I am really liking the weather forecast for this week.  Todays high 32 and the rest of the week the highs are close to 40!  I really like 40’s for highs.  Not so warm that the snow melts too fast and yet it is getting toward spring time and I like the change from winter to spring.  Almost as much as I like the change from summer to fall.

Today will be a great day in the field.  I now have 3 lines to check and 29 new traps out.  I should catch at least 2 rats today.  I don’t want to sound overly optimistic.  For those of you who recall last years daily ramblings, when I said I thought I would catch “X” number of rats that day, I would come in with some “Y” number that was generally half what I predicted.  I’m not going to do that this year.

I noticed yesterday that the level of the water on my lines doesn’t seem to be as high as usual.  Maybe it is because it is still frozen, or maybe the ground water just isn’t there like it usually is, I don’t know, but I’m able to get around a lot of places that I have not in the past because the water was too deep to allow me to wade through it.  It could be that we have taken enough rats out of the water ways that the ones remaining can only work the main stream flows and not spread out all over the place like when we first started trapping Petes.  You tell me.

My goal is just to check traps today and let my body rest from yesterdays ordeal.  I’m not planning on pulling any traps today either, but probably will pull the original 16 from Big Spring tomorrow.  This week I will set “Bull Run” if the snow depth goes down a few inches.  I have not trapped that area for two years as Bob decided he wanted to trap it.  Last year he got in a bit of hot water with the ranch manager for driving through the grain that is next to Bull Run.  Of all people who should know better too.

As for the rest of Petes water ways, if the snow depth does not go down pretty quickly, I might end up trapping all of the interior of Petes.  Not that I mind doing that, but Bob would be better served to trap those areas and free me up to trap Club 41 and the other two places out on Promontory…including the dreaded “Bull Arena”….shudder……

I will try and take a few pictures today…these posts without pictures suck.

OK…it’s time!

Bears Butt

Feb. 26, 2013

A full inch of new ice out in the trapping fields this morning.  That is a cold bugger when it does that.  Cold like that also keeps the rats hold up in their nice little warm dens.

I had a very big surprise when I pulled the traps at Doris’ pond…I caught a rat!  It must have been a very lonely rat.  So, no more traps are set on Doris’ pond until next year.  By then there should be at least one small family of rats taking up residency there.

At Big and Little Springs I turned one rat on each of the two lines.  Not much of a showing for that many traps, especially after having so many unfilled, set off traps yesterday.  I expected more.  But on Big Spring, the little swamp where the rat had been setting off my trap each day was filled with a big old fat rat today.  I was pleased to pull him from the bank hole.  No other traps on either line were set off, so I figure it was just too cold for most of the critters to get out and about.  There was a whole ton of tracks of coyote, foxes and weasels however.  Those predators had been working hard for whatever they ended up finding to eat.

I was able to go a bit farther east on Big Spring and managed to set 4 more traps out that direction.  I have almost caught up with the ice down that line and maybe tomorrow I will find the edge of the ice and be stopped.  We will see.  The bigger surprise to be found on this line was a bunch of places to set traps on the large flow of water in the Big Channel.  Big Channel is a very large flow of water that goes out and through the Goose Club and is fed by a series of big springs.  For me it is almost a scary place to walk as you never know if you are walking into a spring or not.  It is also where the cow had drowned, only on the other side of the flow.  It’s too deep to wade across as well.  Anyway, I walked out there to rinse off the rat I had caught up in the small slew and it was covered in mud, when I got there I found a very nice deep run coming out of the bank and into the main flow.  A perfect place for a colony trap, which I had pulled from another location.  I also found four more places to set conibears.  So 5 sets went into those locations.  I will mark those places in my mind for upcoming years trapping as I had not found them before.

On Little Spring, I was able to make the round and head west setting more traps down that line.  I reached the ice just before the road crossing on the Goose Club road.  No more traps will be able to be set on that for at least 3 or 4 days and then it will have to warm up quite a lot to free it up.  There is a lot of good trapping down that line from the Goose Club road on out to their fence.  Right now the rats are swimming and playing in absolute safety because the swamp is totally covered with a thick layer of snow and ice and the rats have thousands of miles of runs and swimming channels to use, day and night.  I always like to find an opening in the snow and look under the canopy at all the trails.  The rats will even come out on the edge of the canopy and make a mess…easy pickens for me then.

Once done setting Little Spring I figured I still had lots of time and I decided to go and see if I could set the Trellis.

