David Foote

A master woodcarver at his craft

Story by Scottie Vickery
Photos by Wallace Bromberg Jr.

David Foote peered intently through the lighted magnifier attached to his kitchen table and carefully cut a miniscule section of a duck’s feather with a small knife. It’s that attention to detail that makes the woodcarver’s art come alive, whether he’s recreating feathers, a beak or the shell of a turtle.

“You’ll never find anybody who has put more love and consideration into a piece than I have,” said Foote, who has been carving wildlife – mostly birds – for 38 years. “You’re looking at somebody who no doubt loves what he does.”

Foote’s creations have been featured at the White House, the Smithsonian Institution, the headquarters of the National Audubon Society in Manhattan, and in homes and offices in 11 countries. He’s taking commissions two years out, and his carvings can fetch thousands of dollars. Despite the acclaim, the Pell City artist is always honing his craft.

“I’m just an old country boy,” he said. “I’ve gotten to go to a lot of places and meet a lot of people because of my artwork, but I never feel like I’ve reached a pinnacle. It’s a continual learning process.”

Foote has learned a lot about himself in recent years, largely because of health issues that have plagued him. Ten years ago, while in the hospital with double pneumonia, he had a heart attack at age 47. In 2015, he battled squamous cell cancer in his throat and very nearly lost his life. The experiences helped him grow as a person and an artist.

“I was on life support for three weeks and in intensive care for a few more,” Foote said of his cancer fight. “I left the hospital in a wheelchair because I couldn’t walk. The doctor said, ‘I can’t tell you what to expect, because I’ve never seen anybody come back from the dead.’ I thought I’d never carve again.”

Instead of feeling sorry for himself, Foote thanked God for healing him and for every bird he’d had the opportunity to create. “Even if I didn’t carve another one, that was fine,” he said. “I was at peace with it.”

Slowly but surely, however, he began to regain his strength. As he graduated to a walker and then a cane, he began to think about once again pursuing his passion. “Finally, one day I picked up a knife and took a piece of wood and just started carving,” he said. “I realized I could do a little more each day.” 

Foote, 57, first fell in love with carving at 18. The son of Wayne and Wanda Foote, he grew up on the river with his sister and two brothers, including an identical twin. His mother was a primitive antiques dealer, and his father, who had a long career in the iron industry, also built and restored furniture and log houses.

“My dad taught me a wonderful respect and reverence for wood,” Foote said, adding that he learned the different properties of wood make some types better for creating baskets and others best for making furniture. “He looked at wood like we look at different people.”

Foote also developed his love of nature and wildlife as a child. On fishing trips with his father, he spent more time feeding ducks than he did baiting his hook. “People ask me all the time why birds and why wood,” he said. “I’m a bird person; I notice them everywhere. And I like the unforgiveness of wood. You’ve got one shot. If you take something away, you can’t put it back.”

Not long after graduating from Pell City High School in 1980, Foote stumbled upon a craft show at a Birmingham mall and was mesmerized with one artist’s wood carvings. “We got to talking and he said, ‘You know a lot about wood, and you know a lot about birds. Have you ever thought about carving?’”

The man, Don Mitchell of Leeds, gave him his card and invited the teenager to visit his workshop. “I wanted to go the next day, but I waited two weeks,” Foote said. “He had an old garage he’d converted to a shop. When we walked in that door, that was it. Before I left there, he gave me my first carving knife and said, ‘Go carve a bird and when you get done, I want to see it.’”

Mitchell mentored Foote for about two years before he passed away. Later, Foote read everything he could get his hands on about birds and the art of wood carving, and he said he is largely self-taught. “My mother still has the first bird I ever carved,” he said. “My stuff was very crude back then, but my father gave me some good advice. He told me that there are no straight lines and nothing flat in nature.”

Foote’s art allows him to use another one of his talents and loves – painting. “I have always been artistic,” he said. “I was just always able to draw from first-grade on. The teacher would say, ‘Draw a bird, draw a house,’ and mine always got hung up on the board.”

He took art in middle and high school and said he was blessed to have accomplished artist John Lonergan, who lives in Pell City and is well known for his paintings and pottery, as his teacher. “He kind of took me under his wing,” Foote said.

For much of his career, Foote’s brush strokes provided the exquisite detail on the figures he carved mostly from bass wood. His recovery from cancer and brush with death, however, gave him the incentive he needed to try what he had wanted to do for a long time – take his skill to the next level and provide most of the detail through woodburning and carving rather than just paint.

Foote had experimented with the technique before cancer, but was afraid the extra work and time required would make his pieces too costly. “Everything back then was smooth and slick and didn’t have the intricate details,” Foote said. “When I got through cancer and saw I was going to be able to carve again, my whole attitude changed. I decided I don’t care if anyone buys it. I’m going to do it like I want.”

Foote, who now creates full-size, half-size and miniature works of art mostly from Tupelo gum wood, needn’t have worried. His customers pay anywhere from $1,000 for a small songbird to $5,000 for a full-size waterfowl. “What used to take 20-40 hours to complete now takes 400 or 500, so I’m averaging $8 or $10 an hour,” he said with a laugh. “I do what I do because I love it. I have never seen the face of a wood carver on the cover of a Fortune 500 magazine.”

 

Early career

Foote got his start in craft shows in his 20s and quickly began to win awards. The resident wood carver at Springville’s Homestead Hollow for 20 years, he shared his love with kids, many of whom were inspired to carve their own pieces. Perhaps the biggest surprise of his career, though, was when officials from the Alabama State Council on the Arts asked him to carve a yellowhammer for the White House Christmas tree in 2002. First Lady Laura Bush had selected a theme of “All Creatures Great and Small,” and the tree featured ornaments of each state’s bird handcrafted by local artists. The works were later exhibited at the Smithsonian.

Not long after, Foote was one of two artists worldwide selected to provide sculptures of endangered birds for the Audubon Society headquarters. “I consider that to be my claim to fame because they are the bird people of the world,” said Foote, who carved a pair of Virginia rails. “The other artist was a 10th-generation porcelain bird sculptor from Germany.”

