I have quite a few skins, all from roadkill. Foxes, bobcats, squirrels, skunks, raccoons, weasels. I like the idea of salvaging what turn out to be beautiful furs from what would otherwise rot on the side of the road. After skinning, I stretch the pelt out on a piece of plywood, fur side down, covering it with granular salt. After about a week, I remove the salt, roll it up, put it in a mailing tube, and send it to Bucks County Fur in Quakertown, Pennsylvania. They do an excellent job of tanning and in about six weeks, I get the tanned hide back via UPS.
About Lloyd Kahn
Lloyd Kahn started building his own home in the early '60s and went on to publish books showing homeowners how they could build their own homes with their own hands. He got his start in publishing by working as the shelter editor of the
Whole Earth Catalog with Stewart Brand in the late '60s. He has since authored six highly-graphic books on homemade building, all of which are interrelated. The books, "The Shelter Library Of Building Books," include
Shelter,
Shelter II (1978),
Home Work (2004),
Builders of the Pacific Coast (2008),
Tiny Homes (2012), and
Tiny Homes on the Move (2014). Lloyd operates from Northern California studio built of recycled lumber, set in the midst of a vegetable garden, and hooked into the world via five Mac computers. You can check out videos (one with over 450,000 views) on Lloyd by doing a search on YouTube:
Lloyd
I am very glad that you have the skill and talent and common sense to make use of this, skin it etc…
I have been reading more and more about Conservation Officers Bear kills in B.C., and today this headline
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/revelstoke-bears-9-killed-1.3731591
9 bears killed in 1 week has B.C. conservation officer warning 'there could be more'
A B.C. conservation officer is furious after being forced to euthanize nine bears in a week in the Revelstoke area, after warnings to reduce habituation have fallen on some residents' deaf ears — and he fears this could just be the beginning.
—
Seems incredibly sad..
I am so hoping that at least the dead bears were put to good use (such as you did), and not incinerated…
Must be a better answer to this…
do you use the brains to tan the hide? I am familiar with the process but I've been told there are other ways….
Regarding tanning: see addition to post, above.
I found this a very sad picture. Bandit, our beloved Australian Cattle Dog, is part dingo Red Heeler and looks very much like a large, robust version of a coyote. Thankfully, he is in fine health, but seeing this picture leads to unhappy imaginings. I'm glad Lloyd is able to make good use of him.
As mentioned above, Black Bears are a big problem in BC this year and are definitely attracted to human habitation by accessible garbage and unpicked fruit left out by idiots. Last year, more than thirty bears were killed by conservation officers in this area alone. They seem to have completely lost their fear of humans.
Although we make a lot of noise in the woods and carry bear spray, we have had a few encounters where it took some persuasion to convince bears to stop following us. As we are two adults and two large dogs, I am not sure what the bears hoped to achieve.
On one occasion, Bandit got free and attacked a bear. As his breed's job is driving cattle, he treated the bear like a large, recalcitrant cow and darted in repeatedly at very high speed, nipping at the bear's lower, sensitive parts. It was amazing to see but dangerous for him and we eventually managed to call him off. Australian Cattle Dogs are foolishly brave, stubborn dogs and will completely ignore your commands if they thing the occasion merits it.