The tanning process to me had always been a bit of a mysterious and daunting process. I was quite surprised to find that the method that I am using is amazingly simple and fast, about four days at the most. 24 hours for the "pickling process", 24 for the tanning chemicals to do their stuff. Then a shampoo, drying and "breaking" the hide. Since I do not have the advantage of a compliant Native American female to chew the hide, I have to do it the hard way. What the process consists of is to rub the hide over an edge to "break" the fibers and keep it soft. It is the weak spot of my expertise so far. Most likely brought on by my innate laziness.
"Laziness is the mother of invention" or so I have always been told. I have invented a number of sometimes brilliant solutions, sometimes not!
Thinking about the upcoming "softening process" I remembered a Clothes dryer that I had relegated to the "farmers dump" up by the runway. It had been hauled up there after a Civet Cat moved into the Dryer where it had sat in my hanger. Although the heating part of the dryer was a bit iffy, I felt that it might just work for me since I didn't need the heat part. Thinking that a couple of tennis shoes bouncing around on the hide should soften it while cool air was blowing and drying the hide at the same time.
My problem with "breaking" the hide is that it is done over a long period of time. One is supposed to flex the hide as it is drying and I can never decide which is the right time to do so. I don't mind the work, it just seems that I never do it at the right time.
So I fire up the quad, hook up the little trailer and off to the dump I go. I turn it up on its top, shake as much dirt out of it as I can. After getting it back to the hanger, I spend the next two hours trying to find the electrical pigtail that I obviously took off when I stored it originally. Finally after looking every where, at least three times, I find it hiding under my shoeing anvil. Then there is a search for the right tool to loosen the little weird size nuts that secure the pigtail to the electrical board. The little Bakelite board does not allow one to use anything other than a socket, and it needs to be a deep socket as well. It only took five trips back and forth to the tool box before I finally hit on the right combination. Finally I get it on and attempt to plug it in to the 220 V plug on the wall. There are two different types of Dryer plugs. You guessed it, I have one different than the pigtail. Sigh! Finally I just grab a spare unused piece of wire and wire it direct. Get the vacuum and suck the lumps out, never thinking that I might need to wash the inside of the drum.
Every thing worked just perfectly, so I tossed the perfectly shampooed shiny hide in the drum, put in some shoes and start it up. After about 10 minutes I open the door to see how things are going, and was dismayed to see how dirty my nice hide had gotten. So I kill the power, and hose it out. Then its back in the house and a new shampoo. Then I stretch the hide on a metal stretcher to dry. The sun is shining and the temps are about 64 degrees, so while the hide is drying, I start work on my summer tan. It was that nice.
When I thought the hide might be dry enough I toss it back in the dryer and run it through two cycles of 70 minutes each. When I took it out that evening the hide seemed to be quite flexible, so I hung it on the wall with the rest of the furs.
This morning I checked it and found that the entire day yesterday was a total waste. It was as stiff as a board, so I turned it inside out again and started doing what I should have done yesterday. You win some and lose some, and waste a lot of time as well.
Now I have been brutally honest with you for quite some time concerning my foibles, and quite frankly I find the traitorous way that my mind sometimes works to be quite amusing. It helps if one is smart enough to not take yourself too seriously. You might think that I am the only dumb one reading this selfless confession- MULEMUFFINS! You are not fooling anyone!
Today was just as beautiful and nice as it was yesterday, and I had nothing else pressing so it was time for my plane to get a little attention for a change.
I flew East to check an area called Sand Springs, then over to the Owyhee Canyon, back to Rome and up Crooked Creek to the house. The flight was one hour and 7 minutes. The OAT was 54 degrees and I dressed too warm. By the time I got back home I was sweating except for my feet.
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