This seemed like the right thing to do, and it appears to be working.
For meat eaters on the homestead, butchering animals can come with the territory. Unfortunately, many homesteaders and hunters don't use all that they can when they harvest an animal. Around here, while I may choose to kill an animal, I try to make the most out of it by using all that I can.
Everything that we can either obtain or grow ourselves, or reuse is basically one more thing that we can essentially get for free. "Free" fits into our budget and financial goals a lot better than the alternative!
SALT?
Part of using all that we can includes the animal hides. There are many uses for skins, pelts, rawhide, and leather, so I'm learning how to tan the hides. When we recently helped a neighbor harvest three of his goats, he sent me home with the skins. Then I helped @bluerthangreen harvest one of his goats, and got another skin. Next, the neighbor shot a deer and didn't want the hide, and then I shot a deer too.
As you can tell, animal hides are not exactly rare around here, nor are they hard to come by. Rather than having them just be discarded and wasted, I figured I'd see what I can do. Since I have a lot that I'm up to at the moment, I wanted to scrape and preserve them for now, and then start the tanning process in the near future. As far as I can tell, I can re-hydrate these later when I need to, so salting them at the moment is just to keep them preserved until then.
When I originally scraped and salted the first goat skins, I bought a lot of salt to do so. Eventually, it dries, as does the skin. At this point, I'm not sure what people would normally do with it, but I had an idea.
The dried salt was already breaking up in some large pieces and detaching from the hide. I figured that if I collected it I could possibly reuse it. I chose a plastic five gallon bucket to collect it in for two reasons. First, the salt would encourage metal to rust. I've driven enough vehicles up on the winter roads of Wisconsin to know what salt can do to metal. They salt the roads to melt the ice, and then the salt accelerates the deterioration of the metal vehicles. Secondly, the five gallon bucket seemed big enough to hold it all.
MORE HELP = MORE TIME TOGETHER
I got my right hand man Monster Truck a wooden dowel and let him have some fun busting the salt up. After a while with him smashing it, the large hard pieces were reduced to their original granules. I think that it is excellent to be able to have a job for a four year old where hitting things with a stick and breaking them is a good thing. He gets to enjoy something that is pure pleasure to a young boy and he gets to actually accomplish a real job in the process.
Once the salt was removed from the first hides, collected and pulverized, it was ready to be used on the next batch of skins. I think that I'll try brain tanning first and see how that goes, but if anyone has any advice, tips, or processes that they like, please let me know. My goal will be to keep the hair on, so we will see how it goes.
In the end, it was great to spend some quality time "working" with my son again and I'm glad that I didn't have to go purchase more salt. Between skull mounts, meat, tanned hides, bone broths, and animals like like to eat the innards, any harvested animal around here should be pretty much used up!
here's the proof:As always, I'm @papa-pepper and
proof-of-saving-salt
Until next time…
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Nice thing to preserve the salt....if its costly
Just a suggestion, when you salt the hide, make sure the room is insulated and warm enough...Best temp range for salting preservation is 35-80 C.
We in Pakistan don't reuse the salt like you do...Here the salt is pretty cheep...Salt price here is 0.2 cents per kg..
make sure to use non iodized salt...
Right, it has to be non iodized salt. It does not cost too much here, but it's easier to reuse it a few times then to run back into town.
hmmmm right.... My city is the largest hide exporter in our country...We get to see a lot of tanneries around here!
Interesting. Perhaps you could do a post about what process you use over there to give me some ideas.
I am no expert but I will talk to a guy who is into it and may be share the story with you...
Cool, thank you for that. It's interesting to see all the different ways people accomplish the same thing around the world.
While I have no practical use of the information I got from this post , it has added to my knowledge nonetheless! Thank You.
That is an HONEST comment! THANK YOU!
Why, Thank You! My honesty is getting rewarded!☺️
Another day in the life.... :-) I really envy you the time you get to spend playing with monster truck. What dad wouldn't want to do that?!?! It's always enjoyable reading about your hands-on, salt of the earth adventures. Keep it up! I'm intrigued by what you're going to end up doing with the leather from the skins. I'll keep watching to find out....
Thanks for that. We are attempting to restructure our entire existence to allow us the freedom to be together as a family. There is a long, tough road ahead of us, but we are heading the right way! Thanks again!
Awesome to see your right hand little man helping
Yeah, he's a blessing and a real help.
Great post. I've been wondering if that would work. Never tried it though. I will now.
I did not know about this work. Thanks for helping with the information. Maybe this information can help me.
Maybe, if you're trying to tan some animal hides perhaps.
damn all that is salt
It sure is.
A member of my family used to tan hides back in the day... this brought back memories from my youth. We wasted nothing on the farms.
