# West-by-God-Virginia



## Kevin (Nov 18, 2012)

Ran across *this little feel good story* running down something totally unrelated. The title caught my eye and had to read it. Thought it was worth sharing . . . .


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## NYWoodturner (Nov 18, 2012)

Great story - and very indicative of all the folks in WBGV. They will give you the shirt off their backs - literally and you don't even have to ask for it. I lived there for 2 1/2 years. Thats where I learned to turkey hunt. Some great people there.


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## Kevin (Nov 18, 2012)

We spent our honeymoon on a mountain top in West By God Virginia for 3 weeks, and we by God loved every minute of it.


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## NYWoodturner (Nov 18, 2012)

Kevin said:


> We spent our honeymoon on a mountain top in West By God Virginia for 3 weeks, and we by God loved every minute of it.



I lived in Elkins. Where did you honeymoon?


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## Kevin (Nov 18, 2012)

NYWoodturner said:


> Kevin said:
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> > We spent our honeymoon on a mountain top in West By God Virginia for 3 weeks, and we by God loved every minute of it.
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I can't answer that until she wakes up which will be in about 10 minutes. It was a 30 minute drive down the mountain to the nearest town. This place was secluded. It was a huge 2 story cabin on the mountain top which belonged to her friends. We had it to ourselves for 3 weeks and man was it ever haunted. Don't believe in spirits? I didn't and my wife didn't either until we stayed in that cabin. I'm telling you for certain ghosts exist and that's a fact Jack! that cabin made believers out of both of us. We had our kids and my sister come up for a few days and they all left because they couldn't sleep because of the paranormal activity. We told them they were nice ghosts but it didn't matter the kids were mortified the first night.


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## NYWoodturner (Nov 18, 2012)

I'm going to LMAO if she says Elkins. I lived on Kelley mountain - towards the base of the mountain but above the frost line. At the top was a house (Wouldn't call it a cabin) that was really nice - but was vacant and had been on the market for years because it was Haunted. The realtors even reported it as so when they showed it. 
The house overlooked the Monogahela National Forest and was about a 25 minute ride to town...


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## Kevin (Nov 18, 2012)

NYWoodturner said:


> I'm going to LMAO if she says Elkins. I lived on Kelley mountain - towards the base of the mountain but above the frost line. At the top was a house (Wouldn't call it a cabin) that was really nice - but was vacant and had been on the market for years because it was Haunted. The realtors even reported it as so when they showed it.
> The house overlooked the Monogahela National Forest and was about a 25 minute ride to town...



:rotflmao3:

She can't remember now either lol. :rofl2: She says she'll call me tonight when it pops into her head. We like to never have found the cabin since we drove to it from Maryland and got there at night. There was NOBODY on that road to ask either. I'm zooming aorund google maps over WBGV to try and find it, calling out names of small towns. "Nope. That's not it either" she says now about 10 times.


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## Kevin (Nov 18, 2012)

We finally figured it out. Thomas WV was the town.


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## NYWoodturner (Nov 18, 2012)

Wow - Thomas is 36 miles from Elkins. Where I lived is about 15 miles if I remember correctly. Small world huh?. I think you were in the monogahelia forest.


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## Kevin (Nov 18, 2012)

NYWoodturner said:


> Wow - Thomas is 36 miles from Elkins. Where I lived is about 15 miles if I remember correctly. Small world huh?. I think you were in the monogahelia forest.



We were on Backbone Mountain I think. We could hear the whomp whomp whomp of the closest of those titanic wind turbines which dot that ridgeline. We were on top of the ridgeline I'm guessing about a mile from the nearest one, but we could hear it just fine unless we were upwind of it on a day. I'm trying to locate the cabin but no luck so far. We were there in June of 2004 when did you live in Elkins?


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## NYWoodturner (Nov 18, 2012)

Kevin said:


> NYWoodturner said:
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> > Wow - Thomas is 36 miles from Elkins. Where I lived is about 15 miles if I remember correctly. Small world huh?. I think you were in the monogahelia forest.
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91 to early 94. People used to ask me if I lived in Thomas when I told them where I lived. As I look at it on Google maps, I believe the place I learned to turkey hunting was around Thomas.

An old retired Alcoa maintenance man I worked with named Hilbert took me to a piece of land that he and 4 others had purchased "Lifetime Hunting Rights" to. It was landlocked 4 times over. You drove a dirt road and had to have the key to 5 different gates to get to the cabin. It was an old share croppers cabin made entirely out of chestnut. The inside had been papered with newspapers over the years to cut down on the drafts. There was no electricity -(and they insisted it stay that way) and no running water. There was a wood burning stove that we cooked on and a coal burning pot belly stove Hilbert had installed that we used for heat. 

