Put the last one on the board tonight. We sold two to the taxi market and the other 8 are going to Canada for the March sale with the rest of our fur.

This is how I freeze them. I have already fleshed this one and then wrapped it up tight in a heavy duty ziplock bag with no air in it.



Here is my tub of borax. I have 8 lbs of borax in here and it works great to powder them up. Keeps the mess to a minimum.



Drop them in the borax and work it into every nook and cranny.


Here is a piece of loose skin that I will cut off. the borax breaks some stuff free that you didn't see before.



I especially work it into the head area. You can see that I split the ears.



I slowly lift them out of the powder and shake it free of all the borax that isn't sticking. Careful here cause this stuff feels bad when you breath it in!



Here is my board which I bought from a fellow T-man member who makes them here in MN. Not sure if he wants the advertisement but if he says so I'll tell you who I got them from. Tnhey work great and he gave me an adjustable Marten stretcher that I am hoping to break in next winter.



I put them skin out for 25-30 minutes if I have the time, which I do tonight. I can probably get them off the board a day earlier by going skin out for a little while.

When going skin out I don't get too technical cause I am just wanting air to hit it for a bit. Just get the back centered and a little square.



Then off to the front...Nothing special here either- for now...



Now is when I'll cut off the bottom lip. I wish I had done these before I got the CITES tags on them cause it doesn't sit perfectly flat where the tag is, but oh well.

I also drop in my front leg mini-stretchers. These are made from a plastic coat hanger.


I flipped this one in 30 minutes, but it depends on temp and humidity in your area. When they start to get wrinkley that is time. I let one got too long and it took a long time and all my strength to turn the front legs-



now is time to get ctitical on the stretcher. You can see I have it marked at 36 and 40" then every inch after that.



Get the head centered and the nose as low as you dare go then center the tail and pull it as far as you can. This one will go past 40"



Finish the tail out then square up the back



Flip it over then work on the front. This is also when I spread the stretcher out. this one went 8"


Keep working the legs around to the front and square them up so they are even on the length and the sides. I guess I missed some pis here....

I put a pin on each side of the lips cause the cites tag holds it out so much. You'll notice I am wearing gloves here. I like the Nitrel ones that MTP sell over the medical ones. they cost twice as much but I skun, fleshed, and stretched 21 mink the other day with the same gloves and never had a tear. If you don't wear gloves when working with borax it will dry out your hands something fierce.



Now put the mini stretchers back in the front legs...



i put the pin on the inside so it doesn't hold the legs closed. You want as much air as possible going through there...



Pin the both straight up towards the chin nice and even like...

I comb it out here and then stand it up belly out and run a fan on it 24/7 till it is done. I take them off the board when I can pull the pin off the front legs and they are stiff. This is the last thing to dry.



I find myself pinning, pulling the pins, then replacing them a lot to get it how i want it.

There you go. I think they look much nicer this way than a traditional style stretch. I haven't sold any yet this year so I have no idea if it will bring us anymore $$, but I feel better about how they look and that is important too.


Here are the rest of our cats from this year. 2 are at the taxi now...

Very nice Michael! Wish I would have known how to properly put up cats when I trapped down south. Thanks for posting.

My borax tub is just like yours Michael ... I put a couple cats up tonight too..

Nice job.

Can you make some Georgia cats look like that?

lol

Yup Tim, bring me with and I'll show you how! Some of these are pretty decent for MN cats-

Nice pants, my wife has a pair just like them!

nice looking cats you have there. As for the britches I'm not so sure. Lee

Awesome looking job Michael, must be a quick learner. I see your all dressed for tomorrow, thanks for the advertizing. DON.

ok, ok, ok- so those are my jammies.

Yes, Stretcherdon is who I got my stretchers from. I was in a bind and he had some new ones made up so I ran over and got them. Then he offered to come over to my place (150 mi round trip) to help me flesh and stretch! Trappers are the best!

Thanks Don!

Nice clean fur shed wish mine looked like that.lol Nice job on them cats.

Later Longear

Not a furshed, rather a fish cleaning room in the basement at the cabin.

When I take them off the stretcher I rub borax all through the fur again and it really cleans them up. then I vacume them with a shopvac.

what does splitting the ears do? where do you split them at on the ears?

very nice looking cats Micheal....i think the legs look better that way,my opinion

Thanks for the info I'm as new as new can be to trapping and still trying to learn the in's and out's. Do you split the tail or do them like coon?

Nice job.

Do you use the borax only on fur out ones like cat or do you use it on fur in like coon too?

Good eye Joel, As you can see a couple are correct, but I didn't cut on the line the first few.

I only borax the fur out critters.

f you are wondering how long they stay on the stretcher I took that cat off last night and it is stiff as a board.

Beautifull, wish all the cats I buy were handled like yours. One comment, leave the back legs longer, it makes the cat look bigger. My name is Don Judkins and I belong to cat-anonymous. Buyer 35 plus years. Great pictures. Don

Thanks for the extra tip, Joel. I must have missed that one along the way.

Folks, in case you didn't know it, if I'm not mistaken, that is the man that michael, and me, and you can thank for first coming up with the Nevada stretch.

Great job, Michael! I can see you take a lot of pride in your work (not so sure about your "Jammies", though)LOL.

Thanks for sharing.

That's an awesome shirt you have too.

don,

I am not sure they could be any longer. I went all the way down to the paw almost. They might look off cause I didn't cut along the coloration line on the legs at first. I made more of a straight cut down the middle not realizing how they would go on the stretcher.

I'll have you know those jammies have been around the world from elk camps in CO and ID to my wedding in Mexico and beyond. Those things have stood the test of time and are a welcomed item in my closet~ lol

That Nevada stretch has been around a lot longer than you think. I have been putting up fox and coyote that way since the late fifties. I learned from an old Norski and I'm sure he didn't start it. He just said that the canines looked better stretched that way. Asa, did your dad stretch that way? Anyone know where that style originated?

I have heard many times that at least on cats it was more recent than that. I also heard that Blaksley was doing it before anyone- who knows though. you do fox and yotes that way? Probably looks pretty sweet. I sortf did our Fisher Nevada style, but not exactly

Nevada stretch fox

Hey cameron2 ive seen youre fox,notice theres only three put up the rest are in the freezer hoping for better prices next year.I'll admit i got a lot of ideas from the fallon sale,i recieved the fox award two years ago remember me.

Those are some good looking Fox!

How did you freeze them to keep them from frostburing?

Food saver vacum bags,we will find out next year if it works

Awesome post.

lol

very nice job on the cats and foxes!!

are your boards the same as what the fur harvest site has?

I do my cat's the same way, but I do not put fur side in at all.

I do the borax thing, but I keep mine in a 5 gallon bucket.

When I do cat's I will pour my borax into a jet sled that I use for ice fishing. The sled in very long and I can fit a whole stretched and dried cat in it, for the final cleaning.

I do not know who invented the Nevada style stretch, but this I so know for sure. When I here names like:

Joel Blaksley

Steve Wood

William Ilchik

Otis Latham

Tracey Truman

I will listen up because they know a thing or two about cat's.