After a much needed day off from the trap line, I have restocked my anise-carrots, gassed the toy, filled up the crank case with oil and am ready for another full week of “stuff”.  Let’s look at this weeks schedule:

Monday: Trapping, Shed Duties (you should know what that means by now, as there is a whole lot more to trapping than setting and checking traps), Archery.

Tuesday: Trapping, Shed Duties, Other Duties as Assigned (yet to hear about these ones, they usually come with little or no notice).

Wednesday:  Trapping, Shed Duties, Archery (Last lesson, will probably end with a test that I can’t pass).

Thursday:  Trapping, Shed Duties.  (Hey!  What’s going on?  Is this a free day?)

Friday:  Trapping, Shed Duties, Help with the set up of the 3D archery range in Tremonton.  (I have not a clue as to what to expect with this one but I know they have a lot of work to do and a short window in which to do it and I want to help where I can).

Saturday:  3D tournament begins in Tremonton.  I want to play in it as well as help out where I can.

Sunday:  3D tournament ends, again, I want to play and help out.  After the event is completed, there will be take down duties.  Will these duties extend into the wee hours of Monday?  I’m not sure, but want to help where I can.

SOOOOO, it looks like the week begins slowly and ends in a flurry of activities that don’t necessarily include trapping.  With this, and my need to be moving traps from Fish Spring to the Big Spring out West, I’m sort of at odds with everything and my stress level is sort of high right now.  Do I begin moving traps today?  Do I just plan on pulling a few traps each day this week until Fish Springs is completely pulled and plan to set traps early next week?  I need to keep traps on the Trellis line until they just completely quit producing rats, so no moving them yet.  If I set traps out on Big Spring, than means a second stop to check traps and every stop means more time spent out on the line.  More time out on the line means a later time getting home for shed duties, and later shed duty means longer hours, longer hours means less time available for archery.  I have to laugh right now. 🙂 (Hey Weasel, are there smiley faces available for this web site?)

As my friend Muskrat always said:  “I’ll decide”!

Expected catch for today?  The weather has been cold, snowy and windy the last couple of days and nights.  I caught 13 on Saturday, which was a pretty good day.  Took yesterday off and so I’ll have two nights of catch waiting for me today.  The lines are starting to show signs of limited rats in the areas where they are set.  All of that leads me to believe I will catch less than 20 but should catch more than 10.  I’ll extend my hopes to the mid point and say 15 rats today.

Bears Butt

February 23, 2015

UPDATE:

COOOOLLLLLDDDDD and WINDY!

Ice everywhere!  All traps covered in at least 1/2 inch of ice, all rats under or in the ice.  That means they got caught before it froze.  I had to break every trap out of the ice today and ended up with 10 rats and 4 other traps set off with nothing in them.  I’ll take 10 rats any day when it’s that cold out there.  Also caught a big old colorful coon!

I needed the bait and so I sat down and skinned all 10 rats and used their carcasses in the coon traps.  They will be hungry when things warm up.

Bob had 4 rats when I stopped along the highway and talked to him.  He was almost finished checking his line and he didn’t think he would catch any more rats.

LATER:  Bob ended up with 5 rats today!

Butt