Well I've talked about it for a few days and now its time... I have taken a few pages from the book to let you all get a taste of what is coming.
Holder Saga
Samuel Joseph Holder eased over the edge of the loft and onto the ladder. He felt his way down each rung , silently hoping that the rawhide that held the rungs in place made no noise. The last thing he wanted was to wake up his Ma and Pa or his pesky sister Sophie. What he did want was another shot at the huge buck that he had seen in the high meadow. He silently padded across cabins dirt floor. With his boots in his hand he reached over the door to take down the family rifle. He reached for the string that pulled up the latch to find it already up on the holding nail. Sam wondered if Pa had forgot to latch the door last night. He eased open the door just enough to slide his six foot frame through the door.
It was the very darkest time of the night, the sun would be up over Smoky Ridge in another hour. Pa would be wanting to get at those stumps in the tomato field and he was not going to be happy about Sam being in the woods again this morning. At 16, Sam figured he was full grown and that it was time to be getting on with his own wants and dreams. Pa seemed to still treat him like he was a snot nosed kid, he still would not get Sam his own rifle. Michael Holder, Sam’s Pa, was a hard man. He had went off to fight with General Washington, as a result he was wounded by a British ball at Valley Forge. His right leg was stiff from the hip and he had no feeling in it. When he got back to the family he never said much about the fighting, he just wanted to move his family further west. He took his land grant, all veterans got for fighting, and filed on this farm in the rolling hill country of southern Pennsylvania. Pa now laid claim to almost 200 acres. Michael Holder was a farmer. He bought some from other veterans and traded the local Indians for some. We had both hillside as well as bottom land. Pa loved to farm, he knew when to plant, what to plant and seemed to get just the right amount of water from the Lord to make it all grow. He had decided to cultivate a field of about 5 acres in tomatoes this coming spring and was clearing it for planting.
I wanted no part of farming. I was at home in the woods. I could track almost as well as the Indians, after all I had learned from one. His name was Little Hawk, he was a Huron. We got to know one another after he pulled me out of a creek I tried to cross during the high water of a spring rain. That was seven years ago. Little Hawk was my closest of friend. I learned the different tracks of small animals and learned a lot about them just following them. Once we were tracking a deer through a thicket when we came face to face with a sow black bear with a cub. We must of startled her because she just stood up and started acting like we had stepped on her toes. We took off like we had been shot out of one of ole General Washington’s cannons. We grabbed us a low limb and started up a tree about the same time as that Momma bears little one decided to do what his Momma was fussing at him to get done. Problem was he picked the same tree as Little Hawk and me. That ole tree was getting really small when that Momma decided that she was coming up as well. Just about that time the top of that tree started to bend over with all of our weight. When we was almost on the ground that cub was a whining, that momma was roaring and snapping and making real good time towards us. We dropped to the ground which caused that tree to spring back up since our weight was gone flinging them two bears into the tree tops. We wasted no time getting gone. ........
Well there is one little peak at the book. This is the Story of one American family that settled the Missouri Ozark Plateau in what is now Texas County, Missouri. My parents were born and raised there. I spent many a summer vacation, and more winter weekends than you can count learning the lay of the land between Summersville and Eunice in Texas County. Sam's homestead is where my fathers parents lived as well as where he grew up. The locations I describe are there, or at least used to be. Today the family farm beongs to some guy my aunt sold it to. First thing he done with it was remove all of the old buildings, farm equipment and trees . He turned into grazing land and last time I seen it it was in pretty bad shape. The grass was over grazed and the place had a lonely abandon look to it.
On a lighter note, I got to go fishing again this orning. The new fish picture at the top of the page was taken this morning. Top waters were still the trick.
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