March 2, 2012 A.M. Report

Well the snow goose hunt that was to happen today with Edjukateer and I fizzled with the blowing snows.  Actually, the person who invited us wants to make sure we have an enjoyable and successful hunt and was unable to locate the birds..so until he does…we are on hold.

This morning I awoke to 3 inches of pretty white fluffy snow and the need to plow the neighborhood again.

Trapping will be delayed until that task is done.

One thing about todays trapping is my newly thought of idea out on the line and my test samples really got the test the last couple of days.  High winds, blowing and drifting snow.  Did they stand the test?  I won’t know until I get out there and see.  I expect I will be trying to find my marking flags and re-taping those that blew away.  A task that haunts our traplines each year.  Without the marking tape we could lose many dollars worth of traps and we don’t want to do that.  I have already lost one $10 trap because the stake did not have a wide enough “Y” on the end of it.

Expected catch today, after two nights, 14….

I also expect the snow to be deep, and the ice to be about 2 inches thick over most of the traps.  Typical spring time trapping.

Later!

Bears Butt

P.M. Report

Moved snow until about 11 and then got ready for the trip west for trapping.  The road west of Corrine looked like it was horrible earlier in the day.  Lots of packed ice and ugly stuff.  There was still some of that to deal with the farther west I got.  But both Bob and I made it ok.

Bob did not want to tackle accessing the internal areas of Petes because the snow was so very deep.  Close to 12 inches and drifted.  I don’t blame him.  So he just ran his road line and that was dangerous for him because he could not pull off the road very far.   The plow guys just made a big pile right on the white line.    He cautioned me about getting stuck where I pull completely off the road and down into some barrow pit stuff.

What I found was deep fluffy snow, no problem for pulling in and/or out.  I ran my lines without a hitch.

Several flags were down and had to be replaced.  3 traps set off with nothing in them.   One of those was set off the other day too…I’ll catch that little critter if he keeps messing with me.

Lots of slushy ice about 2 inches thick that had to be broken.  One of my triggered traps was held open by the ice around the spring.  A very lucky rat.

I was not able to set any traps today because of the plow time.  Tomorrow we have farm work and so that will shut me down from setting any until Monday.

Rat totals for the day…Me 13…Bob 2.

My butt is kicked!  Time for a brew or two.

Bears Butt