While he appreciates the recognition he has received, Foote mostly enjoys doing what he loves for people who love it.

“It gives me great satisfaction when someone who gets up early every morning and works hard to put food on the table calls and says he wants one of my pieces,” he said. “This is a passion. I don’t know any other way to say it. As long as God gives me the strength in my hands and sight in my eyes, I’ll continue to do it.”

 

Dry Creek Farms

Christmas in the Country

Story by Paul South
Photos by Susan Wall

This time of year, thousands of electric lights welcome visitors at Dry Creek Farms. Barns, fences, even a waving wire Santa behind the wheel of a wire tractor, pass on Yuletide greetings with a gentle glow that grows brighter as darkness falls.

It’s all part of the joy the St. John family has shared now for three years on their working cattle farm, where even at Christmas, white-faced Hereford cattle trump red-nosed reindeer. On the weekend of Dec. 7-9, Dry Creek will host its third annual “Christmas on the Farm,” a gift to the people of Pell City and surrounding areas.

Santa and Mrs. Claus will be on hand to meet the children and hear who’s been naughty or nice, as well as Christmas wishes. Gallons of hot chocolate and plates full of goodies will be served. And farm animals – a bottle-fed calf, bunnies, chickens and a horse – will give children a taste of life on the farm.

Photos with Santa are available for $10 each. And kids will also be able to write and send letters to Santa at a small post office in the barn.

But for Joyce St. John, paternal grandmother of this farm family, the lights, tinsel, trees and Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus who come to Dry Creek, dim in comparison to the lights gleaming in the eyes of children and in the Christmas story she loves to share. Dressed in red velvet as Mrs. Kris Kringle, Mrs. St. John reads Clement Moore’s classic, ’Twas the Night Before Christmas. But her true joy – and to her and many others “the reason for the season” – the telling of the birth of Jesus, born in a Bethlehem barn more than 2,000 years ago. For Joyce, the event is more Nativity than North Pole.

“A lot of children who don’t get to experience the things of the manger and all because they’re not involved in church, this is a way of being a witness to them that Christmas is not about Santa Claus, it’s about the birth of Jesus,” Mrs. St. John says. “You’d be surprised at how many children will start asking questions once I start telling the story of Jesus and how He was born in a stable and His bed was a trough that the cattle ate out of. They start asking questions and then you can start sharing about Jesus, and they’re so surprised. Then you have children who can tell you the story of Jesus, and it’s amazing how excited they get being able to tell you stuff about Jesus.”

Grandson Carter St. John runs the day-to-day operation at Dry Creek, which along with raising and selling show cattle, serves as a popular celebration venue. He hopes the event will spark an interest in a generation of kids more familiar with Fortnite than farming. The St. John show cattle compete in events statewide and around and across the country in fairs and other agricultural events.

 “We want (youngsters) to come in here and actually get to know livestock,” Carter says. “That’s how we were raised, and we want other people to see that . . . Maybe it will help their future, maybe they’ll love livestock and not do bad things on the street and make this a hobby for them, loving animals. It kept me out of trouble because it kept me busy.”

He added, “It gives them different options, because they didn’t know farming was out there . . . It’s just like playing baseball or football. It’s a hobby for them. We want more kids involved in farming.”

Six stalls offer different activities for children and their parents. Refreshments, the letters to Santa, spots to visit Santa and his bride and more. At big box retailers, holiday festivities may be best remembered for long lines and long waits. But at Dry Creek, it’s joyous “organized chaos,” Joyce St. John says with a laugh.

Some kids steer classic, pedal-powered metal toy tractors. Others run to Santa. Still others cuddle furry baby bunnies or pet pigs. Sometimes the barn is as quiet as a Christmas Eve mouse, but more often it’s a blizzard of activity. About 150 kids, with parents in tow, flocked to last year’s event.

“Sometimes the barn would be full,” she says. “Sometimes there would be little breaks, but it seemed like someone was in there all the time.”

Joyce St. John has a gentle, welcoming voice that overflows with kindness. The kindness remains when she takes on the role of Mrs. Claus. But, she says, her personality changes when she dons the red velvet dress and hat.

 “I just love how excited the children get to sit in Mrs. Santa’s lap. I also do the story, ’Twas the Night Before Christmas, and so many of them have heard the story about Santa. You do kind of change your character. My character changes while telling the story of Jesus’ birth compared to ’Twas the Night Before Christmas.

She senses a transformation when she tells the story of the baby born in the Bethlehem barn. Her already happy heart overflows with joy while telling the Gospel story. Sometimes, she says, children return to hear the story again and again and again.

“Telling the story of Jesus, it puts you almost like you’re almost there in the barn witnessing it and being a part of it. I get excited talking about Jesus. There’s a big difference talking about Santa Claus and talking about Jesus.”

The St. Johns string lights, hang tinsel and decorate trees weeks before the Dec. 7-9 event. But for Joyce St. John, only one beacon matters – the Light of the World. She sees Christmas at the Farm as “a ministry,” countering the commercialization of Christmas.

 “Several children . . . just to see their eyes light up when you told them the story about Jesus, especially those who really didn’t know about Him.” You knew that this may be the only time during the year that anything is really said about Jesus.

Doing this Christmas on the farm . . . It’s about the true meaning of Christmas. If it touches one person’s life, and they come to know Jesus, it will have been worth it.”

For more information about Dry Creek Farms, visit www.drycreekfarmscattle.com.

Got Her Goats

Rental ruminants help clear kudzu from Ashville farm

Story by Carol Pappas
Photos by Wallace Bromberg Jr.

Cindy Massey took more than a casual look at the kudzu-covered cliffs that surrounded her Ashville farm and knew she had to put a stop to the invasion.

Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia, describes the invading kudzu as climbing, coiling and trailing perennial vines introduced in America from Asia in the 19th Century. It’s even earned the infamous reputation as ‘the weed that ate the South.’ But never mind the lore behind it. All Massey knew was that it had to go.

