Today marks the end of the trapping season for 2015.  Bob and I will be pulling all our traps and then we have shed work to finish up with.  100 rats lay in wait for fleshing and stretching.  Today I also get the pleasure of meeting someone I’ve been providing carcasses to for the last couple of months.  This guy owns Bones N Beasts Taxidermy and uses the carcasses to keep his flesh eating beetles alive (enter nightmares about that).  He sent me a picture of one of his beetle colonies…..

I’m sure they are in a place that they could do no harm should they escape, but in my dreams they can and do get out in large numbers and roam the house looking for sleeping members to devour.  He hasn’t counted his beetles and so his guesstimate is several thousand….creepy.

So, this morning I’ll head out to Doris’ pond and pull the 5 traps I set yesterday, I don’t expect to catch any rats out there.  Then on in closer to pull the remaining 57 traps.  It is sort of a sad day in one way, but on another note I won’t be spending gas money and wear and tear on the vehicle(s) chasing rats that don’t exist.

More to come on the daily happenings when I get back!

Bears Butt

March 13, 2015    (Friday the 13th)

UPDATE:

Well the trapping season is officially over….I ended up with one rat (a run of one) and Bob ended with 5 rats.  Not bad for the season.  And with Weasels rats from the farm pond of 5, a total of 515 rats for the season!

We would like to thank our sponsors…..uhhhh….

Well, we would like to have sponsors like, Victor traps, Conibear traps, Chevron Gas, Chevrolet, Yamaha ATV, Toyota, Bobs Floats, Willow stakes, Water Proof boots, Gauntlet gloves, Sharp knives, Mak’em good stretchers, Shed warm heaters and humidifiers, Olympia and Keystone brewers and a host of other sponsors.  You too could join the team…just send cash, check or money orders to……please respond in the comments below and I’ll get back with you!  Any amount will be gladly accepted and remember….It ain’t tax deferred.

Thanks for following the 2015 trapping stories!  Watch out for next years events…God Willing!

Bears Butt

Well today marked day two of no rats on my big line.  In fact I caught ZERO rats today and no traps were set off.  The season is over.  I went over to Doris’ pond and they have done a whole heap of work around the pond.  Widened the bank where the dam is, put in a very large drain pipe.  Dug out the pond nearly 3/4 the way around it and it looked like they used a hydro unit to do the digging as it is very deep.  They also raised the level of the water at least a foot.  The toolies that are on one end of the pond have water about a third of the way up on the stocks.  I’m sure when they raised the water level it would have drowned any rats living in the bank, or at least caused them to move out.  There was no sign anywhere, but I did set 5 traps, just so they can see I tried.

I don’t expect to catch any rats there and am planning on pulling the 5 traps tomorrow right along with the rest of my traps.

Pete closed the gate on my raccoon line area up on Bull Run which forced me to park on the side of the highway and open the gate.  It is not an easy gate to deal with.  That was all I needed to encourage me to pull all the raccoon traps.

So, it looks like the 2015 rat trapping season is over.  I stopped along the highway and talked to Bob, he had 5 rats and was feeling good!  He too is ready to call it a season.

Bears Butt

March 12, 2015

It’s been a day or two since I’ve posted a trapping update.  Yesterday was Tracker and my day to head out to the trapline for a couple of reasons.  One was the Orbiter Rocket Motor test firing and the other was to check my traps that are out that way.  We were in quite a traffic jam for about a half hour as hundreds of people were going to see the test firing of the rocket motor.  I hadn’t thought of that aspect of things.  Had I put my thinking cap on I would have gone at least a half hour before we actually did.  As it were, we made it but with no time to spare.  We were set up to watch from our position when the announcer said “T Minus 3 minutes”!  That is how close we were to missing it.

Well, we did get to see and feel it and it was a very big deal.  Lots of noise!  Lots of fire!  Lots of rumbling of the ground!  Very cool experience AND if I can ever get my video to publish on You Tube, I’ll be sending you there on this site.  But it hasn’t happened yet.

