1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:11,960 "Ona Farm, you learned to trust your dog before you trust your own eyes. 2 00:00:11,960 --> 00:00:16,640 So when my blue healer stopped halfway down the hill, staring at the hayrow and refused 3 00:00:16,640 --> 00:00:22,840 to take one more step toward that back lot, I should have paid attention, but I didn't. 4 00:00:22,840 --> 00:00:28,280 Instead I fired up the tractor, eased a spear into the top-around bale of hay, and started 5 00:00:28,280 --> 00:00:31,760 lifting like I've done a thousand times." 6 00:00:31,760 --> 00:00:37,520 What I didn't know was something had been sleeping in the gap behind that bale, something 7 00:00:37,520 --> 00:00:43,120 big enough to flatten a bed deep into the hay, and big enough to stand up and tower over 8 00:00:43,120 --> 00:00:50,080 the bale when I woke it up, and that something was, without a doubt, what people call a big 9 00:00:50,080 --> 00:00:51,080 foot. 10 00:00:51,080 --> 00:00:57,200 "Now since that day, I don't walk that back lot without my rifle and my dog," and 11 00:00:57,200 --> 00:01:02,320 truth being told, "my dog does not like going out there at all anymore. 12 00:01:02,320 --> 00:01:08,000 I think he only follows me because he doesn't want me going out there alone." 13 00:01:08,000 --> 00:01:09,000 My name is Mark. 14 00:01:09,000 --> 00:01:13,480 I'm in my early 50s, and I farm a little patch, a southern Ohio that's been in my wife's 15 00:01:13,480 --> 00:01:18,000 family since about the time Ohio became a state. 16 00:01:18,000 --> 00:01:22,400 We have hay, a few beef cows, and whatever else keeps the lights on. 17 00:01:22,400 --> 00:01:28,480 I've heard different folks on your channel talk about things messing with their barns, 18 00:01:28,480 --> 00:01:33,200 with their chicken coops, stealing feed, those sorts of things. 19 00:01:33,200 --> 00:01:39,720 I used to think they were all just mistaken opportunities, and it was some kind of raccoons 20 00:01:39,720 --> 00:01:43,560 or some coyotes or maybe some pesky neighbor kids. 21 00:01:43,560 --> 00:01:50,400 I do not think that anymore because whatever was using my hay, row as a bedroom, sure 22 00:01:50,400 --> 00:01:52,800 wasn't any of those. 23 00:01:52,800 --> 00:01:56,680 Let me paint the picture a little, so this makes sense. 24 00:01:56,680 --> 00:02:02,920 Our place sits in what they call "rolling farm country," which is just a nice way of saying, 25 00:02:02,920 --> 00:02:07,040 "You're either going up or you're going down all the time." 26 00:02:07,040 --> 00:02:10,760 The house and the main barn are on a little flat rise. 27 00:02:10,760 --> 00:02:17,040 Out back of the barn, the ground slopes down into a flat spot that we call the back lot. 28 00:02:17,040 --> 00:02:20,960 That's where I stacked most of my round hay bales. 29 00:02:20,960 --> 00:02:25,000 It's easier to load from, and it's out of the way. 30 00:02:25,000 --> 00:02:30,600 Beyond the back lot, there's an old barbed wire fence that's more falling down than standing 31 00:02:30,600 --> 00:02:35,640 up, but it still works as a fence line, technically. 32 00:02:35,640 --> 00:02:43,440 On the other side of that is a brushy fence row, hedge, thorny wild rose, wild grape thines, 33 00:02:43,440 --> 00:02:46,840 and then it drops off into a wooded hollow. 34 00:02:46,840 --> 00:02:52,220 That hollow runs for a good stretch behind our place and connects up to other folks' 35 00:02:52,220 --> 00:02:55,760 woods, and there's an old railbed out there. 36 00:02:55,760 --> 00:02:59,160 Eventually it makes it to the creek bottom. 37 00:02:59,160 --> 00:03:01,160 So there you have it. 38 00:03:01,160 --> 00:03:05,520 House-barned back lot fence brush and hollow. 39 00:03:05,520 --> 00:03:11,160 For years I stacked my round bales in a long single row right up close to that old fence 40 00:03:11,160 --> 00:03:12,800 line. 41 00:03:12,800 --> 00:03:15,880 Sometimes too high if we'd had a good year. 42 00:03:15,880 --> 00:03:20,760 It made a really nice wind break, and I really didn't think anything of how I put things 43 00:03:20,760 --> 00:03:22,400 out there. 44 00:03:22,400 --> 00:03:29,240 I run mostly grass hay, orchard, fescue, with some clover down in the lower field. 45 00:03:29,240 --> 00:03:31,840 We do our own cutting and bailing. 46 00:03:31,840 --> 00:03:36,640 This isn't a big operation, but it's just right for us. 47 00:03:36,640 --> 00:03:38,960 Every summer is the same rhythm. 48 00:03:38,960 --> 00:03:40,560 Watch the weather. 49 00:03:40,560 --> 00:03:41,560 Cut. 50 00:03:41,560 --> 00:03:42,560 Rake. 51 00:03:42,560 --> 00:03:43,560 Baal. 52 00:03:43,560 --> 00:03:44,560 Hall. 53 00:03:44,560 --> 00:03:45,560 Stack. 54 00:03:45,560 --> 00:03:46,560 Baal. 55 00:03:46,560 --> 00:03:51,120 And you thank the Lord when the rain holds off. 56 00:03:51,120 --> 00:03:56,520 Now this happened late summer, four years ago, after our second cutting. 