There are a few people here who I truly enjoy typing with. Sometimes those engaging personalities will send my thoughts off on a tangent.
This recent exchange brought to my attention the fact that we do have a few "interesting" mixes of activity on any given day at my house.

So...harley davidson, welding, and gardener. Interesting mix of interests there!

Personally I think those three go together quite well. It's the perfect mix of two good skill sets plus a get away plan.
After all you never can tell when you may need a quick exit in case of zombies or something.

Truth is Hubs thought it would be a grand idea to move out to the boonies (countryside) and be preppers (hoarders)
So far we have managed to eat a tomato and a couple of squash that we actually grew.
We have however accumulated a grand collection of junk (supplies)
I did manage to talk him out of getting a goat.

What the heck dose one even do with a goat? Do I really want to know?

Alright forget the goat ( and hope hubs will too)
I work with wood and apparently bees just love sawdust. Sanding outside usually results in quite a few hovering around my work. Hubs came home one day and saw me just working away in a cloud of honey bees. Shortly afterward I was gifted his Grandpas bee keeping setup. A suit with a dandy little hat and a smoker device.
Were they trying to protect me from my little visitors? Nope, they allowed they have only seen Papaw be able to do this. So I am elected family bee keeper. They actually thought I may want to provide honey for the entire extended family.
Great plan.

The thing is my dear granny taught me many things, bee keeping was not included. Granted I am pretty good at researching a skill. actually doing it, well not so much. There are obstacles involved here.
I will probably look into the beekeeping just because I buy a lot of local honey for the health benefits. For now I have a handy list of reasons to hold off until I have more time.

• I googled and these bee keepers have a whole world of stuff to keep up with. There are tutorials but also message boards, chat rooms, classes, local clubs with meetings. Sounds like something I would keep up with for sure.

• My little buddies for what ever reason are happy to buzz around in my clouds of sawdust. I bet to capture their leader hold her hostage then rob their hard earned food supply will not endear me one bit. I guess that's why I was provided with the suit.

• The neighbor has a perfectly good bee collection. That's where I get the honey.
  No need to cut in on her sales, that would just be rude.

• There is a bear in residence in the woods out back. Putting out some bear bait sounds like a top notch idea to me.

I actually may use the little smoker thing. The bees never trouble me much but it has occurred to me that it could turn ugly if they were ever to be displeased all at one time.

Rabbit Season Duck Season

Muskrat Season?

Anyway, while they were rummaging Papas attic in search of bee "supplies" They tossed in some rusty clangy metal bits.
Apparently these are muskrat traps. Ok I have no idea what a muskrat even is much less how to trap him or what to do with him once he is caught.

I am thinking the traps are an interesting historical piece. Maybe one day I will do some research, collect some family stories, and produce an interesting blog post. Until then I will just clean these little boogers up and hang them in the workshop for decor. Maybe add a few S hooks and hang up my wood chisels or something.

Meanwhile I must remember to have my new friend add bee keeping and muskrat hunting to the list. Mostly because I enjoy the witty replies and want to see what she may type back.

Images are my own