A.M. March 20, 2012

This month is cruising!  And today I am cruising!  Lots to do and little time to do it.

Hitting Petersons property first thing this morning.  My plan is to get it “set” no matter how long it takes.  I have plenty of traps for the job and all day if need be.

Last year I set 81 traps over two days and that was an overkill for the area needing to be trapped.  I did manage to capture 35 rats in 3 days however.  And this is about all the time I have to trap it this year.

I think 60 traps should do it this year and in that arsenal I have two colony traps available.  I think there are places I can use those two traps out there and they lessen the total number of traps needed to capture the little critters, as each is capable of up to six rats p/day.  Not that they always catch that many, it’s just that six can fit inside each trap should they come thundering along the trail and pack into it.

The days goal also has me checking the traps I set yesterday at Doris’ and if there is enough daylight left, I’ll check all the traps on Club 41 and pull a few of the ones that have not captured any rats lately.

A hefty goal for one day.

Expected catch:  22 rats.

Bears Butt

P.M. Report

When I went to head out, I had a very low tire on the trailer…boooooo.  I puffed it up and waited 10 minutes and then checked the pressure….it was down 6 pounds!  BOOOOO!  So, I headed to Les Swab to have it fixed.

Arriving there they jumped right on it and pulled the tire.  Dunked it in a tank of water and held it down for about a minute.  Could not see any bubbles and therefore, put it back on the trailer and filled it with air (40 pounds).  No charge and out the door I went.

Arriving at Petersons about 10 a.m.  What a beautiful morning it was too.  A bit chilly and some thin ice on the water, but the makings of a great day.

There was quite a bit of rat sign and I went to setting traps as quickly as I usually do…slow…By the end of the line, which is a very long loop, I had set 54 traps and the sun was getting low in the sky.  I knew there would be no way I would get my traps checked on Club 41….oh well.

I worked my way back to Doris’ pond and ran into a ranch worker.  He said he had seen a rat in one of the ditches and he took me over and showed me the place.  I grabbed 7 traps off the toy and walked into the ditch.  It did not take long to find 5 bank holes, which I promptly covered with iron.

Then on to check the 16 traps I set yesterday.  I am always hoping to catch a rat in each trap, but reality says somewhere between 25 and 50 percent is usual and so it went.  I caught 7 rats.  BIG HAIRY LEGGED RATS I MIGHT ADD!!  I’m pretty sure one of them will stretch to 18 inches.  We will see tomorrow.

Needless to say, I did not leave Doris’ pond until nearly 5 p.m. and my butt was kicked.

Before leaving Doris’ I checked the air pressure in the tire…23 pounds…boooo.

Back home, I loaded the 7 rats into Bob’s fridge, right next to the milk and then backed the trailer into my garage and changed the tire.  I don’t have time to mess with not getting an early start tomorrow.  I decided to put the tire I took off the trailer on as a spare.  So I puffed it up to 40 pounds.  Then just because, I checked the tightness of the valve stem…I was able to turn it one full turn!  HMMMMMM.  Was that all there was wrong?  I hope so.  I will check it tomorrow before I leave.  But, even if it is low, I’m still heading out as early as I can.

So, my count was down, because I did not get over to Club 41 to check and pull some of those traps.  Life is touch sometimes.  The rats that I would have counted in todays catch will be there tomorrow for tomorrows count.  I expect a very large catch tomorrow.  I will dream well tonight.

Oh, Bob once again kicked my butt with rat catch…11 for him today!  He was a happy guy when he told me.  I am glad for him and for us, an 18 rat day is OK for us.  By the way, we are now 8 rats short of having 600!  And still three more days to trap.  Bob has four days left to trap and five if he wants.  Me?  I want to be done on Friday.

Bears Butt

A.M. March 19, 2012

The last full week of rat trapping has come!  Big plans for this week are in the mill and I’m ready for it!

Weather today is unsettled, highs in the 40’s, chance of rain/snow today, tonight and into tomorrow morning.  Some winds.

