Trapping

 Oren's New Sled

Trapping season opened on the 1st. I headed out onto the lakes to try my hand at catching muskrats. I set traps on Thursday. I planned to check them Friday, Saturday, and then pull them on Sunday. Friday evening I went out after work and checked my traps. I caught 5 muskrats.

 
 Muskrats

Saturday I went out fishing in the morning. We drove down to Ikpiks by Honda. The trail was a lot smoother than I thought that it was going to be but it was still pretty rough. We spudded a couple of holes and started fishing. I walked around an did some exploring. Caleb got a couple trout right away. I started fishing. I saw a couple of big trout and had one try to bite my egg. I missed it though. I tried a few other places nearby, with no luck. A skunk just snuck up on me. I was purposely avoiding whitefish trying to get trout when they came by, next thing I know it was time to head back. I didn't end up catching anything. It was a nice day to be out though.

 
 Over the Tundra

I found out later that a few people at the pit caught a lot of trout, and our neighbor Hilda was catching them through the ice right down the bank from our house. Saturday evening I went out to check my traps. The first two sets were frozen over. I decided to pull them. Then I decided that I would just pull all my traps. I had three more sets. Another was frozen, one had a muskrat, and the last one was full of weeds. There are a few more muskrats left, but I am satisfied with catching 5 in three daystrapping.


 
 Cubby Set

Oren is really trying to talk now. He consistently says fish, trap, ball, pop (for popcorn), and diaper. When we say "Oren go get a diaper" he dances into his room saying "diaper, diaper, diaper...." He tries to copy other words too, but he doesn't remember most of them. He loves to draw and color on anything and everything. We have big crayon scribbles on the linoleum. Today he was trying to get me to color with him, and I would pretend like I was sleeping on the floor. He would come over to me and pull my hair and reach his arms under my face to lift my head up. Then he would open my hand and put a crayon in it. He wasn't letting me or Kayla stop coloring. When he sees food that anybody has he acts like he has never eaten a day in his life. He walks up to the person and eyes up the food and says, "nnnmmmm, nnnnmmmmm" or will stick a hand out and babble in a questioning tone of voice.

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