I am really liking the weather forecast for this week.  Todays high 32 and the rest of the week the highs are close to 40!  I really like 40’s for highs.  Not so warm that the snow melts too fast and yet it is getting toward spring time and I like the change from winter to spring.  Almost as much as I like the change from summer to fall.

Today will be a great day in the field.  I now have 3 lines to check and 29 new traps out.  I should catch at least 2 rats today.  I don’t want to sound overly optimistic.  For those of you who recall last years daily ramblings, when I said I thought I would catch “X” number of rats that day, I would come in with some “Y” number that was generally half what I predicted.  I’m not going to do that this year.

I noticed yesterday that the level of the water on my lines doesn’t seem to be as high as usual.  Maybe it is because it is still frozen, or maybe the ground water just isn’t there like it usually is, I don’t know, but I’m able to get around a lot of places that I have not in the past because the water was too deep to allow me to wade through it.  It could be that we have taken enough rats out of the water ways that the ones remaining can only work the main stream flows and not spread out all over the place like when we first started trapping Petes.  You tell me.

My goal is just to check traps today and let my body rest from yesterdays ordeal.  I’m not planning on pulling any traps today either, but probably will pull the original 16 from Big Spring tomorrow.  This week I will set “Bull Run” if the snow depth goes down a few inches.  I have not trapped that area for two years as Bob decided he wanted to trap it.  Last year he got in a bit of hot water with the ranch manager for driving through the grain that is next to Bull Run.  Of all people who should know better too.

As for the rest of Petes water ways, if the snow depth does not go down pretty quickly, I might end up trapping all of the interior of Petes.  Not that I mind doing that, but Bob would be better served to trap those areas and free me up to trap Club 41 and the other two places out on Promontory…including the dreaded “Bull Arena”….shudder……

I will try and take a few pictures today…these posts without pictures suck.

OK…it’s time!

Bears Butt

Feb. 26, 2013