57 00:03:56,520 --> 00:04:02,120 We'd had a decent stretch, and I'd gotten lazy, stacking bales in the back lot, but not 58 00:04:02,120 --> 00:04:06,960 moving them where I really wanted them by the side drive. 59 00:04:06,960 --> 00:04:12,400 Then the forecast started telling me that a week of storms was about to roll through, 60 00:04:12,400 --> 00:04:18,120 and I decided I had better get them shifted before the ground turned to soup, and the tractor 61 00:04:18,120 --> 00:04:22,040 started making ruts that I would be fighting all year. 62 00:04:22,040 --> 00:04:24,720 So the day started normal. 63 00:04:24,720 --> 00:04:26,680 It did not end that way. 64 00:04:26,680 --> 00:04:30,200 I've got a blue healer mix named Trixi. 65 00:04:30,200 --> 00:04:35,720 Now she's ten years old now, but back then she was still pretty spry. 66 00:04:35,720 --> 00:04:40,560 She was the kind of dog that loves a four wheeler, and she would lay under a running 67 00:04:40,560 --> 00:04:42,960 tractor if you let her. 68 00:04:42,960 --> 00:04:48,040 Nothing usually rattled her, not thunder, gunshots, engines. 69 00:04:48,040 --> 00:04:49,040 You name it. 70 00:04:49,040 --> 00:04:51,720 She was calm around at all. 71 00:04:51,720 --> 00:04:57,320 That afternoon I fired up the tractor, hooked up the spear to the front, and headed toward 72 00:04:57,320 --> 00:04:59,240 the back lot. 73 00:04:59,240 --> 00:05:02,840 Trixi trotted along beside me, like she always did. 74 00:05:02,840 --> 00:05:07,680 But about halfway down the slope she began to slow. 75 00:05:07,680 --> 00:05:13,120 At the time I eased into the back lot, she had stopped completely. 76 00:05:13,120 --> 00:05:18,640 She stood there with her ears up, staring forward at the far end of the hay road by the 77 00:05:18,640 --> 00:05:19,640 fence row. 78 00:05:19,640 --> 00:05:23,000 "Come on, girl," I called over the engine. 79 00:05:23,000 --> 00:05:25,000 I patted my leg. 80 00:05:25,000 --> 00:05:28,760 Then I said, "Come on, girl, let's get to work." 81 00:05:28,760 --> 00:05:30,880 Trixi didn't budge. 82 00:05:30,880 --> 00:05:36,720 She took a few steps backward, then circled behind the tractor, sat on the higher ground, 83 00:05:36,720 --> 00:05:37,720 and watched. 84 00:05:37,720 --> 00:05:41,120 "No, that wasn't like her at all." 85 00:05:41,120 --> 00:05:47,480 I did notice it, but it went into that mental file of, "Huh, well, she's acting weird." 86 00:05:47,480 --> 00:05:49,800 But I kept going. 87 00:05:49,800 --> 00:05:55,520 I was more focused on what I had to get done, and I knew I was up against a timeline of 88 00:05:55,520 --> 00:05:57,080 weather rolling in. 89 00:05:57,080 --> 00:06:04,080 Now, there were maybe thirty bails in that row, all single file, into end, with a stretch 90 00:06:04,080 --> 00:06:07,560 near the middle that was stacked too high. 91 00:06:07,560 --> 00:06:11,960 I planned to pull the top ones first, where I had doubled them. 92 00:06:11,960 --> 00:06:14,720 Then I would work my way along. 93 00:06:14,720 --> 00:06:20,560 The hollow behind the fence row was in full leaf, all green and shadowed. 94 00:06:20,560 --> 00:06:25,320 The air down there smelled damp and rich as it always did. 95 00:06:25,320 --> 00:06:29,520 But I noticed there was a sharper note under it that day. 96 00:06:29,520 --> 00:06:36,800 A bit of sour and sweaty, like something had been bedding down close for a long time. 97 00:06:36,800 --> 00:06:39,600 Probably dear, I said to myself. 98 00:06:39,600 --> 00:06:45,400 I dropped the tractor into low, and rolled up to the first double-stack section. 99 00:06:45,400 --> 00:06:51,120 If you've never moved round bails with a spear, the ideal is pretty simple. 100 00:06:51,120 --> 00:06:54,480 You ease the spear into the flat side of the bale. 101 00:06:54,480 --> 00:06:58,680 You pick it up, and try not to tear the twine. 102 00:06:58,680 --> 00:07:00,040 Why lined up? 103 00:07:00,040 --> 00:07:05,640 Ease the spear in, and lifted the top bale pretty as you please. 104 00:07:05,640 --> 00:07:10,680 As I backed away, that top bale rose up off the one underneath. 105 00:07:10,680 --> 00:07:15,920 And for just a second, I could see the flat face of the bottom bale, and the few feet 106 00:07:15,920 --> 00:07:19,760 of ground between it and the fence. 107 00:07:19,760 --> 00:07:22,880 There was a hollow chewed into that space. 108 00:07:22,880 --> 00:07:29,480 The hay had been pulled out, pressed down into a large man-sized depression. 109 00:07:29,480 --> 00:07:34,240 I don't mean like some little mouse nest or maybe a raccoon den. 110 00:07:34,240 --> 00:07:36,120 I'm talking. 111 00:07:36,120 --> 00:07:42,000 This was a man-sized hollow pulled out, and shaped from the hay. 112 00:07:42,000 --> 00:07:49,800 I had just enough time to register what I was seeing before something else drew my eye. 113 00:07:49,800 --> 00:07:50,800 Movement. 