Wildlife & Game

We never had beaver around here until the mid 50's. The first pair made a dam on the back side of Bottom's Swamp. Pete Abbey, an old trapper, tried to catch them but couldn't. I tried trapping them in 1967. It didn't do any good until I finally found out how to make a pole set. Then in 1969 they made a Conibear trap. Between the leg hold and a Conibear trap we could clean a beaver colony right out. We trapped with snowshoes until 1970. Then we bought a ski-do snow machine with the money from the 69 trapping costing $650.00. This made trapping too easy! We cleaned the beavers right out. I think that year I caught 50 beaver and some otter. The beaver were stretched as round as you could get them. They bought the hides by the inch. You added the length and width in inches. A big one was called a super blanket. In the 50's they paid $1.00 and inch or $80.00 for and 80 inch beaver hide. When I trapped I got $50.00. The smaller ones were a lot less. My years of hunting and trapping is in my trappers book that Alan has. Prices and how many were caught are recorded in that book.

I think that in the year 2000, the water animals must have caught a disease. Beaver, muskrats and otters were a low levels and the trapping kept them down so the disease didn't bother them. In the 60's, I caught Tularemia from muskrat trapping. I cut my thumb while skinning them so it entered my system. I was checked by fellows from Atlanta, Georgia Animal Disease Control laboratories who drew blood from me. Now ground animals have rabies, distemper and mange which goes hi circles.

The fall of 2000 saw a large crop of acorns, beechnuts and apples. The deer and turkeys took to the bigger woods and so on the farm we didn't have the game that we usually have. We only saw three buck here. The deer herd, I don't think, is on the gain. The state has a youth hunting day. Muzzle, bow, arrow and rifle have helped with the decrease. They have a three deer limit bow now which is too much.

Moose have come to our woods in the valley since the 80's. Maybe one or two a year will go across the farm. Ralph Baslow on North Street had two on his lawn eating on his trees. I took pictures of them. We see their tracks in the plowed and harrowed meadows where they pass through.

Bobcats are here to stay. Forty years ago you might have seen where one of them passed through on the snow. I shot two of them in the 60's and now we see them often on the farm land. Back a few years ago, we saw a mother cat with two little ones. We saw them all over the farm. After that, I have seen them in the corn pieces when I was picking corn. They would come out and look at me and then go back in. I saw three places where they had caught turkeys along the side of the corn pieces. They den in the old Lime Kiln waste stone pile. Ray and Alan shot a 38 lb.. cat a few years ago at the quarry.

The houses are coming in fast so you have to watch where you shoot. I predict that rifles will be a thing of the past and shotguns will take over. Animals are going to hide around houses and lots that are going to grow up to brush. Seventy years ago we had a lot of open land because the sheep kept the brush down. Now I am beginning to seen the new generation of hunters which is great. I hope that they have as much fun as my father and I had along with my boys.

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