Bob was waiting up by my rig when I got there and he had 3 rats of his own.  So a total of 6 rats for the day.  We’ll take it.  Both paid for our gas and a little extra to boot.

By the time I got backed into the Trellis parking area it was almost 2:30.  With the sun angle as it is this time of year, I have a difficult time looking down into deep runs to see if they are being used or not, as the sun begins its decline;  So, I had to move fast.  I was able to set 13 sets before I hit the ice line out there.  13 traps in that area is a good number.  A real bummer of a sight was at the point where the water crosses under the road.  The ranch owner had blocked off the pipe, I suppose to get the water to go farther to the east down a ditch in that direction.  The rats have tunneled under the road and now the road is not travel-able.  Huge gaping holes and cave ins going across the road and all the water is gushing through and carrying the road base away.  This is one of the reasons we are out there trying to catch as many rats as we can, but they managed to cut a path under the road and the water will take the path of least resistance and take all the dirt and rocks with it.  I feel bad. (Ed, if you are reading this, don’t try and drive past the pipe going east, even a shovel won’t help you when you crash through that mess).

So, right now I am enjoying my favorite beverage and recalling all the days events.  My rear end is kicked and the hot tub is going to feel very nice tonight.  I was back at the rig by 3:15 and home by 4:15.  Out to the shed with Bob to flesh and stretch the catch and was in the house by 5 p.m., ready to settle in for the evening.  It was a very nice day, but not one to take any time for pictures.  I had 53 traps out, today I set another 29 and pulled 9…so now I have a total of 73 traps out.  Bob has 16.  His catch rate was equal to mine rat for rat today, but his percentage kicked my butt.  Me 5.6%(based on 53 traps) , Bob 18.75%.  I still have him out numbered on total rats caught so far.

And that ends week number one.  Seven days, 38 rats.

As a side note, I looked at the results of the NAFA auction which was held last week and muskrats averaged $11.51 at their sale.  That means we can reasonably expect to get around $9 for our rats if the price holds at that level.  For those of you trapping and reading this, keep in mind you will only get high dollar amounts if you are properly handling the furs after you have trapped them.  That means drying the pelts, properly skinning them, fleshing them and stretching them.  Some people even comb the fur before putting them on the stretchers.  Bob and I are really proud of the way we put up our rats and we expect to get the highest dollar as our reward.

Bears Butt

Feb. 25, 2013

Monday…Week number one ends today and whatever we catch today will be added to the 32 rats we have in the fur shed.  Considering all the nasty weather that really isn’t a bad weeks catch.  As the weather warms we will see an increase in catch rates by day and some days, if everything goes as usual, we will see daily catches close to the weekly catch we have so far.

Today is my day to feed the horses and so I will get that done as soon as my helper, Weasel has time.  We also have an injured horse in the field and I might have to take down a small section of fence to allow it to get back with the rest of the horses.  It has located itself on the creek side of the fence by the “hole” and is favoring its right front leg so badly it won’t put any pressure on it.  The owner says it has had this condition for over 5 years, but yesterday it was not looking too good.  If it doesn’t get well soon the owner will have to take it to a vet or have a vet come out and look at it.  But this morning I’ll go down and see how it looks before I call the owner.

There is always something coming between me and a full day of trapping.  I should be on the road right now instead of sitting here typing.  Life seems tough some times…HAHAHAHA!

Goals for the day:  Pull the traps at Doris’ pond and set as many as I can on the trellis and farther around Little Spring.  I will make an attempt to go farther down the Big Spring line, but yesterday it didn’t look too promising.  I might have to wait until later this week to get any farther down that line.  I need the snow to melt down about 4 inches out there.

In the mean time, I do have places I can set and will be putting out steel on those lines this week.  I would rather have one long line than several short lines, but this year is an exception to the normal trapping rule.  Gotta do what we gotta do.

I noticed yesterday while skinning the rats, we have some males that are showing signs of running.  Running is a good thing bad thing.  The good thing is we can expect to catch a bunch of rats.  The bad thing is we can expect a lot of damage from them fighting.  Holes in the hides means less than top dollar at the market.

More about today will come when the day is done.

Bears Butt

Feb. 25, 2013

Trapping was great today, a little windy out there but not much snow, thank goodness!  My goal was to just go out and check the traps as quickly as I could so that I could spend at least part of the day with Sherry.  So, when she headed for church, I headed west.

I bundled up for the cold wind with a sweat shirt and two thick flannel jackets.  Loaded the pockets with bait, tossed on the shovel, just in case, and headed off.  The 16 traps around Big Spring had nothing, not even a set off trap.  Just like my usual method of trapping I think I have caught everything that lived in that spot.  It’s probably time to move those traps.