114 00:07:50,800 --> 00:07:56,560 Not where I had just lifted the bale, but further down at the far end of the row, near 115 00:07:56,560 --> 00:08:01,040 the corner where the fence turns into the woods. 116 00:08:01,040 --> 00:08:03,680 Something was standing up back there. 117 00:08:03,680 --> 00:08:10,160 At first it was just a shape, darker than the shadows behind the last two bails. 118 00:08:10,160 --> 00:08:15,560 Then it kept rising, and that's when my brain stopped trying to figure it out, because 119 00:08:15,560 --> 00:08:17,640 I had nothing. 120 00:08:17,640 --> 00:08:24,680 If you don't know how tall a typical bale of hay is, well they vary, but mine are a little 121 00:08:24,680 --> 00:08:26,640 over five feet. 122 00:08:26,640 --> 00:08:32,040 Now this thing, when it straightened all the way up behind that in bale, it was taller than 123 00:08:32,040 --> 00:08:35,360 that bale by a good two feet. 124 00:08:35,360 --> 00:08:39,400 The bale stopped roughly mid-chest on it. 125 00:08:39,400 --> 00:08:42,160 My stomach did a slow roll. 126 00:08:42,160 --> 00:08:45,920 My hands tightened on the tractor wheel. 127 00:08:45,920 --> 00:08:51,200 It had been lying down in the gap between the last bale and the fence down there. 128 00:08:51,200 --> 00:08:55,040 The way a dog would tuck itself up along a wall. 129 00:08:55,040 --> 00:08:58,920 The curve of the row and the brush had hidden it when I drove in. 130 00:08:58,920 --> 00:09:06,520 Now, as it unfolded itself, I understood why Trixie hadn't wanted to come down. 131 00:09:06,520 --> 00:09:14,040 It turned sideways, and for a moment its upper body was in clear view between the two bails. 132 00:09:14,040 --> 00:09:20,720 It looked like a very big, very strong man, like somebody had been wrapped up in dark brown 133 00:09:20,720 --> 00:09:22,040 hair. 134 00:09:22,040 --> 00:09:25,760 It was bigger than that Jack Reacher guy on TV. 135 00:09:25,760 --> 00:09:27,560 Way bigger. 136 00:09:27,560 --> 00:09:32,040 Words can't explain it right, though I am trying. 137 00:09:32,040 --> 00:09:35,800 The shoulders were wide and rounded and very muscular. 138 00:09:35,800 --> 00:09:38,760 The hair was shorter there than on the arms. 139 00:09:38,760 --> 00:09:42,040 The chest was broad, and a little bit rounded. 140 00:09:42,040 --> 00:09:45,160 The hair on it was messy and clumped up. 141 00:09:45,160 --> 00:09:48,920 One long arm was braced against the back of the bale. 142 00:09:48,920 --> 00:09:54,120 The hand spread, using the hay to push itself fully upright. 143 00:09:54,120 --> 00:09:59,000 And that hand told me everything I needed to know. 144 00:09:59,000 --> 00:10:00,520 It wasn't a paw. 145 00:10:00,520 --> 00:10:02,840 It sure wasn't a hoof. 146 00:10:02,840 --> 00:10:07,040 What I saw was clearly a defined hand. 147 00:10:07,040 --> 00:10:11,960 Five fingers, thick and long, with a thumb set a little lower. 148 00:10:11,960 --> 00:10:16,440 I could see each one separately against the lighter hay. 149 00:10:16,440 --> 00:10:20,720 The hair was thinned across the back of the hand, and the skin that showed on the neckels 150 00:10:20,720 --> 00:10:26,240 was dark and leathery, made me think of old work gloves. 151 00:10:26,240 --> 00:10:32,560 Its head was big and blocky, forehead sloping back from a heavy brow ridge. 152 00:10:32,560 --> 00:10:38,720 The hair on its head was a little longer there, hanging down around the sides, but I wouldn't 153 00:10:38,720 --> 00:10:43,280 call it a main, just uncombed and wild. 154 00:10:43,280 --> 00:10:47,080 The face, well, that's carved in my memory. 155 00:10:47,080 --> 00:10:52,080 The hair along the jaw and the cheeks was there, but around the eyes and the nose and 156 00:10:52,080 --> 00:10:56,920 the mouth, the skin was showing dark grey brown. 157 00:10:56,920 --> 00:10:59,240 The nose was broad and flat. 158 00:10:59,240 --> 00:11:04,560 The mouth was wide, with thin lips a shade darker than the rest. 159 00:11:04,560 --> 00:11:11,580 The eyes were small and dark and set back in the skull with leathery skin all around. 160 00:11:11,580 --> 00:11:17,040 And all over it were bits of hay and leaves stuck to the hair. 161 00:11:17,040 --> 00:11:25,280 It blinked slowly, and its eyes met mine across maybe 25, 30 feet of distance. 162 00:11:25,280 --> 00:11:29,840 These eyes weren't glowing and there was nothing supernatural about them, but they were 163 00:11:29,840 --> 00:11:35,640 deep set, and they were dark eyes that I knew were there even if I couldn't see them in 164 00:11:35,640 --> 00:11:37,760 detail. 165 00:11:37,760 --> 00:11:43,680 We stared at each other over the nose of my tractor, me with a hay spear in the air, 166 00:11:43,680 --> 00:11:45,400 and my engine rumbling. 