It’s a big decision day today…do I venture west with the potential of a very large snow storm approaching and risk sliding off the road or something worse…or stay home and see what happens later this afternoon?  The forecast is calling for wind gusts close to 50 mph and snow that could accumulate to as deep as 6 inches…I hate snow right now.

Blowing, drifting snow does not make for a fun drive and pulling my trailer with the toy even makes it more of a less fun drive.  My mind is starting to go into the wait and see mode…ok…I just made my mind up.  If everything else stops me from checking traps today, I’ll go tomorrow, even though I normally don’t check traps on Sunday.

We just had a taste of what might be coming:  We had a half hour of blowing snow and now we have what I call a “sucker hole”, with now snow and the winds have died down to the 10 mph range.  It actually looks like it’s pretty nice outside right this second.  I can look up out of the dark spot my computer is sitting in and actually see over the drifted snow out the window and see light.  The guards have sent a little heat this direction as well and it’s “almost” tolerable to be sitting here right now without a coat on.  THANKS GUARDS!!!!

Since the winds howled all night long, I don’t expect there was much movement by the rats in the swamp, however, I would expect to catch at least 2 rats, especially in the 10 newly set traps and I’m really anxious to see if the conibear on the log caught anything.  Of course as hard as it was blowing, that little stream probably had white caps crashing into the log and probably knocked all the bait off and tipped over the trap…I won’t know until I get out there.  Someone needs to come through with a remote controlled trail camera that is linked to my computer so I can look at trap sets like that and see if there is anything in it…It sure would make trapping a whole lot easier.  Maybe even sensors on the traps that show up on your hand held devise showing you exactly which traps have been set off.  Then you only have to go to those traps and take out whatever is in them.  That would save a lot of time too.  No more wasted time checking traps that aren’t set off.  Would someone out there start working on that for me?

A peak outside shows very large snowflakes falling by the millions and the wind is picking up as well…I’m staying home it looks like.  At least until this afternoon or when the snow stops and the satellite/radar shows it’s behind us.

Bears Butt

Feb. 23, 2013

Today turned out to be a very nice weather day.  Snow here in town and sunshine out on the line.  By the time I made it back to town it was sunny here and 40 degrees!  I like 40 degrees this time of year….it melts snow!

I had a couple of messages from Ed Lloyd this morning telling me about the skiff of snow out there and also that he had 4 eggs with my name on them!  So, I grabbed up a bottle of  Sherry’s salsa to trade him, tossed it in the car and headed west.

Doris’ pond proved a dead beat trapping place once again.  I’ll pull those traps on Monday, but I might get a hair to pull them tomorrow, who knows.  It’s 12 miles out of the way just to find all the traps empty…you can’t pay for gas that way.

Back up at Big and Little Spring things were looking up.  No apparent wind last night and things were melting at 10:30 when I got there.  I checked Big Spring and then decided I’d try and get through the depression (a dip between a small spring and the main Big Spring drainage.  I figured if I could get the toy through that and up on higher ground on the other side, I might be able to venture east down the drainage and maybe even set some traps.  I must have picked the exact spot I needed to because the toy never even slowed down.  On the other side I was a happy guy and ready to swag in some more traps.  I had taken 10 of my clip flags with me and didn’t have any other flagging material, so 10 traps would be my max to set.

I have to park quite a ways from the drainage and walk across the drifts but I figured what the heck, no traps out means no rats being caught.  I grabbed two coni’s and headed out.  I found two sets very quickly and came back to the rig for two more.  Those went in quickly as well and I found another place for one, so back to the rig I went.  So, now I only have 5 flags left and I just got started.  Oh well, it probably is just as well that I could only set 10 traps.  By the time I got as far as I could drive because of the drifts, I had set all 10 traps.

My last set was about 100 yards from the rig and that is quite a ways for an old guy mucking through knee deep drifts.  It’s especially hard walking when sometimes the crust will support your weight and other times you bust through.  Try that you other short people.  At any rate here I was facing a perfect bait set and the leg hold traps are all back at the rig.  I wasn’t about to walk all that way just to grab “the appropriate trap”, I’ll take a leg hold to there tomorrow, as for now I decided to rig this one up with a conibear.  If it works I’ll be danged surprised.

