And so the line goes...

Been a while since updating, so figured it was time to catch up.  Classes have begun again and so time is shorter than it was earlier in the Christmas break.  Checks have been regular, usually on a two day run.  Sending my machine for a swim delayed things a mite on one gap in there, but as the pics of the day showed a bit ago, she is purring once more.  Here's some of the recent fun.  Some are repeats from recent pics of the day, but I'm sure that not everyone is checking all of those out...

The scene, when there is basically no snow on the tundra:

Got so warm (40-ish) for a spell that the beavers were coming out from under the ice to forage...they better get back in before that hole freezes...the following cold front moved in quick...

The mule...

Traps won't fire when they're frozen...damn rain, followed by frigid below-zero temps...

Sun hits ice, melting water vaporizes in the -15 temps, then freezes, and voila.  Game of jacks, anyone?

One toe is all you need...gotta love a snappy little # 1...

Oops..this was as she was being drug out...

This is what it looks like when a fox gets into one of your marten tip-up sets!!...

Porky-pine slayer!

Frosty Red.  A great way to be greeted on ANY morning...

 Marten tip-up set before:

Marten tip-up set after:

He's a beaut!!

Uppa's first fox = happy trapper!!  Good thing he got it, too...I got skunked that day..again!!

More pics to come.  Due to trapcheckers (other than us that is) we pulled most of the southern line and will be shifting north.  Posts to follow...

The '14-'15 Line, Check #1

Well, things started out like a house on fire, but we quickly ran into some points for thought.  There's my synopsis.  :)

THE SUSPENSE

We got a bit earlier start this morning, and arrived on the line not long after the 10AM-ish sunrise.  Upon relocating our trail in the semi-dark, we entered the slough, and followed it to where it's three branches 'Y' out, with us being in the long tail of the Y.  If we took the left fork of the Y, we head toward the wolverine cubby and a few sets on the burn edge, leading to some more sets around a large lake in some travel corridors.  The right Y heads southerly and has the main body of our marten line thus far.  When we got to this juncture, our decision was made easier by these:

Those, my friends, are WOLF tracks.  And do you know where they are heading?...around the back side of that point of spruce there, roughly 150 yards distant...is our wolverine set.  The cubby.  Oh. baby.  The adrenaline was in overdrive.   I kept telling myself. "There's no way you prepared for wolf.  The traps weren't as scent free as they they should be, the cubby is too tight for them to want to go in, just settle down, because they didn't go in there."  But still, the heart races.  :)  It's one thign to see wolf tracks on your line.  It's another to see them heading toward a trap you KNOW has the ability to actually hold them until you get there...but I just didn't think it was possible.  We did, however, decide to go this direction, as if you could have thought otherwise.  Around the trees we went.  Now the wolf tracks weren't along side our trail, they were IN our trail.  And there were MORE of them.  At least three, I think four.  Heart goes up a notch.  Now, as we approach the set, we have a lynx cubby and a marten set.  We stop to check those, but I can tell you, our eyes were on those wolf tracks more than our sets.  Nothing in either one, so we both hop back on our machines and head for the cubby.  Now, my head is saying "Wolf", and as Uppa gets to within about 30 yards of the cubby I see him leap off the still moving machine, grabbing his .22 as he went.  I rev up to his machine and immediately shut it off, eyes wide.  The first thing I hear Uppa utter from this distance through my facemask and hat sounds a lot like "Wolverine" !!! ( I later would find out he was saying "Moving" or some such).  Now my brain is receiving thoughts of both wolves and wolverines, all being carried in on a surge of straight, 200 proof adrenaline.  I grab the .223 and get over to the cubby in about two steps.  There is dark, weasel-like movement (brain says "Wolverine", again) under the moose head, and I hear growling directed towards Uppa...It is at this point I realize we have not a wolf, not a wolverine, but a.......marten.  I was flabbergasted.  What?!?!...  Not that catching a marten is ever a bad thing, but in this set, under these circumstances, it was enough to confuse a guy.  Once we got over the surprise, we got some shots of him, and proceeded with the dispatch.  Marten can make lightning look slow, and this guy wasn't holding still for any close-ups, though that would've been awesome.  Best I could get was these, as he tried to put a couple holes in us for the trouble we caused him...

