Where have I been (Bonfire Log)

[reible]

Cyanide gas was used were I worked.

I believe all temporary workers had to use gloves. To many getting bit over the years. I don't believe there was insurance for the temp workers as you were contractors not employees. Funny how that worked. So if you got bit you were on your own to pay for treatment or go without.

The gloves reminded me of just a heavy weight leather. I think the idea was the leather was thick enough that the teeth could not penetrate, of course not all the mink knew that and the used gloves you could hold up to the light and see the holes...... and yes I saw some pretty good bites, well results anyway.

The cages were in these low barn like buildings so no birds or larger animals could get in or out. A few of the mink managed to escape and it didn't seem like a big deal to anyone.

I remember hearings some years back about a group getting in to a mink farm in WI and releasing like 2000 of them. After all the captive breeding I'm not sure that they are able to survive on their own, finding and catching food for the long winter.... well maybe it is possible????

I seem to remember wearing jackets, maybe early winter when they harvested them???? Don't recall the pay but my first official job I got $.85 an hour. I did better at odd jobs but they were not steady and they came and went. I tried not to work on Sundays but the other 6 days were open and two jobs was also not uncommon.

Another odd job was working as cabin "girl" as they were called. The resorts would do a change over of guests so early Sat. mornings I would clean cabins, changed sheets, cleaned floors, and basically did the job of a maid. Depending of how many cabins changed I got to rake the beach and clean boats while waiting for guests to check out.... late a lot of times. Most times I was on the road at 6 am and back home by 2 pm. They promised me at least 4 hours so it made the drive worth while. Other then a lot of ribbing by my buddies it wasn't a bad job.

Ed

[ERLover]

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.

Ed, I had a lot of shit jobs as a yute, but later in life met up with a guy that worked at a Mink Ranch, and the stories he told made my shit jobs look like working at a Custard Stand.

[ERLover]

Well this Thread sure took a turn!!!!!

[Ed in Tampa]

Cyanide gas was used were I worked.

I believe all temporary workers had to use gloves. To many getting bit over the years. I don't believe there was insurance for the temp workers as you were contractors not employees. Funny how that worked. So if you got bit you were on your own to pay for treatment or go without.

The gloves reminded me of just a heavy weight leather. I think the idea was the leather was thick enough that the teeth could not penetrate, of course not all the mink knew that and the used gloves you could hold up to the light and see the holes...... and yes I saw some pretty good bites, well results anyway.

The cages were in these low barn like buildings so no birds or larger animals could get in or out. A few of the mink managed to escape and it didn't seem like a big deal to anyone.

I remember hearings some years back about a group getting in to a mink farm in WI and releasing like 2000 of them. After all the captive breeding I'm not sure that they are able to survive on their own, finding and catching food for the long winter.... well maybe it is possible????

I seem to remember wearing jackets, maybe early winter when they harvested them???? Don't recall the pay but my first official job I got $.85 an hour. I did better at odd jobs but they were not steady and they came and went. I tried not to work on Sundays but the other 6 days were open and two jobs was also not uncommon.

Another odd job was working as cabin "girl" as they were called. The resorts would do a change over of guests so early Sat. mornings I would clean cabins, changed sheets, cleaned floors, and basically did the job of a maid. Depending of how many cabins changed I got to rake the beach and clean boats while waiting for guests to check out.... late a lot of times. Most times I was on the road at 6 am and back home by 2 pm. They promised me at least 4 hours so it made the drive worth while. Other then a lot of ribbing by my buddies it wasn't a bad job.

Ed

We had open sheds with two aisles on the inside and cages on both sides of the aisles. That gave us 2 rows of cages facing out and two rows facing each aisle for a total of 6 rows of cages. I think there were 32 sheds about 200 to 300 feet long. I dragged hoses up and down those rows. Since the sheds were open anything could get in and out. On our ranch a loose mink was a big big thing. They had German Shepard mixes that were feed mink food. That made them big, muscular, with thick coats of fur. They guarded the ranch, hunted down any alien intruders and caught loose mink.
The first week on the ranch newbies feed and tended to the dogs so everyone became friends.

The ranch also had a large air conditioned buildings where they raised Chincillas. They did not have the musk smell, their manure was much like a rabbits and because they were kept in air conditioning, there wasn't any varmits or much disease. Their food was a lot less objectionable compared to mink food.

I think we were under the table workers there was no insurance and no work laws. But again to a kid of 13-15 getting a big pay check for the time, it worked for me. Besides we were building muscles that most teenage boys dream of. Plus the owner had a swimming pool and after work we lived in it. Us 6 kids were neighborhood buddies and neighbor of the rancher. All in all ideal way to keep teenage boys out of trouble, and learning how to work. The ranch was out in the country so each morning we all caught a ride in the mink van to go to work. Our parents made sure we were treated right.

They breed exotic mink colors. We one time sent a large air conditioned panel truck load of breeding mink to Utah. On the return trip we filled the truck with Chincillas and had a 1 million dollar check as payment for the mink.

They had a complete laboratory on the ranch, the new each minks genealogy, sperm count and vaccinations. Many times we had to vaccinate the whole ranch for one disease or another. Every dead mink was biopsied in attempt to determine what killed them. Breeding so many mink there was many different birth defects. Each had to be studied so the trait didn't continue on the ranch.

They also had a full feeding kitchen and huge coolers to hold the cans of mink food. At feeding times they mixed horse meat, chicken, fish, wheat bran, wheat germ, cod liver oil, in a huge mixer grinder vitamins, and secret ingredients.

The cans were rugged galvanized garbage cans that had to be scrubbed and steam cleaned after being emptied. I don,t know how man I scrubbed but the number was in thousands. Any food left in the can would taint the food and a mink kill would result.

They load speciality constructed rear steer tractors with the food and a guy steering with his feet swung a huge portion of food on top of each cage. Morning feeding was on the right side of rhe cage evening was on the left. Us kids had to makes sure all food was scrapped off before the evening feeding.

Hard stinky work that made every job after it a dream job.