Yesterday was a day off from the trapping as you all know and so with the winds, snow, rain and down right ugly weather, what do you suppose the rats did out in the swamps?

They sat in their comfy little environs and watched KRAT T.V. and listened to RAT104.5 Country on the radio.  The more brave of heart might have ventured out to find a common meeting hovel and those are the ones most likely to find themselves faced with “do I enter that den and take my chances”?  Or “do I turn my skinny little tail around and head back home to my little ones”?

Those questions are asked daily even in our human lives.  What would you do?

And so, how many of those that left the safety and comfort of their own dens will I have captured in my cold steel traps?  The Brave of Heart, who chose to enter the den to find…whatever…and ended with their head firmly held in the jaws of death.  88 traps await those Brave of Heart, and they had two full nights of decision making moon glow at a time when mating seems to be what is on every juvenile and adult rats mind in the swamp.  Would rain and snow and sleet and hail and high winds keep them in the safety of their little dens?

I say 20 chose to venture out and take their chances with the rat police and the scolding of their long time winter mates back at the den.  With older male rats taking the lead, followed by their adult females trying to catch up with them before they make that final “plunge” into the den of inequity.

It will be a “dress for very cold and wet” day in the marsh!

Goal:  Check the 88 traps on Club 41 and then over  Doris’ Pond and set as many traps as can be reasonably set to catch the expected 10 to 15 rats that harbor in that area.

Check back later for the results of today’s activities in the swamp lands!

Bears Butt

P.M. Report

It was ice breaking cold out on the line this morning, but it soon warmed up to a comfy…say…40 by 11 a.m.  The added water raised the level of the lakes about 6 inches and so all of my traps were that much deeper than usual.  I had to search for each of them and it was a pleasant surprise when I pulled up on the chain it had a rat in it.  Most of them were empty.

Resetting the traps to accommodate the additional water took quite awhile.

I pulled 16 traps around Club 41 in hopes of setting that many at Doris’ pond, which I managed to get done.  I called the next person, Mr. Peterson, and he is all excited to think I would come back to his place and catch more rats.  I will do that “first thing” in the morning.

Rat count…Me 14.  Bob is still out, but when he gets in I’ll post his catch right on this line ____18_______!

March 17, 2012

Top ‘O the mornin to ya!  Happy Saint Patricks Day to everyone!

This is a farm work Saturday and so the trapping will be this afternoon.  And it will be a quick as we can check of traps and get back home.

Weather is calling for high winds all day.  Sustained winds at 35 with gusts to 60 mph.  Possibility of low visibility due to blowing dust and of course out where we are trapping; blowing tumble weeds.

It blew all night so my expected catch is 15 today.

Gotta Go!  Some of the fellas are starting to arrive for coffee and donuts!

Bears Butt

Finished up with the farm work right at noon.  Cut up a couple bags of carrots for bait and headed out.  Arrived at the parking place just at 1 p.m.  Got my gear on, loaded the toy and saw Bob just about to one of the internal gates.  Fired up the toy and went as fast as I could to open the gate for him.  We talked for a few minutes, he had finished checking his Club 41 line and had 5 rats.  Much happier than he was the day before with only two rats.  He still had 70 some traps yet to check on his way up the highway.

I jumped on the toy and headed off to check traps as fast as I could.  I figured it would start raining soon and I wanted to get all the traps checked before that, if I could.  No dust settled under my feet as I went about my lines.  “Stop, hop and jump back on” was the motto of the day.  Of course there was always a little celebration at the set when I caught a rat.

I’ll try and describe it:  Upon seeing a rat in the trap, a fist is made with the right hand, then it is brought up to a point even with the elbow, and then is shoved outward and across the body, stopping just before passing the left side of the torso….and of course a “yes”!  is verbalized out loud.

Can anyone else have as much fun as me?

As I progressed around the lines (plural, as I have three distinct lines) in my rapid fashion, I could not help but notice the weather changing.  The wind was blowing like 90, dust was everywhere and when I drove into the wind I had to turn my baseball cap around backwards to keep it from flying off.  I thought of myself as “Little Riding Butt from the Hood”.

