by Jon Kohler
Have you ever still-hunted a live-oak hammock, eased a skiff across the flats at sunset, or waited in the dark for wood ducks to squeal in? Was it so beautiful you could almost feel it?
Sharing those moments with friends and loved ones is one of life’s greatest blessings. I’ve done it alone, but I like it better with others.
God created this world—the vistas, the seasons, the songbirds—and He wants to share it with us. Life itself is about the experiences we share with one another, especially in the outdoors. There’s something fundamentally right about doing things together outside that you just can’t get staring at an iPad.
It makes sense to me that after God created the Earth and admired it, declaring it “good,” He wanted to share it. Share—not give—is the key word. Psalm 50:10-11 makes it plain: “For every animal of the forest is Mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills. I know every bird in the mountains, and the insects in the fields are Mine.”
As someone who represents some pretty big landowners, I get that.
Anyone who’s opened their gates to friends knows the uneasy feeling when hospitality gets overreached. In my business, the “professional guest” is a recurring species—or worse the never-learning kid with a rich uncle. I can’t imagine creating a perfect world only to have loved ones mess it up. Lick Skillet is far from perfect, but even small things can be great.
Recently, I let a buddy train dogs there. He left spent hulls scattered around, released too many quail, and generally failed the etiquette test. My manager grumbled—rightly so. However, another complaint caught me off guard.
A long-time dog-trainer friend from Michigan and his girlfriend were visiting to pick up an English Cocker puppy from a nearby plantation. I went to law school up there and knew there were about 4 more months until the temperature would even begin to think about reaching 70 degrees. So apparently his girlfriend took advantage of both the Florida sunshine and privacy at Lick Skillet and went sunbathing behind the guest cottage….topless. More than some men would call that a fortuitous sight; my manager driving by to check on things was not one of them. I didn’t really know what to say but he was genuinely offended. No one in Lamont has an “HR Department” so the incident was dropped.
He’s had his share of surprises while driving around. Once, mowing the fruit orchard, he found a rattlesnake halfway through swallowing a cottontail. The snake spit out the rabbit. He made a split-second decision and killed it. I’m starting to feel sorry for rattlesnakes the same way Gus and Captain Call in Lonesome Dove felt about the bandits after they cleared them out. There aren’t that many left. When I was a kid there was a famous doctor in Thomasville that was the world’s expert on treating snake bites. The old-time rattlesnake roundups really did them in. As I travel across the South, and outside a few spots, you rarely see them. I generally leave them alone—unless they’re in my quail woods.
A client told me recently that snakebites are so rare now some hospitals don’t even stock antivenom. He said his doctor quoted $100,000 for a human dose or about $5,000 if a vet administered it. Sounded like a Yellowstone episode—Rip calling the vet to treat a cowboy in the bunk house instead of a medical doctor the ER. Truth is that my bird dogs probably get better medical care than I do. My dad was a neurologist; it took months to get in to see him. The new pet hospital in Tallahassee, though, is like the Mayo Clinic—they even have a pet neurologist on call.
The balance of stewardship is hard because everything God made is connected. Like the DNA He made we are yet to understand the connections. Except for a project I worked on in North Carolina, red wolves have been shot out of the South. St. Vincent’s Island near Apalachicola may still have a few. But when the top predators disappear, coons, possums, and foxes run rampant. Without trapping, ground-nesting birds like quail and turkeys don’t do well. Furthermore, every deer feeder is ensuring racoons make it fat and happy through the winter. About the time deer feeders run out of corn turkeys start to nest.
That’s why the plantations I represent, which still trap diligently, have record numbers of quail and turkeys—while populations elsewhere decline. It doesn’t help that the fur market collapsed. Trappers now must be paid in cash instead of fur, all because the modern environmental movement shunned fur. Which makes no sense to me—it’s the most sustainable material there is. We’ve been wearing fur since Genesis 3. When Adam and Eve sewed fig leaves, God Himself replaced them with garments of animal skins. Seems like today, anything God approves, society contests—almost for sport.
God isn’t just the Creator; He’s the ultimate Land Manager. Thankfully, He’s more patient than I am. Too many architects can design but not build; God designed and manages every detail—from the microbes that make dirt smell like dirt to the wood ducks nesting in hollow trees to dodge southern predators.
One would think a duck is a duck. When I was about twelve, we hatched half a dozen wood ducklings but couldn’t get them to eat. They’d sit right in front of food and starve. Somehow, my mom—pre-internet—figured it out. Wood ducklings won’t eat until they drop out of the tree and hit the ground. So, we threw each one into a bowl of water to simulate the fall. The instant they righted themselves, they started gobbling food. We kids repeated the “drop test” a few extra times, just to be sure.
I love guests and I love sharing the outdoors. But God’s love and patience go far beyond mine. I get irritated over a few spent hulls in the woods, yet His sinless Son died for sins I committed and still commit on purpose.