Spring Turkey hunting was the best. There was always snow still on the ground. You had to be out of the woods by noon. We would hunt as long as we could, then fish or hunt squirrels by the cabin to eat for breakfast and rabbit for dinner. We would go for a week at a time and never leave to go into town for any reason other than out of ammo...
When the food was plenty for the night and the next morning, we would break out every gun everyone brought, our favorite whiskey and separate the men from the boys... usually determined by your ability to hold your liquor !

Then when the sun went down, we sat around the stove practicing calls, telling stories and listening to the silence. 

Man those were relaxing days. One day at the cabin was like a week of vacation.


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## Kevin (Nov 18, 2012)

NYWoodturner said:


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I hope to meet you one day Scott. I can't do it this coming year, but in 2014 I hope to sponsor a Wood Barter Hunt & Grill. I haven't said anything about it but I have been planning it and now seems like the appropriate time to spring it on everyone. I know a pig roast has been suggested, but I'd like to take it a step further and have you hunters come in and we kill a couple bambi and porky pigs, then the squeamish non-hunter members can come in that weekend and we'll cook up the kill and have a first annual WoodBarter Gathering. It would work out really well for the northerners that don't like the cold because our deer season is in our "cold" months and y'all can escape the ice for a few days. 

Who's game?


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## davduckman2010 (Nov 18, 2012)

been there many times hunting some of the nicest people youll ever run into . unless you stumble onto there pot patch or still  duck


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## davduckman2010 (Nov 18, 2012)

Kevin said:


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KILLIN DID YOU SAY KILLIN IM THERE


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## NYWoodturner (Nov 18, 2012)

davduckman2010 said:


> been there many times hunting some of the nicest people youll ever run into . unless you stumble onto there pot patch or still  duck



That could apply to West-By-God or Kentucky ! Both of which I can and do relate to - but I think Kevin is talking about a Texas retreat. And yes... I'm in !


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## davduckman2010 (Nov 18, 2012)

NYWoodturner said:


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scott my son sent an arrow right over a big tom a couple hours ago while he was deer hunting out back he said there was thirty of them he missed . there goes thanksgiving dinner got to buy a butterball now :dash2::dash2::dash2::dash2:


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## NYWoodturner (Nov 18, 2012)

Kevin said:


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Youbetcha -I'm in ! 
Wish I could bring some Northern deer down though... last I hunted in texas (Also used to live in Clarksville TX) the deer were about the size of my Shepherds.... ) The Coyote were just a tad smaller than the deer.


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## jteagle6977 (Nov 18, 2012)

Sounds like a damn good plan Stan ( Kevin )


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## davduckman2010 (Nov 18, 2012)

NYWoodturner said:


> davduckman2010 said:
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> > been there many times hunting some of the nicest people youll ever run into . unless you stumble onto there pot patch or still  duck
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nope it was west by god webster springs right in the middle of no where. home of the wood choppers festival once ranked the poorest place in the us . wouldnt know it if ya ask them there in there own world down there.


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## Kevin (Nov 18, 2012)

NYWoodturner said:


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Ahhh you northern ego-driven antler counters.  Not everything is bigger in Texas but it's sometimes better. Anyone who has ever tasted Axis meat knows that bigger is for the guys with small peckers.   

Our deer are smaller but when I hunt it's for food. I would rather kill a 150 pound Axis doe than a world record Boone Crockett whitey - I have never spent a cent on taxidermy. Never will.


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## NYWoodturner (Nov 18, 2012)

Kevin said:


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:rotflmao3::rotflmao3::rotflmao3: Too funny!
My favorite shift for the pig roast is overnight... Cool night - warm fire - single malt scotch...


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## Mike1950 (Nov 18, 2012)

We used to go to the Blue Mts. in SE Wash. to hunt for mule deer fr a few days-season would close for 3 days- we would fish for steelhead and then elk hunting started. There was an old cattlemens assoc. cabin. old wood cook stove was the heat and a spring outside. First come first serve sorta deal on the cabin. My dad and I (12 at the time) got there early and got the cabin. There was fresh snow and a set of black bear tracks going under cabin and leaving the other side. Dad and I brushed out the tracks leaving and went hunting for the day. I got my first muley-3 point. we got back late and dads 2 hunting partners just showed up when we got there with the horses. Put them in corral and dad explained the dilemma with the bear. They drew straws to see who crawled under cabin to scare bear out. Dad had rigged straws so Kenny-19 lost. Coupla shots of vodka and under the cabin Kenny went with dads 45 and a flashlight. We all got behind truck and dad threw a chunk of wood at cabin- I never have heard a 45 emptied that quick before or after nor seen a man move that fast horizontally in my life. Junior- Kenny's brother and my dad laughed so hard they almost got sick. We went to that cabin 3 years in a row- what a time and memories were had there.


