Brain-Tanning a Deer Hide: Days 3 & 4

On day 3 I skipped the gym after work to scrape more hair. I have about an 8" x 1 1/2 ' long section left to do. I think it would help if my blade was sharpened.  This day was uneventful other than the fact that my heart jumped every time I heard footfalls in the kitchen. I just want to give people fair warning before they see a seemingly disturbing sight.

On day 4 I finished the hair removal and racked my hide.

Step 2: Hair Removal

 

 

 

Step 2: Hair Removal

 Racking the hide took a little more time than I expected. The hide is extremely tough and my attempts of using scissors and then a nail to poke holes around the outer edges of the hide failed. I ended up grabbing a sharp kitchen knife. I pressed firmly down on the blade with one hand and tugged upward on the hide with the other hand. Some areas of the hide were thin and ripped and other areas were extremely thick. I was tempted to use Slack's drill.

Step 3: Racking the hide

I am standing in front of the hide that I racked.

 This morning I saw a mouse in the garage and it saw me. It's legs and arms were spread out and clinging to the wall. I asked it to please not chew a hole through my hide. Hopefully it got the message.

Brain-Tanning a Deer Hide: Day 2

On day 2, A.K.A. Christmas Morning at 8:00am, I was scraping away more hair. I noticed that after soaking the hide overnight in cold water, the hair was giving way to my blade much easier.

I can picture my neighbors laughing and giggling with their children over gifts under the tree Christmas morning and suddenly catching a glimpse of a girl donning a trash bag and green rubber gloves while dumping liquid out of a 5 gallon bucket in her drive way. I can see them shaking their heads and the words "What a creepy little girl," flashing on their foreheads like neon lights. 

I got about half of the hair removed when Slack came down and reminded me that the festivities would be starting soon and there were still gingerbread cookies to be made.

Have I mentioned that aside from curious neighbors I have been able to manage, thus far, stealthily?

Brain-Tanning a Deer Hide: Day 1

On day one I went to Home Depot to purchase the following supplies: tarp, sawhorse, PVC pipe, 5 gallon bucket, 16 gallon tub, screws, 3 2x4s, and rubber gloves. Next I went to Walmart to purchase a machete...did I mention this took place on Christmas Eve?

Then I went to Drew's to pick up the hide.

When I got home, I set up shop in my basement. I spread out the tarp, assembled the fleshing unit (sawhorse, 2 1/2' of PVC pipe ducktaped to the top), made myself a trash bag apron and slid on my rubber gloves.

After Slack helped my assemble the drying rack and before he went upstairs he said, "Maybe after this we can watch, 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,' because that's pretty much what you're doing!"

What is important to remember that what I am doing is not only an ancient art form but also a way of honoring the animal, otherwise its' hide would go to waste.

I pulled the hide out of the bag and gave thanks. Then I removed the head from the hide and froze the head in a cooler (I will be extracting the brains for the brain-tanning step later on, but in the mean time I need to keep it cold).

I draped the hide (flesh-side up) over the fleshing unit leaned my belly against the hide and used the machete to scrape away the fat, flesh and meat. This took about 3 hours to complete! I hold the machete perpendicular to the hides surface and scrape away from my body while leaning against the hide so that it does not slide.

Fleshing the deer hide.

I then flipped the hide over (hair-side up) and began the Hair-Removal process. This takes a lot longer (especially if you haven't prepped the hide with chemicals) and at 12:30 am Slack came down to snap a picture and to tell me that it was time for bed.

Brain Tanning a Deer Hide: Overview

I am "fleshing" a deer hide. A great way to spend Christmas Eve.

So I am attempting to brain-tan a deer hide. It's exactly how it sounds. I'm going to use the animals' brains to to turn its' hide into buckskins. Thanks be to my friend Drew for his hunting skills and his generosity.

I did not think the opportunity to do so would have come so quickly but youtube is great for getting you up to speed on ancient skills.

There are 6 steps to brain-tanning a hide:
1. Fleshing- removal of all the flesh, fat and excess meat using a sharp blade.
2. Hair-Removal (optional)-Removal of the hair. (you can speed up the hair-removal process by first soaking the hide in a lyme or wood ash solution for a few days which loosens the hair follicles, but I skipped this step and opted for using a little more elbow grease.)
4. Racking-Once both the flesh and the hair has been removed you rack the hide so that it can dry out (this may take a few days depending on the humidity).
3. Scraping- Once the hide has dried the epidermis can be scraped away using sharp rounded blade so that you don't poke through the hide.
4. Brain-Tanning- it is just like it sounds. You make a solution of animals' brain and water (every animal has enough brains to tan its' own hide) in which you soak the hide. The proteins of the brain break down the proteins in the hide so that the hide loses its' elasticity.
5. Stretching-next you re-rack the hide and stretch it until it dries.
6. Smoking- finally you sew the hide into a skirt and hang it over smouldering coals. This weatherproofs the hide.

I will describe each of these steps in detail as I perform them each day.

A Little Treet

So this is how I've decided to cope with the sedentary life in a cubicle...I spend my breaks identifying trees outside my work using, "Bark; A Field Guide to Trees of the Northeast," by Michael Wojtech.

I know, you're thinking, what a nerd, but it's actually pretty fun.

It's an interesting guide because it focuses on identifying trees by their bark. Since a lot of trees in NE are deciduous-meaning they loose their leaves at the end of their growing season- after the leaves fall it is hard to identify them. This guide allows you to identify trees during any point of the year.

