Time to Slow Down
Amidst several other things going on, I decided to just jump in and start the process of tanning my rabbit hides. Mostly I just needed to get them out of my freezer. So following the lead of a local friend of mine (I was trying to time it so we could work on them together), I placed the hides in a bucket with Aluminum Sulfate for a few days. Then I realized, ok wait, no, then I READ the actual article that this technique was based on and realized I had not added salt.
Fast forward a couple of weeks in which day after day I told myself, “tonight I’ll go home and start cleaning the skins…no really…tonight.”
Well the results of my not reading directions and trying to do too much are in, and they are not pretty:
That would be a pile of rotten pelts. Yep. Luckily there were not many.
For anyone hoping to tan their own, rest assured. The directions (if you read them) in the Mother Earth News article are excellent. Others that followed them have had great success. I have to say, I am starting to get superstitious about trying to work on hides in December. As I recall last year I had another hide fail.