Cool to hear it brought back memories. I try not to waste.
wow! I feel like I would never get experience this living in the city. you mentioned you are preserving the hides, but how effective is the re-hydrating and what do you end up using the hides for?
I plan on using some for clothing of some sorts and others for other purposes. I've seen them used as seat covers and wall decor too.
awesome! would love to see the final product
Awesome to see your right hand little man helping you! His smile lights up the world!
Smiling while working, getting rarer these days. LOL.
There is a limit to reuse... sorta.
The salts leach out the water, but along with that comes many other substances.
So, you end up with stuff that looks like salt, but isn't salt (or it is, just not NaCl)
I feel you should be able to reuse it a few times, but dispose of it when it starts turning color or smelling.
I am sure there are ways to dissolve the salt, pour out the other stuff, then evaporate the water to get back pure salt again. I haven't done it.
Thanks for that advice, I am always impressed at your wealth of knowledge.
Am always inspired each time I come across your post. keep the God work. God bless you more.
Raw (only cleaned, salted and dried) goat skin is very good to create drum. I also have one, its sound is wonderful. I suppose you respect the animals you kill, releasing their soul, thanks for Mother Earth and use every particles of it. I'm a vegetarian (for health reason, because I cannot digest meat completely), but I would never hurt other people, who kill animals for living.
It's me with my drum:
Wow, very cool drum. I'll have to look into that.
Very good post.
Thanks!
A good thing you're doing trying to reduce waste. I wonder if there's anything to do with the waste part of a chicken after killing it because I own a poultry and I eat a lotta chicken meat|thinking|. I would soon start posting about my poultry farm and life as a home steader and i do hope you support me @papa-pepper. Thanks.
While it may not sound the most Pleasant, you could put the other parts you would normally waste of the chicken in a bucket with a few holes in it, and allow the Flies to lay their eggs in it. Then the maggots crawl out of the holes and fall to the ground where the other chickens can eat them. We've done this before, but I know it's not something everyone would want to try.
Wow. I don't think I'd want to try that though but good thought.
That is a great idea! Thanks for the post!
Thank you for checking it out!
Nice , I love that you strive to reuse everything rather than throwing things out! I try my best to do the same. We set up a barrel compost for our garden as well as a rain collector for watering our plants. In Portland, we could pretty much water our plants with rain water up until the end of the first half of summer.
I've tried tanning with very little success. Someday I'll give more time to learning more about it. Get those kiddos trained up! Someday they may depend on it.
wow great post..very creative..thanks for sharing :)
Hahahah that kids looks happy for being allows to smash things with a stick!
What are you going to do with so much skin?
Mostly loincloths for those hot summer nights.
What an interesting read! Thanks for sharing
It is good to be able to use every scrap of the animal we butcher. The leather should have many good uses. We are lucky that we have cobblers (shoe makers) that can turn the leather into shoes and boots. They are also willing to buy the hides.
Great job not wasting that salt!I mean, its not like its gonna go bad right!!
Thanks man!
I like that you have chosen a lifestyle that you can spend that real quality time with your kiddos. Some men get trapped in that rat race and just cant spend the time they want with their family!! I know that when they think of you when they're grown, they will hardly remember the mistakes but will speak of all the times you spent with them and taught them!! What a legacy!
Thanks man. It wasn't my idea, it came from the Father.
Do I see moccasins in papa-peppers future?
They work very well for hunting! I might have to make some.
They are actually very comfortable to wear.
YOU ARE MY HERO @papa-pepper ! I really like your stuff mate!
Really? You sure know how to pick 'em!
Hahaha yeah mate! Your content is always awesome! Specially your rare animals related videos! You are the real life mix between Indiana and cocodrilo Dundee! Hahaha you still got to tell me how to get one of those silver steemit coins mate! Greetings from Spain :)
That is a solid idea! Most of the time that used salt is trashed.
A while ago you mentioned an old neighbour who was into tanning etc, his would be the first brain I would suck dry, and even ask him to show you how.
It is 70+ years since I have done any curing so the information is long gone.
Good post! Pass through my blog and enjoy the content, greetings :D
Though i no idea about this but it's been pretty educating. I am a lover of beef and it's likes. Will ensure I teach those who are in this professionally. Not everyone knows this trick on salt preservation.
Your posts are a breath of fresh air!
My mom used to say "waste not, want not"
Brilliant reuse for that salt.
I also do my own hides. I have used eggs, mayonaise to soften. Then smoke/tan them. I haven't had the opportunity to use the brains. Looking forward to seeing how you do that!
I often soften by pulling the hide across a tree trunk for the suede look.
Love that your babies are involved!! What a blessing!!