When I plan on moving traps, the first thing I usually do is set that many or more the day before I pull the ones I want to pull.  So, tomorrow you know what I will be trying to do.

Proceeding along, the next few traps were either set off or had rats in them, including a colony trap that I was planning on moving down the line a ways.  I left it where it is.  One of the two traps I have set in the small areas was set off for the second time.  I am not sure why he is getting past the trap and not in it.  I maneuvered it just a bit in hopes that tomorrow it is filled with fur.

Continuing down the line my hopes were high as I encountered rats in traps or traps that were set off.  The set off traps are a bit concerning because I’m not sure what is setting them off and not getting caught.  Often times it is a rat swimming like a maniac down low in the run under the water.  So, most of them traps I turned slightly in the run to slow the rat down that 1/1,000th of a second.  Today empty…tomorrow fur.

Recall the conibear I set on the log where I should have set a leg hold trap the other day.  This is what I walked up to today:

That was a close call.

Today I was prepared and had a leg hold trap with me to replace this one with it and then I walked down the stream and set this coni in a nice little run.

Over on Little Spring the traps were much like on Big Spring, either set off and empty or filled with fur.  One of them had a rat that had been eaten pretty good and I figure it must have been a mink that munched on it.  I skinned it and it has three very big holes right in the prime fur on the back.  Oh well, it still counts.

So, by the end of checking I had caught 9 rats and had 7 other traps set off.  Close to a 16 rat day…but I’ll take nine!

Bob ended the day with two and he was glad.  It takes us each one to pay for the days gas.

Tomorrow is planned to be an early start day.

Bears Butt

Feb. 24, 2013

Yesterdays snow was crazy…we had at least 10 inches of snow during the day while places like Tremonton, just 20 miles North had little or none.  Is that crazy or what?

Bob ventured out to the trapping place and reported they had only a skiff…that works for me.  He did manage to catch a rat and had a couple of other traps set off, so that tells me they moved around a bit the night before.

I usually don’t check traps on Sunday, but I need to get out there as the law says I have to.  Even though I only have a few leg hold traps set, I need to check them.  It’s not ethical nor legal not to.

Today’s weather is going to be clear and cold with some winds kicking up.  It will make for a cold and interesting day in the field.

I thought I would show you a couple of pictures of yesterdays snow storm.

Early in the day.

After the storm.

I hate snow.

If you notice in the top picture the toy is still loaded in the trailer.  Things changed quickly and I had to unload it and put the plow on in order to help the neighborhood out.  I plowed until 6 p.m.  Today, I will unhook the plow and load the toy back up for the trip out West.

Bears Butt

Feb. 24, 2013

It’s a big decision day today…do I venture west with the potential of a very large snow storm approaching and risk sliding off the road or something worse…or stay home and see what happens later this afternoon?  The forecast is calling for wind gusts close to 50 mph and snow that could accumulate to as deep as 6 inches…I hate snow right now.

Blowing, drifting snow does not make for a fun drive and pulling my trailer with the toy even makes it more of a less fun drive.  My mind is starting to go into the wait and see mode…ok…I just made my mind up.  If everything else stops me from checking traps today, I’ll go tomorrow, even though I normally don’t check traps on Sunday.

We just had a taste of what might be coming:  We had a half hour of blowing snow and now we have what I call a “sucker hole”, with now snow and the winds have died down to the 10 mph range.  It actually looks like it’s pretty nice outside right this second.  I can look up out of the dark spot my computer is sitting in and actually see over the drifted snow out the window and see light.  The guards have sent a little heat this direction as well and it’s “almost” tolerable to be sitting here right now without a coat on.  THANKS GUARDS!!!!

Since the winds howled all night long, I don’t expect there was much movement by the rats in the swamp, however, I would expect to catch at least 2 rats, especially in the 10 newly set traps and I’m really anxious to see if the conibear on the log caught anything.  Of course as hard as it was blowing, that little stream probably had white caps crashing into the log and probably knocked all the bait off and tipped over the trap…I won’t know until I get out there.  Someone needs to come through with a remote controlled trail camera that is linked to my computer so I can look at trap sets like that and see if there is anything in it…It sure would make trapping a whole lot easier.  Maybe even sensors on the traps that show up on your hand held devise showing you exactly which traps have been set off.  Then you only have to go to those traps and take out whatever is in them.  That would save a lot of time too.  No more wasted time checking traps that aren’t set off.  Would someone out there start working on that for me?

