Father and step father to a mob of pretty good heathens, Friend to some great people far and wide.
I am blessed to live in the most scenic part of the Ohio river Valley IMOP and smack dab between lots of public land in two states,and plenty of private as well, I am also blessed to call many on here friend.
 Thanks
Keith

[Poggins]

Right now me and my brothers are going through something similar to what Eric went through .
Our mother is dieng of cancer , not sure how much longer she will be with us , we are taking turns watching over her and working our jobs ( if it comes down to it family comes before my job ) ,mom's sister is helping also. She raised us boys up right , none of us three have ever been in trouble .

I've noodled a 54 pound flatheat by myself ( my brother pulled out a 62 pounder by himself , we are not competitive with each other , just luck of the draw ) .

I called in a small buck by grunting and bleating with my voice ( did not use a call ) and got h with a bow at twelve yards ( haven't been able to get another buck in that way again , have called a few does in but let them walk ).

I worked on cars since I was about ten ( first ones were sanding pickup beds in the summer for dad ) , started on the turnpike almost five years ago ( was 38 at the time and on the ninty plan will be about sixty or so when I retire, yep 42 and will be 43 in November). Still work on cars from time to time against my will. Done the machine work on many engines big and small .

Met many wonderful people on here and through our self bow club here in Oklahoma, and learned to make self bows and helped many others at OJAM . Have gained many friends from all over through OJAM and hope to make many more and who knows maybe ill meet some of you one day.

Steadily working on paying my own little forty acres of dirt off , an old friend of mine once told me that they aren't making that any more. Hope to get that done in three years or so .

I have owned and rode horses .

I've stayed on the straight and narrow (most of my life ) never smoked and haven't been a big drinker (only really been drunk once in my life , but didn't pass out ) .

I keep a few bee hives and stay self sufficient at it ( raise my own queens when I need to , and never use any kind of treatment in my hives) .

Now I need to start a bucket list: think I'll try for a bear with a self bow next year if I can swing it .

[sleek]

Poggins, Where in Okie land are you? Im just north of Tulsa.

[Poggins]

Near center , just south of Stillwater ( about 25 miles ) and north of Chandler .
Used to travel up northeast of Tulsa to snag spoonbill below Hudson dam.
Still get up to Keystone dam from time to time and up by Blackburn on the Arkansas river ( good stretch to fish with the kayaks . Have you been to OJAM ?

[sleek]

I went to OJAM last year. Were you there? I hunt Keystone every year. We should meet up. I'm headin out there this weekend to do a bit of pre season scouting.

[Poggins]

This yearI was a red hat under the tent just east of the pravilan helping Milke show new people how to build bows (spent a lot of time at the tillering tree Saturday ) . Last year I was sick and didn't want to spread what ever I had so stayed home , I did go to the campout though.
Would like to get up on Keystone and hunt , have thought about it for years just never went .
With what we are going through I'll have to wait for now , it's almost day to day with mom .

[bushboy]

Iv'e had many awesome experience in my life,but I'll list just a few .growing up in rural nova scotia over looking cape breton island,spearing 6' sea eels with mask and snorkel,being encirled by a pod of pilot whales while swimming,harpooning a 1150lb blue fin tuna ,watching sea birds dive bomb from round 500',catching a 3' lobster,seeing a beluga whale up close,seeing dolphin and porposises leap out of the water,and being in 30' seas in a 38' boat!

[Eric Krewson]

I keep thinking up these things,hope I am not boring you guys.

A couple years ago I was walking the local 2.5 mile exercise trail when two older guys passed me riding bicycles.  As I got to the top of a very long steep hill I saw one of the guys walking briskly up the hill without his bike.  He excitedly said "my friend is hurt and I don't know what to do".

I sprinted down the hill to find his friend on the ground, badly injured. It appeared he had applied his front brake, gone over the handlebars on the steep hill and hit the pavement face first, no helmet. He was a mess, thrashing, incoherent, covered with blood, part of his nose gone and his face and scalp badly cut and bleeding profusely.

I had assisted EMTs at the plant on several rescues but had never taken charge of one myself.

I stabilize the guy to keep him from moving his head, was able to talk him down to a less frenzied attitude and directed the rubberneckers that had congregated to call 911 and get a rescue team on the way. It surprised me that with the gathering crowd, no one offered to help.

I kept a well meaning TVA cop from moving his neck to place a coat under his head. He agreed later it would have been the wrong thing to do.

