All My Chips In

The challenge for our last card at the Texas Hold'em Challenge at

the Sisterhood of Scrap is to post a photo and tell you about it.
So I take my chance and toss in all my chips...just like in poker
you take your chances when you go all in.

Now this photo may offend some .....but is a big part of my past...so please no bashing about cruelty to animals....this was another time and is a trade almost not to be found in this day and age.

My father came from a long line of trappers and furriers...due to necessity he was taught as a little boy to help his father hunt, fish and set traps.

No part was left untouched...even the fat was sold to the soap makers and when there was game enough to last them thru the hard winters of the Mountain valleys...the extra meat would go to those with less.

As my father entered his adult years he and a childhood buddy found a market and expanded out into the fur trade guided by my Grandfather's wisdom

The furs were skinned,stretched ,dried and stockpiled for the twice seasonal visits of the buyers who would come up from New York City and down from Montreal, Canada.

I remember how my Grandfather all bundled up with his favorite fox hat, would head out against the bitter cold to the fur house.

Exciting time for all when the buyers were in town.

He would pull up his lawn chair,watching and listening as the haggling began,

ever watchful to make sure they received a fair price for the quality of furs they had graded.

Those times are now just a dim memory as public opinions

have changed about the wearing of fur.

And the characters in this story have left this world and gone on to another place.

But the memories are still alive.