Here you have a log where the rats climb up on it and go to the bathroom.  Usually I would plop a leg hold right on top of the pile of rat droppings, put a few carrots around here and there and be done.  This time I use a conibear and my thoughts are to lure the rat down the log to eat carrots.  When he gets done eating them he should see the carrots on the other side of the trap and walk through the trap to get to those carrots…snap… and he is mine!

Look at this setup closely.  Notice I have placed a stick down through the opening of the spring and close to the trap jaws.  This stick is supporting the trap as it sets on the log, but the stick is also in a position not to interfere with the operation of the trap and also, when the rat gets caught (if one gets caught) it will jump off the log and drown, the trap chain is being held by the stake on the right of the log.  Do you think this will catch me a rat tomorrow?

So, with 10 more traps set, my total number of traps is 53.

As I started back I could see Bob waiting on the side of the road up near my outfit.  It didn’t take long to travel back on my trail and I was soon back to the truck.  3 rats in my bag and Bob had 3 rats in his…not too bad considering everything that is going on.

We BSed for a few minutes and then he decided it was time to head for home and start skinning the rats we caught yesterday and laid out to dry.  I still had my Little Spring traps to check and I headed in that direction.

As I finished this line I heard a noise and there was Ed Lloyd traveling along on the trellis road.  He had come out to see the dead cow I had told him about this morning through a email message.  It had gotten caught in a deep spring and drowned.  They will have to pull it out before it decomposes and contaminates the water.

Ed was watching where he was driving and not paying attention to my hand signals.  I wanted him to go back to the trellis and I would haul him on the toy down to where the cow was, but he was doing his own thing…bouncing and sliding down the road that leads to the Goose Club, once he reached the gate at the club he turned his wheel and here he came straight at me across country…throwing snow left and right and squiggling every direction as he came.  I just knew he was going to go out of sight any moment, but on he came roaring along.  He stopped close by and got out quickly.  I laughed at him and said I couldn’t believe he just drove across country like that and didn’t get stuck.  He handed me the 4 eggs he had promised.  I carefully placed them in one of my toy packs and crossed my fingers I wouldn’t break them.  He jumped on the back of the toy and we went over to see the dead cow.

Back at his rig, he thought he could just do a donut right there and get back onto his own tracks and ride on out of there.  He gunned it, turned his wheel and spun right down to high center ville.  Great try.

We dug and dug and he finally jacked up the back and we were able to put a tire chain on his drive wheel.  After a couple of attempts at rocking the rig, it finally came out and he spun like crazy to get back onto his old tracks.  It just took about 30 minutes is all.

This is Ed as he was coming toward me.  He got stuck just left of the two small bushes you see in front of him.  I was truly surprised he made it that far.  That little Chev outfit of his is a good one.  When he got rolling he followed his tracks back and out and we met up at my outfit where I gave him that jar of Sherry’s salsa.  It was a good thing it didn’t take us any longer to get his rig unstuck that it did, because we had just arrived at the spot, he took off the one chain and he got a phone call from one of the hands saying he had a load of cattle and would be there in just a minute…It’s Eds job to unload the cattle when they arrive.

Back on the trap line, Little Spring produced another 3 rats for me today for a total of 6 rats today!  I can live with a 6 rat day.

HEY DANGINT!   IT’S COLD DOWN HERE!!!!

Bears Butt

Feb. 22, 2013

YUK!  More snow!  I hate snow right now…I refuse to unload the toy and put on the plow…I ain’t gonna do it!

I’m not too excited to make the trip out West this morning.  My contact out there says it’s snowing and the ranch hands are going to be moving all their cattle from Cedar Springs back up to the land near the ranch house.  That will crowd things a bit.  It’s fun to watch them horsemen work.  I’ll tell you one thing, to be a cattle rancher you have to forget about living.  All they do is work and how they make ends meet is beyond me.  Way too many possible problems to make any money.

Yesterday I stumbled across a full grown heifer that had gotten stuck in a spring and drowned…that would represent over a thousand dollars to that rancher.  Toss in ones hit on the highway, rustled, shot by hunters and “a-holes” etc.  Killed by predators…I just don’t see how they can make any money at all.

