Is sure was nice to be able to sleep in this morning.  I didn’t set my alarm and didn’t wake up until nearly 7 a.m.  That was nice!

Today, Bob is going out to pull all his traps, he has gotten one of his Grandsons to help him with the task and it’s a good thing too, as the floats he is using draw in a lot of moisture and weigh up to 50 pounds each.  He has 15 floats out so his truck will be filled to the brim when he comes home.  I’ll keep an eye out for him to return and help unload it.

Yesterday’s ice did not melt off the water out on the trap line last night, in fact there was probably a doubling of the thickness over night which will have the rats staying in their nice warm houses…Bob’s catch rate is expected to be less than 10…

So, what happens now that the traps are all pulled?  Does the trapper go into hibernation like the rats have?  Not exactly.  First off we still have a ton of work to do with the rats we have caught and hanging in the shed.  We also have over 100 frozen and in the freezer needing to be fleshed and stretched.  The timing of thawing them out is all dependent on the ones hanging to dry in the shed.  We won’t be finished with the hides until late next week.

In the meantime, Bob will be talking to the local buyers about our rats and maybe even have some of them come and visit to look at the catch.  I promised a buyer from far off that when we got ready to sell I would contact him.  I also told him at the time that we would NOT be going to his town to negotiate a price, he would have to come here.

Speaking of Bob and negotiating a price…Bob has said over and over again to me…”You need to get paid for the rats you’re catching.  It’s not fair that you and I split the money when I’m not catching my share…blah, blah, blah…”!  I tell him over and over the same thing…”Bob, when I first agreed to help you trap and catch rats, I said, ‘you provide the traps, you pay to fix the broken traps, you buy replacement traps for the ones we lose, you buy the sacks needed to put the rat hides in when we sell them and above all else, you negotiate the price we sell them for'”!  So yes, maybe I (Wapiti and I) did catch over 60% of the total rats we caught, so what, he has the burden of all the other stuff associated with this catch…especially the negotiation part…I hate that part.  If the buyer would come through and give his best and final price right up front I could handle that…but they don’t…they want to catch the trapper which makes their bottom line higher.  Besides, Bob loves to dicker and haggle over the pennies.

So, you see, trapping is not just about going out into the swamp setting traps, checking them and taking care of the pelts…it’s much more than that…besides the sore and chapped hands, sore backs and muscles, sun and wind burnt necks and faces, broken equipment and worn out tools.  That all sounds really bad huh?  Trapping is not just about going out into the swamp setting traps, checking them and taking care of the pelts…It’s much more than that…getting out and becoming a part of nature, seeing what is out there that most people don’t get to see, experiencing a side of nature that only doing it can show you and learning new things every day to help you become a better, more appreciative person…THAT is what trapping is all about.

And it ends when the pay check comes floating in.  Until then, expect more to these daily stories.

By the way…Bob caught 9 rats today…what a great end to the trapping season!

Bears Butt

March 23, 2013