NICHOLAS AIR continues to set the mark for what hightouch customer service should be. Our fleet of Owned and Operated aircraft have an average age of 5 years, ensuring the most reliable choice of aircraft anywhere in the industry.
Our aircraft ranges from the Very Light class Phenom 100 to the Super Midsize Challenger 350 and the new addition, the Gulfstream G600. Whether you are a private flyer seeking a new partner for your travels, or an industry professional looking for your new home, we’ve got you covered.
For over 26 years, NICHOLAS AIR has been solely focused on one mission--- yours.
Spring Summer FALL winter
MAGAZINE
FOUNDER / EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Peder von Harten
CREATIVE DIRECTOR
Todd Malone
ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Abby Carlton
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
Peder von Harten, Abby Carlton, Rebekah Iliff, Edgar Castillo, Marla DeKlotz, Cecil Cherry
PHOTOGRAPHERS
Aaron Gatewood, Edward Aninaru, Matt Doheny, Thomas E. Rosas, Michael Bourgault, Steve Mushero, Kevin Brown, Grant Miller Photography, Wade Griffon, Claire Everett, Jamie Gonzalez, Rhonda Burrough, John Hart, David Roseberry, Michael Mosure, Taylor Square Photography
NATIONAL SALES
Tonie Ellis at tonieellismedia@gmail.com or advertising@porchprairiemag.com
TO SUBSCRIBE
visit porchprairiemag.com/subscribe
Porch + Prairie is published four times a year by Flying V Media, LLC DBA Piper Ranch Media, Oxford, MS 38655. Subscriptions are for one and two years (4 issues per year),
Postmaster: Send address changes to P.O. Box 587 Oxford, MS 38655
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
To offer stories and /or photographs to be considered for publication in Porch + Prairie,email them to todd@porchprairiemag.com. Emails should include full contact information. We reserve the right to edit submissions for clarity, brevity and print quality.
No, I don’t mean that in the same way that many of us have heard as some form of placation, I mean it literally. The emails and messages that our readers have sent us, plus the conversations we get to hear in person, all point us in the direction of where Porch + Prairie leads us with each issue. As writers, content specialists, and creatives, we are afforded a great deal of latitude when it comes to what each issue should include, but to really engage our readership, that needs to take a backseat. Instead, those messages we receive tell us about what you want to see from our magazine as we move ahead.
And so we listen.
We listen when you tell us that the variety of each issue helps make us stand out from other publications you might frequent. We listen when you tell us that one of the biggest draws is that Porch + Prairie continues to find the pieces that can’t be found anywhere else, or that our reverence and passion for the small communities across our country remind our readers of their roots. And we listen when you tell us you keep looking ahead to the biographies of great Americans who have left their mark on our country and how they’ve either figuratively or literally helped build our great nation with their own hands. As writers, particularly for Porch + Prairie, we make sure to honor those people and communities for their contributions to our freedom and our way of life.
As I travel around the country, I am surrounded with the stories that I personally want to write in Porch + Prairie and the things that inspire me directly, but that’s not why we do this. It’s not about the town I am drawn to, or the pieces of history that enjoy most. We want to write the ones that matter to you, and so I open the emails and the social media messages and listen to the next great idea or story pitch. It’s one of the most rewarding pieces of this—seeing the magazine means so much to people that they want to be a part of it. I can’t envision a much greater compliment.
With a little luck, those messages never stop coming, and Porch + Prairie continues producing the content that matters to our readers the most and that with each quarter that passes, you keep waiting with anticipation for the next issue to arrive.
WE TACKLE POLICY ISSUES
SO YOU CAN FISH FREELY
For 35 years, the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation (CSF) has been the nation’s leading authority in developing, defending, and advancing legislation that protects our outdoor traditions.
On Capitol Hill and throughout state capitals, CSF’s expert policy staff has over 200 years of conservation policy experience and monitors more than 7,000 policy proposals each year.