With the burlap sack at my back, I noticed it beginning to press hard against me as I proceeded.  The storm was coming and sprinkles were hitting me.  I stopped long enough to cover my camera with a plastic bag, and to put on my rain jacket.  Off I went in a huff and a puff, down the trail to the next set.  Round and round and up and down until I found myself suddenly back at the truck.  The wind was howling by then.  Dust was an issue big time and my eyes were filled with grit.  I thought to myself (of course who else would I think to?) It is so dusty I would not even open a can of beer unless I was inside.  It would fill with dust so quickly, you would end up drinking mud.

Quickly undoing all that I had done earlier in preparation for the trap checking, and loading the toy in the trailer, the last thing I did was count the rats in the bag.  I dumped them on the ground and then began putting them back in the bag and counting aloud…one…two…three…four…five…You know the drill….toward the end it went like this…twelve…thirteen..fourteen and a toe nail!

I only had two set off traps and one of them held firmly a toe nail from a rat.

14 rats!  One short of my expected goal.  Loaded up everything, battened down the hatches and headed for home.  I beat the rain storm.  Dust was a whole nuther matter.

Since Brek will not be here to skin these rats until tomorrow, Bob and I put our catches in a refrigerator he has.  His bag of rats was already in the fridge when I put mine in and so I went in and ask him how many he caught.  He said………………………………………………………….14!

A great day of trapping if I do say so myself!

I pulled one of my colony traps as a rat evidently got inside and decided he did not want to perish in that environment and so it TRASHED one of the doors.  I traded it for another trap and brought it back to fix the door.  I have a place for it later.  It’s dangerous out there on the trap line.  Large rats waiting to jump out at the unwary trapper in an instant.  Ripping up heavy gauge wire traps with their vicious teeth and claws.  Breaking chains from the trap stake and chewing off the stakes that anchor the trap in place.

Tomorrow is Sunday and a day off from the trap line.  I have gassed the rigs, checked the oil and am ready for an early start on Monday.  I have goals and will tell them to you on Monday morning.

In the mean time I hope you are all enjoying the St. Patricks day evening with a cold brew of green, perhaps some corned beef and cabbage and above all else are safe and sound and in good health!

Bears Butt P.M. report

A.M. March 16, 2012

As the trapping season is coming to a close for Bob and I, I thought this mornings report should reflect on some of the things that we encounter while out in the field.  These things don’t happen everyday of course, but you never know what to expect around the next bend or over the next hill.

As with anything dealing with water, anything can happen…just like my spill at the beaver dam a couple of weeks ago.  Bob has a special care he needs to be constantly aware of, his tracheotomy tube.  One dunk over the top of that and his will drown.  So he is extra careful while trapping and tries his best to hit the shallower areas.  One thing I have to say about him is he is just like the EverReady Bunny…he just keeps on going.  Here is a picture of him walking out of a swamp with a sack of rats on his back.

Notice his left hand is in a blue colored rubber glove.  He ran a phragmitie stick through it and has to keep it covered with a waterproof bandage and needs to take special care to soak it every day to keep the infections out.  At the time of this picture he could only use his left hand to pull up the pan of leg hold sets.  Other than that he could not use his hand for anything.

Other things we encounter is the wild life.  Daily we will see the birds.  Hawks, Owls, Eagles, Geese, Ducks, Killdeer, Sandhill Cranes, to name a few,  and the assorted smaller song birds.  All of the birds have their individual character that really spices up the sounds we hear in the swamps.

I had a chance to go Snow Goose hunting a few weeks ago, but they had not migrated down in sufficient numbers at that time and the hunt was cancelled.  Now that the hunt for 2012 has ended, I got to see what a Gaggle of Snow Geese really looks like and I took a few minutes out of the trapline to go and check them out a bit closer.  They sure are a raucous bunch when you get this many together at one time.  It reminded me of rendezvous.