She had kept it under control for years through a treatment process. But when that process was skipped a couple of times, the vines enveloped the hillsides and rock formations – top to bottom – that form a natural, dramatic backdrop all around her expansive valley acreage. That is, when you can see them.

She asked her landscape architect, Rodney Griffin at Gardens by Griffin, for advice, and his answer would set in motion a solution not seen all that much around these parts. “Why don’t you rent a goat?”

It was no time for conventional means anymore, said Massey. So, she turned her attention to the internet and made a discovery that’s catching on around the country – renting goats – and lots of them.

She found a company in Tennessee – Rent-A-Ruminant – that would bring a herd of goats to Alabama and let them do what goats do best. And on a warm, sunny day in August, kudzu started tumbling down like a row of dominos given a mighty thump.

 All across Massey’s 135 acres, one by one, members of the herd of 47 goats made their way up and down and all around the hillsides, craning their necks to reach their ‘gold.’ Some stood on hind legs to get an extra boost toward their target. They tracked, tromped and chomped on one hillside and then headed to the next course at Taylor’s direction.

If one man’s trash is another’s treasure, the same holds true for goats. According to Rent-A-Ruminant owner Jax Taylor, kudzu is like the “golden corral” to them. She compared the bottom to broccoli, the next layer to a chocolate fountain and at the very top, they strike gold.

As Maddie, an Anitolian Shepherd, Great Pyrennes mix herded the goats, keeping them inside temporary netting that encloses each section designated for their clearing prowess, Taylor talked of how her story began.

Now a veteran, she was in Kuwait, about to be deployed to Iraq. A library in Los Angeles had donated out-of-date books to soldiers, and she picked up one on suburban homesteading. For the next 15 months, she would read that book over and over again and became “intrigued” with the concept of self-sufficiency and homesteading.

She decided when she returned home, she would buy a goat. And that she did. Her first was a Nigerian Dwarf, Becka, and you might say that goat cleared the path forward for her in more ways than one. After a second tour, this time in Afghanistan, she decided that when her Army career ended, her next career would involve goats. She had already started her farm and had moved to standard sized goats.

Her herd has grown sizably since then, and so has the territory for Rent a Ruminant, a franchise company begun in 2004 in Washington State. Besides Taylor’s franchise in Tennessee, there are others in Louisiana and Texas.

This was Taylor’s first time to herd in Alabama, and she settled into a loft apartment above the barn on Massey’s land for the two and half weeks she was there with the herd. She and her goat caravan have traveled to parts of Tennessee, Georgia and Kentucky clearing property and taking care of the environment.

“We try to run the business like animal lovers would run the business,” she said, noting that most are rescues. She calls them by name if they venture where they’re not supposed to go as if they are wandering toddlers.

There are three generations out there, she said, proudly pointing to each. Becka is the matriarch. Fiddle is her first kid, and Banjo is Fiddle’s first kid.

How do they get their names? “Sometimes, they just come to us. Pineapple is “off the wall.” Morgan is named after a niece. Sir Richard? He’s their “problem child.” He jumps the fence. “They do something that gives them a name,” she explained.

Taylor likens their approach to clearing the kudzu to the atmosphere of a Jurassic Park – “like dinosaurs attacking.” 

And when they were done, Massey’s property was cleaner that it had been in years. By the end of their stay and multiple work days, Massey was calling the goats by name, too.

“I saw firsthand that running a goat rental business is not for the faint of heart,” Massey said. “Some of our terrain is quite steep and while it was no problem for the goats, Jax and her husband, Mathhew, had to clear brush and install fencing to contain them.

“I love the fact that they demolished a lot of kudzu, and no chemicals were used. I try to be mindful of the wonderfully diverse ecosystem we enjoy here. The goats neutralize seeds in their gut rather than broadcasing them as with a machete or Weedeater.”

She noted that the goats were extremely efficient and worked quickly, returning her property to the picturesque landscape she first fell in love with.

“The goats and the Taylors were a delight,” she said. “I missed the sounds of tinkling goat bells and ‘baaaaah’ after they left.”

Caroline’s Mill

St. Clair Springs couple returns to days gone by

Story by Elaine Hobson Miller
Photos by Michael Callahan

For several of the 40-plus years Tommy and Sibyl White have lived in St. Clair Springs, they have gazed out their living room window at the swampy spring-fed pond across the road and said, “Wouldn’t it be neat to have a water wheel there?”

The pond was on a piece of land that didn’t belong to them, so the couple never dreamed their idea would go anywhere. But the owner decided to sell that four-acre plot, and when Tommy learned about it, he pounced. The deal was sealed early this year, and Tommy set to work clearing the property and building that wheel and a mill to house it.

“Three springs feed the mill pond,” Tommy said. “A stream ran out of it constantly all year round. We thought it would be the perfect place for a water wheel.”

He didn’t have a drawing of what he wanted, but that wasn’t an obstacle. “I had in the back of my head what I wanted it to look like,” he said.

It wasn’t the first time he had plunged feet first into a building project. The host of White’s Mountain Bluegrass Festival for 12 years, he built a wooden train, a general store and an amphitheater and stage at the top of White’s Mountain Lane. Tommy and Sibyl live at the bottom of that lane. When the bluegrass festival got too big for them to handle — they were doing one in the spring and one in the fall — they quit. But the lure of old-time music and old-fashioned folk ways proved too much for them. So about five or six years ago (Tommy isn’t good with dates), he came up with the Chimney Corner Celebration to take its place.

Held the third weekend of October, it is named after the warmest spot in any bygone farm house, the corner between the pot-bellied stove and the fireplace. The Celebration warms up at sundown on a Friday with a jam session of local bluegrass musicians. It continues from 9 a.m. until “whenever” the next day with more bluegrass, bagpipes and other period music and dance. Activities and displays include sorghum syrup and cider making, spinning wheel operations, hominy making, quilting, chair caning and blacksmithing.

