Where have I been (Bonfire Log)

[reible]

Sanity check, room was about 20 x 20 x8 or 3200 cubic feet. Minus an aside of say 3 x 20 x 8 leaves 2720 cubic feet of space for the 1280 cubic feet of fire wood. Sounds about right.

Ed

[ERLover]

8'h x 8'w x 20'l

I think I gotcha this time

https://www.reference.com/science/dimen ... rQuestions

[ERLover]

8'h x 8'w x 20'l

You Sly Devil You, I know there was no way to Gothcha you. I am sorry you did the math

[Ed in Tampa]

Worst job I ever took was either the mink farm at harvest time or cleaning up a house after a fire. That smoke smell would not wash off..... clothes I ended up tossing when the job was done. I think they wear special suits and masks now but back then well it was back then. No way I would ever do either of those jobs again.


Ed

You worked on a mink farm so did I. The farm I worked on had 29,000 mink. My job was to water them three times a day, scrap manure out of the cage and to scrap food off the top.

Mink want to pull their food so the piled food atop the wire cage and mink pulled it through. Of course there was some left and since it was raw meat it spoiled so we had to scrap it off. Also since the cage was wire bottom ma urge hung up and we had to scrap it through. Each mink had it's own cage.

Of course mink would try to bite the tools you used to do the scrapping, so it was a constant battle.

Most fun was when a mink got out then the dogs would corner them. We had one dog called bitsel that would lay on the mink. You had to get under him and get the mink before the mink died.

Talk about smell the mink scent was almost impossible to get off. After long showers and a lot of after shave you could go out among people but not to close to the girls. My old girl friend told me it was her or the job. I chose the job she was too bossy.

[reible]

The local mink farm employed mostly Germain immigrants, the owner would sponsor them provide a home and got pretty cheap labor. How ever when it came time to harvest them then they needed more people. I did that for just one season, enough exposure for me.

Yes the mink were all in separate cages in bigger "barn" buildings. The ones with young were in separate barns, got to walk through that area but you didn't see much as they stayed in the boxes for the most part.

Since I was a temp I got to do only a few less skilled jobs. I'd say for those who were temps most only did it once and wouldn't come back again. I guess a few might have returned but only if they were really hard up for money.

Most of my job was handing the mink after the gassing. Had to hang them to drip out so the blood wouldn't get on the fur. After the rack was full you got another one and came back later to stack them for skinning. They had a walk in cooler they stored them in after that. I wondered why, well the answer was the meat. After skinning the meat was harvested as mink food.

Just about every day I was there someone would get bit. The leather gloves they used to handle them only work so well. I'd get a used pair for my work just in case..... that didn't happen but the bite marks showed what they could do. I was younger then most so I never got the grabbing job.... not that I wanted it.

I'm thinking it was about 10 days or so of work for me. That was plenty.

Ed

[ERLover]

Where the Mink farms you worked at? Around Mequon/Theinsville, WI had huge Mink Farms/Ranches.

[reible]

The one I worked at has been gone a long time now. It was sometime in the '60 that I was there and while I left that area in the late 60's I didn't really keep track of how things went at the farm. The owner was getting on in age when I was there and no kids so I would guess it expired when he did.

Back then there were a lot of farms, some did more then mink. But times changed so while I can't say for sure but it would seem that the demand would be down from back then...... But like I said I don't keep up on the subject and don't own any mink items.

The guy always had a Studebaker, I think they were called a golden hawk at the time. I think it was the only one in town so you always knew where he was.

Ed

Where the Mink farms you worked at? Around Mequon/Theinsville, WI had huge Mink Farms/Ranches.

[ERLover]

The one I worked at has been gone a long time now. It was sometime in the '60 that I was there and while I left that area in the late 60's I didn't really keep track of how things went at the farm. The owner was getting on in age when I was there and no kids so I would guess it expired when he did.

Back then there were a lot of farms, some did more then mink. But times changed so while I can't say for sure but it would seem that the demand would be down from back then...... But like I said I don't keep up on the subject and don't own any mink items.

The guy always had a Studebaker, I think they were called a golden hawk at the time. I think it was the only one in town so you always knew where he was.

Ed

Where the Mink farms you worked at? Around Mequon/Theinsville, WI had huge Mink Farms/Ranches.

What killed off the mink ranches was Russian Cold War trickery. We had/have Minks they did not, but they had Sables for
raising for coats and such that we did not. We gave them Mink pairs and they gave us pairs of Sables. They nuetured them b4 they gave them to us. We did not figure it out until about a year later, mean while the Minks we gave them were prolific breeders. They flooded the Mink fur market causing ours to be none profitable. There is a movie about it, Gorky Park with Lee Marvin.

[charlese]

What killed off the mink ranches was Russian Cold War trickery.

And PC (Political Correctness)

[Ed in Tampa]

Yes political correctness did kill off the mink market. But we harvested about 25,000 mink a season. It was nasty work as we broke their necks. Life and death on the mink farm was almost a daily event. Varmits would come in for the mink food so they had to be eliminated. Also birds would try to steal mink food but mink were quick enough to catch them. Then you had to get the bird out or the mink would choke on the bones.

We had mink gloves but after working there for awhile I learned how to grab and handle mink without using gloves. Mink could not bite through the glove but they could put enough pressure on a finger to bring tears to your eyes. Also mink teeth slant back, so if one did get you pr finger instead of yanking it out and losing a lot of flesh you had to learn to shove it in until mink gagged and let go.

Long story which I won't tell about my stupidity but it is enough to say one mink bite me on the side at the belt line. Lost a little flesh that day. Let me tell you that took me to my knees.

We worked all summer each summer when the mink farm was at full capacity and the mink had to be watered 3 times a day and vaccinated fairly often. We then worked after school until after the pelted in late fall. We got great money for 13-15 year olds. Summer worked 50 hrs for $0.35 first year and got $0.45 the next years I worked. Believe me that was when McDonald's Hamburgers were $0.15 and gas about $0.25 a gallon. We could show a girl a good time Friday night and still had money for a hockey game on Sat. We thought we were In tall Colton.