We see other signs of animals as well while out and about.  Tracks mostly.  Coyote, Fox, Weasel, Mink, Rabbit and surprisingly enough on rare occasion a Bobcat or even a Mountain lion.

It’s all part of the adventure and fun to play in their yards.

Well, as for today:  After taking yesterday off, I have decided I have enough traps out on Club 41 for this year.  Bob had his floats and 17 traps out as of the day before yesterday and I suspect he set a few more yesterday.  He may have even run into a couple I set where he should be trapping.  My next setting of traps will be at Doris’ pond and over to Steve Petersons place, next week.

I expect 20 rats today.  And with a forecast of winds tomorrow that are expected to be sustained at 40 mph and gusting to over 60 mph, my new idea will really get the test out in the swamps.

Until later!

Bears Butt

P.M. Report

Sorry it’s so late, but again my butt is kicked.  One would think they would get used to it, but maybe it’s my age…kicked is an understatment.

It was a pleasant day out in the field today.  Not so windy that it was disturbing, not hot at all and actually a pretty nice day.  One to reflect on what was around you most of the day.

I met one of the cattle owners who shares the lease on the club property and talked for some time with him.  I am not one for remembering peoples names and so I can’t tell you who he is, but he lives in Perry and is a good friend of one of my friends.  Anyway, he didn’t have much of any idea about trapping and so I showed him some of the traps and how they worked etc.  He was appreciative of the lessons.  I told him I was hoping for a 20 rat day.  The next time I saw him I told him I had caught 15 rats and was less than half way through my line.  He was impressed.  I was a grinny faced happy trapper.

To say the least I was having myself one very fun day of trapping.  Good weather, lots of rats, few traps set off with nothing in them….life was/is good.  Then here I came upon a trap that should have had a rat in it!  I had to take a picture of it just for your viewing pleasure.

It’s hard to see, but the pan is pressed downward as far as it could go…what stopped it?  A piece of carrot that I use for bait!  WAHHHH!  That would have been another rat in the bag!  Notice his “droppings” in the forground.  OOOOOOOOO.

Carrots are good bait.  But from now on I am chopping them up finer.

I pulled 7 traps that have NEVER in three years of trapping this place, ever caught any rats….a place I call Dead Pond…. There isn’t any sense driving 1/4 mile out of my way just to check traps that never have any thing in them.  The place looks “ratty”, but there have never been any rats caught there in the 3 years I have been trapping it.  In future years you won’t see me setting any traps there…are you listening rats…I will never set any traps there.  (maybe they will move into there and I’ll catch them next year…hehehehehe).

I gave up 2 trap sets to Bob, as he saw them today and is welcome to entertain them while we are on this place.  Scratch them from my line and add them to his.  I hope he remembers tomorrow.

I called Doris and she is excited to think I am coming to catch the rats at her pond.  And she happened to be at Steves place when I talked to her and he is happy I will be trapping his place as well.  I told her that Tuesday was the day I will set both places.

Life certainly is good is it not?

Bob had a good day yesterday…he caught 12 rats!  While I was off playing.

Today, he caught 11!  Good day for him, but he is not happy about Club 41.  He thinks he needs a boat and lots of floats to adequately set his area of the club.   I agree.

Bottom line for me today 31.  A great day in any trappers book.

And as for skinner Brek, he had the 54 rats Bob and I caught the last two days, but also one rat that brother Rick tossed into the mix from trying to catch the Beaver down at Willow Creek.  Thanks Rick…I owe you a beer!

Bears Butt

We had two days of trapping to take care of last night.  A total of 50 rats needed to be skinned, fleshed and stretched.  We worked until nearly 8 and boy was I tired.  I’m the flesher, and I have to bend over the fleshing board to get my job done…believe me 50 rats is a lot of rats.

Brek has been our skinner this year and he seems to love the job…or maybe it’s the pay…I’m not sure.  He does an excellent job and is VERY fast as skinning.  I think he averages around 40 seconds to skin a rat.  And the skinning job is perfect!  I can tell you this about his skinning, I can start a fleshing job, Bob can start a stretching job and Brek can start a skinning job; all three begin at the same time…Brek will be on rat number two before Bob and I are done with our tasks on our rats one.

