From: Jim Mitchell, ATA [mailto:jim@albertatrappers.com]
Sent: Friday, October 07, 2011 9:18 AM
To: ATA
Subject: October 2011 Trapper Education Newsletter
Newsletter:
Courses:
We have several courses in the pipeline. Peace River is full and I will determine numbers for Grande Cache today. I have interest in courses at Fort McKay and possibly Fort Chip. We finished one for the metis in Fort Mac and they want another one in the spring. If anyone in the Lac La Biche area is thinking about courses , contact Dale Richard 780-798-2708.
Fur: I am out of good fur for courses. The fur in my freezers thawed when someone blew a breaker. If anyone has squirrels , coyote or fox still frozen , then give me a call. I should have new fur beginning in November however right now is when I need some.
Store and Fur depot – The ATA store and depot is not yet open. There are a couple of tenders that have to be considered and the decision should be made very soon.
AGM- we had the AGM. There are some new directors: Kim Hrushenski is Vice president, and the new directors are Anne Coles, Barry Unger, Kevin Klein and Glen Pashniak. Gone on to greater things are Theresa Duhammel, Greg Mckinnon and Dennis Wohgemuth.
Workshops:
We had a snare workshop in Westlock Sept 24th and three people showed. It went very well. I am therefore planning a survival workshop here in Westlock , Oct. 15th at 9AM. This is free and the public is invited. Survival might not be the best description. I go over quad and snow machine travel and gear. Some basic tools and survival equipment. We demonstrate fire starting and this is all done in class. Bring your lunch and give me a call if you plan to attend. If some of your hunting buddies want to show up they are very welcome. The workshop should take about 6 hours.
I hope to have a workshop in Hinton on the 16th. For school mentors. Again if you are interested in becoming a mentor or doing public speaking to groups consider this free workshop.
The school DVD’s seems to have struck a chord. I have sent out a copy to every trappers association in the States and will have an notice in the Canadian Trapper offering a free DVD to every association in Canada. They do me no good sitting on a shelf and I want associations to know what is available.
I was a couple of days at the new Cabala’s store at a trappers table. There was a lot of interest in what we offer. We considered trying to run an Edmonton course utilizing their conference facilities however because we handle raw fur there was a health issue to consider. I have contacted Hunting for tomorrow in Edmonton to determine space availability and we may have an Edmonton course this winter once I can confirm space.
Our Website will be totally revisited and changed. I have contracted this out and I suspect this will be finished in the next couple of months. I want some new photos for the site. If you have good quality animal or trap line photos and wish to share send them to me for consideration . If appropriate , I will have them on the site.
Jim Gibb sent a link where the military is going back to fur hats. I have attached it and hope it works. It is interesting to view the comments. The thrust is that synthetic fur is just as warm as real fur . There is truly no comparison insofar and real warmth.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/...rticle2191297/
I just came back from the bush . I was up for a week and attached a diary that stretches back to the summer.
That’s about it for now, let me know about the survival workshop if you want to sit in
Jim
Jim Mitchell
Trapper Education