A peak outside shows very large snowflakes falling by the millions and the wind is picking up as well…I’m staying home it looks like.  At least until this afternoon or when the snow stops and the satellite/radar shows it’s behind us.

Bears Butt

Feb. 23, 2013

Today turned out to be a very nice weather day.  Snow here in town and sunshine out on the line.  By the time I made it back to town it was sunny here and 40 degrees!  I like 40 degrees this time of year….it melts snow!

I had a couple of messages from Ed Lloyd this morning telling me about the skiff of snow out there and also that he had 4 eggs with my name on them!  So, I grabbed up a bottle of  Sherry’s salsa to trade him, tossed it in the car and headed west.

Doris’ pond proved a dead beat trapping place once again.  I’ll pull those traps on Monday, but I might get a hair to pull them tomorrow, who knows.  It’s 12 miles out of the way just to find all the traps empty…you can’t pay for gas that way.

Back up at Big and Little Spring things were looking up.  No apparent wind last night and things were melting at 10:30 when I got there.  I checked Big Spring and then decided I’d try and get through the depression (a dip between a small spring and the main Big Spring drainage.  I figured if I could get the toy through that and up on higher ground on the other side, I might be able to venture east down the drainage and maybe even set some traps.  I must have picked the exact spot I needed to because the toy never even slowed down.  On the other side I was a happy guy and ready to swag in some more traps.  I had taken 10 of my clip flags with me and didn’t have any other flagging material, so 10 traps would be my max to set.

I have to park quite a ways from the drainage and walk across the drifts but I figured what the heck, no traps out means no rats being caught.  I grabbed two coni’s and headed out.  I found two sets very quickly and came back to the rig for two more.  Those went in quickly as well and I found another place for one, so back to the rig I went.  So, now I only have 5 flags left and I just got started.  Oh well, it probably is just as well that I could only set 10 traps.  By the time I got as far as I could drive because of the drifts, I had set all 10 traps.

My last set was about 100 yards from the rig and that is quite a ways for an old guy mucking through knee deep drifts.  It’s especially hard walking when sometimes the crust will support your weight and other times you bust through.  Try that you other short people.  At any rate here I was facing a perfect bait set and the leg hold traps are all back at the rig.  I wasn’t about to walk all that way just to grab “the appropriate trap”, I’ll take a leg hold to there tomorrow, as for now I decided to rig this one up with a conibear.  If it works I’ll be danged surprised.

Here you have a log where the rats climb up on it and go to the bathroom.  Usually I would plop a leg hold right on top of the pile of rat droppings, put a few carrots around here and there and be done.  This time I use a conibear and my thoughts are to lure the rat down the log to eat carrots.  When he gets done eating them he should see the carrots on the other side of the trap and walk through the trap to get to those carrots…snap… and he is mine!

Look at this setup closely.  Notice I have placed a stick down through the opening of the spring and close to the trap jaws.  This stick is supporting the trap as it sets on the log, but the stick is also in a position not to interfere with the operation of the trap and also, when the rat gets caught (if one gets caught) it will jump off the log and drown, the trap chain is being held by the stake on the right of the log.  Do you think this will catch me a rat tomorrow?

So, with 10 more traps set, my total number of traps is 53.

As I started back I could see Bob waiting on the side of the road up near my outfit.  It didn’t take long to travel back on my trail and I was soon back to the truck.  3 rats in my bag and Bob had 3 rats in his…not too bad considering everything that is going on.

We BSed for a few minutes and then he decided it was time to head for home and start skinning the rats we caught yesterday and laid out to dry.  I still had my Little Spring traps to check and I headed in that direction.

As I finished this line I heard a noise and there was Ed Lloyd traveling along on the trellis road.  He had come out to see the dead cow I had told him about this morning through a email message.  It had gotten caught in a deep spring and drowned.  They will have to pull it out before it decomposes and contaminates the water.

Ed was watching where he was driving and not paying attention to my hand signals.  I wanted him to go back to the trellis and I would haul him on the toy down to where the cow was, but he was doing his own thing…bouncing and sliding down the road that leads to the Goose Club, once he reached the gate at the club he turned his wheel and here he came straight at me across country…throwing snow left and right and squiggling every direction as he came.  I just knew he was going to go out of sight any moment, but on he came roaring along.  He stopped close by and got out quickly.  I laughed at him and said I couldn’t believe he just drove across country like that and didn’t get stuck.  He handed me the 4 eggs he had promised.  I carefully placed them in one of my toy packs and crossed my fingers I wouldn’t break them.  He jumped on the back of the toy and we went over to see the dead cow.