“We just love that kind of stuff,” Tommy said. “The old ways of doing things bring back memories of the old days, when people had to make it, grow it or do without it.”

The star of the show this year was supposed to be the new mill, but it wasn’t quite finished in time. Tommy had planned to demonstrate grinding corn and wheat, and the water wheel was supposed to produce the electricity to power a generator for the lights of the mill house. The water level was a couple of feet below what the mill wheel needed. So, the demos would have to wait for the rainy season.

He made the eight-foot by two-foot mill wheel in his shop by modifying a metal spool used to roll electrical wire. It’s an undershot mill, meaning water runs under it to turn the wheel. Two grinding stones, one stationary and one moving against the first, form the basic elements for grinding grain. Tommy cut grooves in the mill stones so the grain could pass through them.

“To harness water power, you must have height and volume,” Tommy explained. “To get the volume, you raise the water level and restrict it to a narrow channel that is called the mill race.” The wheel sits at the discharge end of the race, and water pressure will turn the wheel. A control valve will lower and raise the water level. When the wheel runs, water will pass through the mill race and into a stream that continues under Highway 23 and into Little Canoe Creek.

Made of pressure-treated pine lumber and siding, the mill building is 12 feet by 16 feet, including a porch that wraps around two sides. It has traditional mill-style windows, which are openings cut into the siding with wooden covers that slide out of the way. “I remember Mom had windows like these in her kitchen,” Tommy said. “I would go outside and climb up and open them on a hot day.”nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn

Mosquitoes were a hindrance to the property clearing at first, but Tommy’s son found a $400 fogger machine online, and it cleared out the mosquito population from the quarter-acre pond in a hurry. Once construction started, curious passersby on Highway 23 stopped their cars frequently, asking questions and admiring the project.

 Begonias, coleus, geraniums, hasta and caladium add color to the place, along with hanging baskets of ferns and an airplane plant, thanks to Sibyl’s green thumb and eye for landscaping. “I had to contain her, or she would have filled the place with flowers,” Tommy said. “She had some good ideas, though.”

The mill won’t sit dormant between celebrations, either. “I’ll decorate it for the Christmas season and use the electricity the wheel generates to power the lights, provided the rains come and bring up the water level,” he said. “We’ll just grind whatever folks bring us, too.”

Meanwhile, at the top of the lane where the Chimney Corner Celebration is held, Tommy has built a number of buildings that help tell of bygone days. He has a general store and post office combination, something that was quite common in the early history of the U.S. Postal Service.

The back room of the building holds some of the old-fashioned machinery he has collected, including two corn shellers, a grist mill, treadle sewing machines, several ice boxes and a cast-iron cook stove that is vented through a fireplace chimney. An avowed tinkerer, he rebuilt the corn sheller that had belonged to Sibyl’s dad as a boy by using another one as an example.

Shelves in the front room are filled with old glass and pottery, such as the soft-drink bottle embossed with the words, “Ashville Bottling Company,” that he found when he cleaned the sludge out of the mill pond. Post office boxes at the front of the store came from the St. Clair Springs post office that closed around 1949. “St. Clair Springs was a town before Springville was,” he said, a touch of pride in his voice.

He restored a cider mill that he uses at the celebrations. “I found it in northeast Alabama, or rather, I found what was left of it,” Tommy said. “A fellow advertised it on the internet, and I finagled a deal.” Sibyl researched it and had photos and diagrams for him to go by.

Both bluegrass musicians, Tommy plays guitar, and Sibyl keeps the beat on a bass fiddle, while friend David Connor plays banjo in the unnamed trio they form. They play at the Chimney Corner Celebration and area events such as the Looney House Festival, and at the annual Christmas Pickin’ the Whites hold in the back room of the General Store.

In another nod to times gone by, all electricity is turned off at the store that night, and those lucky enough to get an invitation play by the light of the fireplace, oil lamps and lanterns.

Tommy and Sibyl’s granddaughter, six-year-old Caroline, has taken an interest in learning how to play the guitar, and Tommy plans on teaching her what he knows. “We’re calling it Caroline’s Mill in her honor,” Tommy said.

Ryder Carpenetti

Moody’s rising rodeo star

Story by Paul South
Submitted photos

Truth be told, the closest most of us have come to mounting a bucking bull was as a kid on the 25-cent-powered horses at the local five and dime, watching John Travolta in “Urban Cowboy” in college,  or worst-case, when  liquid courage in a shot glass convinced usually sensible adults that they could tame the mechanical bull at the neighborhood cowboy bar.

But the miniature bulls that Moody’s Ryder Carpenetti takes on in rodeos from North Carolina to Las Vegas are the real deal – 1,200 pounds of thick muscle and foul mood that are as unpredictable as it gets. These animals can with a buck, or spin or dip send their riders into the air like a rag doll, leaving them with a face full of mud, bumps and bruises – or worse.

But Carpenetti has captured three world titles riding miniature bucking horses and half-ton bulls.

He’s 4-foot-6, weighs 71 pounds and still has some of his baby teeth. And he’s only turned 12 years old in September.

As John Wayne might put it: Pilgrim, this is one tough little hombre.

It all started with a bulletin board. Ryder’s Dad, Frankie Carpenetti, remembers.

“He was 3 years old. I saw a flier at a Tractor Supply down in Sterrett, and they had ‘mutton bustin,’ you know, where they ride the sheep. I said, ‘I’ll take him down there and let him ride in that. Maybe he’ll ride in that, and then he’ll be done with it.”

Ryder won. And he wasn’t done. Turns out, the sport had lassoed the toddler. From there it was riding his first calf at 5, then steers to junior bulls to mini-bulls. In 2013, he won his first world title in mutton busting. In 2015, he captured world titles in bucking horses and mini bulls.