Over 1,200+ Pro-Sportsmen & Women Policy Wins In Last Six Years Alone
CONTRIBUTORS
Kevin Martone balances a busy professional life with his passion for the outdoors. A nationally recognized expert in mental health and the Executive Director of a national non-profit, Kevin’s business travels enable him to enjoy the local culture and landscape in states throughout America. From Alaska and the Pacific Northwest, to New England and across the South, Kevin creates opportunities in the outdoors whenever and wherever he can. Kevin spends his personal time hunting, fishing, trail running, and enjoying sunsets with his wife, Sasha, on the dock of their family pond.
Abby Carlton was born and raised in Alexandria, Louisiana, where her and her family never shied away from a road trip or flight to a new city. She loves exploring new places she’s never been before and creating traditions around spots worth returning back to. Whether it’s making someone smile or laugh, or spending a little time out of her day helping others out, Abby is always appreciating the little things that help her choose joy each day. Abby currently lives in Oxford, Mississippi and enjoys traveling to visit her family on the Mississippi Coast and back in Louisiana, which will always be home.
Kelsi McKee has been writing poetry and stories since she was old enough to scratch words on paper. She completed her first novel when she was 18 and continues to write while balancing a full-time job in the news industry. Originally from Northwest and a graduate of Texas A&M, Kelsi has enjoyed adventuring across the country and making her way to her current home in South Carolina. Away from pen and paper, Kelsi enjoys her time on the golf course and of course, cheering on her Aggies.
Rebekah Iliff is an award-winning humor writer, author, and entrepreneur raised in the midwest living in the south. She has a knack for turning difficult topics into digestible stories and loves giving people the unexpected laugh. Her work has been featured in publications ranging from Fast Company and Forbes to Weekly Humorist and the Erma Bombeck Blog. She released her first book, Champagne for One, in February 2022. Rebekah’s favorite part of the day is sitting on the back stoop, watching the sunset with her husband and pup.
Personal website: rebekahiliff.com
IG: @rebekahiliffweaver
Book website: ChampageforOne.com
Cecil Cherry is a native North Carolinian who graduated from East Carolina University and retired as a law enforcement officer from the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation. Cecil enjoys outdoor pursuits, travelling to North Carolina wineries with his wife, Pam, and sharing the bounty of field to plate with friends and family.
Edgar Castillo is a recently retired law enforcement officer for a large Kansas City metropolitan agency. He also served in the United States Marine Corps for twelve years. Edgar was born in Guatemala, and when his family came to the U.S., his father, a new bird hunter himself, would take Edgar afield in search of roosters and bobs. Edgar’s passion lies in the uplands as he self-documents his travels across public lands throughout Kansas and the U.S., hunting open fields and prairies, walking treelines, & bustin’ through plum thickets, in a never-ending chase to hunt wild birds in wild places.
You can follow his adventures on Instagram at @hunt_birdz
Marla DeKlotz grew up in Idaho and has lived, worked, and traveled all over the West. She spent a few years working for the Forest Service, building trails, baking sourdough in Dutch ovens, and writing more than one poem about rocks. In her off-seasons, Marla fell in love with exploring new cities and towns across the U.S. She settled down just long enough to finish a degree in biochemistry, and is now pursuing science and travel writing. She is drawn to warm places with regionally-famous cold beverages.
WHEN HEROES FLEW
SERIES 1
by H.W. "Buzz" Bernard
For B-24 bomber pilot Al Lycoming, the mission was history in the making. For Women’s Airforce Service Pilot Vivian Wright, it was a chance to put her skills to the ultimate test...and share in the burden of combat.
Dispatched to Benghazi on mysterious orders, Al Lycoming finds nearly 200 other B-24 bombers being assembled...and a top secret assignment that will catapult them all into seemingly impenetrable Nazi defenses.
Their mission: a daring low-level attack on Hitler’s extensive oil refineries.
But when his co-pilot falls ill at the last moment, Al secretly finds help from an unlikely source―Vivian.
Together, the two fly towards dark skies filled with enemy flak and fighters...and into the pages of history.
With perspectives from American and German pilots alike, When Heroes Flew masterfully weaves together one of the most dangerous and incredible aerial operations of World War Two with a riveting tale of bravery, suspense, and self-sacrifice.
