Dear Dad 4.17.21 Pony Creek Honey

Sharon tells me she is traveling to E. TX soon to pick up a couple of bee colonies. Caused me to remember the time Jerry Barton and you tried robbing honey from a tree on Pony Creek. You should tell the story to your grandkids sometime, they would enjoy. Below is the version written by Jerry for your 80th birthday celebration.

I imagine it was when we were in our late twenties to early thirties when Mr. Wann mentioned finding a large oak tree with bees in it. There was quite a bit of discussion about how to go about robbing a bee tree like this one with its large amount of honey, without getting stung, or at least not much. Junior volunteered mesh fruit or onion sacks to go over our heads, and even had a large long bladed chain saw we could use. We were soon on our way. Just Junior and I, everyone else was busy. We arrived at the site, up on Pony Creek. First we built a fire to generate some smoke. Then Junior cut the tree trunk, dropping the tree in the Pony Creek channel. Junior volunteered to walk up the slanting tree trunk with the chain saw to about 8 to 10 feet off the ground, since he was familiar with operating the saw. Then he began to saw out a section of the tree trunk near the bees, bending over the running saw. When he lifted the running saw to move the blade to a new location, a tragedy almost occurred. The chain saw blade caught on the mesh fruit sack and jerked the blade up into Junior’s face. Junior turned loose of the heavy (now stopped) saw, which fell to the ground and jerked Junior off the trunk and onto the ground too. Junior then grabbed his bleeding face, said “I’m hurt”, and took off running. He later said he was trying to get away from the bees. I had to catch him down the trail a way before I could examine him to see the extent of his injury. All the time I was thinking that he possibly had his head partly cut off and I was sick, thinking how unnecessary this activity was. It turned out the saw stopped just in time. The blade cut Junior’s chin, cheek, and a 1" slit in his eyebrow, which bled profusely. We were so happy it wasn’t worse. I don’t know who finished robbing the bee tree, but it wasn’t us.

Did anyone ever get the honey? I think Sharon would be a good source of advice for next time robbing a wild beehive. Or maybe we will just enjoy the honey harvested by Sharon and leave the wild ones alone.

Glad we got some rain this week but prefer it without hail. There must have been some big hail stones for your roof to need replacing. As my hearing continues to fade, one of the sounds I miss the most is the sound of rain falling. Bet it is the same for you.

I am scheduled to have my catheter removed on Monday. Hopefully, I will free of it by the time you read this.