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## davduckman2010 (Nov 18, 2012)

Mike1950 said:


> We used to go to the Blue Mts. in SE Wash. to hunt for mule deer fr a few days-season would close for 3 days- we would fish for steelhead and then elk hunting started. There was an old cattlemens assoc. cabin. old wood cook stove was the heat and a spring outside. First come first serve sorta deal on the cabin. My dad and I (12 at the time) got there early and got the cabin. There was fresh snow and a set of black bear tracks going under cabin and leaving the other side. Dad and I brushed out the tracks leaving and went hunting for the day. I got my first muley-3 point. we got back late and dads 2 hunting partners just showed up when we got there with the horses. Put them in corral and dad explained the dilemma with the bear. They drew straws to see who crawled under cabin to scare bear out. Dad had rigged straws so Kenny-19 lost. Coupla shots of vodka and under the cabin Kenny went with dads 45 and a flashlight. We all got behind truck and dad threw a chunk of wood at cabin- I never have heard a 45 emptied that quick before or after nor seen a man move that fast horizontally in my life. Junior- Kenny's brother and my dad laughed so hard they almost got sick. We went to that cabin 3 years in a row- what a time and memories were had there.



good times mike good times


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## Mike1950 (Nov 18, 2012)

We hunted there for 5 years-great stories-times and memories. Beautiful country-only one problem with it-there were only 2 directions straight up or down. :dash2::dash2::dash2::dash2:

In the morning you could see the snake river off in the distance- 3 hours later the fog would have moved liked the tide to our level 3000 ft higher. Half an hour later the fog would be clouds and the river was back. Almost for sure every day when it was clear. When the fog got to you, you wanted to be in a good spot-the critters would start to move-rocks start rollin and when it lifted there was a good chance you would get a shot. Funny being able to almost reach up and touch the fog as it rose above you...........


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## Mike1950 (Nov 18, 2012)

PS- I have a picture that I will have to find of the evening of the bear. I will never live it down but I will scan and post............


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## NYWoodturner (Nov 18, 2012)

So I say you re-title this thread - because I think it sets the tone well, and start planning it now. It will give everyone something to look forward to, plan for and start to work on. Starting it now would give us PLENTY of time to use auctions or finished work sales to fund it. You know we like any excuse for an auction !


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## NYWoodturner (Nov 18, 2012)

NYWoodturner said:


> So I say you re-title this thread - because I think it sets the tone well, and start planning it now. It will give everyone something to look forward to, plan for and start to work on. Starting it now would give us PLENTY of time to use auctions or finished work sales to fund it. You know we like any excuse for an auction !



Not to dump it all on you ! I will... as I am sure plenty here will... help plan or do anything I can


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## Mike1950 (Nov 18, 2012)

NYWoodturner said:


> NYWoodturner said:
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> > So I say you re-title this thread - because I think it sets the tone well, and start planning it now. It will give everyone something to look forward to, plan for and start to work on. Starting it now would give us PLENTY of time to use auctions or finished work sales to fund it. You know we like any excuse for an auction !
> ...



I bet I know someone that will run the auction if no one else wants to- he is an crabby ol buzzard but he loves those auctions..........


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## Kevin (Nov 18, 2012)

Mike1950 said:


> I bet I know someone that will run the auction if no one else wants to- he is an crabby ol buzzard but he loves those auctions..........



You are retired from that we have too much money already! 

(I'll let you know when my electric bill is late though)


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## Kevin (Nov 18, 2012)

NYWoodturner said:


> So I say you re-title this thread - because I think it sets the tone well, and start planning it now. It will give everyone something to look forward to, plan for and start to work on. Starting it now would give us PLENTY of time to use auctions or finished work sales to fund it. You know we like any excuse for an auction !



No auctions for this. Let's get back to the haunted cabins for a while, we have a lot of time to plan the kill & grill.


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## DKMD (Nov 18, 2012)

Great story! The gathering sounds like a great idea! I'm not much of a hunter... I get squeamish around anything bloody! I'm a decent cook and a solid eater though, so if I can swing the time off, count me in!


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