Summer Reads
Severn River Publishing
OTHER PAGES TO PERUSE
CAMINO WINDS
by John Grisham
Just as Bruce Cable’s Bay Books is preparing for the return of bestselling author Mercer Mann, Hurricane Leo veers from its predicted course and heads straight for Camino Island. Florida’s governor orders a mandatory evacuation, and most residents board up their houses and flee to the mainland, but Bruce decides to stay and ride out the storm.
The hurricane is devastating: Homes and condos are leveled, hotels and storefronts ruined, streets flooded—and a dozen people lose their lives. One of the apparent victims is Nelson Kerr, a friend of Bruce’s and an author of thrillers. But the nature of Nelson’s injuries suggests that the storm wasn’t the cause of his death: He has suffered several suspicious blows to the head.
Who would want Nelson dead? The local police are overwhelmed in the aftermath of the storm and ill-equipped to handle the case. Bruce begins to wonder if the shady characters in Nelson’s novels might be more real than fictional. And somewhere on Nelson’s computer is the manuscript of his new book. Could the key to the case be right there— in black and white? As Bruce starts to investigate, what he discovers between the lines is more shocking than any of Nelson’s plot twists— and far more dangerous.
by Rick Reilly
This is the book Rick Reilly has been writing in the back of his head since he fell in love with the game of golf at eleven years old. He unpacks and explores all of the wonderful, maddening, heartmelting, heart-breaking, cool, and captivating things about golf that make the game so utterly addictive. We meet the PGA Tour player who robbed banks by night to pay his motel bills, the golf club maker who takes weekly psychedelic trips, and the caddy who kept his loop even after an 11-year prison stint. We learn how a man on his third heart nearly won the U.S. Open, how a Vietnam POW saved his life playing 18 holes a day in his tiny cell, and about the course that's absolutely free.
Reilly expounds on all the great figures in the game, from Phil Mickelson to Bobby Jones to the simple reason Jack Nicklaus is better than Tiger Woods. He explains why we should stop hating Bryson DeChambeau unless we hate genius, the greatest upset in women’s golf history, and why Ernie Els throws away every ball that makes a birdie. Plus all the Greg Norman stories Reilly has never been able to tell before, and the great fun of being Jim Nantz. Connecting it all will be the story of Reilly’s own personal journey through the game, especially as it connects to his tumultuous relationship with his father, and how the two eventually reconciled through golf. This is Reilly’s valentine to golf, a cornucopia of stories that no golfer will want to be without.
Hachette Books
SO HELP ME GOLF
Photo by Steve Mushero
I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
21 LEVELS I 3/4 MILE I DRYTEK® WATERPROOF EXPANDABLE TO 3 DOGS
Austrian Artisan
How Generations of Heritage, Art, and Hunting Combine to a Modern Masterpiece
Photos courtesy of Johann Fanzoj Fine Guns & Rifles
Values and Valor
Preserving the Memory of the Medal of Honor and All Who Have Earned It
IMarijuana Eradication Marijuana Eradication
by C.V. Cherry
n 1937 the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) was established as a state law enforcement agency whose duties were to investigate crimes committed in North Carolina. Since its inception, the SBI has also assisted other state, local, and federal law enforcement agencies and helps prosecute state and federal violations.
Marijuana eradication is one area of illegal narcotics investigations the SBI conducts with local departments. The marijuana eradication program began in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s with the assistance of Craven County Sheriff’s Department Detective Grady Stilley and SBI Air Wing pilots. Detective Stilley was a Viet Nam war veteran and a member of the famed 101st Airborne. He survived the Battle of the Ia Drang Valley and eventually returned to his home state of North Carolina in 1967. Following his tour in the United States Army he had careers in the forestry service and Weyerhaeuser. In the mid 1970’s he finally settled on a career in law enforcement.
When Grady was promoted to detective, he soon began conducting marijuana eradication as one of the ground crew.
This was the best way to learn, literally from the ground up. He then began logging flights as an observer with SBI pilots to learn how to discern the marijuana from the other plants in the search area. Detective Stilley decided flying and spotting the drugs would be the best fit for him. It certainly beat walking miles in the woods in the heat of the day and fighting biting insects, so flying it was!
