Saturday was the first day of my last vacation for the year of 2010, which sucks. Now I like to say I've never had a bad vacation just some better than others:-) Waking up Saturday morning to 6 1/2 inches of new snow wasn't really what I wanted to see though. I had planned all week to attend and auction thought it might be good, now with bad roads and it still snowing maybe better. Everyone must have thought the same thing as there were 160+ registered bidders. Tried to bid on a few rat and some coon stretchers but there were others wanted them worse than me. Did talk to the guy that bought the rat stretchers and he is figuring he'll get $18.00 for his put up rats?
I could only ask WHERE! Of course he didn't say just said he heard guys was getting $7.00 on the carcass which I already knew. So anyway I left the acution earlier than I planned with only 2 of the big multi catch mouse traps. They had two auctioneers going and so much stuff it still looked to be couple hours till they got to anything more that interested me. So I bugged out. I still had at least an hour or more worth of snow to move at home and wanted to get done before dark.
On the way home I drove past a place I planned to trap a few beavers and some rats this coming week. The gate was still chained/locked and the road in of course was all snow. It at leasted looked like the drifting wasn't so bad as to keep me out. Been stuck in there before and it's a good 1/2 mile or more walk back to the road to get out or in to check traps. Later last night the land owner called me and said he had taken the lock off the gate and drove in, I must have just missed him. He said I should be ok getting in with my old Dakota if the wind don't drift things, if the road gets bad he'll push it out. He did say have at trapping what ever critters I can find. Said they had seen and otter and couple coyotes last week while deer hunting. I do have and otter tag to fill.
What sucks is with the new snow covering everything it's going to be tough finding where to set. I do ok with rats open water and I know to find them bubbles trails under clear ice. The snow covering everything hides all that information plus the bad ice. The slack water places here the ice was just getting safe to walk on. Anything with current was still open and some are now slushed in. Snow keeps the ice that can hold it up from getting thicker and makes some of the newer ice crap. So I got to poke around in that mix of ice mess trying to figure out what traps to set where. Just makes more work out of the whole thing.
So home from the auction I park on the street because the snow plow has the drive pushed shut. I get the snow blower fired up and get started down the drive. Did I mention I actually had the snowblower all ready to go couple weeks back and it's running best in last couple years? Well that didn't last long, got almost all the big pile the plow pushed in cleared and the beaters quit turning. So I park that junker and will tear it apart again for the unkownth time. It's a 1984 model so I've lost count. Back to the garage and get the shovel out, hour after dark I'm done. Just as it starts snowing again, auugh! at least it was just a dusting over night. But there are still some flakes buzzing around out there now. Next it will get bitter cold, allways does after a snow. That will help make better ice but I still won't be able to see any runs. Might find some good trails with the snow though to pick off some coyotes?? But I was sure hoping to get some clean hard ice to play on with my picker boat. This much snow and so little ice will mean the scratcher boat stay pretty much parked till things settle.
I'm not in a big hurry to get moving this morning as the plan is to help my son move today. I guess we'll see how that goes before I know if I got more whinning to do :-)
The big decission for today is whether to just scout the marsh tomorrow or hump some gear in right off and set what I find first trip. Place I'm going to trap is 30 mile round trip which isn't really that much. Just not sure I want to use one whole trip just scouting it, but I'm not sure just what traps to haul in either??
Such Drama!
The sun just popped out from behind the clouds so it will start getting cold.
Maybe I should just see can I go trap rats with Kristen, seen as she's got them bad boys dialed in LOL!
Mac
