dante's dreams come true

Well, one of them anyway. But before all that, here's a headshot of our new dominant rooster. Peepers has harassed both silkie roos enough that he simply has to run in their direction and they make themselves scarce. As for the ladies, Speck seems to be the favorite target for the boys.

ANYway, a couple of days ago, my neighbor Lynn called to say that she had a deer hide for Dante. Her son, Keith, shot the deer on their property, but they didn't want the hide. Dante was delighted (understatement of the year), and called River right away to offer the other half. So, now we figure out how to tan a hide.

Today we (and I do use the term "we" lightly. I stood by to offer moral support and groans of grossed-outedness as Luke ripped off the remaining flesh and fat, but let's just say I was extra happy he was home early) cleaned and salted the hide. Dante's pal Mason came over to watch, but was pretty put off by the whole scene as well.

Lucia exclaims "poor bambi" as she looks on as the hide awaits cleaning.

It needed a bit more strength than Dante had to really get the stuff off, so Luke ended up doing pretty much all the cleaning. What a trooper!

Dante pours the salt on before rubbing it in. Then they folded it in half and rolled it up to sit for a few days.

The girls wonder why everyone is outside in their territory. I invaded their safe space and caught them all roosting on the tree limbs. Protesting loudy, they started jumping off and moving away.