After putting him down, we placed him into a conibear ( I like to MAKE SURE they are done before throwing them in the sled and 'forgetting' about them.  I am the guy who has had pheasants and rabbits come back to life in his vest pouch many a time...)  And this little fellow is like a Benjamin Franklin walking around on four legs, so we "ain't havin none o that".   Uppa then posed with him, the first fur of our new line:

Now, it was about at this point that something started to become terribly obvious.  The marten were refusing to climb.  For the rest of the day, we saw where marten after marten (some were the same one no doubt)  went to nearly EVERY single set we had out, and refused to climb.  Even the one we caught in the wolverine cubby had checked out one of Uppa's sets just yards away, before refusing it and heading into his demise - on the ground.  Here's his tracks heading up our trail to where we got him, after passing up the moose hide and spruce chicken bait Uppa had out for him:

Time after time, same story.  We started taking down pots, building ground cubbies, and generally changing things up.  I changed up lure, and am really thinking of changing from tainted moose scraps to beaver.  I thought about spruce chicken, but I really want to save those for lynx.  We'll see.  The next check though, will bring some serious change if the results don't improve.  We thought some of Uppa's sets would perform better after a bit, as he used some leaning tree sets that were lower to the ground, but no.  They would jump up and grab his moose hide attractors, chewing them right off the string, but they would NOT climb for the bait, or stick their heads in the traps.

THE MYSTERY BEAST

So, the first time we set, we saw some tracks.  Bigger than marten, with longer strides, but not as big as, say, wolverine.  However, all the weasels (marten and wolverine included) travel much the same way - with tracks that have two or three footprints in each set - not four.  Marten usually will have only two.  Wolverine three.  One foot, or two feet as the case may be, fall into the exact same spot as a foot before it, creating these track sets.  You can see the normal marten 'two' above.  These tracks came in threes.  Always three.  Never two.  And they were right in-between as far as size.  We said to each other, this is either the BIGGEST marten we'll ever see, or it is a 'baby' wolverine...   Well, this time we saw it again, and I had to take some pics.  Five toes. Five claws. With an elongated pad, not nice and circular like a normal marten track. What is it?....Fisher?...they're not supposed to be here...but then I guess people are killing mountain lions all over the US that aren't supposed to be there, too.....check these out:

  Either way, we're going to have to catch the damn thing and find out.  Just hope the snow allows the tracks to remain when we do get him so we can prove it, whatever it is. :)

THE SETS

So, to wrap up, here are some of the sets we've been making.  Our marten have totally refused to climb thus far, so cubbies and ground sets are the norm now.

A typical marten set of mine.  Classic 300 flowerpot with a spruce branch added to cover the spring and help steer them in.  You can see tracks in this pic of weasel, fox, and marten underneath...but again, no climbing.  These sets are weather proof except for the lure, which I usually place on top of the pot, and then have to scrape off snow and refresh.  Putting them on a spruce tree though keeps the set under the tree's boughs and dry, like this one has been staying.

A ground cubby, with a 1.5 longspring guarding the bait.  We also have been making these with tip up poles, as well, which will follow.