Watch Ryder Carpenetti on YouTube and you see a kid as cool as the backside of a pillow. He has a quick grin that gleams from beneath the long shadow cast by his big, black cowboy hat. While waiting for his next ride, he waits quietly. His demeanor seems more school play backstage than bull rider.

Once his protective gear is on – a helmet and vest mandated by the MBR (Mini Bull Riders Association) – he’s unflappable.

“He really doesn’t have any fear,” Frankie Carpenetti says.

“We have dirt bikes at the house, and he does jumps and all that. When he gets on the back of the bucking chutes, a lot of the kids are nervous. You can tell. We always have people say, ‘How’s he so calm?’ He just sits on the back of the bucking chutes and waits his turn. Nothing bothers him. He’ll find my wife in the crowd, and he’ll wave to her. The other kids, they’re back there shaking and stuff.”

Carpenetti added, “There’s times when I’m a little more nervous than he is. We go to a lot of big deals. The PBRs (Professional Bull Riders), the Built Ford Toughs (rodeos), you know. I guess I get a lot more nervous than he does sometimes. I guess my nervousness would be him getting hurt. He’s pulled the tendons out in his elbow a couple of times, aside from the normal bumps and bruises.

“But nothing bothers him. He’s in his own world right there. He’s getting ready to ride,” Frankie Carpenetti said. “He’s in his own zone. He just gets in there and rides”

Like any mother, April Carpenetti had the jitters, too. But now, her worries aren’t as great as when he plays youth football in Moody, as a running back and defensive back. On a recent Saturday, Ryder played a half day of football, then was on the road for a rodeo in Bessemer City, N.C.

“Any mom would be terrified,” she says. “But it’s just like anything. The more they do it, the more I feel comfortable. He had to move up in (weight class) in football. Right now, I worry more about him playing against bigger kids in football than I do about him rodeoing. I guess it’s just something he’s been doing so long that I’m comfortable with him doing it.”

At only 12, Carpenetti has drawn comparisons to the late Lane Frost. Frost, who won the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) Bull Riding World Championship in 1987 when he was just 24, was killed in the arena in 1989. To this day, long after his death, Frost casts an almost mythic shadow over the sport.

Gary Leffew, a member of the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame and the 1970 National Finals Rodeo champion, is Carpenetti’s coach. He believes the comparison to Frost is on target.

“He’ll go wherever he wants to go,” Leffew said. “He’ll either be in the PBR or the PRCA. He’ll be in there somewhere where he’s a star. He’s like a young Lane Frost. He’s charismatic. People are going to know his name, wherever he decides to go.”

Leffew’s career offers a backstory to Ryder Carpenetti’s championship ride. Leffew is called “the rodeo guru” of positive thinking. Leffew finished 10th in the world in 1966, then hit a slump. As a new husband, soon with a baby on the way, Leffew worried more about making a paycheck than setting goals and visualizing how life could be for him and his family if he won. Worry beat down on him like a July Texas sun.

Then he read Maxwell Maltz’s 1960 bestseller – “Psycho-Cybernetics.” His thinking – and his career – took a turn

“Once I read that book, I just sat up in bed and laughed,” Leffew says. “I was 22 years old, and it was the first time anyone had explained to me how the mind works and that it can work for you or against you. (The mind) doesn’t care, it’s a piece of machinery. Whatever you program in, it will take and give it back to you. I realized I was a victim of my own thinking.”

Leffew also studied the style and technique of George Paul, who Leffew calls “the greatest bull rider I ever saw.” Paul, who tragically died in a plane crash in 1970, rode 79 consecutive bulls without being thrown. Paul was considered “the strongest man ever to ride bulls in professional rodeo.”

Studying Paul and diving into the workings of the subconscious mind, transformed Leffew’s career.

“That next year, I was third in the world. I rode the Bull of the Year his last ride. I came out in 1970 and won the world title and the National Finals Rodeo. Once I got into positive thinking, it took me three years to reach my goal of the world championship,” Leffew said. “During that period, I was no lower than third.”

And those who were skeptical of his positive thinking approach started to come around.

“(Early on), there was a lot of laughing. The first rodeo I went to at Denver in 1968, I was one point from the all-time record – 89 points – on a bull that had never been rode. I rode him like Patton for a dance. I was runner up for the championship. I went three months without getting thrown off. They were like, ‘This kid’s on to something’ They’d come around and ask, ‘What page was that on?’”

Now, Carpenetti is part of a stable of star pupils who have embraced Leffew’s power-of-positive-thinking approach. Leffew has mentored 19 world champions.

“What we teach is hyper body, quiet mind. Your heart will be pounding, your adrenaline will be running, which is good, but you want a quiet mind. A quiet mind operates at the speed of light. It processes a billion pieces of information per second. A hyper mind works a second at a time. You’d think a hyper mind works faster. It just screws things up. There’s no continuity, no timing, no flow. So, you have to get in a quiet mind state. You just focus much better.”

Carpenetti has that laser focus. Like other St. Clair County athletes, like Springville’s Casey Mize, the first pick in last summer’s major league baseball draft, and Odenville’s Dee Ford of the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs, Ryder has a dream.

“He wants to do bigger things,” April Carpenetti says. “We don’t make him go to any rodeos. We’ll be in the car on Friday afternoon after school, drive 12 hours to Dallas for a Saturday rodeo and drive back on Sunday to keep his points up.”

Therein is another part of the story. No competitor in any sport reaches a high level without a support system. Last year, the Carpenettis rolled up 56,000 miles traveling the rodeo circuit. And Ryder’s sister, Harley, a student at Moody Junior High, is a competitive cheerleader on a Birmingham-based squad. It’s not unusual for Ryder and his Dad to be traveling in one direction, April and Harley, 13, off in another.

A quick note: Before taking her talent in another direction, Harley Carpenetti excelled as a barrel racer, another competitive rodeo sport.

“We’re all over the place,” Frankie Carpenetti says.

Both Leffew and Frankie Carpenetti praised the young rider’s work ethic.