The cost of feed, fencing, fuel and everything else goes up, taxes on the land goes up as well, and even if they have a thousand head of cattle, who is going to pay what they are worth?  Work, work, work….that is what a rancher does.

So, what do I expect today?  Ed, my information source out there, says they only got a little bit of snow…I like that info…and as for trapping I’m sure the rats did a little bit of running last night before the storm hit.  A day similar to yesterday is very possible, except I’ll stay in my old tracks and hopefully not get stuck like I did yesterday.

Snow, snow go away, come again on a November day…..

Bears Butt

Feb. 22, 2013

Would anyone like to lend me some skis to replace my front tires and some tracks for the back tires on my toy?

Day 2 of zero rats and no set off traps at Doris’ pond.  There must not be even one rat at that pond.  I’ve decide I will leave the traps until next Monday and then pull them.  It’s a lot of extra traveling for nothing.

Meanwhile once I was off the road at the Big Spring/Little Spring junction, things were looking good.  The weather wasn’t nearly as cold as it was yesterday and no wind blowing was a very welcome thing.  It was obvious too that there had been a good melt yesterday as well.

Two days ago when I first pulled down into this spot it was solid snow and I thought I might be stuck really good.  Now you can see bare ground where I have parked.  At this rate it won’t take long to melt it all down to a manageable depth.  It is always nice to have the toy to haul my lazy butt out to the trap line and back.  Knock on wood, it hasn’t failed me yet.

So, out of the trailer it comes and I load it up with a full layer of traps front and rear.  I’m going to set some steel today or die trying.

I have gotten in the habit of putting my conibear traps on the back of the rig and bait sets (stop loss) on the front.  I use 80 percent conibears when I trap.  Partially because I don’t really know how to set bait sets.

It’s loaded and ready to get to business.  I decide I will forgo checking traps and go on out past the Big Spring and begin setting.  I would like to get in as many as I can and then come back and check the traps there, before checking the ones at Little Spring.  Through the gate and down the hill I go “cautiously”, checking the depth of the snow as I go and the toy is doing just fine, occasionally pushing a little snow with the under carriage.

I manage to get four traps set, including one colony trap,  before I reach the turn in the ditch that takes the water almost straight East.  I’m beginning to feel more resistance in the ride as well as the drifts are deeper down in the hollow than up on the hill just inside the gate.  The toy keeps on trudging along and I’m proud of it.  As long as it keeps moving I’ll keep driving.  I reach one of my little ponds off to the side and explore around for setting places.  I could only find one as the majority of the area is still under a thick layer of ice covered with snow.  I usually set 3 or 4 traps at this spot so, I’m a bit disappointed.  I turn the toy toward the next small spot and immediately feel the weight of the toy glide up on a solid sheet of icy snow…wheels begin to spin…I can’t back up, I can’t go forward….stuck!

I begin digging to clear the solid snow from under the carriage and then dig a path in front of the rig toward what I know is a flat.  There should not be any drifts on the flat.

More digging and I’m out of that spot and headed for the flat.  I drive as far as I dare toward the second little spot then walk the rest of the way over to check for rat sign…very little sign…the same thick ice and snow is covering this little sweet spot, but I was able to set one trap there.

Ok, I tell myself, best head back and then down to check Little Spring.  I follow my tracks back and then decide to cut across country straight toward the truck….Everything is going great until suddenly I’m in another drift……stuck again.

I thought if I drove faster I would glide over some of the drifts and not get stuck…HAHAHAHA!  Look how deep I went in this time.  “Repeat after me….IMA  DUMBSHIT”!

At least the digging was easy, it just took awhile.  Once the crusty snow was removed from under the rig, I was able to back up following my tracks and turn around at the first spot I got stuck.  Then followed my tracks out of there back to the truck.  Life is once again very good.

When I got to the wood fence surrounding Big Spring, I walked the trap line and collected 2 rats!  There is my goal for the day!  Wooppppeeeee!

