March 2, P.M. report…I think I need a secretary.  My butt is kicked.

Today, Shipley went on the trap line with me to see just what trapping muskrats is all about.  He arrived right on time, about 9 a.m. and we loaded his stuff in the “two weeks into trapping” rig…

I guess I should explain that one.  Once a person starts a trapping season, the rig he is driving, riding, using, “whatever” does not get cleaned until the season is over.  Be it spilled soda, beer, muskrat innards or whatever happens inside the rig, stays there until the season is over….usually 5 weeks.

I made sure there was enough space inside for him and his gear and off we went.  The cooler (without the lid) in the back filled with yesterdays fur less rat bodies.  I had to stop at the local Maverik for some gas before we seriously headed west.  He had to go into the store for some reason….?????…….

On our way I tried to explain some of my trapping experiences with him and some of the quirks about trapping rats…he was cordial and listened intently (maybe he was asleep)…and when we finally got to our destination of first departure on the toy, he sputtered and asked, “why are we stopping here?”…hmmmmm.

So now he is really excited to finally get to go trapping.  I knew first hand that these first two lines would have either nothing or perhaps one or two rats.  But that is trapping right.  Out on the line he was full of questions and of course I had answers…Answers to questions about trapping from a novice like me are easy…I just make stuff up.  Shipley, not knowing, believed everything I told him (I think).

So once we were done with the two “stupid” trap lines we headed up to the Trellis.  No rats were in the bag at this point…just as I figured.  Shipley said he wanted to make a short video about catching rats and send it to his kids and others and my heart jumped a beat.  Why didn’t he say that in the beginning, I could have saved us a lot of time for that one.

We get to the Trellis line and head out in hopes of finding that first rat of the day…my hopes were high for a couple of the first traps, but nothing was held in them…neither were they set off…my mouth was in a downward trend, but my hopes were high.

The thought of Shipley wanting to film me catching a rat had my hopes really high, you should know by now just how much of a ham I really am, but the traps just kept coming up empty.  I have done too good a job at catching the rats on the Trellis line I guess.  And then it happened….at a feed set, suddenly I could see a caught rat, still alive and looking our way…YES!  A rat!

I worked my way over to the set with Shipley gingerly in tow…not actually in tow, but behind me trying to manage the clumps of toolies and nice footing areas and not the deeper water that would cause his boot to suddenly fill with the cold water of Spring.  We finally make it over to the double feed mound set and I see the alive rat in one trap and the other trap filled with a rat that was normal (drowned and dead).  I have to dispatch this rat the usual way  but remind Shipley that perhaps a video showing that would not be  something a family show would like to see.  My real intent of my suggesting that was to “remind him” of his intention to take a video (put a smiley face here).

I dispatched the rat and took care of business with the other and rebuilt the feed mound setting the two rats carefully in the foreground as I baited the set and re-set the traps…he videoed…I don’t have the footage, perhaps he will interject with his own story at this point or another posting.  At any rate, he showed me the video later…and boy howdy…”Do I Look Good”!!!!

On we went and trap after trap held rats…I was beside him and myself as we harvested four rats total from the Trellis line.  I also showed him some of the damage that rats can cause, including undermining the road way and causing it to collapse.  Not a good scene for the owner of the property and roadway.  Rats are cute as little bugs until they either bite your finger nearly off or dig up your road and not allow you to go where you need to go.  They have not heard of, nor would they listen to the verbiage “Don’t bite the hand that feeds you”!!!!

Rats are cute, nice to look at, make nice coats and need to be dead.  End of story.

With the Trellis line checked, we head back to the waiting truck and Bob is arriving at the same time.  We go to chat.

Bob has fallen into a deep spot on his trap line!!!!!  Not so deep as to get to his tracheotomy voice box thingy, but deep enough to fill both boots with mud and water and show clearly the depth of the water up on his chest…he ain’t real happy.  Since this is a family site, I can not tell you exactly how he told us about his ordeal at the spot he fell…I weren’t real pritty.

We B.S.ed a bit (we seem to do that a lot at this spot) and then went on our way.  Bob to go home and dry out and clean up and us up to Bull Run to catch more rats (we hope).

