Today was a great day on every level. My eight year old grandson Aiden, came on the line with me. I ran one of my shorter loops, 20 km, as it was -23 when we started out, and i don't want to make it an endurance contest at his age. Once the grandkids hit 13 I work them like a rented mule.
We set a goal of three marten and I told him I'd bonus him up $5 for every fur we caught, except for squirrels. He had to bring me luck and follow my instructions all day to earn his loot. We hit the first set and had a marten, big smile all around. We picked up a couple more marten in short order and Aiden was adding up the $15 in his head.
Then we hit a marten dry spell as we got into a lynx hotspot. The lynx walked through three trail snares without getting caught. The warm weather had caused the snow to drop a couple feet and my fencing had fallen over. I fixed them up with some advice from him. We had a trailside fire and lunch and continued on. We hit one of my cabins after picking up only a weasel, which he insisted was worth $5 as it wasn't a squirrel, now he's at $20.
We only had five sets left before we hit the truck and he was concerned the payday was over. I told him not to worry as one of my favourite sets was just ahead, but when we pulled up it was empty. Now we were both thinking it was a three marten day. But when we hit the next trap we had a marten, and the next one, and the next one ,and the next one. We ended up with seven martens and one happy grandson, $40 richer. But I'm the one who really hit pay-dirt, spending a day with my boy.
