Yotes Be Howlin'

 

About 3 am last night the coyotes on the property must have caught something just outside my house. There was a terrible ruckus and the sounds of animals fighting. Something was definitely killed out there last night, the cries were just too pitiful. It only lasted a minute or two and all was quiet. By the time I got to the window all was quiet and none of the motion lights had gone off. So, I can only guess as to what was going on. Just after I had lain back down the coyotes started that blasted singing. It is such a lonesome eerie sound at 3 in the morning. I hoped my two barn cats were not on the receiving end of the attack. Before I wrote this I went out to give them a little food and both Fuzzy and Ghost were waiting patiently. So my only hope is they caught that dang groundhog that has been plaguing me and my garden.

Now when I was about 13 years old, back in Harlan County Kentucky, I spent plenty of winters trapping. We didn’t have coyotes back then. There are plenty of them now. We didn’t have a lot of black bear like now and we didn’t have a lot of deer and turkeys. They had nearly been hunted to extinction in our neck of the woods. I am glad they are making a comeback. Some folks are not too happy to live with the bears. They see them as destructive and dangerous. I don’t know how I feel about them. There are really not many black bear attacks on record. I had a blind great-great uncle, that I don’t even remember his name, who was attacked by a black bear out by his woodpile and he managed to kill it with his pocket knife. This was family lore for years. I can’t decide if I believe it or not but never let the truth get in the way of a great story. They said the bear came upon him and started to maul him. He was able to get out his knife and cut the bear in the throat area and it died. Supposedly he was only in the bed for a couple of days and was back out at the woodpile working away. You either get tough or don’t get old.

Now that I am old, trapping of this sort is off my radar. At 13 I could run to the 3 mile spring at the top of the mountain. Today I don’t even want to ride a four wheeler up there. But I used to spend plenty of time in the woods checking and setting traps. Friday after school I would head out with a satchel full of traps and my carbide light. I used an old vinyl mining bag known locally as a powder bag. It was yellow and had a strap that went around your shoulder. I could get 10 #1 traps, 7 #2’s and several snares in there. I never had a lot of luck with snares. I set a lot of them but they were never as fruitful as leg hold traps.

The number one victor trap was perfect for musk rats. We bought all our traps locally at Farmers Supply Company in Harlan. They are long gone today. They sold Southern States Coop feed and seeds, as well as all the other supplies that a mountain farmer would need. Paw even bought SS stock Certificates; I think he got them for buying feed. I would take the trap to the river and set it just in the water with a piece of apple or turnip dangled above the water by a stick. There was a wire placed so the trap could slide down the water into deeper water when a muskrat stepped in the trap. Never had to worry about beavers they were not around then like they are today. When the muskrat headed for deep water he couldn’t swim with the heavy trap on and would drown rather quickly. In the morning you could retrieve your trap and quarry by pulling up the wire and reset for the next night.

Once the 6 or 7 muskrat traps were set I would head into the woods to set the rest of the number ones for rabbits. Rabbits love apples and lettuce and cabbage, wild rabbits don’t care for carrots too much. So my entire childhood I knew the lies that cartoons told by an early age. More people today need that kind of wisdom. Anyway my hopes were to catch a rabbit and use it as bait for a mink and fox. Rabbit fur wasn’t worth much but it was worth a lot as a lure.

Muskrat was great at funding much of the operation but a muskrat pelt was worth only about $2 back then. But, there were lots of them. A possum was only about $1.25 and a raccoon was only $5. The real money was in mink $25, grey fox $30, Red Fox $35 and Bobcat at $55. I only caught one bobcat during my entire trapping and I messed up skinning it and only got $8 for it.

Rabbit heads were the perfect lure for mink. Again we would set along a river bank with a wire that ran into deep water. I would either dig a hole back into the bank or set up rocks so that it made a hole with only one entry point. Place the rabbits head at the back of the hole with a stick to hold it in there. Then place a trap at the opening with a number one victor and cover lightly. Mink will head for the water just like a muskrat when that trap closes and will drown rather quickly.

Then it was back into the woods with that rabbit carcass to set a fox set. Fox are really smart critters. Many a weekend was spent trying to catch fox with no luck and no bait left. But a few foxes succumbed to the hanging set with a rabbit carcass nailed to a tree with a number 2 trap set at the bottom of the tree. I checked those traps at daylight on Saturday morning, because the fox was still alive and I didn’t want them to suffer any longer than they had too. Even at 13 I was still a very responsible trapper. I would check my traps rebaiting and resetting as necessary. Then it was home for the skinning and stretching. I had several boards that I used for stretching hides. I would skin for what seemed like hours. Some Saturdays and Sundays it was hours but most days it was only a couple of hours.  I took pains with the skinning. It takes a long time to get the hide clean without nicking or cutting into the fur. Then you have to dispose of the carcass. Most furbearers you just don’t want to eat.

Now my cousin married a man that his family ate muskrat. But that was a bridge too far for my family. Dad said he would have to be really hungry to eat a muskrat. This from the man who’s grandmother made the best possum you could ever eat. Anyway, I had to find out for myself what it tasted like. So one Saturday I built a fire and took a skillet and fried me up some muskrat.  Once fried up muskrat is a dark meat almost like venison or liver. I think it tastes a lot like liver. It was kind of a cross between pig liver and chicken thighs. I don’t think I would want a steady diet of it but in a pinch it would be a very serviceable meal. I have eaten possum and raccoon but have never eaten fox, bobcat or mink.

I have a favorite fox trap set that was taught to me by my uncle Floyd. But I think I will save that for another time.  I hope this weeks’ blog finds you well. I have enjoyed being here with you for just a little while and hope you come back. My old legs will not carry me on those three and four mile hikes to set traps any more. But boy my old brain sure remembers the excitement. That is one of the disadvantages and advantages to getting older, wisdom. I am wise enough to know that Life, Like Homesteading is a Marathon not a Sprint – Slow Down and Enjoy the Ride!! 

 

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