167 00:11:45,400 --> 00:11:49,880 It, half out of its hiding place behind my own bails. 168 00:11:49,880 --> 00:11:54,640 It was clear I had disturbed its sleep, and it was trying to escape. 169 00:11:54,640 --> 00:12:00,680 I don't know how long this lasted us looking at each other. 170 00:12:00,680 --> 00:12:05,200 Probably just a couple of seconds, but it was long enough for me to feel the weight of 171 00:12:05,200 --> 00:12:11,120 its attention, like I was standing in front of a big bull and I was hoping he was in a good 172 00:12:11,120 --> 00:12:12,920 mood. 173 00:12:12,920 --> 00:12:15,320 It drew in a big breath. 174 00:12:15,320 --> 00:12:18,360 I could see its chest expand under the hair. 175 00:12:18,360 --> 00:12:21,000 I saw the ribs lift. 176 00:12:21,000 --> 00:12:27,000 When it let the air out, suddenly the smell was on the breeze, and it hit me. 177 00:12:27,000 --> 00:12:31,880 Right, sour body odor, mixed with damp hay and mud. 178 00:12:31,880 --> 00:12:33,920 It was revolting. 179 00:12:33,920 --> 00:12:38,320 It was strong enough that I could taste it in the back of my throat, even with the tractor 180 00:12:38,320 --> 00:12:40,360 between us. 181 00:12:40,360 --> 00:12:43,960 My survival instincts finally kicked in. 182 00:12:43,960 --> 00:12:46,920 My right foot eased onto the clutch. 183 00:12:46,920 --> 00:12:53,320 I didn't mean to move, but the tractor rolled just to hair, and that broke the moment between 184 00:12:53,320 --> 00:12:54,880 us. 185 00:12:54,880 --> 00:13:00,120 It let out a short, low sound that I could hear even over the tractor's engine, sort of 186 00:13:00,120 --> 00:13:05,800 a half grunt, half growl, then it turned toward the fence. 187 00:13:05,800 --> 00:13:07,880 I sat there frozen. 188 00:13:07,880 --> 00:13:12,520 Hands clenched on the wheel, foot holding the clutch down. 189 00:13:12,520 --> 00:13:17,360 I didn't think about flipping the throttle or dropping the spear, or any of the things 190 00:13:17,360 --> 00:13:20,160 I could have done. 191 00:13:20,160 --> 00:13:26,480 My whole body was stuck between, don't move, and get the heck out of there. 192 00:13:26,480 --> 00:13:29,160 It moved with a kind of heavy grace. 193 00:13:29,160 --> 00:13:32,000 I don't have a better way of describing it. 194 00:13:32,000 --> 00:13:37,600 It swung one leg up and over the sacking top strand of the barbed wire fence, like it 195 00:13:37,600 --> 00:13:41,480 was stepping over a coiled garden hose. 196 00:13:41,480 --> 00:13:46,760 The muscles in its thigh bunched under the hair, and I got a clear look at the foot for just 197 00:13:46,760 --> 00:13:48,260 a moment. 198 00:13:48,260 --> 00:13:51,600 It was long, wider toward the front. 199 00:13:51,600 --> 00:13:56,640 The toes were clear to me, and the foot was bare. 200 00:13:56,640 --> 00:14:00,760 There was not a hint of a boot or a shoe anywhere. 201 00:14:00,760 --> 00:14:05,080 The bottom that I saw was a medium gray color. 202 00:14:05,080 --> 00:14:09,320 I remember it because it was a very different color than the hair or the leathery skin that 203 00:14:09,320 --> 00:14:11,880 I saw on it elsewhere. 204 00:14:11,880 --> 00:14:16,160 This was old, dry, and cracked looking. 205 00:14:16,160 --> 00:14:21,480 It set that foot down on the far side with a soft thump in the leaves, then brought the 206 00:14:21,480 --> 00:14:27,720 other leg over, let go of the bale, and straightened up completely on the hollow side. 207 00:14:27,720 --> 00:14:34,960 From that slightly lower ground, the top of the round bale reached just under its shoulder, 208 00:14:34,960 --> 00:14:39,480 and that's when I really soaked in the size of this thing. 209 00:14:39,480 --> 00:14:43,600 I went out and measured, and I did a lot more math later on. 210 00:14:43,600 --> 00:14:48,600 It was every bit of at least seven and a half feet tall. 211 00:14:48,600 --> 00:14:55,320 It turned its head back just once, looked at me one more time, and then took two long strides 212 00:14:55,320 --> 00:14:59,120 along the fence line parallel to the bales. 213 00:14:59,120 --> 00:15:01,880 Branch is snapped, is it brushed through the brush? 214 00:15:01,880 --> 00:15:07,880 And then there was a third stride, and the trees of the hollow swallled it up whole. 215 00:15:07,880 --> 00:15:11,240 The tractor engine was still idling under me. 216 00:15:11,240 --> 00:15:14,280 My hands were still locked onto the wheel. 217 00:15:14,280 --> 00:15:18,480 My heart was beating hard enough that I could feel it in my throat. 218 00:15:18,480 --> 00:15:26,480 Up there on the slope, Trixie barked just once, sharp, and scared, and then she went silent 219 00:15:26,480 --> 00:15:28,480 again. 220 00:15:28,480 --> 00:15:33,160 I sat there in the tractor and waited ten seconds, twenty, thirty. 