Bang, bang, bang, bang, he's unstoppable

Before Christmas, 85 year old George Cooper took the cage off his trailer, hooked it up, and drove us down to McMullens ITM for another load of timber to build the second tranche of trap boxes. There's a lot of timber in a trap box... 2 metres of 250 x 25, another 2 metres of 200 x 25, and other bits and pieces. I think we had about 90 metres or so on his trailer. It was HEAVY. George drove us back to his place where we cut the timber into the lengths needed for the traps, including routering slots for fitting the baffles. After about four hours I was exhausted but George looked like he could go another round. It was like working with a 4WD in low range... unstoppable.  By the end of the day all the bits were trailered and put into my shed with extra help from Colin Boniface.  The three of us then went back to George's to give him and Phyllis a hand to get their new lounge suite upstairs from the garage to the lounge. "It wont' fit" Colin and I advised after measuring doors and trying to squeeze bits through with no luck. "We'll have to come back with some young blokes in the new year and lift it over your balcony" we said. "I think it will fit..." said George "but, oh well, we'll wait till after christmas then". 

After Christmas, in fact on 7th of January, George Cooper, Neil Challenger, Paul Dunn, Paul Harford and I set-to assembling the trap boxes and installing the traps. There was quite a racket. Each box has nineteen 75mm nails hammered into it, and sixteen screws driven in with an impact driver. And another four screws to fit the traps. PaulH and George were on nail hammering duties.  Approximately 200 nails each. Neil, clearly colour blind, decided to paint the traps red with his blood rather than the required black paint. For a while he seemed to have an unlimited supply of blood but it did run out eventually. PaulD was on quality control and trap adjustment. About 25% of the quite expensive trap mechanisms needed significant tweaking to be made to work. Disappointing, and a new supplier will be found for the next batch. I took on the role of supervisor and first aid supplier. I don't recommend electrical tape for major cuts.

The trap builders taking a break - except for the unstoppable one

Some of the results of their work

There was of course unfinished business from before Christmas. Colin and I'd promised to rustle up some young lads in the new year to lift George and Phyllis's new lounge suite up over the balcony. But, as it turned out, we didn't need to because the day after Colin and I'd assured George and Phyllis there was no other way of shifting it, they removed a door and a banister and did it themselves.