Rain in January

After a successful trip out on Boxing Day and returning the first week of January, we are getting settled again and unpacking all the goods.  We also all came back with a cold which was to be expected, though I must say it was nice that none of us has had a single sniffle up until now.
We also came back to a huge turn in the weather.  Tim and Martina mentioned that it did not warm up past -16, and that was for only one day.  The whole time we were out they dealt with mostly -20 temperatures during the day and -30 at night.  We also keep the heat going in each others cabins while they are out.  The water comes from our cabin to theirs, so keeping the fire going in those tempuratures is important.  Our stove can last 6-8 hours before it needs more wood. 
But now we have been having +5 daytime tempuratures and -1 at night.  The last 2 nights it has actually poured and the days are bringing drizzle once in a while.  Our snowmen lasted one day.  The lake looks like it would in May when the ice is rotten and ready to go out.  There is so much water under the snow that you actually push this huge spray of water in front of the sleds, so lake travel is out for now.  Our rink has been self flooded, it actually more resembles a wading pool.  This type of weather actually makes it hard to decide what to do in a day without getting soaked.  The kids go through lots of mitts and get quite wet, the snow is so saturated with water.  After lunch we noticed the clouds breaking so we headed out to our sawmill that we have set up at the gold claim.  After snowshoing around and packing down a spot, we dug out the mill and moved it to a more workable area.  The claim is at a higher elevation than the lake, by close to 1500 ft.  So the snowfall there is a lot more, but overall this year we are still under the normal snowfall levels.  We had not gotten much snow that amounted to anything since November, otherwise it has been a few inches here and there.  And this last change in the weather is making what we have drop. 
So we sawed up a few boards, just enough to build a drag for our trail to smooth out the humps and bumps that it is getting from all the use.  We eventually hope to saw more lumber for next summer and some projects we have in mind.  The first being a tent frame or two for our wall tents, some bunks for inside and then if time and lumber permits, a storage shed.
Tim and Martina are on a trip out right now and they have taken out the dried fur for the first sale of this year.  We won't know for almost a month what the results are.  When the fur is taken in, the fur depot staples everything we bring with a bar code and those codes are registered under our trapping license and trapline numbers.  Then all the fur from potentially all around Canada (if the other trappers choose to send to the same Auction House) gets sent to Winnipeg.  The furs are put into lots, which means they are split up according to type, size and grade of the fur.  Then the fur lots are auctioned off to fur buyers, who are domestic and mostly international buyers.  Each lot price is entered at the sold value and if you have barcoded fur in that lot, then that's the price you get, and so on.  The prices are not what they used to be, and every year there are fluctuations.  Sometimes we even have fur left unsold and it will be kept until another sale date, there are usually 3-4 a year.  We are still trapping as the season is still open for most animals.  Currently we are at 94 marten, 14 beaver, and the same for the lynx and wolverine, 1 each.  We have actually decided to hang on to the wolverine in case we want to get him taxidermied.  I think the squirrel numbers are around 65.  All in all, they are pretty good numbers.