Cold and windy out on the trap line today.  And it wasn’t a very good day of trapping.  The 9 sets on Doris’ pond gave up not one rat, nor any set off traps.  Big Springs, even though it has a lot of promising sign only yielded one rat and one other set off trap.  I was surprised by that, as I just knew I was going to have at least 8 rats in those sets.  I suppose the wind could have kept them hid up.

But what the heck.  I did see some pheasants this morning.

They are always fun to see.

These two picts are of Big Springs.  You can see it covers well over an acre of area and should give up at least 10 rats.

But only one rat came to my traps.  I was unpleasantly surprised.

So, with lots of day left, I loaded up a sack with 14 more traps and headed in the other direction to set “Little Spring”, another nice little place that is usually good for 10 or so rats.  The walk was a little long and the snow quite deep, but I made my journey and managed to set 10 of the 14 traps I had with me.  My last Conibear trap broke as I set it and so had to be bought back home for repair.  A normal thing to happen on the line.

It made me realize I did not have any pliers nor wire to make emergency fixes out in the field.  I remedied that when I got home.

With the snow melting I decided that tomorrow I will take the toy out on the line and see just how far I can get before getting stuck.  I will remember to take the shovel with me when I leave the truck.  This year is a crazy one so far and not to be outdone, there was another surprise waiting for me at home.

I skinned the rat in the field and fleshed and stretched it when I got home.  So number one is now drying on the stretcher…at least an $8 rat.  That done and the trap repaired, I headed for the shed to un-leash the beast!  I had to take the snow plow off and then check the tire pressure and fill the gas tank.  The beast is ready!  I backed the truck up to the trailer and locked it down solid.  Drove the toy up into the trailer and secured everything.  I figured I had best drive to the garage and check the tire pressure so that everything is ready in the morning.

I backed into the garage and turned on the compressor, grabbed the tire gauge and then noticed the passenger side tire on the trailer was as flat as a pan cake!  I just filled it a week ago too when I dug the trailer out of the snow bank.  The last thing I need is to have trouble with a trailer tire.  It was old and weather cracked and so I started calling around to tire dealers for a used one.  No body has that size.  I had to bite the bullet and purchase a new one…with tax…$76!  Ouch….That’s 9 1/2 rats and since Bob and I are splitting 50/50, that makes it 19 rats in order for my half to cover the cost of that tire.  I’m already in the hole on this deal!

It’s all ready to go in the morning though and hopefully more rats will find their ways into more traps.  I now have 35 traps out and 26 of them are in good locations.  Doris’ pond will probably only give up a couple of rats, if any at all.

I’m a little excited to think I have my wheels and can make some distant tracks out in the snow.  Way to hard to walk in that stuff and I just hope the toy can ride over the top of the crusted underneath.  I’d like to get a bunch more traps set out along Big Spring and set out to where the ice has it locked up.  The same for Little Spring if my day goes “very well” I should be able to get them both set tomorrow.  It will take over 100 traps to set them both and a couple of days to get it done.

More tomorrow!

Bears Butt

Feb. 20, 2013