Love is the one thing God created that He doesn’t control. Sharing this world—His creation—with others is what this life is really about. Celebrating and stewarding over what He made isn’t just good living… it’s worship
From murky farm ponds to pristine glacier-cut lakes and everything in between, Knox Daniels’ expertise stems from a lifelong fascination of water and the creatures that live in and around it. He recognizes and helps clients appreciate the value water features bring to a property. “My goal is to help buyers realize and sellers maximize the value different water bodies bring to a property, not only in a recreational sense, but also for social storm reasons.” After extensively traveling the country for collegiate BASS fishing tournaments, Knox graduated and worked for the Southeast’s finest fisheries and wildlife biologist, Greg Grimes. With Grimes’ company, AES, Knox managed many of the southeast’s finest private lake estate/impoundment properties, and learned the intricacies of upscale property management. Learning from Greg and other biologists, Knox honed in on the specific conditions and habitat needed for optimal gamefish growth in private lakes. He has also worked as a property manager on several thousand acres and for a commercial developer, facilitating the dirt work and builds of several apartment complexes, but his true passion has always been in the outdoors. “I’ve always had an insatiable fascination with ponds/lakes and am grateful to be able to help to place clients on the properties of their dreams and make their personal fisheries/wildlife goals reality with JKA.” – Knox Daniels
Jason has been assisting landowners for the last 28 years in Georgia and South Carolina obtain achievements the owners did not realize were possible. His degree in Biology from Georgia Southern stemmed from the desire to know how things in nature work. His plantation roots began at just 16 years old outside of Albany, GA and the last 20 years were spent in the Lowcountry of South Carolina. His entire career has been spent developing a global approach to plantation management. That plan included sales. Sales is in Jason’s blood- his mom had a 45-year career as a real estate broker. After college, he chose to pursue his passion of making properties great. In 2011, Jason sold his first plantation. Since then, he has assisted buyers and sellers with over $20 million in sales while most of that time working as a full-time General Manager of a large Lowcountry plantation. Today, he is committed to using his unique skill set and experience to guide landowners through the many challenges of plantation ownership.
Bruce Ratliff is a retired elected official (Property Appraiser Taylor County). Bruce brings years of experience in ad valorem tax knowledge. His property tax background gives JKA Associates & clients a unique insight into the complicated tax process. Bruce held several positions in the Florida Association of Property Appraisers, including member of the Board of Directors, President, Vice-President and Secretary, and served on the Agricultural & Legislative Committees for the Association. The real estate business has been part of Bruce’s life since childhood. His mother, Shirley Ratliff owned Professional Realty of Perry, Florida and his father, Buster owned Ratliff Land Surveying which Bruce was General Manager of before his political career.
Hailing from a long line of outdoorsmen, Tim learned a great deal from his father and grandfather. He saw first-hand what it means to be a good land steward. He believes land is so much more than a place to hunt, fish, and grow timber or crops. “It’s an identity, a resting place, a safe haven and a way of life, said Tim.” Tim’s family ties to Alabama run deep. During his grandfather’s first term, Governor James was responsible for signing into law Alabama’s first state duck stamp which helped to ensure funding for the procurement, development, and preservation of wetlands for migratory waterfowl habitat. He also established Alabama’s lifetime hunting license, so it is no surprise that Tim is an avid outdoorsman with a keen eye as to how best to improve habitat for the greater good of its wildlife.
With Madison County roots, Lori grew up on her family farm at Pettis Springs along the historic Aucilla River. A love of the land was instilled in Lori very early on by her father who was a local farmer. Lori understands the importance of good land stewardship and has witnessed first-hand how her own father, a former 2-term member of the Florida House of Representatives whose district encompassed many rural counties of the Red Hills Plantation Region, with a little bit of sweat equity, so lovingly worked their own family land. These are core values she carries with her today, and nothing gives her more personal satisfaction than to represent some of the south’s best land stewards.
Cole’s dedication to land management lies in his family roots. As a fourth-generation timber expert, Cole’s earliest memories were spent with his father managing timber investments. With a degree in Food Resource Economics from the University of Florida, Cole is the epitome of an up-and-coming leader. He grew up with a hands-on approach to learning land management and conservation and has spent the last 15 years learning every angle of the real estate and forest industry. Cole is a member of the Florida Forestry Association, Red Hills Quail Forever, Southeastern Wood Producers Association and he uses this platform as an advocate for landowners and their land investments. His family has dedicated the past 60 years to providing landowners in North Florida and South Georgia with professional land management services focused on improving and protecting one’s forestland and wildlife investment. In fact, their family business, M.A. Rigoni, Inc., was one of the first to introduce whole tree chipping to the Red Hills Region.
As a landowner of his own family farm, Lick Skillet, along with family land that has been passed down and enjoyed together at Keaton Beach for 40 years, Jon knows what it means to be a steward of the last best places. As a third-generation land broker with more than 30 years of experience in advising landowners in this niche, Jon is known for his innate ability to harvest a land’s unique intrinsic value. Touting several notable sales under his belt, Jon personally closed Rock Creek/Molpus – 124,000 acres of premium timberland at $142,000,000 – which was known as the largest timberland land sale in the Southeast for eight years running. He is a co-founding member of LandLeader and achieved the real estate industry’s highest honor, “2022 National Broker of the Year – Recreational Land Sales,” by the Realtors® Land Institute.