Back at his rig, he thought he could just do a donut right there and get back onto his own tracks and ride on out of there.  He gunned it, turned his wheel and spun right down to high center ville.  Great try.

We dug and dug and he finally jacked up the back and we were able to put a tire chain on his drive wheel.  After a couple of attempts at rocking the rig, it finally came out and he spun like crazy to get back onto his old tracks.  It just took about 30 minutes is all.

This is Ed as he was coming toward me.  He got stuck just left of the two small bushes you see in front of him.  I was truly surprised he made it that far.  That little Chev outfit of his is a good one.  When he got rolling he followed his tracks back and out and we met up at my outfit where I gave him that jar of Sherry’s salsa.  It was a good thing it didn’t take us any longer to get his rig unstuck that it did, because we had just arrived at the spot, he took off the one chain and he got a phone call from one of the hands saying he had a load of cattle and would be there in just a minute…It’s Eds job to unload the cattle when they arrive.

Back on the trap line, Little Spring produced another 3 rats for me today for a total of 6 rats today!  I can live with a 6 rat day.

HEY DANGINT!   IT’S COLD DOWN HERE!!!!

Bears Butt

Feb. 22, 2013

YUK!  More snow!  I hate snow right now…I refuse to unload the toy and put on the plow…I ain’t gonna do it!

I’m not too excited to make the trip out West this morning.  My contact out there says it’s snowing and the ranch hands are going to be moving all their cattle from Cedar Springs back up to the land near the ranch house.  That will crowd things a bit.  It’s fun to watch them horsemen work.  I’ll tell you one thing, to be a cattle rancher you have to forget about living.  All they do is work and how they make ends meet is beyond me.  Way too many possible problems to make any money.

Yesterday I stumbled across a full grown heifer that had gotten stuck in a spring and drowned…that would represent over a thousand dollars to that rancher.  Toss in ones hit on the highway, rustled, shot by hunters and “a-holes” etc.  Killed by predators…I just don’t see how they can make any money at all.

The cost of feed, fencing, fuel and everything else goes up, taxes on the land goes up as well, and even if they have a thousand head of cattle, who is going to pay what they are worth?  Work, work, work….that is what a rancher does.

So, what do I expect today?  Ed, my information source out there, says they only got a little bit of snow…I like that info…and as for trapping I’m sure the rats did a little bit of running last night before the storm hit.  A day similar to yesterday is very possible, except I’ll stay in my old tracks and hopefully not get stuck like I did yesterday.

Snow, snow go away, come again on a November day…..

Bears Butt

Feb. 22, 2013

Would anyone like to lend me some skis to replace my front tires and some tracks for the back tires on my toy?

Day 2 of zero rats and no set off traps at Doris’ pond.  There must not be even one rat at that pond.  I’ve decide I will leave the traps until next Monday and then pull them.  It’s a lot of extra traveling for nothing.

Meanwhile once I was off the road at the Big Spring/Little Spring junction, things were looking good.  The weather wasn’t nearly as cold as it was yesterday and no wind blowing was a very welcome thing.  It was obvious too that there had been a good melt yesterday as well.

Two days ago when I first pulled down into this spot it was solid snow and I thought I might be stuck really good.  Now you can see bare ground where I have parked.  At this rate it won’t take long to melt it all down to a manageable depth.  It is always nice to have the toy to haul my lazy butt out to the trap line and back.  Knock on wood, it hasn’t failed me yet.

So, out of the trailer it comes and I load it up with a full layer of traps front and rear.  I’m going to set some steel today or die trying.

I have gotten in the habit of putting my conibear traps on the back of the rig and bait sets (stop loss) on the front.  I use 80 percent conibears when I trap.  Partially because I don’t really know how to set bait sets.

It’s loaded and ready to get to business.  I decide I will forgo checking traps and go on out past the Big Spring and begin setting.  I would like to get in as many as I can and then come back and check the traps there, before checking the ones at Little Spring.  Through the gate and down the hill I go “cautiously”, checking the depth of the snow as I go and the toy is doing just fine, occasionally pushing a little snow with the under carriage.

