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_______!