The tip up sets consist of a marten cubby, but we cut a long (8 ft. +) pole (live tree) with a "heavy end" (that sticks out way farther past the tree you attach it to) and a 'light end".  The trap chain attaches to the "light end".  Then drive a nail through the pole to secure it to a larger tree, like a spruce.  The single nail allows the pole to swing or rock like a see saw.  A loose wrap of wire or string is then run around the tree and pole for security, but to still allowing the pole to swing freely.  The trap is set once attached to the light end of the pole, which is kept near the ground.  Then drive another nail into the big tree, and hook a link of your trap chain over it.  This holds the pole in place, with tension on it.  The "heavy end" of the see saw pole is up in the air, and the "light end" is near the ground with the trap attached.  WHen the marten gets caught, he invariably jumps and pulls around enough to pull the trap chain off the nail, releasing the tension, making the heavy end of the see saw drop down, which of course then brings Mr. marten up into the air, dangling from the trap, swinging freely in the air so he cannot get any traction on anything.  Due to their high metabolism, marten expire EXTREMELY quickly.  The plus side of these sets is that your catch is up off the ground and cannot be chewed by voles or munched by fox, etc.  Here are some pics showing part of the setup.  I will do a 'tutorial' on these sets in the future.  Guaranteed.

Here's one all set up.  Pole is nailed to tree with wire around it, heavy end up.

Close-up of the nail holding the link of chain:

You can even use the pole to help with blocking while you are making the cubby:

Again, I'll have to make a tutorial post for this set soon.  Here are some more random sets we are trying on the line thus far:

Leaning tree:  (Not very weather proof)

Ground flowerpot set.  Semi-weather proof due to being under a large spruce.  (Notice the bare grass not flattened by snowfall) :)

Marten tracks in foreground leading under those deadfalls, where I made a set.  This is under a 'double' beaver lodge.

It's under that 'biggest' hole there, center-right.  Just a simple cubby in a natural hole, longspring guarding it.  Don't need to worry about marten being too trap-shy, which is nice...

Ta-ta for now.....

The '14 - '15 line has begun...

Well, well.  Here we are again.  The waiting now underway, the clock ticking as slowly as it possibly can...traps are set, and anticipation is high.  Sleepless nights sure to come for the next 3-4 months.  Did we take off all the safety catches?...Did I remember to lure that beaver dam set?...Is this the week the wolverine comes back through his range?....   Ohhhh, baby....gotta love it.

This past weekend, my new partner and I (his nickname is 'Uppa') got out to a place we have been talking about setting up for over a year now.  Trees were cut, trails have been made, and the fun meter is rising.  The line thus far is only a 35-40 mile loop, most of which is travel time to and from. Our maiden voyage produced only around 20 sets - 1 for wolverine, 3 for lynx, and the rest for marten.  On the first check, we will hopefully expand the line to at least double that.  Primarily the line will focus on the lynx and the wolverine, with the marten sets thrown in to keep us in gas money. :)  That, of course, is just the plan.  I haven't set a trapline yet that didn't evolve and change in goals, purpose, and results.  So we'll see.

Heading out towards the line, into a burning sun.  Uppa is actually one of those 'trees' out there, just below the left edge of the sun.

As this is just the 'opener' post, I'll keep it relatively short.  These pics also have been featured in the daily pics, too, if you are reading those... The highlight of the trip was this natural cubby (unbelievable) that we found on the edge of where the timber meets the old 'burn'.  It is a DREAM spot for a wolverine set.  Virtually weather proof, and in an ideal location.  This one will be keeping us up at night for a long time to come.

Here's a pic of the edge of where the burn meets the timber:

We set up the moose head with a #4 double longspring and an MB750.  Uppa chose to put his close to the bait (he's bedding ti in the pic), and I put mine in that snow covered spot at center right, so that when they step over, or jump down from, that log, it goes SNAP!  The trap is bedded in this pic.  I added the fencing at left to create a better opening for them to come in over the log. We shall see.  It can be a looooong time til a wolverine comes back.

The first check is going to be Saturday, so I am chomping at the bit.....  All posts from this year will have the Trapping '14-'15 season tag, for family and friends wanting to follow along...Here's to tight chains!!

A marten skinning post...

Many of the students and Trapping Club members have expressed that they 'think' they know how to skin a marten but aren't sure.  Although most of them have helped skin fox and beaver, among other furbearers, some have not had the chance to participate in skinning a Marten.  This post is mostly for that purpose - an archival post to help them check in, if and when needed.  No scenery pics or events out on the line here, just lots and lots of skinning pics.  I would like to thank Sarah for being an accompanying cameraperson, and putting up with me saying, "Can you get a shot of this?"....."How about one of this?...", and so on, throughout the process...  Some of the shots are possible with just one person skinning and shooting, but the majority are definitely not.

