It was a simpler time as widower Jacob Ernst struggles to raise his two young sons, Nathan and Mead, on their modest farm. The boys grow up listening to the nighttime songs of hounds in the pursuit of the wily ringtail. In these darkened hills, Jacob teaches his sons the legends of their hometown and a deep respect for all woodland creatures. Hunting and the lessons taught keep the Ernst family together.  For this is Painted Post-a storied place where the lessons of life, love, and death play out beneath its mighty oaks. But worlds collide. The evil of men follows the Ernst family and their hounds into these mystical hills. The scourge of the illegal drug trade, coupled with the treachery of one of their own, leads to an inevitable showdown. Some will learn that not all of Painted Post's vivid tales are pure legend, and this rugged woodland will wield its own brutal justice. For in the darkest hollows, solid bonds are forged. This story had to be told. It's not that such a tale is "due"--there are plenty of books about dogs. Perhaps more so, it's connection between mankind and canine that makes up our collective memory.  For it is in the darkest hollows that solid bonds are forged. The modern world that seems to get crazier than the day before. Many folks have lost the intimacy with the land, local legends, family ties, and one another. For all its wonder, the digital age may be found lacking in what the forest at night readily provides.  So maybe--just maybe--in looking back to a simpler time and heartfelt relationships,we can see our way forward. Although this book is for anyone who loves stories of the outdoors, boy-meets-girl, and dogs, this tale is for and about coon hunters. This group of men and women will laugh the hardest and tell the tallest yarns; think nothing of wading into a swamp to join their hounds; climb icy ravines; pull porcupine quills from a hapless pup in the wee hours of the morning; brave thorny multiflora rose;and stand quietly in the nighttime forest waiting for their hounds to sing the story of another chase. Hats off to these hardy folks everywhere. Empty Joseph Gary Crance was born in Upstate New York near his hometown of Painted Post. The author spent hundreds of nights with his father Gary, a New York State Forest Ranger, and their dogs chasing raccoon through the hills bounding this historic and scenic land.  After a career in the U.S. Air Force (USAF)—a part of which he spent teaching survival training—he returned with his family to Painted Post and the woodland hollows of his youth to again listen to the nighttime songs of hounds pursuing the wily ringtail.  Admittedly, Joe doesn't climb these unchanging hills as fast as he once did. But that's okay. His hounds and the oaks have a great deal of patience. Mr. Crance is a member of the New York State Outdoor Writers Association and holds degrees in Survival and Rescue Operations from the Community College of the USAF and a bachelors in Professional Writing from Mansfield University.