Tanning Hides & Enjoying the fruits of our labors!

We raise grass feed beef on the farm and have had several steers processed.  Although we have enjoyed the meat,  we have also wanted to tan a hide from one of the cows.  Not sure what we would get from this process.  We are hoping that the process will be a fun learning experience.  In the past we have had a lot of new things going on and one more thing just seemed too much, but we took the first step today! 

When having the steers processed we requested the hides back and they said we would have to pick it up today before closing, so we did. 

We have enjoyed raising the cows in a happy environment with their mothers milk and grass being the main diet.  We did not have a problem with bring them to the processor and eating the beef.  Everyone asks how can we pet and love an animal and then kill it for consumption and I give them the same answer that I give my (3 yo the first time we did this) 7 year old.  If God wanted us to keep the animal he would have given us a girl so we could milk her and let her raise babies.  God gave us a boy so that we could nurture our bodies.  She is OK with this and understands the process, so it works well for us. 

We have always been sad to seem them go, but understanding this is how a farm works.  I did not expect to run through a sadden state when we started working with the hide.  Seeing their colors and rubbing the salt on the hide was a little more difficult than I thought it would be.  We started the process today and I decided that it should be a topic of the blog so that everyone can see the process and finished product!  I don't know how much detail I will go into on the blog, but if you desire more detail please feel free to give us a call.

So how do you start?  Well, my husband really wanted to do this project so he scan cyberspace until he found several articles about tanning.  He compared them and studied the techniques and concepts.  This is where we started, before we ever brought the cow in.  Sometimes you try to be prepared, but sometimes things don't quite happen like you think they will.  I will share the experiences and applications that we will use in this process with you as we go through it!

We are working on 2 at once, which maybe a good thing and may not we will see.  The first step is to cure and dry the hide/skin.  We had to find a location where the animals domestic (cats and dogs) as well as wild life would not get to the hides and tear them up.  So we decided to use the old barn, that is basically storage for now.  We cleared a spot and placed a sheet of plywood up off the ground on boxes.  Then we laid the first hide flat on the plywood.  After ensuring that the skin is flat and doesn't hang off anywhere or buckle around the corners, we placed salt all over the hide and rubbed it in.  This will dry out the skin and create a firm/brittle skin with no moisture.  We are unsure how long this will take, but the articles that we have read said anywhere from 2 days to 2 weeks, one even said 2 months.  So we will watch the progress and apply more salt where needed.

The excitement has begun and then the thoughts flood through your mind, and Alice's, what do you do with it when you are done?  Alice figured out that Cow hide = leather and leather=BOOTS!  Don't know if boots will be the end result, but we will see.  Maybe just a very lovingly made pair of moccasins.  I would like to make a wall hanging or rug out of one, so maybe the fact that it is two will be a good thing.  Wish us luck and keep posted for progress!