First Fox

As you may know, I have plied may hand at fur harvesting, which is also known as trapping and/or snaring. This is something I have wanted to do all of my life, but have never made it work for me. I am finally connected with the right people to learn this craft and the right conditions exist in my life for this activity to be possible, so I'm going for it.

Rafe taught me the basics of fur bearer behavior and how to make snares. Then he gave me a grubstake to help me get started and helped me choose and construct my first set. His efforts paid off for me, because I snared my first fox yesterday.

Here is a picture:



She is not the most spectacular specimen, but she is my first. With luck and a little skill, there will be many more.

I have also been learning about moose. The Fish and Game guys hosted a public meeting that described the how successful the ban on hunting has been in strengthening the moose population. I believe what they said because I have been seeing a whole lot of moose tracks. However, as my daddy says, "You can't eat tracks." Well, it finally happened. I bumped into moose. Man, those things are huge. This cow and calf had me so excited that I was shaking and had that wiggly feeling in my stomach. It was cool. If an out-of-season cow and calf make me feel that way, I wonder how I'll react to a bull in my sights?



I promised to write more about my new job and especially my students, but that will come in a few days. Sorry.