Here is a picture of Skinner man himself, holding 3 rats.  Is he trying to make his teeth look “buckie”?

If you have never seen a pile of 50 rats, take a look at this.  My camera can only get so much of the pile, so trust me the pile is big.

Well, I’m taking the day off from trapping and we are going down to SLC to see the International Sportsman’s Show.  Taking Front Runner and Trax to get there.  Winemaker, me, Weasel and Hot Spark are all going.  Maybe we will run into something fun!

Bears Butt

March 15, 2012

WOAHHH!!!  Do you see the date on this posting?  What does it tell you?  Hint.  Julius Caesar.  “Et To, Brutae”!  “Beware the Ides of March”!

A.M. March 14, 2012

Another early rising day.  Lots to do today.

Bob is planning on making it to Club 41 and I told him to use the day as mostly a “reconnoiter” day.  Drive through the club, look around, set a trap or two, mostly set floats.  I said I would be zipping back and forth around the club property and would run into him somewhere along the way.

At the end of the main road through the club is a turn around that I call the culdesack.  All the water the flows through the club eventually ends up at this point and it really flows hard over a dam they have built to help back it up.  He could put all the floats he has right there and probably fill them up daily.  He will decide.

My goal is to set another 30 to 40 traps today.  With my past experience it will be difficult to set that many because there just isn’t the rat population one would expect on the remainder of the club.  I also plan on visiting an interesting looking area I saw on a Google Map.  It looks like it could hold a few rats, but then it might not even be a swamp.

Expected rat count for today:  20.

Gottago!

Bears Butt

A beautiful day in the swamp!  Very comfy.

Bob did make it today and he was pretty excited.  I think he put out about 17 traps, but not sure.  We split up and I never saw him again until we got home.

I set another 22 traps and am at the end for Club 41 with about 97 traps.  I will set Doris’ pond and Steve Petersons next week and then the season will be over.

Catch today…20!  With 9 set off!  I can’t understand those.  Anyone give me hints on how to keep that from happening?

Bob caught 9 rats and had a bunch of set offs with either feet in them or nothing.

Over all a good day.  I have some pictures to post up, but not tonight.  My rear is kicked!

Bears Butt

A.M. March 13, 2012

Nasty wind all night and is expected to increase in intensity today even up to 30 mph….grab your trap flags fellas!  Tighten down the bilge ropes and hang onto your hats!

Bob is going to set his first trap on Club 41 today.  WOOPPEEEE!!!  I hope to set another 50 or so and then up to Big Spring to pull the remainder of traps up there.  It’s going to be another butt kicker of a day today.

Expected rat catch: 20 for me, 10 for Bob.

Bears Butt

P.M. Report

A windy but warm day on the trap line.

Bob got a phragmiti stick poked into the base of his thumb and between his thumb and first finger about two weeks ago.  It has been giving him fits lately by swelling up and hurting real bad.  He has been soaking it in Epsom Salts every night for at least a week.  Well today, he had signs of blood poisoning traveling up his arm above his wrist.  He had to go to the doc.  No trapping for him today.  The doc lanced it to relieve the pressure and get some of the infection out.  Tried to find any slivers, but found nothing.  Then sewed him back together.

In order for him to go trapping tomorrow, he has to soak it in Epsom Salts for an extended time tonight and then in the morning he will have to put on a waterproof bandage and wear rubber gloves.  He should be alright to set traps because it was his left hand that got injured.

I was able to pull all the remaining traps out of Big Spring and only caught one rat and one kit out of all those traps.  It’s a good thing I’m leaving that area, as it is dead.

I set 22 more traps on Club 41, but most of them are not what I call “good sets”.  But as they say, a trap in the truck ain’t gonna catch nuttin.  So I now have 66 traps out.  Tomorrow I’ll set more.

Todays catch 21 rats!  Toss in the one kit and 3 other set off traps and it was a pretty good day in the field.

My butt is once again “kicked”.