And so, we begin.  As with most facets of life in the bush, compromise, adaptation, and improvisation are necessary for success.  Like skinning all manner of fur in your kitchen, for example.  The first thing to do when skinning of course is to tie off to something from which your animal will hang.  Something solid and unmoving is preferable, as you will be putting pressure on it when pulling.  In this case, I tied off to my beaver fleshing board, which is conveniently mounted on the wall right next to our kitchen table.  :)  Kid you not, I was once complemented on our "homemade ironing board" by a dinner guest, and then promptly asked, "What is it, then?..." when Sarah and I told her over her plate of spaghetti that it wasn't an ironing board...  that memory brings back a belly laugh....

Anyway, here is the Marten, already hung.  I just use a simple loop on the end of each piece of string, through which you can pass the main length of string that is hanging down.  This creates a variable size, sliding loop that can be put over a hind foot, and will cinch down tight with the weight of the animal.
 



I like to start with just one hind foot tied up, and let the other swing free for a bit, as we will see.

When skinning for fur sale, not taxidermy, the very first cut I make is one that circles the entire back leg in a ring, just before the last joint of the foot (ankle).


After that first cut is made on each leg, I then get out my utility knife.  For the next step I like to use the 'hook-tip' blades, not regular straight razors.  They can be found in any hardware store or of course online.  These are a GREAT idea for anyone skinning ANYTHING.  They work like a zipper.


Now - what you want to do is, take the hook knife (or any knife you happen to be using), and make a straight line from the cut you made around the leg, leading towards the anus.  Such a line would follow the knife I am holding in this photo.


Here is the start of that cut with the hook knife:
  

And here is a shot after both cuts have been made, one from each ankle leading towards the anus:


***Important*** - I say "towards the anus" rather than "towards the base of the tail", for a reason.  In most cases, making this cut cross below the anus (as in, opposite side of the tail, toward the groin area) will extend the length of the fur on the back side, where it will be measured and sized.  If you cut right to the anus, or go above it (tail side), you will lose precious length that you can otherwise save yourself, and in the end, get more for your fur.  A 22 and 7/8 inch-long Marten skin will be graded a different size by NAFA than a skin that is just over 23 in., in other words.

So, now that those two cuts have been made, it is time to start skinning the two back legs.




After skinning the two back legs, you will come to a point where you need to cut above and below the anus in order to move forward on skinning the tail and pulling the skin down toward the body.
This pic shows the start of that, with the tail being held pointing toward the camera:


I make a cut straight across the base of the tail.  This cut connects the two open spots you created when you skinned out the two legs.


After that cut, you should see something like this:


Now, the tail.  Again, I use the hook knife here.  You will see two white ligaments that run up the sides of the tail within the muscle.  Use them as your guide, and make a cut running right up the center of the tail, evenly spaced between these two ligaments.






Once you have split the tail, then work along the sides of it with your knife until you can pull it completely free of the fur.  Careful!!  The skin is thin here!


After the tail is free, things get easier.  Just use your knife to skin the fur away from the groin area, careful to trim extra fat which usually accumulates here, and then its on to the simplest part of the whole skinning.  Now you can just pull down on the hide until you begin to approach the shoulder area.  It is there we will pick up with the pics.


Notice the cut on the front leg at the very bottom of that pic above?  When you start to get close to the chest, you will want to make circular cuts around the front legs, just behind the feet, same as you did on the back legs in the beginning.  The purpose of this will be shown later.  (*Reminder, this is only done when skinning for fur sale, and not taxidermy, in which case the feet/claws will be left on.)

