Adventures and Animal Bits

This blog is dead. I am active at braintanninja.tumblr.com. Blog about my outdoor adventures. I'm in North Carolina. There will be dead things on this blog, you have been forewarned! NOTE~ All pictures and posts are mine, unless noted. My personal random blog is braintanninja.tumblr.com.

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Hey everyone! I'm having a blast out here in Gardiner Montana helping scavenge things from the buffalo gut piles. I won't be updating this too much, but if you like the Buffalo Bridge page on FaceBook there will be fairly regular updates there.

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#1 ~ Cross-country skiing. Photo taken by Mr. Sheeran.

#2 ~ Practicing my down-hill skiing form. Photo taken by Mr. Sheeran.

#3 ~ Rockwall climbing! Photo taken by Beth.

#4 ~ One of the four sets of jerky we hung up. Sorry for the terrible photo quality, it was taken on my iPod. 

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I forgot about this video. This was from October when I was out to help Katie skin deer.

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#1 ~ The yearling bull elk skull.

#2 ~ Packed and ready to get on the bus.

#3 ~ The snow that I came back to.

#4 ~ The Merlin.

#5 ~ A rabbit snow tunnel.

#6 ~ Three frozen deer popsicles.

#7 ~ A beautiful sunset looking at Hollowtop mountain.

#8 ~ Chicken wing fans spread out to dry.

#9 ~ My new bobcat skull.

#10 ~ Another view of the bobcat.

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Hey everyone! Sorry I am not good at getting regular posts up.

December was good, one of the guys from the November class stayed for a while, and it was nice to not be the only intern around.

On December 24th I took the bus out to Spokane, Washington to spend Christmas with some friends out there. Had a lot of fun with them, got to go cross country skiing for the first time in my life, and had a ton of fun, even though I landed on my butt a lot. Also got to go rock climbing, and though the next morning I was fairly sore, I had such a blast! God gave me an awesome Christmas present in the form of a yearling bull elk skull. :) Bringing that home in a backpack on the bus was interesting. Got quite a few strange looks. :P

From the 2nd to the 5th there was a Merlin that hung around the house. I’d never seen one, so it was cool to look out the window and see it.

January 7th we picked up a fresh roadkill that had been dumped in the Pony dumpster, and got to work on butchering it.

The 8th Tom’s brother Nick said that he saw two good looking roadkills, and so Kenny and I went out to pick them up. We ended up bringing three deer back!

From then till the 15th we spent most of our days butchering the four deer.

On the 14th Nick brought over four rabbits for me to butcher that he killed cause they were chewing on wires in his truck.

The 19th we went out to Potosi Hot spring and spent several hours out there.

The 24th we spent the day in Bozeman, and Kenny and I spent 5 hours in the Bozeman mall (mostly reading in Barnes & Noble) while Tom had a dinner and meeting to go to.

The 27th we spent the day at Chris’ place, he’s a friend of Tom’s. Kenny and I scraped a bit on an elk hide he had racked up, then had burgers and hung out and talked about his adventures in Alaska. He makes canvas tipis, and showed us his workshop and stuff he’s made out of buckskin. In his one workshop he had a box full of skulls, and when he saw me admiring them he said I could have one if I wanted. So now I have a bobcat skull!

The 28th Kenny and I caught and killed five roosters, because there was too much hen harassment going on in the chicken yard. I killed three of them, which I didn’t like, but it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.

The 29th I took all the chicken wings and made fans with them.

And tomorrow, the 5th of February, I am going out with Katie to Gardiner, Montana, for Buffalo Bridge! Here is a nice write up about it and what we will be doing: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/buffalo-bridge

I am super excited about it!

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#1 ~ Racks of salted hides we skinned. Picture taken by Tom.

#2 ~ Barnes, Tom, and Chris squeezing apple cider. Barnes couldn't wait to start drinking it! Not sure who took this picture.

#3 ~ The thanksgiving crew! Minus Bartle, who took the picture.

#4 ~ Porcupine! (That's a five gallon water bucket behind her for scale.)

