What's in a username?

People often wonder about my username, so I like to share the story to avoid them coming up with their own ideas of what it means, sometimes not flattering ideas. And maybe in telling the story behind mine some of you will share yours.

My husband lost his Dad to cancer when he was only 4 years old.  His brother was 5. His mother was left to raise these two little boys on her own. They lived in rural North East PA (near the Poconos) She worked in a factory sewing clothes and to offset her meager income they had a cow, chickens and planted a very large garden and canned food. She also baked their bread once a week.  As the boys got older it was largely their job to tend the garden, care for the animals, etc. They also hunted to help out with the food. As a teenager my husband took up fur trapping. In the 70s you could make good money doing it. So for years, hubby ran a long trapline in the winter.  He'd get up probably 3am so he could check his traps before school. He did that until he went into the Marines in 1985. Once that happened, though, he no longer had time or opportunity to trap.

We married in 1996, and ever since then, when Fall comes around, hubby would talk about having the urge to pull out his traps and get them ready for trapping season, because as a teen when the air cooled and the leaves changed, he was out in his yard with a 55 gallon drum cut in two boiling, dyeing and waxing his traps. This went on for multiple years, and once our son started getting older hubby would tell him stories about his trapping adventures. So, in about 2008 our son expressed interest in trapping (he was about 12) so we found a trappers convention and drove up for the weekend. I had no interest at all, I was going because i was the driver/navigator. My plan was to hang out in the tent and read while they went to seminars and bought lures. We got there, set up our tent, then went through and looked at things. Hubby picked up catalogs to go through and try to decide what was needed. The next day Bradley wasn't feeling that great and wanted to sleep in the tent. Hubby and I went down and looked around, talked with the vendors, etc. Hubby would explain to me what the different furs were, how lures worked, etc. I fell in love with blue fox fur, and also I really liked the ermine. Later, when Bradley was feeling better we went back and they started making purchases, because hubby wanted Bradley to be involved with it. So, at this point I was getting a bit interested, and I started asking questions about lures, particularly for weasel. Hubby asks me, "So, you are interested in this?" I told him I would like to try to trap weasels, to which he says, "You're gonna be my Trapper Honey!" Because honey has always been is endearment for me.

I did attempt to trap weasels that year. When we got home I got online and did a lot of research, joined a couple trapper forums, found a pattern for a weasel box trap and hubby built some for me. However, I never caught one. Caught a lot of mice, but I manage that in the comfort of my own home. *sigh*

So, from that point on i've used "trapperhoney" almost exclusively online. Now that I've started pipe smoking I've thought that maybe something smoking related would be more appropriate, such as "cob princess" or "Lady Margaret" (giving a nod to my great-great-great-grandmother who kind of got me on this path) but old habits die hard and I usually just use "trapperhoney" by default, mostly because it's just very special to me.