Rawhide in the Rain

Wow. When it rains, it pours.

Grey and rainy for days and days. Winter is setting in.

Rain is good for cutting trees, and scraping rawhide...

We did setup a cover to get out of the worst of it.



We had one day last week when the clouds parted, and took the opportunity to rake up most of our leaves.

We deposited them on the garden, where they are rebuilding soil during the long dark.





After almost 9 days now, the hair is pulling easily from the deerhides.

Time to make more progress.






Scraping hides is much more fun as a team.

The colder air has made the soaking slow, but it has also kept the smell at bay. The hides don't smell bad, or even 'meaty' at all.






The hair pulls off easily, especially in the middle of the hide.

Interestingly, the edges and along the neck of the hide is still difficult to pull the hair - I assume because of the thickness of the hide there?





There are still a few spots where the hair is more stubborn...

We put a bit more time into the hides, and will soak them another day or two.

It is nice that at this point the hides are very forgiving - we can neglect them for weeks if we need to.

The girls built some fun Thanksgiving cookies to help cheer the rainy grey.

They tasted as good as they looked.

The rain did drop the last of the leafy holdovers from their lofty perch.

We have a few more leaves to rake, but they will wait a bit, too.

And alittle sunny light at eventide was welcome, even if short-lived.

Our older daughter also put together a pumkin cheesecake.

This will be a great holiday. We have much to be greatful for.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!