Our Farm and timber lands were located mostly on the North Slope and took in a creek in a hollow with a road through the timber just above and alongside the creek. The area is rough, full of rocks and with a bluff outcrop. It is a damp area and will always frost first before it does on the mountaintop. We nearly froze on this July night after a hot spell when the weather had turned unusually cool.
A scarecrow is used to protect many crops. Other methods can be used to protect crops in the absence of a person, such as light reflectors or noise makers with varying degrees of effectiveness. There is no protection from coons in a corn field except direct intervention by man and his best friend.
It was time to thin out the raccoon population. This was fun and also to save the corn. Rather than have the coons eat the corn, we ate the coons. Argyle Brock, a neighbor who lived some three miles away, had a blue-tick hound and we had three other young hounds in this hunt. Off to the corn fields with lanterns and flashlights, and the hunt was underway. We spotted the coons in the corn, and they took off with the hounds in hot pursuit. They made it as far as the creek and climbed up a large sycamore tree. We spotted them with a flash light, a Mama coon and three nearly-grown young ones. Their eyes could be seen reflecting light high up in the tree. For whatever reason, we did not have a 22 rifle with us, and Dad sent me to my uncle Burl Smith's to pick up his ax at the wood pile. This might have taken a half hour, and upon my return dad began chopping down the tree.
Excitement is always part of the fun on these occasions and this one was to follow suite. Suddenly as Dad was chopping away, we began to be stung by what turned out to be hornets. Their sting is quite painful as compared to other types of stings such as bees or wasps or even yellow jackets. Obviously we had disturbed a hornet's nest in the tree and, once we discovered what was happening, we doused all the lights. The swatting of hornets and the chopping continued until the tree was felled.
The hounds were held until the tree fell. It had hardly settled to the ground when the hounds were released. Mama coon and three young ones went in many directions as the tree hit the ground. Various coons were caught by young hounds; run as they did, none escaped the hounds although they tried. A large flat rock, 4" thick, had fallen from the bluff on the north bank and bridged across the stream, leaving space for a coon to enter the water channel but not a dog. Now old blue had one of the young coons and was unable to pull it from under the rock. the coon was hanging upside down with his feet and head beyond the rock, holding on and would not let go. Argile grabbed the hound by the collar and was pulling as hard as he could, and still the coon held on. I splashed into the act about the time we discovered a second hound had a hold of the coon and was pulling it from the opposite side of the rock. It was not easy to convince either hound to let go as he had his coon as a prize possession and was not about to let go.
It is truly fun to coon hunt with all the excitement and being with friends and this turned out to be a good hunt. We were wet from the creek, cold, and hornet stung, but going home with coons for food while saving the corn. It was my job the next morning to dress the young coons for cooking; the adult coon was not eaten.
Charles Doyle 8/26/03