221 00:15:33,160 --> 00:15:39,280 I'm not sure how long, but I was waiting to hear and see if it came back up, waiting to 222 00:15:39,280 --> 00:15:43,920 see that head rise up over the brush again. 223 00:15:43,920 --> 00:15:45,800 But there was nothing. 224 00:15:45,800 --> 00:15:51,440 Finally, I realized I had been holding my breath for a long while. 225 00:15:51,440 --> 00:15:54,040 I let it out in a big rush. 226 00:15:54,040 --> 00:16:00,160 When I eased my foot off the clutch, the tractor lurched, and that little jolt shook me the rest 227 00:16:00,160 --> 00:16:02,160 of the way loose. 228 00:16:02,160 --> 00:16:08,320 I backed away from the row, turned the tractor, and only when I'd put some distance between 229 00:16:08,320 --> 00:16:13,880 myself and that into the bales did I finally kill the engine. 230 00:16:13,880 --> 00:16:16,960 The sudden quiet pressed in. 231 00:16:16,960 --> 00:16:22,360 Without the tractor motor noise, the hollow sounded completely normal again. 232 00:16:22,360 --> 00:16:26,680 Birds, bugs, a breeze in the leaves somewhere. 233 00:16:26,680 --> 00:16:33,480 But the memory of that smell and those eyes, they were sitting right there on my chest. 234 00:16:33,480 --> 00:16:39,800 I sat there for probably close to thirty minutes, waiting, watching, thinking, reasoning 235 00:16:39,800 --> 00:16:41,280 it out. 236 00:16:41,280 --> 00:16:48,600 I was having arguments with myself, and after a bit, curiosity and starrowness started 237 00:16:48,600 --> 00:16:52,160 wrestling with my common sense. 238 00:16:52,160 --> 00:16:53,640 My better judgment. 239 00:16:53,640 --> 00:16:59,640 I started up the tractor again, and drove right back to the line of bales. 240 00:16:59,640 --> 00:17:04,880 When I got there, I climbed down from the tractor and walked closer to the stack. 241 00:17:04,880 --> 00:17:08,640 The nest, and that's the only word I've got for it. 242 00:17:08,640 --> 00:17:14,920 Well, the nest was big enough that I could have curled up in it and had room to spare. 243 00:17:14,920 --> 00:17:18,720 The bottom hay was pressed down in the shape of the body. 244 00:17:18,720 --> 00:17:24,800 There was a paint darker patch in the center where it looked damp, sort of like from sweat, 245 00:17:24,800 --> 00:17:28,280 where something had been laying there a lot. 246 00:17:28,280 --> 00:17:33,480 I could see where the outer layers of the bale had been huge pieces that had been pulled 247 00:17:33,480 --> 00:17:36,880 out by something with hands. 248 00:17:36,880 --> 00:17:39,720 And the hay had been pulled. 249 00:17:39,720 --> 00:17:43,200 It hadn't been mashed around. 250 00:17:43,200 --> 00:17:46,080 Now stuck to one of those pulled bits. 251 00:17:46,080 --> 00:17:47,360 I did see hair. 252 00:17:47,360 --> 00:17:53,520 I don't mean some little bity mouse hairs or the hollow guard hair off of a deer. 253 00:17:53,520 --> 00:17:55,320 This was longer. 254 00:17:55,320 --> 00:17:59,960 Dark brown, almost black, maybe four inches long. 255 00:17:59,960 --> 00:18:04,600 Course as a broom bristle when I pinched it between my fingers, with a little lighter 256 00:18:04,600 --> 00:18:09,440 brown toward one end like it had been sun bleached. 257 00:18:09,440 --> 00:18:15,080 I remember saying out loud, "What in the world?" 258 00:18:15,080 --> 00:18:18,880 But I already knew what in the world it was. 259 00:18:18,880 --> 00:18:24,600 It was a big foot, better known as the Ohio grass man in these parts. 260 00:18:24,600 --> 00:18:30,480 I looked at that hair, then at the hollow, then toward the fence row. 261 00:18:30,480 --> 00:18:35,680 The brush behind the bales was mashed down in a spot about three feet wide, right where 262 00:18:35,680 --> 00:18:39,000 the nest lined up to it. 263 00:18:39,000 --> 00:18:42,520 The barbed wire strand had fresh scuffs on it. 264 00:18:42,520 --> 00:18:46,400 A little brown hair was caught on one rusty barb. 265 00:18:46,400 --> 00:18:52,640 The top wire sagged there in a little u-shape more than I remember it. 266 00:18:52,640 --> 00:18:56,400 Something had been coming and going right through there. 267 00:18:56,400 --> 00:18:59,200 And it was using the hay bales as a nest. 268 00:18:59,200 --> 00:19:03,280 A very warm and convenient bed. 269 00:19:03,280 --> 00:19:07,920 I began to think about the dozens of times that I'd been out here over the months. 270 00:19:07,920 --> 00:19:12,800 I thought at the times over the years that I've found a hay bales partially torn into or 271 00:19:12,800 --> 00:19:14,880 moved around. 272 00:19:14,880 --> 00:19:21,640 I had always put it down to a stray cow or some neighboring kids or some strange animal 273 00:19:21,640 --> 00:19:26,320 burrowing into it, like maybe a nest of raccoons. 274 00:19:26,320 --> 00:19:31,680 I had no other explanation, so I used what was convenient. 