The forest looks a whole lot more interesting once you become aware of bark. Is it smooth, furrowed, scale-like, does it have curly strips? Did you know that trees have pores just like our skin? They are called lenticles and they can been circular, diamond shaped or rectangular.

Being able to identify trees is important because you can use them for materials, food and to locate animals. One of my favorite trees is a black birch. It has smooth grey bark and horizontal lenticels. When you scratch the bark it smells like wintergreen and root beer.

Trees are cool. Why not go out on a limb and try and identify some?

But I use mascara...

Yesterday I received a call.

"Hi, It's Mindy! I was calling to follow-up with you to see how you are liking your Mary Kay products!"

Rewind 6 months. My lovely boyfriend entered me in a draw to win a free Mary Kay facial. I thought it was a great thing at the time because I had a few friends come over, we sampled products, they all bought stuff, I developed a credit and used it to buy a small makeup kit. All for the price of completing a phone survey, having an awkward conversation with the adviser and turning down her offer to become a Mary Kay adviser and  having to clear out my email inbox on a weekly basis due to the buildup of Mary Kay advertisements.

I knew I didn't have time to talk but I also didn't have time to answer these calls in the future so I responded,  truthfully:

"I haven't been using them."

Her silence was proof of her shock and disappointment.

"Well I think you and Andy should go out for a nice dinner and you should get dressed up!" she suggested.

Rewind again to 6 months ago. After my makeup session, Mindy thought I looked sassy with my dark brown eyes and red lips. I snapped a picture and forwarded it to Andy. "You look weird..." was his response and I felt like I had a mask on.

"Actually, Andy likes me better 'oh-naturale.'"

"Oh..." she tried again, "well why don't you have a nice night out with your girlfriends?!"

I understand that this is her job but I thought for sure she would never contact me again after I told her 6 months ago that I didn't want to become a Mary Kay adviser and that she was wasting her time because I don't even use shampoo or conditioner.

I thanked her for checking in and and hung up hoping that she got the message and that she would contact other girls that like to cake it on. 

There are lots of reasons I don't use products. I like to facilitate the health of my skin through diet, exercise and rest (check out this website for a list of the top ten foods for healthy skin http://www.lifescript.com/health/centers/psoriasis/living_with/nutrition_and_exercise.aspx ). The FDA does a terrible job of regulating these products and the effects of these chemical on our bodies is not fully understood (we are basically a bunch of guinea pigs). The chemicals from the products will offset the balance of chemicals on your skin to the point of your dependency on them. And finally, makeup = maintenance and I like to be carefree.

But I use mascara...so I am a hypocrite.  

Homeless and Hungry...Why?

When I see a homeless person on the street like the one who is on crutches and begs for money at the intersection right before my work, I wonder why they don't go to the library and learn about the edible wild plants in the area. Linda Runyon (http://www.alibris.com/search/books/author/Runyon,%20Linda/aid/4336288) fed her family solely on edible wilds (save for olive oil). So if she can do it and she's still living than I believe anyone can.

Yes, you have to be careful about identification, deadly microbes and whether or not an animal has defecated or urinated on the berry or nut you are about to eat but then again it's not so different from the produce you get from the grocery store that has been handled by the worker who just picked his nose not to mention it has been grown with pesticides and been sitting out collecting dust and passerby's coughs.

Homeless people don't realize how good they have it as they have no burdens other than to find food.

Wild food, unlike cultivated food, is packed with nutrients because it is growing where it wants to under conditions that allow it to prosper, you can eat them right away so the vitamin and mineral content has not depleted as much as cultivated food which is pick, transported, preserved/ stored, and it's free. All you have to do is get educated.

My other thought is that the cardboard sign, decrepit demeanor and melancholic stare is nothing but a costume while they work on completing their college thesis on sociology of the working class...but this is a topic for another discussion.

Tasty Curly-Cues

 American Beech-Fagus grandifolia

http://www.duke.edu/~cwcook/trees/fagr4997.jpg

"Fruits consist of 2 triangular nuts enclosed in 2 spiny bracts...opening in late summer to release oily nuts."


Nuts are edible raw. Nuts can be boiled to release oil which can be used for cooking.
"Edible wild plants: A North American Field Guide" Sterling Publishing Company 1990.

http://www.unb.ca/courses/for1000/trees/Images/Pictures/CloseUpLeaves/beech.jpg

Leaves: alternate , toothed, straight parallel veined , short stalked.
Bark: light gray and smooth.

http://forestry.about.com/cs/treeid/a/tree_ash.htm

Yesterday I took a gander through the conservation land in my back yard, a two mile long meandering woodland path across stone walls and by unfurling ferns. I was already high off discovering a new place that was secluded from the constructs of technology when I happened upon some beech nuts. I recognized them from my field guide and I knew I was spot on by the canopy of alternating toothed green leaves overhead. I gathered them greedily and rushed home to show off my foraging skills. "exhibit A, a beech nut from my hike!" I exclaimed with one presented in the palm of my hand.

With a wink and a smirk I placed the nut between my teeth to crack it open and to reveal the decadent oily morsel for my boyfriend, but a grub had beaten me to it. It looked up at me like the worm from the movie, "The Labrynth" who invites young Jennifer Connley in for a cup of tea, only this one was saying "why don't you come in for a bit of rotten nut?!"

The worm from, "The Labrynth."

Sadly all of the nuts were occupied by these segmented curly-cues. Nuts are to be harvested in the late summer-fall.

I guess the worm is right in that things aren't always what they seem.