Back to trapping!

Tracker took quite a few short video clips while I checked my traps and I ended up with two rats for the day.  No coons or skunks.  However, they did manage to knock over one of my dog proof traps and covered the entire thing in mud.  Do you think they know what it is?

Meanwhile, Bob came out and checked his traps after the crowd had left the rocket motor test site and he managed to catch 4 rats….3 from a colony trap he had set the day before.

Today I’m heading out to Doris’ place to set her pond and hopefully I’ll run into Richard and make arrangements to set his slough.  He has to remove his bulls however before I’ll step foot in there.  If it’s anything like last year it should be good for about 50 rats.

After setting Doris’ pond I’ll come back to the Big Spring line and pull it.  Two rats is not worth the trouble.

If I catch two today it will be a bonus catch, in my opinion.

Bears Butt

March 12, 2015

This Daylight Savings Time stuff has really got me out of whack!  Couple it with a scratchy throat and little sleep and it will take me awhile to catch up with everything going on.

Yesterday on the trap line was a very warm one!  Over 60 degrees!  And the rats were somewhat cooperative.  I ended up with 15, but one was a small one we didn’t skin.  And Bob netted 12 on his line!!!!  That was a very good catch!

My rats seem to be a pretty good mix of males and females, but his were mostly males and they are definitely running!  Nature has a special way of telling the critters when it is time to do what and I guess even though the weather has been unseasonably warm, the rats have got it all figured out.  Here we are at the end of our season and they decide it is time to do their thing.  We will take advantage of them while we can and as long as the fur isn’t slipping we will load up.

Tomorrow will be an interesting day out on the line.  Tracker is going to accompany me in order to video the testing of the latest Orbitor rocket boosters.  The plan is to stack all five of the booster rocket motors on top of each other, (parallel) and blast them all off at the same time!  Can you imagine the noise?!?  Over 1.3 million pounds of solid rocket fuel will be consumed in less than 2 minutes!!!  We are in for a real treat and I hope to video it myself and post it up on here.  The Orbitor is the newest rocket that is planned to take people to Mars eventually.

I’m running late right now and have to cut this short, but my expected catch today is 8 rats.  The run effects Bob’s trap lines more than it does mine.  Why?  My lines are pretty well self contained, while his line gets rats commuting from one area to the next.  His line is in an area that connects two different waterfowl management units.  Remember when you were in high school and it wasn’t really too cool to date the girls or boys from your school, but it was way cool to date the ones from the rival school?  Well it works the same with rats.  Those in the Salt Creek waterfowl management area like to date the rats in the Public Shooting Grounds WMA and vise versa.  When they meet up in the crossing zone they battle and cause damage to their pelts.  It’s just the same as high school.

Gotta Go!

Bears Butt

March 10, 2015

UPDATE:

I guess the rat Gods are telling me the season is over.  Yesterday I caught 14 keepers and 1 small toss out rat….today….ONE!  And a coon.

My Granddaughters are really quite entertaining.  Yesterday while just beginning to take care of the catch of the day, in walked in Kenzie and Addie, both with a desire to help with the skinning job.  OK!  Let’s do this!  Kenzie, as we have noted previously has had her hands in the dirty work and did very well at skinning a couple of muskrats and so it was just a matter of getting her dressing in her skinning outfit.  We have to protect the kids from getting anything on their clothes or hands.  So, we dress them well with rubber pants, aprons, gloves and whatever else we need to take care of this.  The one thing we never want to have happen is for them to get cut in the process.  Knife safety is number one.  Secondly, no blood or other stuff is to get on any clothing.  For a mother to come unglued about them skinning rats would not be a pretty sight.

So, back to the scene.  In they walk with the confidence and desire of true sportswomen!  We want to help!