So now we have 4 rats in the bag and we arrive at Bull Run.  To my surprise Shipley never asked how it got it’s name, and I never told him.  We unloaded the toy and launched ourselves in the direction of “more rats”…four rats is not a bad days catch and I did not expect to catch but a few more.  On we went.

At the very first trap checking station (4 traps) one of them was missing.  OH NO!  A rat must have been caught in the trap…along came a raccoon…saw the rat…said…AH HA…grabbed it and the trap and the stake and took off.  We looked all around for 50 yards in all directions to no avail…nothing.  Lost trap, lost rat…I’m not a happy guy (not as unhappy as Bob at this point but still unhappy).  We continue down the line checking traps.  At one point Shipley has had about all he can stand with trapping and falls back into his “teacher” mode.  He is a professional teacher by trade and has taught children for umpteen years about English, Math, Science and Common Sense stuff.  I think his main goal is to expand his teaching to include lots of other forms of life.  Edjukateer is like Shipley in a lot of ways, only not as “civily taught”, Edjukateer don’t got no degrees, where Shipley has lots of degrees.

Shipley has been intrigued as he tries to show these rats the right and the wrong way to approach and get around a locked and loaded trap:

He is trying his best to show these rats the angles of the dangles in order to avoid being caught…..In my mind he has picked a select number of students who either don’t give a dang, or have gone somewhere else mentally for their education.

Shipley was fun to be with today..he even held a couple of rats up for the camera…OOOOOOOOOOO…SOOOOO GRROOOOOSSSSSEEEEEE!

No not really.  He is a trapper at heart, he just hasn’t had the opportunity to show his expertise!

So as one trapper to another, when you catch a bunch of fish or catch a bunch of whatever you are after and you are pretty happy about it, and suddenly you find yourself caught up  in the event…maybe even caught the bug of the sport…you find yourself “hooked” sort of on what you have been doing…you might as well join the ones you have hooked.

Thanks for joining me today Shipley…it was fun and I’m glad the rats decided to play as well.  We ended up with 16 in the bag, with 12 of them coming from the Bull Run line alone.  We lost two rats to raccoons today and one trap as well to them little buggers.  That bites into the profit margin for the day, but goes to show us all that even though we catch a few, there are always those that get away.

I’m taking tomorrow (Sunday) off to catch up on “sleep”, “chores”, “general stuff” and will be back at it on Monday…care to join me on Monday?

Lots of good plans for next week and if you look closely at the calendar (as quickly as the calendar rockets on), there isn’t much time left for us to trap.  I still have to finish my trapping on the Big Spring and Little Spring lines as well as Bull Run, before I head off to Club 41, Bull Arena and Johnson place….I love trapping, hate snow right now and PLEASE don’t stop me and make me plow snow.

Bears Butt

March 2, 2013

Yesterday was a rather overwhelming day in the field and let me explain why you did not see a P.M. report from me.  This is a combination report for yesterdays “on the trap line” and this mornings expectations.

My Grandson, Conner, accompanied me on the days trapping activities and while we were in progress driving out to the site, I showed him an older camera I have and asked him to learn how it worked.  I could explain a little as I drove and it didn’t take him long to figure it all out.  I told him he could take pictures of whatever he wanted and that there was really no limit to the recording disc.  He clicked on and on.

At the trap line we hit Little Spring and left the Big Spring line for today.  I needed about 45 minutes at the end of the day in order to get ready for a date Sherry and I had planned.  Later in the day I must admit, we needed every minute of that 45.

On Little Spring I have been trying to capture one little rat that has tripped my trap 3 different occasions and when this happens it becomes sort of an obsession on my part to do whatever it takes to make the capture.  This was one of those times, and yesterday that little bugger was held fast in the coni!  I was as happy to see it as was Conner.

Photo courtesy of Conner…..I went to great lengths to finally capture that rat.  I guess whatever it was I did, confused it enough to get it’s head in the wrong place at the wrong time.

It would not be right for me to write the story of yesterdays events without first inviting Conner to do the honors and then I would post it on here for you to read at 12 year olds view of an old man and a day of trapping.  I’ll see if he will do that.