#5 ~ All skinned out!

#6 ~ Look at all those quills!

#7 ~ I love her feet! They are so cool! (That's a front foot.)

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11-24 ~ Went to Helena to Tom’s cousin Mel’s place again to talk about his braintanning setup.

11-27 ~ Had a big feast in Pony! Cooked all day, and several people came over for dinner. We had some of Katie's chickens she butchered, road kill venison roast, roasted root vegetables, elk tongue, a wonderful salad, hot spiced fresh pressed cider, deer headcheese,  and pizza; for dessert we had four different pies, coffee ice cream, two kinds of cookies, and eggnog‏. Everything was delicious, except for the headcheese, which I thought was pretty gross. Harmony (one of the guests) had taken four deer heads, skinned them, put them in brine for a bit, then cooked them until everything fell apart. So headcheese is everything in the head: meat, brain, eyes, tongue, lips; anything that isn't bone.‏ The tiny bit I had tasted mostly like venison, but there was a large hint of maceration to it, which is super nasty.

11-28 ~ Helped Barnes (one of the guys who was there for the class) skin a skunk, and in thanks for helping him he let me have the head!

11-29 ~ Stopped by the dump near River Camp, and I got a porcupine! She looks like she was shot, and then just thrown out.

12-1 ~ Skinned the porcupine, which took me almost all day, because I was being careful to not poke myself, and also didn’t want to break a ton of quills.

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Thanks enigmatic-notoriety! I think that if I can I’d like to get a form for his head so it will look like it looks now. I just don’t know how much work that would be….

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I could try that....I'm not a great artist though. I was planning on using the teeth from the other coyote in the headdress, then I can keep all the teeth in the skull

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Rabbitstick 2014 Primitive Skills Gathering Conference

Rabbitstick 2014, Rexburg, Idaho

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Thanks enigmatic-notoriety! I think that if I can I'd like to get a form for his head so it will look like it looks now. I just don't know how much work that would be....

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#1 ~ Kid's camp.

#2 ~ What is it? Picture taken by Tom.

#3 ~ It's a porcupine! Picture taken by Tom.

#4 ~ Rabbitstick bonfire llama. Picture taken by Tom

#5 ~ Homeschool Kid's Camp. Picture taken by Tom.

#6 ~ The second largest buck we skinned at Katie's. Picture taken by Conner.

#7 ~ Dad and I skinning the perfect coyote. Picture taken by Mom.

#8 ~ Finished! Picture taken by Mom.

#9 ~ Another view. Picture taken by Mom.

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Hey everyone! Look, I’m not dead!   I’m really sorry for getting so behind on letting you guys know what I’ve been up to. I’ve been told I have been too detailed with what I write, so I’m going to just write about the main things that happen now. Remember you guys can message me and talk to me too!

8-27,28 ~ Cut lodge poles for the earth lodge.

8-1 ~ Hung my buffalo robe in the wiki-up to try to passively smoke it, but it’s hard to keep a smoky fire going in there all the time, so I’ll probably have to sew it into a smoke sack and smoke it that way.

9-3 ~ In the evening I helped Nick, Tom’s brother, extract honey from combs. It was a lot of fun, and he gave me the wax that we had cut off, and I want to make some candles with it. Met a new person named Mei who is very knowledgeable about medicinal plants, and that night was super clear, so we stayed up and watched the moon set, and saw some awesome shooting stars, and also the biggest, longest shooting star either of us had ever seen!

9-10~12 ~ Helped out with a middle school kids camp, and found a lot of bones and skulls while out there. Also saw a porcupine! That was really cool.

9-14~20 ~ Went to Rabbitstick, a primitive skills gathering outside of Rexburg, Idaho. Had so much fun, and wished it was longer than a week. I learned so much, and wished I could have learned more. I braintanned a coyote pelt, made an ocarina out of clay, carved a little soapstone bear, made a slate ulu, learned how to do beadwork on buckskin, and listened to several interesting talks. Met so many cool people, and had such a good time.