275 00:19:31,680 --> 00:19:35,960 I thought back to how it looked when the big foot had stood up. 276 00:19:35,960 --> 00:19:42,560 It looked disturbed, perturbed, and surprised all at once. 277 00:19:42,560 --> 00:19:48,440 Maybe it had been bedding down there many, many times, and no one ever bothered it. 278 00:19:48,440 --> 00:19:49,440 Who knows? 279 00:19:49,440 --> 00:19:52,920 I might have rolled by it on the tractor many times. 280 00:19:52,920 --> 00:19:57,360 Maybe it had listened to my tractor come and go for months and decided we had an unspoken 281 00:19:57,360 --> 00:19:58,600 agreement. 282 00:19:58,600 --> 00:20:00,760 I would leave it alone. 283 00:20:00,760 --> 00:20:05,360 And then somehow that day I broke the agreement. 284 00:20:05,360 --> 00:20:11,320 The more I thought back on things, the more sure I was that it had been around for quite 285 00:20:11,320 --> 00:20:13,800 a while out there. 286 00:20:13,800 --> 00:20:19,080 But until that minute I hadn't had a clue. 287 00:20:19,080 --> 00:20:22,880 I walked to the end of the hay row where it had stood up. 288 00:20:22,880 --> 00:20:27,800 The hollow side of the fence is a little lower, as I'd said, and the ground there holds 289 00:20:27,800 --> 00:20:29,080 some moisture. 290 00:20:29,080 --> 00:20:32,480 It's soft, but not swampy. 291 00:20:32,480 --> 00:20:36,240 But it does take impressions well. 292 00:20:36,240 --> 00:20:39,720 And right there was a clear print. 293 00:20:39,720 --> 00:20:43,800 I don't mean some big cartoon print like you see in books. 294 00:20:43,800 --> 00:20:50,200 The edges were messy with leaves and pebbles, but the shape was there and unmistakable. 295 00:20:50,200 --> 00:20:56,600 It was long, broader at the toes, narrower at the heel. 296 00:20:56,600 --> 00:21:01,720 The toes themselves had pressed down just enough into the damp soil that I could see five 297 00:21:01,720 --> 00:21:08,360 little rises, with the big toe more in line with the others than ours usually sit. 298 00:21:08,360 --> 00:21:11,040 I wear a size ten boot. 299 00:21:11,040 --> 00:21:14,680 I set my foot next to that impression. 300 00:21:14,680 --> 00:21:18,360 My heel lined up with where its heel had been. 301 00:21:18,360 --> 00:21:23,760 And my toes came up almost three inches short on the front end. 302 00:21:23,760 --> 00:21:28,880 It was easily four inches wider at the ball than my boot was. 303 00:21:28,880 --> 00:21:33,080 I almost got a little dizzy looking at it. 304 00:21:33,080 --> 00:21:37,880 Farther along the fence, there were two more impressions in the right spacing, like it 305 00:21:37,880 --> 00:21:42,880 had taken those long, efficient steps down into the hollow. 306 00:21:42,880 --> 00:21:44,440 There was no question. 307 00:21:44,440 --> 00:21:47,920 I was not going to follow them. 308 00:21:47,920 --> 00:21:52,680 I walked back and looked at the so-called nest again. 309 00:21:52,680 --> 00:21:57,880 Knowing what I had seen when it stood up, it somehow looked different to me now this 310 00:21:57,880 --> 00:21:59,680 nest. 311 00:21:59,680 --> 00:22:07,840 The hay all around it bore the marks of very large hands, pooling and arranging it deliberately. 312 00:22:07,840 --> 00:22:13,320 It seemed to be a very thoughtful design, if I can say that. 313 00:22:13,320 --> 00:22:15,680 By then I'd seen enough. 314 00:22:15,680 --> 00:22:20,480 I straightened up and I suddenly had a chill go right down my spine. 315 00:22:20,480 --> 00:22:25,120 I felt like it was still near and it was watching me. 316 00:22:25,120 --> 00:22:31,480 I climbed back into my tractor, started it up and backed away slow, watching that hollow 317 00:22:31,480 --> 00:22:34,480 like a hawk at the whole time. 318 00:22:34,480 --> 00:22:37,720 I didn't move another bail that day. 319 00:22:37,720 --> 00:22:43,280 I drove straight up to the barn, parked, and I went into the house. 320 00:22:43,280 --> 00:22:46,120 My wife looked up at me in surprise. 321 00:22:46,120 --> 00:22:49,120 She later said my face looked a little grey. 322 00:22:49,120 --> 00:22:52,320 "Are you sick?" she asked. 323 00:22:52,320 --> 00:22:56,400 "Nah," I said, "I'm okay." 324 00:22:56,400 --> 00:22:59,760 It wasn't entirely a lie. 325 00:22:59,760 --> 00:23:02,240 Now I didn't tell her right away. 326 00:23:02,240 --> 00:23:07,120 She doesn't ever go beyond the house, so I wasn't worried about that, but I just didn't 327 00:23:07,120 --> 00:23:09,360 know how to say it to her. 328 00:23:09,360 --> 00:23:15,360 I would sometimes start to say, "You're not going to believe what I saw," but I always 329 00:23:15,360 --> 00:23:16,520 stopped. 330 00:23:16,520 --> 00:23:20,560 I was hearing how it sounded my own head. 331 00:23:20,560 --> 00:23:25,440 It wasn't until that winter when we started noticing the hay-row was being messed with 332 00:23:25,440 --> 00:23:30,160 again that I finally opened my mouth. 