Well, this weekend, I gathered up all the canine traps and equipment. There were still traps hanging on trees to air out skunk odors, a few in the pack basket, some in a wheel barrow, some in plastic totes and a few laying here and there. I sorted everything, looped drag chains and tied them with zip ties, zip tied bundles of rebar stakes together in convenient sized groups, checked for pan levelness, and opened all the jaws and put the end swivel between the jaws to keep them open a bit. Replaced one missing dog and rebuilt one #2 Bridger that had a fight with a tractor tire and lost.

Everything is now neat and organized, sitting in 2 wheel barrows, covered with old plywood, waiting for my new order of logwood and wax to arrive in the mail. I also ordered 2 dozen cable stakes and a driver, which is a first for me. In my excitement, I also ordered another dozen #2 coilsprings, more tracker drags, more machine chain, quicklinks, swivels and some other odds-and-ends.

Saturday night, I opened a bottle of call lure, dipped a stick in it and put it by the barn. The next morning, a friend stopped by and asked if I had seen the skunk that apparently had strolled by. Looks like my call lure is still good!

I started cleaning up the fur shed this weekend and fixing a window that had been broken in one of the many storms that came through this spring. working at a cemetery, I get pretty busy in the spring and don't have time to do it sooner. I still have not done anything with my traps yet, although it sounds like I don't have near the number of traps you and other people have. I have maybe 5 dozen all together.

im getting ready to move but i will have a nice trapping shed that will need to be organized i still need to do everything to get ready i have 12 weeks to get everything done

Same thing here I just paint dipped my water traps and in the process of gettin some logwood dye to get the others done.

I received my order of 100, pre-printed trap tags today. Still waiting for the other items to arrive. I found an old packet of Berkshire double stake clips on a shelf last night and they are soaking in a vinegar/water solution now to remove the oil and then rust up a little.

IK swept out my fur shed and got things cleaned up. Lucky for me I dyed and waxed my canine traps and all my water traps were dipped earlier. I am leaving for the NTA and hopefully trying to sell some traps I don't use or I have excess traps.
I have inventoried my lure, bait and lures and should be good to go. Need to work on some staking ideas, but mostly it will be prospecting some new areas this year.

Bryce

All my orders were delivered yesterday by UPS. Right now, everything is soaking in a vinegar/water solution to remove all the factory oil---which is already floating to the top of the pail's. Next, is cutting the machine chain up into 4' lengths so I can add crunch proof swivels to all the ends and make 8' long chains for the new drags. Then, night latching the new #2 Bridger's and shortening the factory chains to about 10". Then, everything will get left outdoors for a week to rust up a little.

Next weekend, I will be cleaning, boiling in logwood and waxing everything.

Ron, Do you think the vinegar/water solution is better than a baking soda/water solution, Thats what I've been using. I am thinking specifically of K9 traps. Thank you, Joe

A question. Why are you intentionally rusting perfectly good equipment?

Boots:
I have never tried the baking soda/water solution, so I don't know. The vinegar has worked for me so I keep doing it. It removes the oil and turns the steel a darker color, so it is good for me.
Ric:
I have found that logwood dye sticks better to slightly rusted equipment than it does to new equipment. I let everything rust a little bit and then I boil it in "The Works", rinse and then into the logwood solution it goes. Then the wax pot. My traps come out very black and it works for me.
Ron