Now, at this point, after the front leg cuts are made, I put my knives down for a while.  This next segment is done entirely by hand.  The skin around the shoulders and chest is usually very clingy, and it is easy to make a hole if you use a knife, as the line of where to cut can be deceiving.  So I don't cut at all.  I push and pull with my fingers, sliding them between the muscle and hide to separate the two.  The next sequence of pictures will show this.  Just keep pushing and pulling, poking with your fingers, turning the animal to work evenly around its front and back side.  Very few, if any, cuts will need to be made with a knife at this point, and that will mostly be determined by the state of the animal (cold, still warm, partially frozen, etc).















OK.  We have worked our way down to the start of where the two front legs protrude from the body.

Here they are, in a belly-side view - that is, the leg on the left is the marten's right leg, and vice-versa.
Notice the membranes, still attached, that are connected to both the hide and the muscle on the body.  For those, you will want the knives again.

VERY carefully and lightly, you want to cut away this red, fibrous membrane from the hide so that it will stay attached to the muscle and pull away from the hide.  Like so:




Remember, the more 'stuff' you get off of the hide now, the less you have to trim off later, when the skin is on the stretcher.

Here is a shot of the membrane removal on the other leg:


After that, it is finger time again - no knife for a bit.  Keep poking and pushing and pulling, working your way completely around the body and both legs.  The 'clingiest' stuff will be between the legs in the brisket area, where the hide has to stretch over both legs and the chest.  Just keep digging your fingers in between the skin and the meat, and eventually you will keep making progress.
  



Eventually, you will see that you have pulled the hide down enough to see where the edge of the leg is.  At this point, you can stick a pointer finger in between the hide and the meat of the leg and push hard enough to poke through.








Now you are almost through with the legs!

Once you have poked through, it gets easy to work your finger between the leg and hide and free the leg all the way around, working toward the foot.


Soon you can grab the leg firmly, hooking your thumb in the crook of the elbow,  and pull, using the other hand to separate the hide from the leg.  You will feel the leg pulling through the 'tube' of hide as you go:





As you get close to freeing the legs, you will notice that the feet - more specifically the claws, which are now on the inside of the 'tube', are capable of tearing the hide as you pull.  This is where the cut you made around the base of the foot comes in.  The hide is already free there, so that when you pop the foot out of the 'tube', the leg is completely free.





Now, once the legs are free, it is time to pick up the knife again and separate the hide from the shoulders, and then go for the neck and head.  We are almost done!

As soon as you uncover part of the neck, you will notice two large blood vessels, one running up each side.  DO NOT nick these with the knife, or you will be blotting up blood (possibly wiping up the floor, even) the whole rest of the time.  BE CAREFUL around them and use LIGHT pressure with the knife in these areas!!!




Alright.  Now that we are through the neck area safely, we begin to see the head musculature, and not long after that, on a marten, you will notice the start of the ears.  These are given away by a pale, off-white, lumpy-looking area.  This 'lumpiness' is ear cartilage you are seeing under the layers of tissue.  You can confirm this by poking it with a finger, and it will feel spongy.  I am pointing to the ear cartilage in this picture:


After exposing a bit of this cartilage (I like to leave as much as possible on the head and NOT on the ear skin), you will want to hold the knife at an angle PERPENDICULAR to the head and cut down.

 Remember, cut STRAIGHT down into the head, at a PERPENDICULAR angle, or you might cut off some of the ear, which you do not want.  Once you are all the way through, the part of the ear that is on the hide makes a nice hole to put a fingertip in and can be used as a great 'hold' to pull with.

When the ears have been separated from their cartilage, it won't be long until you get to the eyes.  Again, you will notice a difference in coloration where the eye is lying.  In this pic, I am pointing to this 'eyespot' with the knife:


Now, same thing as with the ear - at a PERPENDICULAR angle, cut down into the head while pulling.


Soon a hole will start to appear, as though you are cutting a hole in the hide.  This is just the opening where the eye sits, of course, and you will see the skin start to separate from the eye as the eye now becomes visible when the inside-out skin pulls away from the opening.




Repeat on the other eye, and now you are down to the bridge of the nose and cheeks/lower jaw area.



