Skinned the animals today. I remember there was a musk gland on the mink. I saw some puss-looking stuff come out around the bung hole, and put my nose down to smell it. That was the wrong thing to do. That would be the musk gland excretion. Stunk up the whole house. I had candles going, lighting matches, etc. to get rid of it before Sara came home. Luckily I had enough sense to take it outside to finish skinning it. With 3 whole hides I’m going to see if I can get a hat made rather than selling them. Plus, I didn’t do such a great job of skinning the marten. Hopefully this will carry over to next year when I’m planning to go all-in trapping with my brother in law in Dec.

That’s it for trapping season. I get back March 1 from Prudhoe, and will need to get right over to the cabin if I want to clam dig this season as that’s when the minus tides are. The steamer clams we used to get by the cooler load have disappeared and no one seems to know why. We can get pink neck clams and butter clams, but they are more work and the butter clams are notorious for paralytic shell fish poison.
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Mark Stopha
Alaska Wild Salmon Company
4455 N. Douglas Hwy
Juneau, AK 99801
www.GoodSalmon.com