Detective Stilley began working towards his pilot’s license. The Sheriff’s Department used the assets forfeiture program to pay for his flight training. Once he weas a licensed pilot he began flying with pilots from the SBI Air Wing. Detective Stilley eventually became the first non-Bureau pilot to fly directly with and for the Air Wing. During the off-season Detective Stilley would assist the SBI and other agencies in surveillance missions, missing persons missions, and conducting photograph flights when getting photos from the ground was not feasible.
Growing marijuana in North Carolina in the 1970’s and 1980’s was a booming industry. Time magazine even had a cover story during this time period highlighting North Carolina’s number one cash crop was marijuana, eclipsing the tobacco industry.
OF LIFE AND LEADERSHIP: Rex Tillerson
Photo by Grant Miller Photography
In Oklahoma City, you’ll be met with history, charm and amazing food. Discover new perspectives and memorable experiences in the Modern Frontier.
NationalCowboy&WesternHeritageMuseum
WheelerDistrict
Restoring the StraightHome,from the Heart
Photos courtesy of Renovation Hunters
From Tehran to Texas
A Singer/Songwriter’s Inspiring Journey to the Top
To reach the top, there are going to be those times where you have to deal with at least some form of adversity along the way. In the music business, it is an absolute certainty. You might lose your voice or you might get writer’s block as you try to put music on the page. You may have your whole career lined up and then some record executive tells you that you don’t have the right look, or the sound isn’t what they want to hear, or that the market has changed and your type of art isn’t what people are listening to anymore. The adversity faced in the music business can range from the reasonable, to unreasonable, to downright irrational at times. Nonetheless, every artist has to find their way to navigate those waters in order to succeed for the long haul.
The adversity faced in the music industry, well it pales in comparison to what one artist has conquered over the course of her life. Born in Tehran, SHAB is an American singer and songwriter who has found herself and her music on the top of the charts and into the studios of noted producers like Damon Sharpe and Eric Sinacola. Her brand of music being a distinct mix of electronic, dance, pop, and hip hop, lends itself to a wide range of listeners and fans and have enabled her to share the stage with some of the business’ biggest names while traveling the globe touring. If the story stopped there, SHAB is already impressive.
The story doesn’t stop there.
SHAB’s life journey is one that few, if any, of us can understand fully. Post-Revolution Iran was a difficult place and a place where the socioeconomic turmoil would force many to leave their homeland and start new somewhere else. The daughter of one of Iran’s oil and gas leaders (who died when she was only six months old), SHAB and her family left for Europe (West Germany) when she was only eight, leaving behind the only life she’d ever known, leaving behind the family’s wealth in Iran, and leaving behind most of their possessions. Things that most American kids take for granted were not afforded to SHAB and her family as they try to assimilate to a new country, new culture, and new language. It was a challenge, but one that SHAB would tackle head on. At fourteen, she was on the move again, this time bound for the United States to again learn how to grow and flourish in a new society and new place—Baltimore, MD.
Fluent in both Farsi and English, SHAB is truly an international success story and has a way of raising the energy level of those around her. Perhaps grounded by those first 18 years on the move, SHAB has devoted her life and career to others, often engaging in charitable efforts in her local community and beyond. Her worldly experience allows her to connect with fans in a meaningful way and with her path to musical success coming later than most, her message about perseverance and the ability to change one’s course in life at any age has become an inspiration to many.
Photo by Aaron Gatewood
…From KEY WEST to HAVANA
Shooting Birds throughout the Florida Keys.
By Edgar Castillo
Before he was a big game hunter, a deep-sea fisherman, and well before he was a writer, Ernest “Papa” Hemingway was a bird hunter, plain and simple. As a young boy he called pieces of wood he played with – respectively – “my fowling piece” or “my shotgun” and found himself on imaginary hunts for a variety of wild game, for both fur and feather. His mother tells of a story where the incredibly young Hemingway shot a duck for dinner, possibly with the help of his father. At ten years old, he was gifted a 20-gauge single-shot shotgun from his grandfather. Hardly a minute passed, and young Hemingway found himself taking to the nearby woods shooting “birds,” mostly likely ruffed grouse, woodcock, and ducks in Michigan.
