Smitty had a big list of jobs, so he asked us to pitch in for the day. French and I launched into Smitty's list: smashing up an old concrete deck, pulling nails out of some wood he wanted to burn, and repainting his garden shed. It was quite something to see a 90+ year old man taking a few swings with the sledge hammer. I've also never seen a man paint to precisely. Smitty didn't waste a drop.
After the work was done he said: "The place doesn't look half bad eh boys?" He grilled us up some homemade burgers and we sat around a little campfire. We had a few beers and swapped a few more tales.
When he got dark he said, "You boys wanna see something?" Smitty took us down a path out back of his place. We walked for about five minutes to his "gunge pile". He dumped some of his non-compostable food in a pit under a huge white pine. Smitty shone his flashlight up into the branches. There were seven pairs of eyes up in the tree.
French said: "Damn thats alotta racoons!"
Smitty said: "No wait. Check this out." He shone his flashlight up even higher. There were one more pair of eyes...bigger eyes. Smitty explained: "That there is a fisher, smaller cousin of the wolverine; those racoons are goners."