From there it was down the trellis road to the bank leading down into Little Spring, no problems getting down to the snow covered valley, but how deep is the snow down there?  I began checking traps as soon as the terrain leveled out.  The toy was very sure footed down in this little valley and perhaps the snow had melted enough to give me more clearance.  There were two little spots that I had some doubt about it pulling out of, but it never stopped once.  I was able to check all 10 traps and was pleasantly surprised to gather up another 6 rats!  An 8 rat day!  I’m flying now!  And proceed to find more places to set more traps.  I found 2 sets is all.  One for a Conibear and one for a colony trap.

As I tried to round the corner to head down toward the West along side the drainage I could feel the front end of the toy scraping icy snow and I stopped and backed up.  Walking ahead it was a good thing I stopped because the snow was waste deep in the little hollow I have to cross.  I really would have been hung up there big time.  I decided my trapping was over for the day.  But what the heck…8 rats is a good catch when there isn’t much water to play with.

When I reached the trellis road, I went West to go check out the drainage down that way.  The trellis crosses a road that leads from the highway to a goose club and I followed that road as far as there is a pipe going under it.  Frozen solid!

I’m certain the water is flowing under that thick layer of ice, but there is no way of chopping through it and finding an under water travel way.  I’ll just have to wait to trap that when it thaws out.  I head back to the truck and load up.  It’s 1:30 and I sure had higher hopes of setting a lot of traps, instead I only got 8 more traps set.  That gives me a total of 43 traps out, which doesn’t sound like a bad number, but the problem is where they are set I will catch all the rats in those areas before Saturday…oh well, such is trapping life.

Driving back toward home I see Bob off to the side checking some of his 6 sets.  I stop and walk across the road and check out his trapping area.  He has 3 sets in one small pond and the pond has a rat house and a couple of feed mounds…he has caught one rat and is happy about that.  While there I point out two more places for him to set traps and he will do that before he leaves, but he wants me to take his rat with me and put it in the shed to dry.  Mine need to be dried before we skin them as well and so 9 rats will be processed tomorrow.  He has two traps set side by side on one spot and we could see the one trap, but the other is not visible.  He says it’s just because it’s set under water and he will check it after he gets done setting the two other traps.

We say goodbye and off I go for home, via a trip to town for gas.

As I pull in the back yard, Bob pulls into his driveway…he almost beat me home…he is anxiously walking toward the shed for some reason and then he holds up a rat!  Right On!  He said the trap we could not see held that rat!  Way cool a 10 rat day!  We’ll take it!

From here on out it will be a day by day thing to set more traps.  I think I have a plan for setting the trellis up near Petes junction in the road, providing nobody else has their car or truck parked in the place I plan to park.  It isn’t the spot I prefer to park and unload the toy, but it’s the only place that doesn’t have 2 feet of snow on it.  I’ll do that one tomorrow.

Bears Butt

Feb. 21, 2013

Already it’s Thursday…boy do the days go past quickly.

Today is going to be interesting.  I have some goals to reach and I just hope the snow allows me to achieve them, it’s the only thing in my way at this time.

To reach the bend in the stream going out of Big Spring is one and it’s only 100 yards from the end of the spring, and if I can make that I should be able to set another 10 traps.  And then over to the two small seeps to the South where I usually catch around 10 rats each year.  Most people would not even think to go over to those two spots but I have found rats there and always plant a few traps.

Once I reach the bend, if the snow is not too bad, I will continue down the stream to the East as far as there is running water.  I expect to find the edge of the ice down there not too far.  Once I hit that, I will turn around and hit Little Spring, check those traps and continue to set that out as far as the road to the Goose Club.  There is where I expect to hit the ice going that direction.

Life is good.  Health is great!  Gotta keep a positive attitude in light of the deep snow.  I may end up doing more digging than setting traps, but whatever happens happens.  Wish me luck!

If it didn’t blow too hard out there last night I should catch “2” rats…;-)

Bears Butt

Feb. 21, 2013

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

The trapping area is almost an hour away from where I live and a lot of weather changes occur between here and there.  We are expecting a somewhat uncertain snow storm today along the Wasatch Front, but that normally does not effect “out there”.  I looked at the weather map and see a big old blob of pinkish-red clouds formed up and camped over the trapping area…the color indicates rain.  Rain right now is a good thing, I don’t want any more snow…I’m about as sick of snow right now as I am about the thought that 50 rat houses are being guarded by 18 bulls.

