SSpeaker: And there's the mink. They're destructive animals. There's the skunk. He's a des-- and the coon! Interviewer: Mm-hm.

Speaker: And uh, there was grasshoppers and um, rabbits- Interviewer: Yes, they were a nuisance. Speaker: And- groundhogs and then in the fall you had the coons in- in the corn and I guess that's about all that uh- Interviewer: Mm-hm. What about the insects that bite and are a bit of a nuisance, even now.

Speaker: Well, in town there wasn't any rabbits or raccoons, that'd be in the country mostly, you-know- Interviewer: Mm-hm. Speaker: Like in the farms and- Interviewer: What- what did farmers do? Do you know how they handled this problem? Speaker: Well, the coons they uh- they shot them if they could, they'd shoot them and the rabbits too and they'd snare the rabbits.

And then he opened it there, he would just open the m-- (inc) you-see. And it won't- would not open on him. And it was all coons, you-see. And you-know, they hadn't been ah too- been dried very good, you-know. And you-know, they're stinking like the devil, you-know. And ah he had them all there.

(inc) a- a good wolf-hide like that, you-know, run about ninety dollars or a hundred. Now there was a coon come in there, and ah shipped over from the States, you-know. And ah it was an awful size, you-know.

Now ah one here ah I got to ch-- there was a tree out there, (inc)-Maple. And ah James and C-- Char-- ah Charles and James, I think, was up here at Christmas, and the boys. They (inc) all these coon-tracks and they ah followed the coon-tracks and they came to this tree, you-know, in the hole of a tree, you-see, (inc) a hollow tree. So they come in here and told me, 'bout they wanted to get these coon.

Three day camp-out. And we had a fella, he had a cooler, all his meat in it for three days and we told him "Put it in your trailer at night". We said "The 'coons are going to get into it". "No, no, no, that won't happen. They can't get into this, this is a special walking cooler" and blah-blah-blah. Okay, a big man, good friend of mine. Well, two-three-o'clock in the morning he hears this ruckus ...

Speaker: ... had to shoot racoons and it's always at night and I'm always shooting single handed- Speaker 2: (Laughs) Speaker: With a flashlight in my hand. Interviewer: (Laughs) Speaker 2: (Laughs) (inc)- Speaker: And- Speaker 2: Doesn't work. Speaker: And it's two or three shots. Me getting a coon with a s-- first shot is just about never.

he horses were in the field and they were very concerned about it and run over to the other side. But it didn't cause any trouble and went away on its trip. But I ah, liked sweet corn and of course the coons were- liked sweet corn too. And they would come to the garden in the fall and pair- tear down the corn and eat the sweet corn. Even when it was scarcely ready.

Speaker: Anyway as a rule I kept my dog inside at night to keep it from wandering around bothering the neighbours, but when the sweet corn was on, I'd let it- my dog out- Interviewer: (Laughs) Speaker: To try to keep the coons out. Interviewer: (inc) Speaker: And it was good at it. It would tree the coon and I'd get my gat- battery lantern and shoot the coon in the tree. This night about ten-o'clock, I hadn't gone to bed, I heard my dog barking. So I got my twenty-two loaded up, it was a repeater, and my battery lantern.

... with the groundhogs, it would slip up (laughs) on its belly and the- and the groundhog would go down, maybe come back up and the dog would grab it. I'd- I'd two or three dogs were really good to get groundhogs and I shot a lot myself. And the coons, I h-- hated coons too. They'd come to the barn and tear your feedbags apart and darted the hay and I shot every one of them I could too. The last year I was on the farm, I shot thirteen. Interviewer: Oh! Speaker: And ah, I didn't weep about any of them.

Interviewer: So were they able to save the barn or did it burn down? Speaker: Oh no it burnt down. Interviewer: Yeah, it burnt down, yeah. Speaker: But, few hours later, when they'd a high hoe dissecting it, there was two coons come out of it. So they- so they have better lungs than a human has.

Speaker: ... I think I wouldn't want to meet the bear when I'm picking apples or doing- Interviewer: Oh. Speaker: Ah, that kind-of-stuff. But we've- um, the f-- I-don't-know, the little coon that I have, she's- she's feeding right now. She's as hungry as anything. She's been over three times today to get food. But I've told her that's it, no more.

Speaker: I hope you like pussycats. Interviewer: I have two cats at home myself so it's no- Speaker: Yeah (inc) is a maine-coon cat, he's supposed to be a thoroughbred. He belonged to my neighbour and ah I've been looking after- my neighbour was- wasn't very well, she was on ah, um- how do you call it? She had to get air- oxygen all the time.

Interviewer: Um, did you ever see a bear around here (laughs)? Speaker: I've never seen a bear around here, no. Interviewer: No. Speaker: No, Damon and Bes saw one. There was a little one out here a few years ago. Interviewer: Yeah. Speaker: But I've never seen any bears around here. Lots of groundhogs. 'Coons. Interviewer: 'Coons? Speaker: 'Coons, yeah. Lots of 'coons. Um, I've seen the odd porcupine, not very many, I've only seen two or three of those. Um, no I've never seen a bear around here at all.

Interviewer: Mm-hm. You spoke then of the stove, w-- what did you burn in the stove? Speaker: Oh, wood. Interviewer: Mm-hm. Speaker: Usually hardwood. There was, ah, always a woodshed, and they bought quite a few cords of hardwood, and then some light cedar or something for shavings to start the fire. Interviewer: Who provided the wood? Speaker: Ah the trustees always bought the wood, there was three trustees, I think, for ah, each school.

And (laughs) ah, but anyway i-- dad would pay them for this wood, you-see? Whenever they needed some money they'd come to the door. They had to say, "Well what do you got, John?" " Oh I got so many cords of wood". They'd say, "How much money do you want?" "Oh, fifty-dollars." So, dad would make 'em out a cheque, 'nd it was usually Sunday morning, eh? So one day dad says, "I can give you cash, John, if you want it". "No, no cash. Want a cheque".

And then it all turned around we- we- too much machinery to work with but nobody would- nobody there to run the machinery. So it just switched ah, it's like cutting wood at the bush ah now like you-know ah I have- oh, I'll usually do twenty-five cords of wood. Now that would be- that would be a quite an undertaking a few years ago because you had to ah cut that wood all up into lengths, like usually made them about twelve feet long.

Interviewer: Um, and do you speak any French. Speaker: No, not anything beyond you-know high-school French, ah well, yeah high-school primarily yeah. Little bit of elementary I think you-know um core French was brand new when I was in elementary-school it's came in when I was already part way through, so what you would remember as always being there right those French classes in oh I'm assuming you went to an English school sorry.

Speaker: So you can take some Fre-- c-- ah, French courses. There's core French and French-immersion. Interviewer: Oh, oh. Speaker: Core is like- Interviewer: For the kids who didn't do the French. Speaker: Yeah. Interviewer: Yeah, okay. Speaker: And then French-immersion is- Interviewer: For you guys. Speaker: Yeah.