We don't trap the Otters Here

We have lots of Otters here. A mom with 2 pups, a large aggressive male and others. We enjoy watching their antic's. Hannah has a feud going on with them and we believe both sides are enjoying the event. Right now the mom and pups are staying at an area we have to drive by each day. The area is covered with dead fish remains and little piles of scat. They know not to ---- in their water. If they can keep the water from freezing they can use this area for along time. But as you can see today in -30 they are having a hard time.

Doing trail in the winter

With a good 7 feet of snow on the ground now making trail in the winter is just giving the trail a brush cut. We'll give a clean shave in the spring.
I don't know what I changed to make no comments but I am tring to fix it

Shovelling the Chicken house

Bryan was heading out to clear the Ink trail east of here. I am a hindrance when there is so much new snow. He has to keep looking back to make sure I'm still coming. So my job today is to shovel off the chicken house. How am I going to get up there, I ask....Just put on your traveller and walk up. So that is how I got up there after three shovel fulls off the roof. There was a good 3 ft of heavy snow and lots of frozen ice. I used a rubber mallet. Temp is 0 today. Hard to remember that a little over a week ago it was -30. We have 8 chickens and they have given us 6 to 8 eggs a day since they started laying the beginning of Oct. They have laying mesh in their warm house, but each day they also get all our vegetable clippings and they love pasta. We also give them whole wheat and oyster shell.
There is a wire strung door dividing Bryan's little skinning shop and the chicken indoor house. He talks to them and they talk away back. He really loves his chickens. Last week I said to Bryan "I must look up dark circle around eyes on chickens". "It wasn't like that yesterday." Bryan looked at me strange as I headed to the computer. He called out..."it's eatting too many chicken feathers disease." Now he knows more about chickens then me, so I nodded and said okay. "I'll look it up, there must be something we can do." He started laughing ....and admitted he had circled that one chickens eyes with black marking pen. It's the only one picking feathers off the other ones, and now we can watch him.






Bryan road into the yard on Pedro at 5:30 all smiles....his day had been real hard, just like the last two days breaking trail after 3 ft of new snow but at least the box was full. A nice Lynx and 2 Marten.

Four Feet of Snow in 2 Days

When it decides to snow here....does it ever come down. There was a good 3 foot base before and now it is all white. Bryan decided to go and take down the Goat Trail sets. This is a short line of 2 1/2 km close to our cabin. It usually takes 40 minutes round trip. Bryan went alone so that he would not have to keep looking back to see if I had made it. He took Pancho (550 Tundra long track) and a taboggan to haul boxes and traps (Griz tear down boxes if left out). He left at 11 am. The taboggan only made it to the bottom of the hill and was ditched. With four new feet of snow it was horrible. He just kept making another run up with snow drifting off the top of the Skidoo until he was stuck...but Pancho can back up like crazy....there is no machine like it....it just steps up onto the snow and backs down. Once up the hill and onto the first ridge he had the tree-well problem....every tree was like a trap. Also just on the way up there were 15 trees across the trail...Bryan said it was like a hand faller was up there. All the snow in the trees from the last 2 months and then another 4. He said there was snow plopps happening everywhere. If one of these hit you it is like a 50 lb sack of cement. He made it to 1 km from the top and had to snowshoe the last 1km.... some of the open alder patches had 9 feet of snow. At one point as he was struggling he felt his ears go....like when you are in an airplane. This lasted until 9pm
I had been outside since 2:30 shovelling snow and was SO VERY GLAD TO SEE THE SKIDOO LIGHTS>>>>but it was 5 pm It had taken him 6 hours....He said to me "I didn't think I was going to make it".

We Hit A Wall of Snow

We were up here yesterday making more new trail....but it was not like this ....now it is a wall of snow

Overnight it snowed 2 feet. In someplaces here we are 5 feet above the ground. This is a balsam tree that has had it's bark striped by a Bear....you see them everywhere the bears travel.

Response to young Bela Letter in the Whitehorse Star Jan 2, 2009

Young Bela wrote a letter asking people to stop wearing fur coats and to also ban furs. You can see letter at ://thewaxingmoon.blogspot.com/2009/01strike-three.html#comment-form


To Bela I would first say to you, Good For you to stand up and be counted" but please allow me to stand up and be counted also. I would say to you "Look at yourself first". Go into your bedroom and look at where things are made on your gadgets, toys, sheets and clothes. When I see someone wearing a fur coat, I see someone supporting a 465 year old Canadian Industry and also supporting a Canadian Trapper and family. If what you see in your bedroom is MADE IN CHINA or purchased at Walmart, just what country are you supporting? Also on that list, please record the source material of the gadget, toy, sheet or clothing. Is it petroleum based? Is it made from a renewable resource? Can it be recycled? Does it stand the test of time?
Items of note: (Fur Institute of Canada)
Close to 45% of Trapline holders are Canada's First Nations people.
Canada's fur trade contributed $800 million to the Canadian economy in 2006.
Exports of pelts and fur apparel exceeded $450 Million in 2006. This is new money brought into the Canadian economy, not money going out to China or the US.
I am not telling you what to wear or do but I do ask that you allow me to wear what I want and to also work in an old traditional industry which does you no harm but adds to the Canadian coffers. Vikki, a proud BC Trapper

We really appreciate your input....