Bears Butt

A.M. March 12, 2012

Daylight Saving Time has me in a fog this morning.  Last nights sleep was nearly non-existent and today will be a fun day.

Setting traps on Club 41 is the priority of all priorities.  I picked up the key to the clubs main gate on Saturday (Thanks Matt).

Bob has chosen to sleep in today and only check his road line.  He will enter Club 41 tomorrow.

Today my goal is to set as many traps as I can and still check the Big Spring line.  I plan on pulling the top half of the Big Spring line today as well.  And then tomorrow, set more traps on 41 and pull the rest of Big Spring.

A hefty goal for today…it’s 8:30 and I better get a move on!

Later folks!

Bears Butt

P.M.

Who’s butt is kicked is mine!  Bob’s too.

I managed to set 44 traps on Club 41 and then move over to Big Spring and pull 43 traps.  I checked the line from the far end to the near end and pulled the near end traps.  Tomorrow I hope to get the far end pulled and then we will be completely out of Petes place.

Bob is a happy guy today, having kicked my rat catch by double!  He caught 14, I caught 7.

The thing about my line was I also caught two more kit rats, two field mice, a bird and had 5 other traps set off with nothing in them.  Including these:

Little Pond, one set off trap and one rat!  Big Pond, nothing.  Stein pond, one trap set off, no rats.

All three set ponds have been pulled for this year.

With daylight saving time, my day ended at 7:10 tonight.  We put up 48 rats after trapping all day.  I lost weight today for sure.

Bob is excited to finally get to set some iron on Club 41.  I showed him on a Google map I produced where my traps are set and he will begin his sets at the other end of the club and work toward the middle.  We will have a better strategy tomorrow, but my plan right now is to cover all the peripheral areas and let him cover the ones close to the main road through the middle of the club.  He will have plenty of areas to put traps and I will zip back and forth across the road and cover the outer edges and some places I have always wanted to explorer but never had the time.

Plus there is Doris’ pond and Steve Petersons springs to trap as well.

The season will wrap up quite nicely.

Notes I took today about Club 41:

It is pretty much the same scene out there as where we have been trapping so far.  Not as much water as usual and the rat sign is WAY DOWN.  If Bob and I collectively catch 100 rats on Club 41 it will be a successful year.

Second note:  There are raccoons  scouting all over the club.  This is not a good sign for us as they find a rat caught in a trap and if they cannot pull the stake and take off with the rat and the trap, they eat the rat right there.  I hope all my stakes are firmly placed.

I’m ready for a few cold brews, a good rub down, a soak in a hot tub, supper and bed.  Am I getting old?  Answer:  Yes!

Bears Butt

Highs near 60!  Wonderful Spring day ahead.

Today is only a half day on the trap line…gotta do some ditch cleaning first.

Goal:  Pull the remaining traps on the Goose Club line and check the traps on Big Spring.  Those two events will take about 4 hours to accomplish.  One neat thing about it is I have 10 or 12 of my new ideas out on the Goose Club line that I will be testing during the “pulling”.  I’ll let you know how that goes later.

I did not go trapping yesterday and so my catch should be pretty good today.  Yesterdays weather was great as was the night before and then last night.  Rats should have been running all around the swamp.  Expected catch today 20.

Now, you are all saying, “that’s what you said the other day and only caught 6, what gives”?  Well, remember the locals said the wind blew all night the other night.  So to catch 6, plus 2 kits, a bird, a field mouse and have 3 other traps set off is pretty good for a windy night…that could have been 13 big rats.  I’m sticking to 20 for today.

Then the excitement builds for our Club 41 lines coming this week.

Trapping season is just about over for this year.  Rats are beginning to show some signs of fur slippage so to be hitting the club now is perfect.

More to come later.  Check back after 6 p.m.

Bears Butt

Holy smokes!  My mail box is full of complaints!  I did not post up a P.M. report last night.  My excuse?  Tired, rear end kicked from a morning of ditch cleaning and an afternoon of pulling traps and checking traps.  Sorry folks!