10-1 ~ Drove out to Helena, cause Tom had a meeting to go to, and after that we went to his cousin Mel’s house, and saw his braintanning setup and got to ask him a ton of questions about tanning and different methods he’s used and experimented with. We then drove to Mel’s friend’s house to see what fishing gear we would need to go Kokanee salmon fishing, and to ask if the fishing was good. We sat and talked with him for a while, and in his house he has some awesome taxidermy. He has hide rugs on the wall, including a mountain lion, mountain goat, coyote, badger, and raccoons. He also has skulls from all those animals, except the mountain goat, shoulder mounts of mule and white tail deer, and several elk as well. He also has just the antlers from an elk, and they were the biggest rack I’ve ever seen. They were probably almost as big as me! We decided that we weren’t going to use any fishing gear and instead just scope out the area and look for trapped hooks to collect. We drove out there, and we ended up bringing home three fish. One was dead, one was mostly dead, and Tom and I were able to corner a live salmon and catch it with our hands. When we got home we cleaned and gutted the two fish we had killed, and I skinned the dead one and put the skin in the barktan bucket to tan.

10-4~5 ~ Helped out with a homeschool kids camp.

10-8~9 ~ Helped out with a high school kids camp.

10-10~11 ~ Had a 22 hour bus ride to Katie’s house.

10-11~25 ~ Helped Katie and the crew out at her place skin a total of 81 deer over the course of the 9 day rifle season. We also had a lot of hides that were dropped off by hunters that they skinned themselves. A couple deer came in with their lungs still in, and it was a lot of fun to blow them up, one time I did it with the hunters still there and they all took a half step back, it was really funny. Though once they got over their initial shock they thought it was pretty cool. While I was out there I found out that Mule and Whitetail deer can interbreed, and we skinned at least two hybrids. I have one of those hides, which I plan on barktanning with the hair on. I discovered that deer tongue tastes really good, and so I would ask hunters if we could have their deer’s tongue, cause we were cooking them for dinners. A lot of the time they were surprised that we would eat that, but every time I asked they said that we could have it. On the 21st in the evening the neighbor came over and said that he had just shot a raccoon, and was wondering if we would be interested in the hide. At first I didn’t want to, because I had a deer hide I was working on, but once I saw him, I knew I wanted to tan him. If he could have talked, the stories he could have told would have been so interesting. He had half a tail, terrible hemorrhoids, a bone spur on his left hind paw, several claws missing on his front paws, half of his right ear missing, a split upper lip on the left side, a scar on the right side of his muzzle, missing upper teeth, and broken canines. I skinned him, and then the next day I put him in a pot with some veggies and spices and made raccoon soup, which was really tasty. The 25th we drove back to Pony.

10-27 ~ Went to a butcher shop in Belgrade and skinned deer all day.

10-31 ~ Moved to River Camp, on the way there stopped by the dump and got a bull elk hide and mule deer hide.

11-7 ~ Flew home to North Carolina!

11-8 ~ Got to see a lot of people at church, it was so good to see you all!

11-9 ~ Drove up to a collage to see enigmatic-notoriety, and then drove to another college to see Caleb, my boyfriend. We were able to hang out all afternoon, which was a lot of fun.

11-10~12 ~ Was able to hang out with several friends while I was home, which was super awesome!

11-13~16 ~ Went to the mountains to stay at a cabin with my family, Grandma and Grandpa, Aunt, Uncle, and cousins. Had fun with them, and also got two roadkill coyotes while there! One is in perfect condition, and I’m planning on making a headdress with him when I get back home. If anyone has any suggestions for me, I’d love to hear them!

11-16 ~ Got to spend more time with Caleb, and got to watch How to Train Your Dragon 1 and 2 with our families.

11-17 ~ Flew back to Montana and went straight to River Camp.

11-21 ~ Went to the butcher shop and skinned deer all day.

11-22 ~ Fleshed and salted hides and then came up to Pony for showers

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8-21 ~ Cleaned out all my skull buckets and took care of the seven dead chickens that dogs killed while we were gone.

