Oh boy a lot has happened since I was last hanging around on tumblr.
I bought a kit f.ox at a local fair. The MN Trappers Association had a booth with pelts on it, and I talked to the guy for quite awhile about conservation, traps, tanning, etc. The f.ox was marked at $29, and the t.anuki faces were $4 a piece. I only had $15 in cash after buying the trilobite (only $10! And it's real!) and aragonite (only $5! It's close to the size of my fist!) At a different booth. My mom had $10 so he knocked the cost down to $25, and after I gave him the cash my mom said she was surprised I didn't buy one of the faces, so he gave me one for free.
He told me about a trapping store not too far from where I live, which we've been to many years ago to buy gopher traps, so I went with mom about two weeks ago. She bought me this lovely red c.oyote for my Christmas gift, but sadly I don't get to hang it on my wall until Christmas.
My mom took a two week road trip down south to visit her cousin in FL and some friends in nearby states and brought me one of those tourist gator heads. Tacky, but I love it.
And for the more exciting stuff, I got a new job after the college year ended. I've been there for about four months now, and about a month ago they promoted me to a supervisor position. A couple weeks ago I bought a new car, a 2011 Corolla. My check book definitely felt that blow, but the van I was driving was twenty years old and falling apart rapidly.
I'm taking this year off of college to pay off my loans some, and because I bought a car. I'm excited to have more time this year to work on deads. A guy my mom knows who works for the DNR and is big with the MN trappers offered to teach me how to trap and tan hides, so that's pretty damn exciting.