A.M. report of the P.M. report

It was a very beautiful day out in the swamp.  T-shirt weather.  Lots of birds singing and chirping.  Ducks paired up and jumping from the swamp around me.  Geese, swans, Sandhill cranes, crows…lots of wildlife to see.

Little pond captured no rats.  Big pond surprised me with one rat!  And Stein pond had nothing.  It’s time to move on!

The rest of the line ended with 8 rats that count, three kit rats and 5 set off traps.  What gives with the set off traps and nothing in them?  Oh, ya, a duck was caught but only by the breast and it flew away when I released it.

I met up with the President of the Club 41 and got the key to the gate.  Monday Bob and I will begin to set traps in there.

Speaking of Bob, he was very happy to announce to me that he caught 12 rats!  That is 3 days this season he has kicked my butt on total rats caught in a day.  Good on you Bob!  Keep it up.

I now only have 61 traps out and plan on setting a whole bunch tomorrow on Club 41.  Today (Sunday) I will mentally plan my route and tonight will dream about setting rat catching sets…it is the final days of the season and time to make the big move on catching those pesky little fur bearers.

Bears Butt

A. M…..March 8, 2012

March is marching right along!

What a beautiful night it turned out to be.  Lows near 30 and todays high is expected into the 40’s…rats love this weather and so we expect to do some substantial catching today.

I put a call into the Club 41 president yesterday for a key to the gate.  It looks like we might be moving into there as early as Monday.  There are two things about moving into there…one:  A new area to capture unsuspecting rats and two:  I culminates our trapping season.

This year will be Bob’s first year trapping on that club and he will learn a thing or two about how different the rats are to catch.  They live differently than most other places where rats live.  I have learned they like to live in tiny openings in the clay banks.  Tiny like holes just a bit larger than ones that mice live in.  I think they make their den openings small in order to keep the raccoons from discovering them…what do I know?

With 93 traps out, my expectations for today is 20 rats.  Yesterday would have been 18 if the 6 set off traps would have captured their intended prey.  So in reality, 20 is not a high goal.  I set 2 colony traps yesterday that could easily catch 6 rats each…wouldn’t that be a kick in the pants?

More later!

Bears Butt

P.M. Report

The weather today was perfect for doing most anything outside.  Wonderful day.  Our problem on the rat-line was the locals told us it blew hard all night long.  BOOOO.  My catch showed it….6!  That is awful for this time of year.  However, and on a bright note, brother Bob kicked my butt with 9 rats!!!!  That’s twice this season he has out caught me.

I also had 3 other traps set off with nothing in them, caught two “baby” rats, a bird and a field mouse.  The colony traps came up empty!  Another BOOOO!

As for the three ponds that Stein helped me with…all three came up zero with Big Pond having one set off trap and nothing in it.  I moved three of the traps, one on each of the ponds.  We will see what happens the next time I check them.  I have high hopes to catch at least 2 more rats from those three small ponds.

Check this near catch out:

That pan is down and the only thing that kept it from catching a rat was the rust that built up on the dog…1/1ooth of an inch and that rat would have been mine!  OOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

I was in a bit of a hurry today to get the trapping done, but I still managed to set 5 more traps out on the end of Big Spring.  My hope was to have enough time to go into Brigham and gas up the rig for Saturday and also to get a hair cut.  I managed to do both.

I love my new “do”.  Instead of looking like a “bald hippie”, I look closer to just plain bald…Thanks Brent!

By the way if you want to hear some B.S., go to Wyatt’s Barber Shop at 25 East 700 South in Brigham City, Utah for your next hair cut!  Great barbers at a Great Price…Tell them Bears Butt sent you and you will really get an ear full of B.S.  Discount on the hair cut?  NOPE!  Just good old home town B.S.

Tomorrow I am taking the day off trapping and going to a funeral and then to a granddaughters show at school.  Both are more important than trapping.  Bob will kick my butt again tomorrow on the catch, but I’ll kick his on Saturday when I pull two days worth of rats out of the swamps.

Bears Butt