Hemingway may have indulged in big game hunting and fishing as that is what made the headlines, but he always gravitated back towards shooting birds. His vibrant passion for all activities related to the outdoors, especially wingshooting carried over as an adult as he managed to find pursuit in a variety of avian fauna no matter where he was passing through or lived. From prairie pheasants in both the U.S and Europe, to the beloved gentleman Bob in Arkansas, and sand grouse in Africa, Hemingway managed to find opportunities and the time. He also found places to bird hunt in Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming, as well France, Italy, Greece, Spain, Kenya, and Tanzania.
Hemingway had a certain knack, or maybe just luck at finding birds to hunt, and Southern Florida and Cuba with their daiquiri filled watering holes, did not disappoint. He shot plovers, guinea fowl, ducks, and other gamebirds amongst the beaches of Key West or within the island Pearl of the Antilles 90 miles away. These tropical locations would become key locations in Hemingway’s life, both personally and literary.
Where the
Sporting Life Lives
As America’s premier sporting community, Brays Island embodies a shared passion for the outdoors. Deepen your connection to friends, family and your own adventuresome spirit exploring 5,500 pristine acres of waterways, fields and woodlands.
A Pocket Full of Prairie
Bringing a Landscape Closer to Home
By Marla DeKlotz
Spring blooms at the Jefferson Early Learning Center - photo by Wade Griffin
The History in Oxford, Mississippi
by Sarah Morgan Johnson, Visit Oxford
photo by David Roseberry
back porch
by Peder von Harten
Once It’s Gone, It’s Gone
Time spent thinking can be a dangerous thing. Sure, it may open your eyes up to something new, but lately, the more I think, the more dismayed I get. No, this is not a doom and gloom piece and I really don’t want it to come across that way, but as I spend more time in thought, I’m reminded that maybe that bit of Utopia I remembered from the past is likely to never come back. The world has just changed so much and lost so much of its soul that only a divine being with a reset button could help us.
I’ve often used the Back Porch piece to talk to about the days gone by and the things that I loved “back when” and how those times were some of the best ones of my now forty years. My concern is that future generations won’t know of how good it used to be. As I write this, I can hear my critics telling me that today’s world is so much better, but I strongly disagree. There was an innocence and purity to life 30 or 40 years ago that I don’t see returning in a world where everything is over-inspected, over-consumed, and open for comment from the peanut gallery who oftentimes are completely uninformed. There was a time when you could own your own journey, unfettered by the outside world and certainly not up for interpretation by complete strangers. I think it made folks more prideful and eager to work harder because whatever path they ended up on, it was uniquely theirs to build or break. Success was a function of the effort put in, but more importantly, failure was too.
The reality that I must accept is that “once it’s gone, it’s gone” and that whatever I miss from the old days is unlikely to come back. No matter how much I want it to be different, we aren’t going back
to that innocence of the 80s or 90s and the world will likely continue to devolve into a society that bears no resemblance to our better years. The question that remains is how do we try to change it? Or at the very worst, slow it down?
We do it by teaching others and by openly talking about the values we want to see restored. We sit down and talk about how those values transfered into our daily lives and how they were pivotal to the success of our families, our country, and our communities. The trust you had in your neighbor meant the ability to breathe easier. The faith compass you taught inside your home extended into the community, enabling others to interact with each other with compassion, grace, and selflessness. The communities we envy these days are the ones that still believe wholeheartedly in these sets of values. They are there for each in the best of times and they are there even more for each other in the worst of times.
Despite my thought that those days are long gone, I challenge everyone to prove me wrong. I want to be shown that its not gone for good and that hard work still matters more than social opinion. I want to know there is still a world where merit makes the man, not just a good last name or money in the bank. I want to know there is still a world where people genuinely wish the best for their neighbor or colleague, and not just find ways to cut them down at every opportunity. After all, our country has long been about building things up, not tearing them down. Maybe the days I remember are long gone, and I’ll have to accept that someday, but there’s no reason that our value system has to go away with them.
OUR MISSION
DSC’s mission is to ensure the conservation of wildlife through public engagement, education and advocacy for well-regulated hunting and sustainable use.
OUR VISION
The vision of DSC is a society that values wildlife, engages in its conservation and understands and supports the role of well-regulated hunting in the sustainable use of wild resources.
To become a member or learn more about DSC, head to biggame.org.