When you make the first cut that lies along the lips, it will again look like you are cutting  hole in the hide - only you can see teeth through the hole.  This is normal, you are just removing the inside out hide from the jaws.  Again, this 'hole' makes a great place to hook a finger in and pull.


Do this on both sides of the jaw, and continue along the bridge of the nose to keep up, turning the head as needed to keep everything coming off evenly.


As you get close to the nose, the tissue will get cartilage-like again, and when it does, you can cut straight down into it, slowly.  Upon doing so, you will be able to see the two nasal passages in this cartilage.  In the next two pictures, I am pointing to this spot with the knife:




Don't forget to cut STRAIGHT down to remove the nose, not angled back into the hide:


Here is a pic just before the last cut of all, which will completely remove the hide.  The two nasal passages in the nose on the hide are clearly seen as two pink holes here:


The hide is free!!!!!!!

Now, to the stretcher.

Slide the hide over the stretcher, trying to keep it centered as much as possible.  Use the natural edge you have in the upper lip and nose to hook the hide over the point of the stretcher.

Once the nose is 'hooked' on the end of the stretcher, and the rest of the hide is hanging down over the stretcher, turn it as needed to keep it centered while working your way down from the head towards the tail, pulling as you go, to get every bit of stretch out of it that you can.




Get some pushpins ready, and when you get to the bottom, pull all the slack you can out and KEEP TENSION on the hide while you start to pin it down.  :)   I always stretch the tail side of the hide first to get the most out of this back side of the pelt, because it is the one that will be used to size-grade your fur.  This is another reason for that 'money cut' mentioned in the beginning.


 I like to just let the front legs stick out at this stage - when I turn the hide fur-side out, I will tuck in these 'stubs' and they will just remain inside the finished, dried fur.



Once you have a couple pins in there, you can relax a bit on the pulling  and let the pins do their job.  Add more as necessary to get your fur as even as you can, to improve the presentation.  Don't forget pins to spread the tail and rear legs as well, to speed the drying.


Now is the time, before the pelt dries, to trim all chunks of fat/membrane/tissue off the pelt with your knife.  I like to use more pulling than cutting when doing this, and in fact, I purposely use a dull knife for the job.  We can still make holes at this point!

Once the pelt has been trimmed, and had time to dry (which will vary greatly depending on weather, temperature and humidity of where you are drying, etc.), it will feel a little like parchment paper, and will even make a dry scratchy sound when you run a fingernail across it.  All 'moist' looking areas should be  gone at this point, with no visible coagulated fat or beads of oil.  Marten are one of the easiest animals to get good and dry, but still....this is important.

That said, now pull the pins and by grabbing the end of the nose, pull the skin off the stretcher.  Then tuck the nose down into the center of the fur, basically turning it inside out like a sock.  Work the hide bit by bit with your thumbs carefully so as not to tear it.  A properly dry pelt will crinkle at this stage, but is not quite so dry that it leaves a crease at a bending point.  Too dry means a chance of tearing when turning it right-side out.  When the pelt is fully fur-side out, it can be put back on the stretcher, same way, but now the skin side is in of course.  Hook the nose on the stretcher end and work your way down towards the tail, straightening and pulling as you go, keeping things centered.  Many marten, unless rather dark, will have a stripe of color down the middle of their back which can help somewhat with this.   Here is the marten we just skinned, fur-side out and back on the stretcher.  Note the stripe I was talking about:


This one was pretty large!  Here's how large.  Anything 23" long and up from nose to the end of fur on the back side is graded as a 2XL.  This guy (a male) was nearly 26" on that measurement!  In fact, from nose to tail, he measured an even 35 inches!!  One of the biggest Marten I've ever skinned.




There are many, many, tips and tricks a person will pick up along the way over time regarding pelt handling, including how to cut, how to stretch, how to pin, how to comb, dry, tumble, etc...could go on forever.  I am still learning every season, and I won;t go into everything here - but at least I have gotten you to where you can get your marten on the stretcher and dried successfully.