I wasn’t really grossed out, just saw it as an opportunity for a joke.
Oh I was just kidding too…actually got me thinking about whether my own tiny brain would be adequate to tan my hide…
(And then I realized that might be a slightly counter-productive thought.)
Didn’t take any of the kidding wrong, but I got to thinking that my description, though accurate, was unnecessarily graphic. My own daughter who works at a vets office would probably not be happy with me.
I found it to be accurate and not the least bit disturbing. If you eat meat, you should be aware of how it got to your plate. If you wear leather, you should be aware of how it got to your shoe/belt/coat. If one doesn’t want to accept these things, maybe it is time to for one to consider going vegan/synthetic.
Gutting a fish is the first stepping stone to being able to process your own meat. It’s not too bad, really, when you think about how good freshly caught fish tastes, especially if you cook it on the bank while you keep fishing… micro stove + a little bit of oil and lemon juice wrapped in foil went into my kit when I was somewhere that was not catch-and-release only… wow it has been too long.
‘…So we tanned his hide when he died Clyde, an’ that’s it ‘angin on the shed’.
My wife sings that all the time…
Is that from a song?
In Wisconsin, for people who skin the deer themselves, there are drop offs at places like Fleet Farm for deer hides (you can tell because of the big sign on the front door telling you take hides around to the yard). The people I know who butcher their own deer do it out of a combination of being cheap and doing it as a family thing as opposed to being unable to afford it. As in ten people will go to deer camp and then they will communally butcher and divide the meat. Other groups pay the processing fees and split the meat. I think the primary driver for those who can butcher themselves but pay for processing is the venison sausage. Venison sausage is big around here (summer, stick and bratwurst) and while you can do it yourself it’s a lot more work than cutting up a deer into chops, steaks and roasts.
Regarding the large scale tanning of hides if you are a) interested, b) don’t mind becoming a vegan and c) are generally stout of intestinal constitution, Wired just posted a photo essay of the Indian tanning industry. I’ve gone back and forth in my head about posting a link here, but it will probably break in a day or two so anyone interested just go to wired.com and right now it is on their landing page.
No, she’s just a serial killer.
Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport
Rolf Harris
There’s an old Australian stockman lying, dying. He gets himself up
onto one elbow and 'e turns to his mates, who are all gathered around and 'e
says:
Watch me wallabies feed, mate
Watch me wallabies feed,
They’re a dangerous breed, mate
So watch me wallabies feed
Altogether now!
Tie me kangaroo down, sport
Tie me kangaroo down
Tie me kangaroo down, sport
Tie me kangaroo down
Keep me cockatoo cool, Curl,
Keep me cockatoo cool
Ah, don’t go acting the fool, Curl
Just keep me cockatoo cool
Altogether now!
Tie me kangaroo down, sport
Tie me kangaroo down
Tie me kangaroo down, sport
Tie me kangaroo down
’n’ take me koala back, Jack
Take me koala back
He lives somewhere out on the track, Mac
So take me koala back
Altogether now!
Tie me kangaroo down, sport
Tie me…
Let me abos go loose, Lew
and so on…
Old Aussie tune, Think it was ‘Tie me kangaroo down’ or at least that’s the chorus.
Last verse - Tan me hide when I’m dead Fred, tan me hide when I’m dead.
So we tanned his hide when he died Clyde an that’s it hanging on the shed."
…and here I thought she must be a kangaroo wrangler…
That’s it!
My girlfriends family is up in Alaska. We go up every year for a salmon run and I’ve started taking a little camp stove with me too. All the locals look at you like you’re crazy at first but then the smell starts to waft. Nothing better than river->bank->pan->belly
Ahh…not the Native American Indian, but the India Indian…stupid me :typical white american:
Well I got here after you deleted… but based on what I can infer from what’s left, I’ll be kind and refrain from sharing my (singular) experience with tanning leather by hand
For attracting the grizzly bears.
ain’t no grizzlies up’n whar I’us fishin’.
Attracts game wardens, though. Make sure you’ve got a fishing permit!
Yeah that too! Though with the gut stations every 1000 feet and camp sites everywhere I’m not sure how much worse I’m making it. We have definitely had them lumber through
When I was a smartass boy, my father tanned my hide