So, just what is the weather like out there?  My plan is to go out earlier than yesterday and check the traps I put out and then set some more.  Where to set them I’m not sure, but it won’t be the bull arena (that is what I chose to call that area)  right now.  I need that snow to melt more and for my courage to build some.

The current temperature here is 40 degrees…melting temps…I like it!  Tomorrow I think it will be time to put on the trailer and load up the ATV for the trip across the flats.  Let’s test the snow depth.  But that is tomorrow, today I’m gonna catch 10 rats.

Bears Butt

Feb. 20, 2013

Todays trap setting went about as I planned.  Doris’ pond has been changed quite a lot since last year.  They had a big digger machine come in and dig out the pond and place the mud all around the edge.  Then they smoothed it out in order to plant grass.  The grass is scheduled to be planted this spring.  It really makes the pond area look nice…however, they destroyed all the rat hiding places.  My walk around the pond yielded no sign what so ever and the water is very deep.  The sets I was able to put in were all “blind” sets and baited with carrots.  I set two floats as well, each float has two traps on them.

I swagged in 7 foot hold traps plus the two floats.  Then grabbed up a bag of 20 conibears and headed down the ditch that carries the over flow out and across the flats.  No sign in the ditch either and no rat holes.  They had taken the digger down that ditch and cleaned it up as well.  It looks really nice, but no rats.

The ranch hand told me of another place that Doris owns just down the road that I needed to check out.  He said there was a small swamp with a lot of rat houses in it.  He also has 18 bulls in there, but he reassured me they would not bother me…I hate bulls.

After setting the pond I took the drive down where he told me and looked across with the binocs…sure enough there must be 50 rat houses in an area not much bigger than a square block.  Also, 18 bulls.  Did I tell you how much I dislike bulls?  It is going to be a “suck it up and go trapping” ordeal because that many houses means at least 100 rats.

Then back up the road toward home I came.  I stopped at what I call Big Spring to look the situation over.  My main concern was pulling off the highway.  I got out and surveyed the situation and decided I could bust through the bigger drift next to the road (left by the state plows) and slide down the hill to some semi shallow snow.  Getting out might be a little problem, but I decided what the heck and went for it.  No problem getting in.  I backed up and pulled forward several times, flattening out the snow and trying to get myself a run-way to get out when the time came.

Then on went the hip boots and off I went with a 20 trap bag of conibears on my back.  Down to the Big Spring and immediately started seeing sign.  I set 16 traps as I proceeded around the spring.  What I think has happened is that lower stretches of the spring water has been frozen and is just now starting to thaw, that forced the rats up in the warmer water of the spring and they are just now beginning to spread out and go down stream.

The snow is about 12 inches deep out there on the flat.  My toy can handle about 8 inches before it gets high centered.  We have another snow storm coming tonight and tomorrow and so the plow is still on the toy until the threat of snow is over, probably Friday.  By then I hope the snow out there melts down and allows me to be able to drive out and follow the flow away from Big Spring.  I will have Big Spring trapped out by then and it will be time to set more traps farther out.  I’m too old and out of shape to walk that far and so I’m really at the mercy of the snow melting gods to get me there.

Back at the truck the task of pulling out of where I was and back onto the highway was giving me some heart ache.  Where the rig was sitting was flat and only had about 6 inches of snow on it.  I had flattened out a pretty good area and by backing up as far as I could (before spinning out), would give me a pretty good running start to go on an angle through the big drift and back to the highway.  There would be no way I could go back out the way I had slid in.  My biggest concern was when I hit the big drift, would it cause the back end to slide to the right and hang me up at a 90 degree angle to the highway.  That would be an ugly sight.

When I was all ready to give it hell, I pushed the auto 4 wheel drive button in, moved the gear shift to “L” and gunned it…shoot it didn’t even spin a tire.  On the road and headed home without any issues what so ever.

So, with 9 sets at Doris’ and 16 at Big Spring we are off and running for the season.  I expect to catch 10 rats tomorrow.

It wouldn’t be right if I didn’t show you the bird I saw today:

Bears Butt

Feb. 19, 2013