Category Archives: random thoughts

I have a new respect for leather. Last weekend it took all of my strength and the strength of ten other people to tan three buckskins and a couple of rabbit furs.

We were learning, sure, but to make a single buckskin in a natural way is an incredibly intense–physically and mentally–exercise. We were lucky to have the expertise of Tamara Wilder, a primitive skills master who has been making buckskin and teaching wilderness skills for the past twenty years.

Tamara, pictured here with a student, brought all the poles and beams we needed to scrap the hides clean. She also brought three hides for us to tan–two deer and one goat. It’s her side gig to skin deer for hunters during hunting season so she collects a lot of them. She merely salts the hides, folds them up, and then puts them into a large plastic box in a shady spot. When she has time–usually in the winter–she’ll take them out and start the hide tanning process.

Though two of the hides were almost three years old, they hardly smelled at all. Our first order of business was to scrape off all the muscle tissue and fat off the hides. We donned long plastic aprons, set up scrapping beams, and went to work. We used dull blades and elbow grease to work off the tissue. At some points, it was gross.

Then we flipped the hides over and started scrapping the fur side off. Tamara pointed out that this is the time when most mistakes happens. There’s a membrane that must be removed with the hair. If it doesn’t get removed, it will never be soft and supple buckskin.  This requires a hefty amount of upper arm strength. And in my case, grunting. Every once in awhile we would pour water over the hide to keep it moist.

That first step took almost all day. Those of us who opted to make a bunny fur, also had to scrap the muscle and fat off a rabbit hide which had been soaked in an alum and salt solution overnight (this sets the fur so it doesn’t slip).

Next, Tamara showed us how to properly remove a brain to do the brain tanning solution. We also added about a dozen egg yolks and blended it all up. The scrapped hides and furs went into the brain bucket overnight. We all limped home and licked our wounds.

The next day, we were up early, setting up pieces of thick wire along the fence posts at GhostTown Farm. The neighbors were very curious. We spent the rest of the day fussing with the brain-infused hides. We pulled them, and stretched them, and roughed them up on the wires. Then pulled them some more. The bunny furs were prodded and stretched. After many hours, the hides started to feel really soft and pliable. They could be tugged on. They turned a wonderful white color and were soft as felt. We had made buckskin.

Then Tamara (who was wearing a buckskin tank top and had made a pair of buckskin hot pants!) started a fire with a stick. We all nearly gasped at her genius. We then smoked the buckskin, which makes it waterproof, and turned it a dun color that I’ve only associated with buckskin wearing natives.

By that second day, we were all exhausted, stretched to the limit, giddy with our new knowledge. Tamara divided up the buckskin–each of us got a quarter of a hide–and we all wondered what we would make with ours. I think I have enough to make a bikini top.

Also, tonight i’ll be at:

CounterPULSE, 1310 Mission St., San Francisco, CA 9410

Wednesday, April 29, 2009
7:30pm

I’ll be one of five speakers discussing “transitioning into sustainable urban living.”

Sorry for the last minute notice (you should see how dirty my hair is right now–too. busy. to. bathe.) but here’s a fun event where I’ll be giving a talk about animals and fermentation:

What: Ferment Change: A celebration of Urban Agriculture, Food Justice,
Fermented Food and Community. To benefit CitySlickerFarms in West Oakland, Ca.
When: Friday April 3, 2009
Where: Humanist Hall, 411 28th Street, Oakland, CA 94609
Time: 7:30-10:30pm

Cost: $10-30, no one turned away for lack of funds
Cosponsors: Ecology Center, Humanist Hall, City Slicker Farms, Friends of L.Bacillus

Music By: Zoyres Eastern European Wild Ferment plus others
Contact: maxc@riseup.net

I am so high on spring. I can’t sleep. I wake up in the middle of the night thinking things like: “I should build a goat pen in the lot” or “tomorrow I need to plant some corn”. My To Do list is long and includes actions that are so physically challenging, I would die if I actually did them all.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining—I love this springtime high. And I know I’m not alone. Proof came on Friday when I attended the Compost Giveaway in Berkeley. Every last Friday of the month the City of Berkeley gives away whole pick-ups full of rich, dark, lovely finished compost. All you do is bring your truck, wait in line, and then get a scoop of soil from a bulldozer.
I arrived at 8:45 and so did everyone else. Truck after truck after truck, all in a line. Even my friend Willow arrived in her big red bomber truck. First we talked on the phone, then we realized the line was moving very slowly. She came over to my truck. “I’ve never seen so many people here!” she said. The guy in the khakis and buttondown shirt managing the people told us he had never seen anything like the line before either. The fat, cigarette smoking cop looked like he was going to have a heart attack. Did he expect a riot?

I realized that this pack of compost hungry people was tangible evidence of a.) spring and b.) the huge increase in gardening, perhaps during a recession. There were ghetto trucks (mine), sleek trucks with Biblical verse written on it, and rental trucks. There were young people and old people, a guy wearing overalls and a matching child wearing overalls. There were community gardeners, professional landscapers, scroungers, and urban farmers. Everyone likes free soil.

If you didn’t have a truck, there were two smaller piles of compost and wood chips off to the side for people who couldn’t take a load from the bulldozer. These people had shovels and buckets and galvanized laundry buckets, and other weird receptacles to scoop up the black gold. I loved seeing the enthusiasm of all these people. Working so hard so that their plants would thrive. I wondered what their gardens looked like, what they were growing, how they grow stuff. Seeing the people swarming around these piles made me so proud of us. Us humans. We do so many horrible things, but when we garden, we are beautiful.

In the end, I waited about 40 minutes to get my free soil. Was it worth it? I can’t say just by looking at it, but the soil looks beautiful. It comes from the green bins, municipal compost picked up in the East Bay, turned into compost, and then returned to the people. What a lovely cycle.

Thanks for the tip Oliver!

Info:
-Every last Friday of the month is free compost give away at the Berkeley Marina, near the Adventure Playground on the South side of the marina.