333 00:23:30,160 --> 00:23:34,560 Our cattle do not have access to the back lot hay. 334 00:23:34,560 --> 00:23:40,880 I keep their rolled bales in a feeder up in the winter pasture, cut net wrap, and I let 335 00:23:40,880 --> 00:23:45,080 them make a mess of it in one designated spot. 336 00:23:45,080 --> 00:23:49,800 If that back row moved, I knew it wasn't the cows. 337 00:23:49,800 --> 00:23:55,160 And if you've never moved a hay-bale like that, well, you don't know just how heavy they 338 00:23:55,160 --> 00:23:56,160 are. 339 00:23:56,160 --> 00:24:00,360 We're not talking some hundred or two hundred pounds. 340 00:24:00,360 --> 00:24:03,400 They're a lot heavier than that. 341 00:24:03,400 --> 00:24:10,040 Now about a month after my siding, I went down to check the bales after a windstorm. 342 00:24:10,040 --> 00:24:19,440 Two of them at the far end had been shifted just a little, not rolled or speared, but nudged. 343 00:24:19,440 --> 00:24:23,680 And not that the meat lying now had a wobble in it. 344 00:24:23,680 --> 00:24:29,040 There were fresh scuffs on the wire again, and there was a bigger spot of trampled brush. 345 00:24:29,040 --> 00:24:32,280 Yeah, so I had seen this before. 346 00:24:32,280 --> 00:24:34,440 I knew what it was. 347 00:24:34,440 --> 00:24:40,320 And it made even more sense as winter was coming on that the bigfoot would need a warm 348 00:24:40,320 --> 00:24:42,520 and dry place. 349 00:24:42,520 --> 00:24:48,160 In the middle of a big roll of hay, that's a pretty good spot. 350 00:24:48,160 --> 00:24:50,680 I did not poke or disturb. 351 00:24:50,680 --> 00:24:54,120 I left it alone. 352 00:24:54,120 --> 00:24:56,200 That's when I told my wife. 353 00:24:56,200 --> 00:25:02,440 I didn't exactly say the word bigfoot, just that I'd seen something big and upright by 354 00:25:02,440 --> 00:25:09,000 the hay, and I didn't believe it was a person a cow or anything else like that. 355 00:25:09,000 --> 00:25:14,800 Her first reaction was to worry about two legged trespassers, the kind that are known to start 356 00:25:14,800 --> 00:25:20,720 cutting all your copper, or they would steal all your equipment, or worse. 357 00:25:20,720 --> 00:25:27,640 The kind that would take over a farmhouse and the housewife during the day while the man 358 00:25:27,640 --> 00:25:31,120 was away, you get the drift of what I'm saying. 359 00:25:31,120 --> 00:25:33,960 I know it can't be said on your show. 360 00:25:33,960 --> 00:25:38,040 Unfortunately, that had been happening recently. 361 00:25:38,040 --> 00:25:43,760 Now when I described the size compared to the bales, the way it stepped over the fence, 362 00:25:43,760 --> 00:25:47,920 the footprint, she went quiet. 363 00:25:47,920 --> 00:25:51,280 The neighbor down the road, she said finally. 364 00:25:51,280 --> 00:25:56,240 He always said that something was getting into their silage pit at night. 365 00:25:56,240 --> 00:26:01,560 He blamed it on coyotes, but I have never heard a coyote's going for silage. 366 00:26:01,560 --> 00:26:03,400 I'm thinking they were wrong. 367 00:26:03,400 --> 00:26:05,400 Huh. 368 00:26:05,400 --> 00:26:07,480 I looked at her and I nodded. 369 00:26:07,480 --> 00:26:10,640 Yeah, he was probably wrong. 370 00:26:10,640 --> 00:26:17,640 Let that unspoken word, the word Bigfoot, it remained unspoken and it hung heavy in the air 371 00:26:17,640 --> 00:26:20,440 between us. 372 00:26:20,440 --> 00:26:26,600 We started hearing things then, or maybe we had started noticing things that we'd been 373 00:26:26,600 --> 00:26:31,480 hearing all along but paid no attention to before. 374 00:26:31,480 --> 00:26:37,520 Late at night we could hear heavy steps down in the hollow when the nights were still. 375 00:26:37,520 --> 00:26:40,520 It was clearly a two-foot rhythm. 376 00:26:40,520 --> 00:26:46,920 And one time there was a deep, chesty huff that floated up through the trees when I took 377 00:26:46,920 --> 00:26:49,560 the trash out very late. 378 00:26:49,560 --> 00:26:56,280 I moved the next year's haystack farther up toward the barn, well away from that fence. 379 00:26:56,280 --> 00:27:03,440 It's less convenient in some ways for me, but my gut rest easier and strangely so does 380 00:27:03,440 --> 00:27:05,600 my dog. 381 00:27:05,600 --> 00:27:07,640 I know how all of this sounds. 382 00:27:07,640 --> 00:27:13,120 If you're a city person or even a country person who's never seen anything stranger than a big 383 00:27:13,120 --> 00:27:18,040 buck that you just startled out of its bedding, well it probably sounds like I'm telling a 384 00:27:18,040 --> 00:27:22,280 big tall tale to pass a slow winter's night. 385 00:27:22,280 --> 00:27:24,400 I'm not. 386 00:27:24,400 --> 00:27:29,000 And I'm not really a big-foot kind of guy, not even now. 387 00:27:29,000 --> 00:27:33,600 I believe most of the stories I've heard out there are pure fake. 388 00:27:33,600 --> 00:27:39,760 I believe most of the so-called photos and videos and other evidence are also fake. 389 00:27:39,760 --> 00:27:44,760 So I'm not going to blame anyone that doesn't believe my story. 