In the meantime trust me when I say that the day was a beauty.  Nice weather, nice company, nice wildlife and all in all a very wonderful day.

We checked the traps on Little Spring and only caught the one rat.  The colony trap that was covered up the day before and that I moved a short distance had a plug in the one end.  I removed the plug but left the trap in place.  If it scores today or not, I will remove it and place it in a new line.  The rat or two left in that spot are too smart for me to spend any more time trying to catch them (it).

Over on the Trellis line we quickly headed to the West end where I have eight traps, we scored one down there.  As we proceeded East from the truck, Bob came driving up so we turned around to B.S. with him.  He was going to go check out an area up near the ranch owners home, the head water spring for a drainage that usually only holds a few rats and a ton of raccoons.  A place we try to avoid, but he is antsy to get some iron in the water and start to catch rats.  When we were done with the B.S.’n we went back to business.

With two rats in the bag I was feeling like we just might find as many as 10 rats by the end of the day.  But the Trellis line yielded up a total of seven rats!  That meant eight rats were in the bag.  Wow!

I gave Conner the option of eating lunch right there or heading over to Bull Run and continue to check traps…he opted for Bull Run.  I quickly loaded up the toy and headed over to that line.

As we started down that line I told him that the first 18 traps had been checked the day before and had good results and that they should only produce maybe 4 or 5 rats, but that the remaining 12 traps had only been set yesterday and they should have about a 50% yield.  What I have to say right now is something that has never happened in my life.  Those 30 traps yielded 16 rats!  For a total catch of the day of 24 rats!  Give it up for one heck of a day of trapping!  I think it was Conner luck that came through for us.

Back at home, Bob brought in one rat…total catch for the day of 25 rats!  A most excellent day.

After the checking and all the gear loaded up, Conner and I ate our lunch on the way back home.  It was running late and with 24 rats to skin my time was going to be very short.  We called the Weasel to come and help us, which he did, but Conner wanted to try his hand at skinning and so we dressed him up in the apron and rubber pants, handed him the knife and the Weasel explained the process and Conner ended up skinning two rats!  Great Job Conner!

We finished the job of skinning and hanging them to dry about 4:20…Just enough time to get a shower and cleaned up for our date….right on time.

As for today:  As we were finishing up the skinning job yesterday, Shipley called and said his fishing partner wasn’t feeling all that well and that if the invitation to go out on the trap line was still there he would like to go with me today.  Absolutely!  He will be here about 9 a.m.

My intent is to check the Big Spring line today and I have not decided if I should check the Little Spring line or not.  My tendency is not to check it as the line is made up of mostly conibears and the two leg holds have not had any rat activity in almost a week.  One of them has not had a rat at all since it was set.  I’ll decide out there whether to check the line or not.

The weather is supposed to be the nicest temperature day so far this calendar year with a high in the upper 40’s.  It was warm last night and so there should have been some rat movement.  If Big Spring kicks out a couple of rats, I’ll be forced to check Little Spring, which would not be a burden, I am just thinking about Shipley’s time.

My expected catch is NOT anywhere near yesterdays catch and I don’t even expect half that many.  Yesterday was an exception to all rules.  I hope to have a P.M. report today as Sherry and I don’t have any post trapping plans except to enjoy each other’s company when I’m done with it all.

Bob and I have 40 rats all dried and ready to flesh and stretch once we get through checking traps and skinning the days catch.  It will be an “after 5” day for us.  I don’t know how much of the “fur shed” activities Shipley is interested in, but maybe he will join us in seeing what goes on once the furs are caught.

Bears Butt

March 2, 2013

March one!  Hard to believe that February is gone.  Last night it did not get down to freezing and there was a lot of snow melt, I love that.  High for today is low 40’s and cloudy…more snow melt!

I heard there wasn’t any school today and so I asked if Conner would like to go with me on the trap line…he does!  So I’m excited to have him come along.  It will be a long day for him but I think he will have fun.  Departure time 9:30 and I have to be home as quickly as I can because Sherry and I have a date to be somewhere at 6…We might have to leave the rats for another day to skin but that will be determined by the number we catch.  I don’t expect a day like yesterday, but with the warm night I might be surprised.

Gotta get goin!

Bears Butt

March 1, 2013