Going into Peterson’s.

The weather today is supposed to be nice!  Highs in the mid 50’s and mostly sunny….different than yesterday and different then they are saying is coming our way tomorrow.  A perfect day to get some traps set.

My plan is to lay a little steel on Peterson’s in the small seep that Wapiti and I discovered last year.  There won’t be many rats in there, but any is better than none.  My goal at this time is to just catch the 3 I need to pay for the gas.

I’ll pull the remainder of the traps in the Bull Arena and prepare to hit Club 41 either this afternoon or tomorrow morning.  I was waiting for a call from Richard Nicholas informing me the neighbor was ok for me to move into his place, but I have not gotten that call…so I take that as either he didn’t get hold of him, or the neighbor didn’t want me in there…either way it’s ok, I have plenty of area to trap.

Bob on the other hand is probably going to get himself into trouble.  He is out of trapping areas and wants to move his traps from the interior of Pete’s to more productive areas and I don’t blame him one bit.  Checking “dead” traps in “dead” areas is not fun and he has a lot of traps in places just like that.  He should have moved them traps a week and a half ago, but he would not listen to me.

Speaking of listening to me, he mentioned taking some floats down to the Trellis and placing them in the pond areas down there.  I warned him NOT to drive his truck down the Trellis…first off the rats have undermined the road, secondly, the gravel that has been dumped in the washed out areas is soft and third, there is nowhere for him to turn around….it all points to getting stuck or worse…sliding into the water or off the embankment on the other side and rolling his truck.  Did he listen and heed my warning?

He also mentioned driving down toward the Goose Club and setting Big Spring….Again I cautioned him that the road to the Goose Club is a mess…always…this time of year and with yesterdays rain he would get stuck big time.  He could drive a little ways as long as he stopped before crossing the stream.  At least going that far would get him closer to the trapping area and he could at least have a “chance” to get turned around to drive out.  Again, did he listen to me?

While we are talking about Bob.  He has a tough time in his old age (75) crossing barbed wire fences and he puts himself into some “sticky” situations.  Well, in this case he has a float that he placed early last Fall “across the fence” and now that it is thawed out he needs to check it daily and put bait on it.

Last week, while in the skinning shed, I suggested he use the pieces of “swimming noodles” that I had cut for my really cool floating colony trap, that didn’t work.  We cut slits in them lengthwise and I said to put them over the barbed wire and cross using them to protect him from snagging up and tearing his boots.  He had a third one that a plumber had left after some plumbing work he had done recently.  So with those three pieces of foam stuff, he created a really cool fence crossing:

Now this is a case of “Using Your Noodle”!!!!  (put smiley face here)

What can I expect today?

7 rats on Peterson’s….no rats in Bull Arena….no raccoons or skunks.

Bears Butt

March 5, 2014

P.M. REPORT

Time went really fast today…I managed to get a few more traps set in Peterson’s to finish off the line there, but don’t expect to leave the traps there more than just over night…It’s time to move on!

After pulling the traps in the Arena, there was not enough time to set any traps on Club 41, so I decided to go to Logan and pick up my new computer.  Weasel gladly joined me.

I was surprised to only catch 5 rats on Peterson’s, but more surprised to catch one in the Bull Arena and even more surprised to catch one in Doris’ pond!  For a total catch of 7 rats.

Back home Bob came in with 11 rats!  Weasels luck it way down and he had nothing.

So an 18 rat day!  We will take it!

Bears Butt