Poleyard Yukon # 4

   While living in the “Poleyard” we had observed mice running around, especially at night. One rather fat one seemed to always take the same track from under the trailer and across a clearing to a small woodpile we had started for the fire.  Sometimes it nearly ran over my foot!  My camping partner decided it was time to start trapping.  Talk about boredom setting in!  So thereafter she set two traps with peanut butter for bait every night before we went to bed.  As I was always first one out of the trailer for a  smoke in the morning, she would ask me how many mice we had caught. Usually we had caught two, but one morning the whole trap was gone!  I wondered if a squirrel or something bigger had gotten in the trap and took a cursory look around for the trap but knew my partner would put in a better search so didn't pursue the matter.  Eventually the trap was found in the bush and we figured our local fox had nabbed it and taken it off while she decided how to get the mouse out.

  The other wildlife we had were some Whiskey Jacks. There were the parents and then four young ones that came into camp and were fed leftovers.  When the corncobs were thrown to them they entertained us with a bit of “log/corncob burling” and were quite good at it. In the beginning one youngster complained bitterly that his parents would no longer feed him and I called him “Squawker”

Because we were feeding the birds I was thrilled to see the fox come in to help herself to the goodies. I got no less then seven shots of her on camera.  Unfortunately she was still not shed out and so was not as lovely as she could have been, but I was glad to have seen her anyway. She grabbed some food and left and then returned until someone started talking, then she left for good.

  Meanwhile back at the trapline, we usually cremated the mice bodies in the fire at night but on one occasion, because it had been windy, we hadn't had a fire.  There were four mice bodies in the firepit and another two from the morning and I got my partner to take a photo of our harvestings.

 Would that mosquitoes would be trapped as easily! They were very plentiful.  I gave “first blood” every morning at the outhouse and then throughout the day and evening as well.  They were more than pesky they were downright viscous!  Using mosquito coils and sprays helped a bit but one night I had a dozen bites on each ankle and the itching was driving me crazy! Luckily the medicine cabinet held some Calamine lotion and I haven't felt anything so soothing in a long while.

Soon boredom would be set aside as we ventured forth to Haines Landing to see my cousin Carl and his wife Joanne.  It would only be  for overnight but it was most healing for me.~~~~