I manage to get four traps set, including one colony trap,  before I reach the turn in the ditch that takes the water almost straight East.  I’m beginning to feel more resistance in the ride as well as the drifts are deeper down in the hollow than up on the hill just inside the gate.  The toy keeps on trudging along and I’m proud of it.  As long as it keeps moving I’ll keep driving.  I reach one of my little ponds off to the side and explore around for setting places.  I could only find one as the majority of the area is still under a thick layer of ice covered with snow.  I usually set 3 or 4 traps at this spot so, I’m a bit disappointed.  I turn the toy toward the next small spot and immediately feel the weight of the toy glide up on a solid sheet of icy snow…wheels begin to spin…I can’t back up, I can’t go forward….stuck!

I begin digging to clear the solid snow from under the carriage and then dig a path in front of the rig toward what I know is a flat.  There should not be any drifts on the flat.

More digging and I’m out of that spot and headed for the flat.  I drive as far as I dare toward the second little spot then walk the rest of the way over to check for rat sign…very little sign…the same thick ice and snow is covering this little sweet spot, but I was able to set one trap there.

Ok, I tell myself, best head back and then down to check Little Spring.  I follow my tracks back and then decide to cut across country straight toward the truck….Everything is going great until suddenly I’m in another drift……stuck again.

I thought if I drove faster I would glide over some of the drifts and not get stuck…HAHAHAHA!  Look how deep I went in this time.  “Repeat after me….IMA  DUMBSHIT”!

At least the digging was easy, it just took awhile.  Once the crusty snow was removed from under the rig, I was able to back up following my tracks and turn around at the first spot I got stuck.  Then followed my tracks out of there back to the truck.  Life is once again very good.

When I got to the wood fence surrounding Big Spring, I walked the trap line and collected 2 rats!  There is my goal for the day!  Wooppppeeeee!

From there it was down the trellis road to the bank leading down into Little Spring, no problems getting down to the snow covered valley, but how deep is the snow down there?  I began checking traps as soon as the terrain leveled out.  The toy was very sure footed down in this little valley and perhaps the snow had melted enough to give me more clearance.  There were two little spots that I had some doubt about it pulling out of, but it never stopped once.  I was able to check all 10 traps and was pleasantly surprised to gather up another 6 rats!  An 8 rat day!  I’m flying now!  And proceed to find more places to set more traps.  I found 2 sets is all.  One for a Conibear and one for a colony trap.

As I tried to round the corner to head down toward the West along side the drainage I could feel the front end of the toy scraping icy snow and I stopped and backed up.  Walking ahead it was a good thing I stopped because the snow was waste deep in the little hollow I have to cross.  I really would have been hung up there big time.  I decided my trapping was over for the day.  But what the heck…8 rats is a good catch when there isn’t much water to play with.

When I reached the trellis road, I went West to go check out the drainage down that way.  The trellis crosses a road that leads from the highway to a goose club and I followed that road as far as there is a pipe going under it.  Frozen solid!

I’m certain the water is flowing under that thick layer of ice, but there is no way of chopping through it and finding an under water travel way.  I’ll just have to wait to trap that when it thaws out.  I head back to the truck and load up.  It’s 1:30 and I sure had higher hopes of setting a lot of traps, instead I only got 8 more traps set.  That gives me a total of 43 traps out, which doesn’t sound like a bad number, but the problem is where they are set I will catch all the rats in those areas before Saturday…oh well, such is trapping life.

Driving back toward home I see Bob off to the side checking some of his 6 sets.  I stop and walk across the road and check out his trapping area.  He has 3 sets in one small pond and the pond has a rat house and a couple of feed mounds…he has caught one rat and is happy about that.  While there I point out two more places for him to set traps and he will do that before he leaves, but he wants me to take his rat with me and put it in the shed to dry.  Mine need to be dried before we skin them as well and so 9 rats will be processed tomorrow.  He has two traps set side by side on one spot and we could see the one trap, but the other is not visible.  He says it’s just because it’s set under water and he will check it after he gets done setting the two other traps.

We say goodbye and off I go for home, via a trip to town for gas.

As I pull in the back yard, Bob pulls into his driveway…he almost beat me home…he is anxiously walking toward the shed for some reason and then he holds up a rat!  Right On!  He said the trap we could not see held that rat!  Way cool a 10 rat day!  We’ll take it!

From here on out it will be a day by day thing to set more traps.  I think I have a plan for setting the trellis up near Petes junction in the road, providing nobody else has their car or truck parked in the place I plan to park.  It isn’t the spot I prefer to park and unload the toy, but it’s the only place that doesn’t have 2 feet of snow on it.  I’ll do that one tomorrow.

Bears Butt

Feb. 21, 2013