“He’s got persistence. He’s got goals set. He’s got a great support system. He’s got everything he needs to be a superstar. He’s a very focused young man and he’s a talented young rider. But he’s a gentleman. That’s one of the things we try to teach our kids. You can’t be too polite,” Leffew says. “You want to think about other people. You don’t want them to just say he’s a good rider, but that he’s a good young man, a role model for everybody who comes behind you. People don’t just judge you on how good you ride, but what kind of human being you are. Integrity.”

Says Frankie Carpenetti: “He’s just a humble kid. He doesn’t boast about anything he wins. You know he can go out there and win the world championship. He’s not out there boasting. He’s just as happy for the other kid who beats him one day. He’s just as happy for the kid who won the rodeo as he would be for himself. His sportsmanship is what makes me the proudest,” he says. “A kid can be bucked off and get mad and throw their helmet or something, and he’ll go back to the back and try to figure out what he did wrong. Then a few minutes later, he’s back to himself, out playing or whatever. That’s what makes me proud. And he’s got a real good work ethic. He’s up in the morning wanting to go ride the bulls.”

That integrity, that gentlemanly spirit, has captured the attention of corporate sponsors. The Lane Frost brand, owned by the late champion’s family, backs Ryder, as does Rodeo King hats, 100X helmets, Capri Campers, Flying P Farms and of course, Carpenetti’s Pizza, owned by Ryder’s grandfather, Frank Sr., and the family.

And Ryder and his family have also won the respect of Cirildo “Junior” Leal and his wife Lilly, who along with two-time Professional Bull Riding (PBR) champion Chris Shivers, own the Mini Bull Riders.

Born in 2010, the MBR began with 120 kids in Ogden, Utah, and has grown to an international sport, attracting competitors from Brazil, Canada, Australia and the United States. Kids ages 8 to 14 compete in the events, which emphasize safety, respect, sportsmanship and building confidence. Venues have included AT&T Stadium in Dallas, the Mandalay Bay Casino in Las Vegas and elsewhere. In 2015, Professional Bull Riders became a presenting sponsor of the Miniature Bull Riders Association.

Junior Leal sports a bushy handlebar moustache and bears a striking resemblance to country singer Freddy Fender. He’s quick with a laugh. As the father of six daughters, he jokes “I’ve already got my ticket to heaven. I raised six girls.” And, it seems he and his wife Lilly have hundreds of sons – the bull riders like Ryder, who the website proclaims, are “the toughest little cowboys on the planet.”

Leffew calls MBR and its competitors “the future of the game.”

Cirildo Leal, whose day job is raising mini bulls and daily delivering feed for 200,000 head of cattle to ranchers from his home in Lockney, Texas, sees a world title or a National Finals Rodeo crown in Ryder’s future. For the Leals, Cirildo, Lilly and daughter Alysa – a family of faith – the MBR is a labor of love.

“He’ll be a PBR world champion or an NFR world champion … because he’s just got a lot of potential, and his parents really support him and take him, and the kid doesn’t give up. Sometimes he might get trampled on, but he just gets up, shakes it off and goes on. And he’s ready to ride again.”

Lilly Leal agrees. “Ryder is a super good kid. He’s always been super good. What you see with him is what you get. Ryder gets on a bull, and he’s businesslike, ‘Come on, I gotta do what I gotta do.’ ”

She adds, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen Ryder cry. Like I said, he’s tough, and he’s got super good parents and grandparents, all of his family.”

Ryder also has fans close to home, like Pell City steel executive John Garrison, a longtime fan of rodeo. He believes the sport is part of the “great Western experience” that helped make America great.

For Garrison, seeing young people like Ryder Carpenetti excel is an encouragement. Garrison studies different generations. Kids like Ryder give Garrison – a Baby Boomer – hope for the future. “Any time I see a young person that’s doing something special, I have a tendency to take particular notice of that young person because they’re doing something outside the norm. I think Ryder Carpenetti and Harley, his sister, are doing positive things. Ryder is making a mark in the rodeo world.”

Predictions of future greatness for Ryder are “spot on,” Garrison says.

“A young person who starts in that kind of sport, it’s remarkable that he comes from Alabama … a state not known for rodeo greats. That a young kid from Alabama can go out there and compete is just over-the-top amazing.”

He adds: “It’s a dangerous sport, and you get banged up now and then. He’s no doubt a tough kid and a hard competitor. As long as he stays healthy, I think he’s unstoppable.”

Talk to Ryder, and you hear the competitive fire of a cowboy who successfully rode all four bulls on the way to the 2015 world title at the Chris Shivers Bull Riding. But you also hear the heart of an 11-year-old kid, who likes to play Fortnite, ride dirt bikes, to play with the animals at the family home and who giggles at the names of some of the bulls he’s ridden, like “Butthead.”

 The reason he rides?

“It’s fun,” Ryder says. “I have a lot of friends that ride. When you get a good score, you win.”

And as the adults in this story have said, he is fearless.

“It’s fun to me. When I’m doing something fun, I don’t get nervous or anything.”

It’s important to note, too, that Ryder is an A-student. His lowest grade at the end of the last school year was a 96.5.

And as most kids will, he makes the complex – like riding a half-ton bull – a simple thing.

“You gotta stay on the front end,” he says. “Don’t lose your feet and keep your hand shut. I ride with my left hand shut and my right hand up. You can’t tell what a bull’s going to do. But when they open the gate, you have to stay on for a full eight seconds.”

When asked, he’ll talk about his world titles and the 50 bright belt buckles he’s won in competitive rodeo. And he’ll say he wants to win a PBR world title one day He says his world titles “mean a lot.”

 But while some talk about his boundless future. Ryder Carpenetti hangs his big, black hat on humility, like most kids his age would do.

“I don’t really care if I win. I’m happy if I ride for the full eight seconds.”