When they got the “OK”, Addie just had to go home and get her own knife!  While she was gone we got Kenzie dressed up with rubber pants to cover her legs, an apron to cover her upper body and rubber gloves for her hands and wrists.  She grabbed a rat and a knife and began without much hesitation.  I looked down at her shoes and because they looked like they could be brand new, I decided she needed something over them.  She agreed.  Looking around the shed, I grabbed the only thing that looked like it might do the trick.

Perfect!

And now you are probably asking just what in the heck are those blue things?

Well, at least they worked.

Addie arrived about that time and showed me her knife.  A really nice knife, but it is the kind used in the woods as an all purpose knife and not a good one for a beginning skinner.  So she put that one away and I gave her another one.

In the shed we have a limited supply of clothing coverings for young skinners and I had to make do to cover Addie adequately.  She donned a rubber apron which more than covered her tiny frame and then I put a burlap bag over her shoes.  Add the rubber gloves and she was ready to go to work.  I told her right at the beginning that if at any time she felt like her stomach couldn’t handle the job, it was ok to put the rat down and leave the room.  She said she would and then began the task.

I instructed her on every cut and move and she did fine all the way through the process.  Never grimacing at a torn belly or anything.

And as the fur came off the body of the rat, it wasn’t long until the job was done!  She did very well for her first ever skinning job…nice ears, nice eyes, nose and whiskers….all in tact!

Now let’s turn it fur side out and put it on the drying rack!

I suppose some folks would consider me a terrible person for allowing these young girls to skin muskrats.  But the way I look at it, they can never in their lifetimes say they have never skinned a muskrat and among their fellow peers they are probably the only ones to have even had the opportunity, yet alone tackled the job.  I look at it as a very good life lesson and it sure as heck beats playing on a Nintendo or Nook.  Besides, they both earned 50 cents for each rat they skinned.  Kenzie skinned two while Addie was learning the job.

Good job girls!  May there be many more!

Bears Butt

March 8, 2015

These dog proof (DP) traps are the latest craze among raccoon trappers these days.  They have a lot of benefit in only capturing the targeted animal and no domestic animals get caught in them.  With me, nothing gets caught in them.

I have followed all the instructions I have been given and even placed a walnut on top and in the hole to prevent the rodents from getting in and eating the bait before the raccoons come along. Yesterday I checked the traps, fully expecting to find at least one raccoon in one of the traps….nothing.  At the first DP trap, the walnut was gone….all the bait was eaten and nothing in the trap.  DP number 2….same thing.  DP number 3 the walnut was laying next to the trap and all bait was gone.

Had I been the one to invent this “piece of equipment” (saying it lightly), I would be taking it out of the field and replacing it with a good old leg hold trap.  But, I am not the one who invented it and I will continue to employ it in my arsenal and continue to catch the very critter(s) who stole about 25 rats from me this season.

Today is sort of a day of relaxation on the line.  I set all the traps I have places for out on Big Spring yesterday and today is just a “check them” day.  I actually got to sleep in a whole hour longer than usual.  I will lazily finish my tasks at home before heading out to the trap line.  A wonderful day is expected weather wise with a high near 60!  Clear blue skies and no wind.  A very good day to be outside enjoying nature.

Expected catch today is 15 rats.  Raccoons will come when ever they decide.  I’m giving up predicting catching them.

Bears Butt

March 6, 2015

UPDATE:

Regardless of my in-ability to catch coons with dog proof traps, Bob gave me the three he was using and I set them as well.  I’ve taken the walnuts and pressed them down into the tube of the trap in hopes of keeping the rodents from getting to the bait.  If a coon comes along they will work it until they get it off.  We will see.

A beautiful day out in the swamp today.  Lots and lots of wildlife, mostly waterfowl.  Snow Geese, Dark Geese, Swans, Ducks of every kind.  Eagles, Hawks….they are all out there.  Pretty cool place.

Rats….Me 13, Bob 3.  A match to yesterdays catch!  We will take it!

Butt