5 November, 2010 Caught my first ....

Had a beaver in one of my muskrat traps today.  It's the first one I ever caught and was totally unexpected.  It got it's front foot in one of the #1 longspring traps I had set for muskrats.  It may have been the second time for this beaver because the trap was sprung Thursday with nothing in it.  A trap this small shouldn't hold a beaver nor should it be able to get it's foot inside the small jaw spread of a trap this size but this one evidentally didn't put up much fight.  It was sitting on the "ground" when we came up in the canoe.  It wasn't a large one and I'd have preferred to release it but that wasn't going to happen.  You can use a catch stick to hold them while you release the trap but we were in a canoe in ten feet of water and the critter was on a floating mat of cattails which wouldn't have held a person's weight ... especially this person's weight!  So rather than go swimming I shot it.  I'll be skinning it today.

This is the catch for the day.

This is a floating mat of cattails that's drifted into the "shore" (which is more cattails floating on the water but anchored ... somewhat ... to the bank).  The next time the wind comes up there's no telling where it will drift off to.

This is another floating mat that's drifting around the lagoon.

Susan took advantage of the sunshine to caulk the screws in the roof before winter to keep it from leaking.

I put up the first panel on the rear of the Uhaul.

The second one installed...

And now the door.  Susan caulked around the edges with silicone caulk.

Late in the afternoon we went over to the lake to check the muskrat traps. See, at the far end toward the front left corner of the hood of the car?  There's a carrot there that must have been in the canoe. It felt onto the hood while we were driving. Being somewhat tapered it rolled back and forth in a bit of an arch and worked it's way toward the edge, but never quite fell off.  We were watching it, enthralled, and started laughing at ourselves! Funny what you find for entertainment! Half a mile later it finally rolled over the edge and was gone!