Somewhere, Lane Frost, the rodeo legend, is smiling. l

 

Journey’s End

Big Canoe Creek Preserve
in Springville is now
a part of Forever Wild

Story by Carol Pappas
Photos by Susan Wall
and Emily Y. Horton

He was no doubt inspired by the groundwork they meticulously laid in making a compelling case for saving this property for the future, others entered the picture to eventually move this project over what had been an elusive finish line.

Prominent Springville businessman Dean Goforth, helped them navigate the political process. So did Candice Hill and Don Smith of the St. Clair Economic Development Council. Vickey Wheeler, a local artist and head of Nature Planning for Friends was among those helping push it to fruition.

Wendy Jackson, former executive director of Alabama Freshwater Land Trust and now executive VP of the Land Trust Alliance in Washington, D.C., was instrumental as was Barnett Lawley, former commissioner of the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and now a board member of the St. Clair EDC.

“The Big Canoe Creek Preserve is perseverance at its finest,” Jackson said. “So many people committed to making the preserve a reality and never quit. Doug Morrison and all of the Friends of Big Canoe Creek, the City of Springville, St. Clair County Commission and Freshwater Land Trust were early champions and stayed the course, even when success seemed far from certain.

“Kudos to their forward thinking and leadership that created a remarkable legacy for my beloved home county. I grew up playing in Canoe Creek and look forward to visiting this new beautiful, preserve that brought so many people together. For me, it will always stand as a symbol to great character of the people in St. Clair County and why, no matter where my travels take me, I am so proud to call it home!”It is easy to use words like perseverance when describing the project’s history. At one point in the process, “They were at a place where they felt like it was dead,” said Goforth. “It wasn’t going anywhere.” He worked with State Rep. Jim Hill and State Sen. Jim McClendon as well as State Lands Manager Doug Deaton of ADCNR.

Referring to Morrison and the Friends of Big Canoe Creek, Goforth said they had done “an awesome job of nominating the property and helping people understand its importance.” Because of the relationships he and others had, they were able to combine forces and work together to take the effort to a whole new level.

“It was a team effort,” Morrison said. The city of Springville, St. Clair County Commission and various state officials and agencies invested all the support that was needed, and the preserve became official. “It will benefit people from now on,” Goforth added.

They predicted it will become one of the premier destinations in the state. It’s centrally located. It’s easy to access. And it has it has a number of diverse development possibilities over time, including horseback riding, canoeing, kayaking, bird watching, hiking, walking trails and possibly, mountain bike trails.

Look in any direction, and you cannot help but see an outdoor classroom surrounding you. The education component is limitless. Goforth called it a “huge opportunity from an education standpoint” with schools and colleges as natural partners along with other organizations who will use it as a teaching and research tool.

“The impact of this project will be felt across St. Clair County, both from a tourism perspective and a preservation presence,” said Retail Development Specialist Candice Hill of St. Clair EDC.

“Because Springville is already set up to receive tourism dollars in its retail districts, they will feel the spinoff immediately. The participation of both St. Clair County and the City of Springville in this projects says to all of us that they care about the quality of life and the preservation of green space, and we look forward to the future of this preserve,” she said. “Over 100,000 people visited the Forever Wild prerserve at Turkey Creek last year, and if we see similar results, this could really help local businesses.”

 

Preparing for the future

On an August morning of overcast skies, dozens of volunteers, environmentalists and conservationists combed the tracts of land that run along Big Canoe Creek looking for even more reasons – species – this watershed should be preserved.

Two graduate students from the University of Alabama, Frank Gigliotti and Thomas Franzem showed up for the Bio-Blitz “just for fun. They were there looking for species of birds and insects. They are working with the State now for a return visit for a more thorough exploration.

Kim Waites of Wild South, a leader in public lands protection in the Southeast, volunteered to map the distance of the entire border of the property and look for places to develop trails.

Henry Hughes, retired director of Education at Botanical Gardens, a forester by trade, was looking forward to his first Bio-Blitz as well. His task would be identifying the trees found on the expansive parcel.

Educator Lacy Kamber talked of the programs Turkey Creek, where she works, has put in place. Named a Forever Wild property in 2008, its 466-acre park in Pinson is a growing attraction. It has six miles of hiking and biking trails and a creek that is “incredibly clean” with a waterfall that visitors can tube down, a natural waterslide. With more protected species than any other preserve, Turkey Creek has earned a reputation for its richness in education, recreation and environmental resources.

It is known for three species of darters, one of which – vermillion – is on the critically endangered species list. It only exists in 10 square miles of Turkey Creek.

 

About Big Canoe Creek

Big Canoe Creek has plenty of its own precious resources. The main part of the creek is more than 50 miles long with four tributaries flowing into it – Gulf Creek, Muckleroy Creek and two “Little Canoe” creeks.

Along its shores, the preserve is home to a mix of oak-hickory and oak-pine forests. Thickets of mountain laurel and native azaleas populate its slopes.

Bordering the creek are Beech, Red and Sugar Maples, Hornbeams, Catalpa, Butternut and Big Leaf Magnolia trees. In limited supply, but nevertheless dwelling n the land, are fire suppressed stands of river cane.

The creek itself is home more than 50 species of fish, including a rarity, the Trispot Darter, discovered in 2008 in Little Canoe Creek – a species that used to occur in Alabama but had not been observed in nearly 50 years. It is a species of conservation concern in Alabama, Tennessee and Georgia and is under review by the US Fish and Wildlife Service for listing under the Endangered Species Act.

Because it had not been collected in Alabama since the mid-20th Century, it was considered locally extirpated. With the discovery of the Trispot Darter, it is now designated, “Highest Conservation Concern” by the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.

Mussels – nature’s water filter – are in great supply in Big Canoe Creek, illustrating and ensuring the creek as an ecological treasure. The creek has retained a majority of its mussel species. They are the most endangered because of their dependency on exceptionally high water quality.

Big Canoe Creek watershed has eight federally listed freshwater mussel species associated with it. And an 18-mile stretch of its main stem was designated in 2004 as a “critical habitat” under the Endangered Species Act. A distinct new species, The Canoe Creek Clubshell, only found in Big Canoe Creek, has been discovered in one of its tributaries.