EMTs arrived and took charge. My only complaint was they paid no attention to my assessment that the guy had possible brain damage because of his confusion and combativeness, they pretty much brushed me off like I didn't exist.

After the ambulance arrived I left the guy with them and continue my walk.  While I was taking care of the guy I was a cool a cucumber, as I walked away my legs started shaking and I felt like throwing up, pretty strange.

Later a TVA public safety officer tracked me down to fill out a report. I asked about the guy I helped, he replied "they life flighted him out to a hospital in Huntsville Al for possible brain damage". So it goes, I never heard if he recovered or not.

[YosemiteBen]

@ Eric - unfortunately the lack of help seems to be the  way things are. I have helped many and refused payment for it. "professionals" often blow off those with less letters, certificates or degrees.  I have worked emergency situations with our local law enforcement folks enough to record the information they are looking for and relay it later after the situation has diffused a bit. We have as Interpretive staff been trained in PSAR(Preventative Search and Rescue) which helps maintain our calm and teaches us what not to say over the radio. Thanks for helping that man out, most "Americans" are no longer willing to do that.

As for misses - ground squirrels in the wood shed at 30 feet.... well, let's say there are still some of them taunting me!

[Poggins]

Eric , good job on your part . I've been a volunteer fire fighter for seventeen years and a lot of people have trouble keeping their cool in a situation like that , even trained officers can forget basic emergency training and it's good that you were ther or it could have been worse , moving someone with a head and neck injury is never good without proper support .
Delt with several emergancies myself , the worst was a drunk driver on a dirt road with a car full of kids not fastened in , wanted to take that guy out to the woods and work him over .
Been in a lot of big fires also and saved several houses even when the smoke was so bad you couldn't see where you wer going .

[Eric Krewson]

I was a fire team leader in the power plant I worked in, I have been through fire school twice, once for grunt training and other time for team leader training. After doing several burn building dummy rescues, turn outs, air packs, buring hay making the place hot as hades and black as night with smoke, I realize what special people the guys who do this on a regular basis in real life are.

I worked a few run of the mill industrial fires but wasn't on shift for the really bad ones that happened in the plant.

[Brian Hoffer]

Here is my list in rough chronological order, best I can remember

- Climbed up a pine tree so high that the top broke off, with me on it.
- Spent a good portion of my early childhood running around in the woods
- Got 4 stitches in my tongue - the last one with no anesthesia
- Broke both of my wrists at he same time
- Hit a bull moose with my car
- Drove 1300 miles to hike in Wyoming.  Spent one night in the mountains (after hitting the above mentioned moose) and had to drive all the way back because my friend got terribly sick
- Ice climbed in Rocky Mountain Nat'l Park
- Stung in the finger by a wasp while lead climbing in the Red River Gorge
- Hiked to the top of Long's Peak, CO
- Worked at a startup video game company that turned out to be an utter failure
- Hiked a mountain in Ecuador in a T-shirt while forgetting to apply sunscreen.  Worst sunburn I have ever had
- Survived a bus trip in the Andes mountains
- Quit my full-time job and worked at home as a freelance software developer for 5 years
- Survived 6 grueling technical interviews and managed to snag a job at the #1 company in the world to work for.
- Have hiked amonst the redwoods
- Blessed with 2 awesome boys and a third boy on the way in February
- Managed to stay married for going on 11 years now.

[PrimitiveTim]

Oh threads like this will remind me of all the awesome things I've done and make my ego swell up 

-Free dived to 70' (depth)
-Lived in Turkey for nearly 5 years and learned Turkish.
-Found and caught a wild chameleon (Mediterranean Chameleon.
-Traveled to many countries in Oceania, North America, Europe, Asia, and Africa.
-Spoke with a Turkish cow herder who had never seen an airplane or European(ethnicity) up close.
-Dived a WWII wreck in the Marshall Islands
-Caught and released and eastern diamondback rattlesnake with my bare hands. (never do that again!)
-Caught many a sharks from my kayak
-Caught and released some alligators bare handed
-Swam with the largest species of turtle in the world
-I have an island in the Keys.... that i squat on 
-Gave my life to the Lord at 17
-I make money off of kayaking
-Handled the most venomous species of snake in Africa (boom slang)
-Lived 8 days out of my truck (toyota home) on school campus til I got busted 
-Met some of the most incredible people from all over the world
-Got hooked on primitive skills and bow making, which brought me here.
-Avoided becoming a criminal
-Survived to the ripe age of 23