390 00:27:44,760 --> 00:27:50,120 But you have to stop and think that at least some of these stories are true. 391 00:27:50,120 --> 00:27:54,520 I know that mine is, even if you don't. 392 00:27:54,520 --> 00:27:59,120 I'm not saying I know exactly what a big-foot is. 393 00:27:59,120 --> 00:28:05,440 I don't know if it's an ape or some kind of wild man, a relic of something we don't have 394 00:28:05,440 --> 00:28:07,360 in the books. 395 00:28:07,360 --> 00:28:09,560 I only know what I saw. 396 00:28:09,560 --> 00:28:16,720 A huge, hair-covered upright creature bigger than any man I've ever stood next to. 397 00:28:16,720 --> 00:28:21,720 And it was climbing out of a bed that it had made behind my round bails, stepping over 398 00:28:21,720 --> 00:28:28,560 a fence like it was a sidewalk curb and walking into a wood hollow and disappeared. 399 00:28:28,560 --> 00:28:34,560 I also know what my dog did, and that was refused to go near that into the lot, and it bristled 400 00:28:34,560 --> 00:28:38,240 when the wind came up from the hollow with that scent. 401 00:28:38,240 --> 00:28:41,160 I know what my nose remembers. 402 00:28:41,160 --> 00:28:47,200 That rank sour smell of something that sweats and sleeps and lives rough. 403 00:28:47,200 --> 00:28:51,720 I also know what I haven't seen since I moved the hay. 404 00:28:51,720 --> 00:28:58,000 I haven't found any more big, man-sized nests behind my round bails. 405 00:28:58,000 --> 00:29:01,440 The wire hasn't had fresh hair on it. 406 00:29:01,440 --> 00:29:06,720 The brush out there is still trampled in a line where something large used to come and 407 00:29:06,720 --> 00:29:14,760 go, but it's older now, like a trail that just isn't getting used much anymore. 408 00:29:14,760 --> 00:29:20,000 Small new things are growing in the middle of it, and other things along the edge are reaching 409 00:29:20,000 --> 00:29:23,760 over into the path as they grow. 410 00:29:23,760 --> 00:29:29,920 Maybe it moved on, maybe it found a quieter hollow where the hay is easier to steal or burrow 411 00:29:29,920 --> 00:29:32,000 into. 412 00:29:32,000 --> 00:29:35,360 I still hear things once in a while. 413 00:29:35,360 --> 00:29:39,560 Heavy steps late at night, just inside the tree line near the house. 414 00:29:39,560 --> 00:29:42,520 But nothing's there when we light it up. 415 00:29:42,520 --> 00:29:47,640 I've heard some strange noises that I have heard again over the years, but again never 416 00:29:47,640 --> 00:29:50,240 thought much of them before. 417 00:29:50,240 --> 00:29:52,640 Well I think about them now. 418 00:29:52,640 --> 00:29:58,880 Even if all of that is big-foot activity, I can't say for sure if it's the same one, or 419 00:29:58,880 --> 00:30:02,400 if there's even only one out there. 420 00:30:02,400 --> 00:30:07,600 There are more woods in this county than settled spots. 421 00:30:07,600 --> 00:30:13,000 So when people say, "Oh, I don't believe in it, we'd have seen something by now." 422 00:30:13,000 --> 00:30:21,800 I always ask them, "How much time had they spent way back yonder, and how far have they gone?" 423 00:30:21,800 --> 00:30:25,720 They always look at me like glaze dyes and confusion. 424 00:30:25,720 --> 00:30:32,640 I always tell them some of us have been back yonder, and some of us have seen something 425 00:30:32,640 --> 00:30:34,880 by now. 426 00:30:34,880 --> 00:30:40,080 Now nobody around these parts wants to hear their neighbor's name and the word "bigfoot" 427 00:30:40,080 --> 00:30:41,880 in the same sentence. 428 00:30:41,880 --> 00:30:44,600 So we're going to keep it at just mark. 429 00:30:44,600 --> 00:30:51,160 But maybe, just maybe, some of the farmer who keeps finding his hay shifted, or his 430 00:30:51,160 --> 00:30:53,520 silage disturbed. 431 00:30:53,520 --> 00:31:01,520 Maybe he'll hear this, and he'll think twice before he writes it off as just animals or kids. 432 00:31:01,520 --> 00:31:08,680 And if he ever does find a big man-sized nest behind his round bails, and his dog decides 433 00:31:08,680 --> 00:31:12,160 that backlot just isn't fun anymore. 434 00:31:12,160 --> 00:31:18,520 Well, he might want to remember, there aren't things out there that appreciate a good windbreak 435 00:31:18,520 --> 00:31:22,600 and a soft bed just as much as we do. 436 00:31:22,600 --> 00:31:28,840 And they don't always ask permission before they move in. 437 00:31:28,840 --> 00:31:31,680 You've been listening to The Buckeye Bigfoot podcast. 438 00:31:31,680 --> 00:31:36,160 Find more stories, hundreds more, over on our YouTube channel. 439 00:31:36,160 --> 00:31:38,040 Just look for Buckeye Bigfoot.