 8-22 ~ Went and cut 12 ft poles for the earth lodge we are going to build, as well as some longer poles to smoke buffalo hides from. In the evening a very good friend of mine back home asked me if I would be his girlfriend, and I said yes! So I now have a boyfriend who is 2,000 miles away from me. :P

8-23 ~ Made breakfast, then skinned and took care of the skull of a raccoon that Tom had picked up for me on the 21st that I hadn’t gotten to get to the day before. Finished that, came inside to eat lunch, and Tom came in and told me he had picked up another coon for me, so skinned that, and since it was fresh, I kept the legs, heart, and tongue to eat.

8-24 ~ Went to church, they had a very short sermon, then those who could drove out to Whitehall to visit a church were some of the deacons have come to preach in Pony, and say thank you in person. After the service, we went out to eat. I think that when we are in River Camp I will be able to go to the Whitehall church, so it was nice to meet some of the people. After I got back, we moved some wood up to the house for use in the fireplace when it’s cold.

8-25 ~ Had a very relaxing, not really productive day, but it was nice to just relax.

8-26 ~ Went and cut more 12 ft poles for the earth lodge, and in the evening we played a fun game of Risk that Kenny won.

8-27 ~ Helped soften and flesh a buffalo hide that we are all going to work on.

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#1 ~ Huckleberries!

#2 ~ Cleaning out the maceration buckets!

#3 ~ The pack rat. She was so cute! 

#4 ~ Katie in the bull boat.

#5 ~ The bull boat sinking.

#6 ~ A very rare spotting of a Buffalo Person.

All pictures taken by Tom.

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#1 ~ How much I scraped the first day of working on it.

#2 ~ Progress at the end of the second day.

#3 ~ Progress at the end of the third day.

#4 ~ Progress at the end of the fourth day.

#5 ~ Progress at the end of the fifth day. All done!

#6 ~ This is when it was completely done, brained and softened, right before I cut it out of the rack. I don't have any pictures of me working brains in, sorry :(

#7 ~ All brushed out and oh so fluffy!!

#8 ~ Katie and I in our buffaloes. Picture taken by Tom.

#9 ~ Everyone with their buckskins and buffaloes on! You can't see it, but I'm wearing my skirt that I made.Top row, left to right, is me, Katie,Bartle, and Alex, bottom row is Kris on the left and Kenny on the right. Picture taken by Tom.

#10 ~ The male Buffalo People fight for dominance, while the females watch with amusement. Picture taken by Tom.

I will have more pictures later when I can get some that Katie took. :)

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#1 ~ That's not rain or dust, it's smoke.

#2 ~ In the smoke cloud.

#3 ~ Shampooing my buffalo. Picture taken by Kris.

#4 ~ My hide in his rack. For a bit of reference, he's leaning against a horse trailer.

#5 ~ No, that isn't a cloud, it's smoke.

#6 ~ Apricots! They all came from an old orchard behind Katie's place. Picture taken by Katie.

#7 ~ Alex and Katie working on their hides. Picture taken by Tom.

#8 ~ The scraping setup. Alex and Katie's hides are the ones that have the hide side showing. Mine is on the far side of the horse trailer, and Kris's is at the end of the trailer. Kenny's was leaning on the shed and is not in this picture.

#9 ~ I got tired of seeing these tools over the days that I used them. :P The dry scrape tool is in the vice, and the sharpener next to it I used a lot. And I mean a LOT!

#10 ~ The sun was completely red because of the smoke. The picture doesn't capture how red it was accurately. 

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8-2 ~ For breakfast we picked huckleberries, then drove to Spokane and picked blackberries by the river. We stopped at one of my friend’s house so I could see her, since it had been a year since I last saw her, and ate lunch together. Drove to Coulee City, where we met Kris, and Kenny, Alex and I moved our stuff to his car, because Tom had a conference to go to. Driving to Katie’s was interesting, because of the fires that had gone through the Methow valley. Saw several burned out houses, and there was no vegetation on most of the hills, so we could see the game trails, which was cool. When we got to Katie’s she showed us the property and we set up our sleeping areas.

