As the first week of trapping season ends...

...all I can do is sit in front of my computer and sigh.

This is a good place for vicarious trapping thrills. I'm going to have to resurrect the ATA (Armchair Trappers of America).

Jim

Well Jim get off your duff and set some traps.

If I could walk right, I would. My ankle is messed up from botched surgery, and needs another operation (fusion).

I gave up my snow machine line some years back for health reasons. It wasn't a wilderness line by Alaska standards, since it only went about five or six miles from a dirt road. But I had to quit for health reasons.

In recent years I could have trapped off the road system, but there is so much competition and theft that I got discouraged.

Yet, this year has been so warm that the waters are all still open, and I imagine the beavers, otters, and muskrats that might be had more easily than most years.

Jim

You ain't got a grandkid to help Minka on the trap line?

A "botched surgery"..... you know any good attorneys? Sounds like it might be a gold mine.

James, I know what you are speaking about. I miss trapping big time. It isn't worth having to live out the rest of my life in a wheel chair. Dang I miss seeing those coyotes cutting flips and cats snarling. Pulling up a beaver from a drowning rod and seeing ole water torpedo in my conni. Our bodies do eventually give out and we must accept it to a degree.

Well, considering that the doctor that screwed it up was last talking about amputation, I may have a case. Get this: I went to see him for a flat foot, and now he's talking about cutting it off.

But it's very hard to win negligence cases against doctors, unless the doc was an alcoholic or something like that.

Tort reform has done a lot to protect doctors from the consequences of their own negligence. I won't be suing anyone because the deck is stacked against me; and as a former lawyer, I know just how high it's stacked.

Jim

What a dud doctor. I hope your fusion goes well.

Dang James hope you find a better Doctor. Sadly we all have to accept our limitations.

hang in there James. It sucks but stay positive. A positive attitude and a no quit disposition has carried many a warrior through great trials and disparities.

lots of aches and pains here but i'm battlin em.

maybe find someone that'd let ya go along a little.

the market is the only thing keepin me from goin nuts.

hang in there and write a story or article for a t-mag.

My oldest is a ten-year-old granddaughter. Old enough to take on a trapline, except that I can barely walk. Can walk with a cane to the bathroom or into doctor's office, but not much more than that.

Too bad there's no place to trap right from a truck up here, like I see some of the guys doing. Drive up to the set, grab fox, drive on to the next. (My dreams don't include coyotes.) I could even carry one of those portable electric drills for making dirt-hole sets.

This year I could punch in some dirt hole sets! It's warm enough to cover a trap with dirt. I know where I could pick up a few fox.

Maybe next year.

Jim

Yeah, I've been thinking about writing another story for F-F-G. Some years back I had an article in that mag about catching a mink in Ohio.

I was thinking of writing an article about two wolves I snared up here. I'm pretty busy with other writing though.

Jim