When you realize that you are our only conversation with the outside world.... you will appreciate that we like your input. We also want people to understand an old lifestyle that has survived since 1534 and is sustainable. Someday we beleive that people will be looked down upon when they are wearing petroleum based products....showing up with a new winter jacket each year. A fur coat can have worn spots and still be worn. Where as a petroleum based clothing stains and looks old fast and is replaced every year or two and then lands up in the land fill because you can't even make rags with it. Clothing made of fur is the best for cold weather climates. Also is it passed on , restyled and worn again, or cut up and then used for trim. It never is just thrown out each year to make room for another.

Yield of Line? How long productive? Always making new trails?

Hi Jim....this is Bryan.. Your answer on the fur bearers is indefinitely. Like us, most trappers try to manage the fur bearers on their traplines, like any rancher, you do not want to deplete your breeding stock. For a trapper, this can be done in many different ways, depending on the species and the situation. These strategies are discussed in detail and at great length in our B.C. Trappers Manual.
We are trapping a fly-in only area. Our trapline is 1300 square kilometers with NO roads and no flat ground. Most of the ground is very steep and heavily timbered with lots of blow down. It's a Coastal environment, with Devils Club, thick underbrush, Salmon and Bears. When we acquired the trapline, very little trail had ever been cut, and the trails that were here had not been maintained in 6 years. If we cut trail for the rest of our lives, we still wouldn't access 10% of our fur bearers.
This beautiful Fisher had 5 porcupine quills in it's face and neck. They usually do not bother with our sets. We see their tracks in the snow occassionally. They are great rabbit hunters. Two weeks after this fisher showed up , we caught a Marten in the same set, that had a porcupine quill in it's back.

A trapper's Christmas

We were up as usual at 7 am. It is -22 and clear (we've just had a 10 day period of -30 which is unusual here). Bryan stokes up the wood stove and goes out to the little shop to restart the stove to keep the chicken pen warm). After coffee and chatting and exchanging our gift to each other, we get ready to go out on the "Bucket Trail" to put up sets and push the trail a little further. There is 5' of snow and the Tundra 550 long track does it's job well. I'm following on my little Tundra 300. We remade this trail last year and so there is little to cut but the snow is deep. I came down a hill and one of my ski's fell in a treewell and over my skidoo went throwing me into the treewell but the skidoo stayed on it's side and didn't land on me. Bryan came back and helped. Off we go again. Lots of Marten tracks in the snow and near the end fresh Fisher tracks. It's getting dark so we turn around still not at the end. On the way back there is a real long step climb consisting of two benches and two turns (just at the top Bryan's skidoo goes over and he hit his head real nicely on the tree.) Off we head home.
I had cooked the Turkey a few days ago in a large cauldron on the wood stove. We could not justify using the oven (propane) for 4 hours. After getting warm, and sitting for a while in the light of our Coleman lantern, the generator is started and I start our Turkey Dinner. It's called Turkey'n Stuffing Pie and tastes like a nice Christmas dinner. Recipe at end. We emailed our Christmas wishes to our kids, family and friends. Our Christmas cards are still sitting on the window ledge because there has been no plane here since fall. I have a glass of homemade red wine and Bryan has his usual coffee. Bryan ran out of cigarettes last week and is not very happy. He had planned on quitting but it is hard. We turn on TV/DVD player and watch another episode of "Daniel Boone" and eat our supper. Our little Christmas tree is twinkling away on the table, last year we had a bigger tree). We are working on the "Inklin Trail" tomorrow so off to bed we go.
Our real Christmas Day turned out to be Sat. Dec. 27. A long ranger helicopter flew in today with a snow shovelling crew to clean off the heavy snow from the lodge down the lake from us. We had been emailed that they were coming and had asked them to bring in our mail and parcels and some fresh vegetables. After helping them shovel, and giving them our mailbag and furs for the January sale, then waving goodbye we went home and sorted the mail. We then opened our letters and cards from family and friends and a big special parcel from Kim. See the special trappers Christmas ornaments she sent in to us. This was our real Christmas Day.
Turkey'n Stuffing Pie
Crust:
1 beatten egg
1 cup chicken broth
1/3 c melted butter
5 cups bread cubes seasoned with Poultry Seasoning
Mix well and pat onto greased 9" pie plate
Filling:
1 can mushrooms
1/2 c chopped onions
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp flour
3 cups cubed cooked Turkey
1 can peas
1 tbsp parsley
1 tsp Worcestershire Sauce
1/2 tsp thyme
1 pkg Chicken gravy or 2 cups Turkey Gravy
3 slices cheddar cheese
Saute Mushrooms, onion in butter. Sprinkle on the flour, mix wee. Add Turkey, peas, parsley, Worchestershire Sauce and thyme. Mix well. Stir in Gravy ..Boil and stir for 2 min. Spoon into crust. Cover with lid. Put on Wood stove for 20 to 30 min. Top with pieces of cheese. Let it melt and serve.