Yes, we have contest winners! But before I announce them, I need to issue a warning about today’s post. At the bottom of this post will be potentially gory photos. I will warn you, prior to their arrival, that they’re coming. So if you don’t want to see them, click away after you find out whether or not you’ve won? Deer hides came in the mail yesterday afternoon (seven of them), and I spent the entire day, with friends, preparing them for tanning. I’ll warn you. I will.
But! Before I announce the contest winners, we need to talk about yesterday’s post. Kirby the Dorkie does everything right, but the farts still clear the room. Ew. Hailey and Zaphod’s gas may be the result of too much grass. Maybe. Blueberry holds true to what dog science seems to say about dog farts, clearing the room when she’s not eating right. Laura says switching to a grain free kibble solved the problem. Okay then.
Okay! Down to business. Our first winner is:
- Misty! Misty chose the Petco card! Congratulations, Misty! Misty, there’s no link back to you via your name, so I’m going to have to trust that you see this. Instructions on contact at the end of this list.
- Jackie, of Pooch Smooches, wins the Windee Rings! Those were a popular choice. As it should be. NOM. Good choice, Jackie!
- Sage, The (mis)Adventures of Sage, won the Kong key chain! I love that little key chain. Sage, will you put peanut butter in the Kong?
- Mollie! Of Mollie and Alfie fame! Mollie, you won the boxer bobble head! You said something about giving it to someone who needs it, but this isn’t the kind of thing someone “needs”. Would you like to give it to someone for Christmas? Let me know what you’d like to do.
- Lindsay, another person with no link, won the t-shirt! I tracked her down, though. Lindsay blogs at ThatMutt.
Congratulations, everyone! Well done. Here’s what happens next – if you won a major award (sorry, I’m out of leg lamps and fishnet stockings), please email me at flea @ jonesnaturalchews dot com. I’ll need your address for shipping. Mollie, I have your mama’s address, but I’ll need to know if you want your cool bobble sent, or where, if not to you.
Now, on to what I did all day. Here’s where, if you have a weak stomach, or don’t care to know about prepping deer hides, you click away. I’ll even work in some space to make sure you don’t see photos. IF YOU LEAVE NOW.
So Suzy, at Jones Natural Chews, sent me four boxes of raw deer hides. It’s hunting season, y’all, and JNC is still connected to the butcher shop. In those four boxes were seven raw hides. I really thought I knew what I was getting myself in for. See the boxes on my front porch?
Yeah. Suzy’s hunny had salted them heavily and put them in trash bags. They arrived in beautiful shape. I soaked them in tap water in tubs over night, to soften them up. This morning I invited over a friend to help scrape the flesh and fat from the hides. While I waited for her, I drained the tubs and lay the hides out on pieces of plywood on the grass.
Cool, huh? What I didn’t count on was Mary Ann and Ginger getting into the act. Seriously? They were all over the hides, eating the fat.
They spent the better part of the day wandering in and out, picking at the flesh on the ground that we’d scraped. Ew.
My friend is very pregnant – seven months?- but has tanned hides and butchered elk, so I knew she was the right person to teach me how to do this. And honestly, how many people do you know, personally, who have scraped and tanned hides? No, it was not cruel to ask a pregnant woman to do this.
She had a great time. I plied her with Chinese delivery at lunch and she scraped a second hide. I ran around town buying ingredients for the actual tanning – finding battery acid was interesting – and picking up an extra teenager to help.
She convinced two of my kids to help scrape, but my own kids wandered off. As a result, Hannah is the only one who will get a pair of deer moccasins. So there.
Yet another teen got home from school and was gracious enough to snap me scraping.
So that’s what I did all day. I don’t even have any Petey photos. Y’all, I’m TIRED. T I R E D. TIRED.
And tomorrow I tan.
Until I write again …
Flea
