Wednesday, 1/13/10:
Today I finished skinning my Merganser, and afterwards came the joy known as degreasing. It’s actually pretty cool; running the fatty skin along the wheel and watching it dissolve and fly away. It gets tricky negotiating around any holes in the skin-they easily get caught on the wheel and the next thing you know there are feathers flying everywhere. On the plus side, my hands feel luxuriously moisturized afterwards.
Cleaning up the machine reminds me of what liposuction must look like.
After degreasing comes the bath, comprised of a top-secret solution that only taxidermists are privy to.
The bird comes out of his bath, gets wrung out and tumbled in sawdust for a bit. This fluffs the feathers back up. I had to play doctor with mine before I stretched the skin over the mount, because he’s broken his leg during his dying fall. It was a delicate operation.
Now be a good boy and eat your medicine!!!
I am constantly reminded of plastic surgery…
Later on I went home, and did my usual hoop work-out routine. We noticed that there were coyote tracks about twenty feet from the house and grew nervous about letting the cats out. You know, after what happened to Daisy. We even heard them howling later that night!
For dinner Sarah prepared the Venison with a cherry/apple chutney. It was divine. We also snacked on some deer and moose keilbasi that my instructor gave me. It’s great with a little mustard and cheese.