Conservation status is designated for 10 species of mussels in Big Canoe Creek. Two species have state conservation status while eight have designations under the Endangered Species Act. Three of the eight are known from historic records only. Of the remaining five extant species, three are listed as endangered, one as threatened, and another is proposed for listing.

Dr. Wayne Barger of Alabama Department of Conservation, State Lands Division, talked of the importance of adding to the collections and identifying the species, like those found in the Bio-Blitz. “We are still working to get all the data identified. It was a good day. It adds to our knowledge as we move forward.” Regarding its potential, Barger added, “It scored well as a nature preserve. This will protect its diversity” and allow people to observe nature, bird watch and hike – “enjoy nature as it should be.”

“For The Friends of Big Canoe Creek it has always been about protecting and educating ourselves and our community about Big Canoe Creek,” said Vickey Wheeler.

 “The Big Canoe Creek Nature Preserve is our ‘living museum.’  We are planning ways everyone of all ages and abilities will have the opportunity to observe and learn about the natural world. A system of educational, gentle walking trails in combination with more strenuous hiking trails is what we are looking at first for public use.   Whichever direction our community chooses to support, we must put the health and protection of the creek at the forefront of all decisions we make in planning Big Canoe Creek Nature Preserve.

Healthy creeks equal healthy communities.”

Future plans will include ways to connect with the city and bring support to local businesses. “We are continuing our talks with the city and county to bring more conservation areas into Alabama,” she said.

Evan Lawrence, a biologist in State Land Recreational Management, said his group is working closely with Springville to guide the process. “Plans call for a hiking trail system through there, mountain biking trails and possibly horseback trails.”

As the preserve nears opening in about six months, boundaries are being marked, a gate will be installed at the entrance to the property, the road is being improved and a kiosk in the parking area will be set up to offer information about the property.

Development of it will come in phases en route to a preserve destined to become a destination point, supporters say.

 

Success at last

Why so much preliminary work? Alabama’s biodiversity ranks Number 1 in so many categories, first in the U.S. in freshwater fishes, freshwater snails, freshwater mussels, crayfish and turtles. It is important to document the flora and fauna on this tract of land and the creatures in the creek. It gives historical data about the existing ecosystem and helps us better understand this Nature balance.  Are there existing conditions affecting the plants or wildlife? Invasive species are everywhere, how bad is it here? Where exactly are they on the property? Are there any rare species found? Where can new trails go that won’t affect any special plants found?

Nine years is a long time for a quest, but Morrison said all the work and the angst were worth it in the end. But he is quick to point out that it really isn’t the end, it’s a new beginning.

“At one time, there was talk of a development on this property, and we were concerned about the effects this would have on the creek as this property borders the creek. As we were looking for ways to preserve this property, Vickey Wheeler and I had a meeting with two members of Springville’s Planning and Zoning group, Stephen Graham and David Jones. Mr. Jones, now on the City Council, pointed out the Forever Wild program to us. We took the idea and ran with it.

“Alex Varner, now with The Nature Conservancy, a good friend and fellow Friends member, went with me to meet one of the landowners on the property and pitch the idea to him, to let The Friends of Big Canoe Creek nominate this property to Forever Wild. I’ll never forget the landowner asking how long it would take. I said then, “I have no idea, but what do you have to lose?”  Who knew it would take nine years? One of our board members, Sean Andrews, was very beneficial in drawing up the necessary documents, maps, etc. for the nomination package and the journey began.”

 

Help along the way

“We met Wendy Jackson with the Freshwater Land Trust, and she was very instrumental from the beginning. She helped pitch the idea of a different type of economy with green space to the City of Springville and St. Clair County.  We met with the Springville City Council and the St. Clair County Commission, and they jumped on board and assisted financially to make this happen,” Morrison said. “This would not have happened, period, without their backing.

“Libba Vaughn carried the torch after Wendy left FWLT and attended the Forever Wild Board meetings with us. There were many roadblocks along the way, a lot of heartaches, headaches and frustrations, but we never lost hope.” 

Morrison expressed gratitude to Friends members and board members, Mayor Isley for seeing the possibilities and believing in the project, the St. Clair Commission chairmen, Stan Batemon, originally, then Paul Manning, the Springville City Council, the St. Clair County Commission, Candice Hill, Don Smith and Dean Goforth for “helping get us to the goal line. Myself, I had many sleepless nights in those nine years – too many to count. The bottom line is, we got it going, the community paid attention, and the resources needed joined forces to make the Big Canoe Creek Nature Preserve a reality.”

“I believe that part of the the impact of the Forever Wild nature park in Springville will be to provide an untouched, natural and beautiful  portion of God’s creation – Earth –  made available to our citizens, neighbors, families and friends,” said Springville Mayor William “Butch” Isley. “The users of this beautiful sanctuary full of wildlife, fish and foliage will be able to spend time there in wonder and bewilderment at the beauty of this preserved area.”

In addition, he said, “The city of Springville – its citizens, businesses, churches and community residents will be benefitted in many ways by hosting guests and visitors from all parts of St. Clair and surrounding counties as everyone hears about this beautiful nature park.”

 

A bright future

“I see the Forever Wild program as a unique way to preserve property in the State of Alabama, for the good of the State and its people. We hope this Big Canoe Creek Nature Preserve will benefit folks in our communities, benefit our educational institutions for research, outdoor classrooms, etc., and help maintain a natural balance for generations to come,” he said.

With an unmistakable passion, he added, “Big Canoe Creek is a special tributary. I know this Preserve just adds a small bit of protection from over development along the creek, but perhaps it can serve as food for thought. It will be wonderful to see folks getting outdoors and just enjoying nature for what it is. Take a clean breath and enjoy a little bit of tranquility while observing nature. I think folks will come, especially when the weather is cool, to enjoy a hike, get some exercise and just unwind. It may be like Field of Dreams, in reverse.  If you don’t build it, they will come.”