8-3 ~ We got our buffalos soaking in water to soften, manipulating them so they would soften faster. When they were soft, we pulled them out, checked to see if hair was slipping, and then shampooed them to wash mud, blood and grass out of the hair. Next everyone fleshed their hides, but I couldn’t work on mine much because I had no energy at all. I think it was because of how hot it was, and all the smoke in the air.

8-4 ~ When I woke up I felt much better, and I fleshed my hide and got it in the rack to dry. Kris showed me how to sharpen a dry scrape tool, and I also worked on cleaning up some buffalo scraps. Tom got back from his conference.

8-5 ~ When I started working on my hide in the morning, I found that I hadn’t sharpened my tool right, so spent a fair amount of the cool morning getting the bevel on it right. Then I scraped until it was too hot for me to work. Then I worked more on my hide scraps, which includes a young buffalo’s face, which I think would be really cool to make into a mask. After dinner I scraped on my hide until it was too dark to see.

8-6,7, and 8 ~ All these days were pretty much the same for me. I would get up as early as I could, work until it was too hot, work on something in the shade, relax and chat with friends back home,or take a nap, and after dinner work on my hide until I couldn’t see. On the 8th Alex’s hide split down the middle because of how hot it had been, and because it had been in mostly direct sunlight the whole time it was in the rack, and Kenny forced his warped rack flat and his hide split down the middle too! One of these days we had buffalo meat in dinner.

8-9 ~ Worked on my hide in the morning, and then went to the Twisp Farmer’s Market. Wandered around and had some cool conversations with different venders. In dinner we had llama meat, which was surprisingly kinda like the buffalo we had before. After dinner Katie, Tom and I went square dancing, which was a lot of fun, even though I didn’t know anyone and ended up dancing mostly with older guys.

8-10 ~ It stayed cooler for longer in the morning, mainly due to the heavy smoke haze, so I was able to scrape for a lot longer, and scarped more in the evening.

8-11 ~ I finished scraping my hide! Then I unracked it and soaked it so I could sew up the biggest holes in it. I sewed until it was too dark to sew.

8-12 ~ Finished sewing the biggest holes, reracked it, and got the first braining done.

8-13 ~ I got the second braining done, then unracked it and put it in the freezer because the next few days were going to rain, and I wouldn’t be able to work on it. Katie gave me a young buffalo skull that Kobe (Kris’s dog) had chewed on a little bit, and she also gave me the broken jaw of an adult buffalo.

8-14 ~ We went huckleberry picking, and had a lot of fun. Where we picked felt like Middle Earth, so in my head I imagined that I was a Ranger out foraging.

8-15 ~ We all worked on sewing projects. Alex had already started on pants, Kenny started working on a hoodie sweatshirt, and I made a wrap skirt, all with help from the wonderful tailors Katie, Kris, and Bartle.

8-16 ~ Thawed my hide so I could finish it. Katie and I decided that it would be too dangerous for the hide to be wet another day, so once it was back in the rack I started softening it, and everyone else came and helped me a bit.

8-17 ~ Softened my hide again because overnight the dew had gotten it wet again. In dinner we had elk, which kinda tastes like a mix between beef and buffalo. That night I slept in my buffalo, and almost was too warm!

8-18 ~ Kenny and I got big river rocks for a wall that Katie is going to make, while everyone else stuccoed Katie’s future bathroom. I took a nice long nap when we were finished, and my arms were tired for the rest of the day.

8-19 ~ Katie and I went through her buffalo skull and leg maceration buckets and cleaned stuff up. I had a ton of fun, even though I smelled terrible the rest of the day! Katie gave me some teeth and jawbones that she didn’t want, that I’m looking forward to doing stuff with. Later I skinned a pack rat that Tom had killed the night before that had been in Katie’s house. I was also able to get the skull from it. That evening we went to a lake and we brought a tulle boat, and a bull boat with us. We had a lot of fun,and then the bull boat sank. We spent a long time trying to find and recover it, but we lost it.

8-20 ~ We packed up all our stuff and drove back to Pony.