This article was originally published on Foxworthy Outdoors. Dec. 13, 2012.

John Roy Lightfoot is a rough old soul. At 55 years old, he could easily pass for 70. It’s amazing what three packs of cigarettes a day, mixed with a dozen beers and who knows what else will do to the body…but, it can’t be good. Yeah, John Roy had a rough life…a self-inflicted, rough life. Ten years in the pen for a pot farm didn’t help him either. 

John Roy lives about five miles from our farm. He and his wife live in a small frame home surrounded by ten acres. They are poor folks who struggle to get by. Mrs. Lightfoot sells vegetables and canned goods to help support John, who doesn’t work. 

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This article originally appeared on Foxworthy Outdoors. May 7, 2012.

Part II

“Man, it’s cold,” growled Steve Vogt.

I stirred in my sleeping bag listening to the loud river roaring by our tent. The old toboggan on my head helped me keep warm through the night. It was a lesson I had learned in Montana’s Bob Marshall Wilderness area while elk hunting. Like the ole American Express says, “Don’t leave home without it.”

I moved my .45 Long Colt to the side and piled out of my sleeping bag. Dang, it was cold. I jumped in my jeans and flannel shirt, pulled on my hip waders and grabbed my coat. Unzipping our dollar store tent, I stepped out facing the morning and looking at the most beautiful river I had ever seen. The Chili River was about 30 yards wide at this point with a 20-foot bank on the other side. There were several rocks in the middle of the current the size of a Volkswagen, and the water pounded them with anger, leaving a tail stream behind each rock. I stood in awe, staring at this highway of water, wondering where it would take us today.

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This article originally appeared on Foxworthy Outdoors. April 3, 2010.

September 19, 1989, at 4:30 a.m. – My dad was driving me to the Orlando International Airport to catch a Delta flight to Anchorage, my first trip there.  I left my truck at his house to keep from paying two weeks of parking at the airport.  Dad unexpectedly pulled his car over about a mile from the airport and looked at me with eyes of concern.

“Son, please don’t go.  You haven’t lost anything in Alaska…I’m begging you to stay.  You have a young family, three small children and I have a bad feeling. “ He pleaded, “Son, I’ll pay you $2,500 not to go….don’t go son!”

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Man & Wildlife

I have been blessed to be the National Sales Manager for Tecomate Wildlife Systems until 2015. It was a great adventure to blend modern agriculture with the wild life industry. You see, food plots for deer and their booming populations are extremely important to maintain a healthy nutritional level in deer herds. Now... this is especially true where fields of agriculture are not present. Food plots not only provide nutrition but also much needed cover from predators for all wildlife. Railey Farm & Field is a new, unique and one-of-kind company! You see... we approach the food plot industry in a completely new light. It only makes sense to me to provide a food plot that both Man and Wildlife can use.

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