Sometimes I hate my fierce optimism. I really should be more realistic with myself and realize that in my life, pretty much everything will go wrong.
But yet I still try to fool myself into thinking that the next time will be different.
After being delayed 2 DAYS, you’d think I would be cautious. Nope.
I woke-up Friday morning thinking I’d begin my hide at 2pm, after taking the two kids to the library.
Wrong. I forgot that at 3pm I had an appointment to pick-up more brains from the slaughter house to stock in the freezer. This meant working the hide in the morning.
I pulled it out at 9:30, and realized there were two more holes yet to sew, so a half hour later I had that done. I began stringing it up into the frame. I got half-way done when I realized it was too big for the frame.
I had two choices. Make my frame larger or find a metal cable. With a metal cable I can pull the hide back and forth to work it (a popular method).
I decided to run to the barn. Erik had a come-along with steel cable, and I figured I could attach it between the beams on my stretching frame. I would cable the hide instead.
Excited, I came back with the cabling. But I couldn’t unravel the unruley cable, and after an hour of fighting with it, I had finally managed to get it long enough to hang top to bottom. Then I got to work.
Fail.
The hide was too sticky and kept wrapping around the cable.
By now I was panicking as the edges of the hide were rapidly drying. Erik had come home for lunch by this point, and we decided to make my frame larger (luckily the drill was in the house!). Then I re-strung it up (this takes a long time). After I’d gotten it all strung up (30 minutes later), I realized it was backwards! It had to face the opposite way (or so I’d thought).
No problem, I’ll just flip the frame over. Wrong. I began working the hide, but the string pushed off the nails. It just wouldn’t stay attached.
At this point I am crying. It’s 12:30 and Nuriel will be home in half an hour. I reluctantly un-string the whole hide, then re-string it the opposite way and FINALLY began working my stick across it.
By 1:30 I am realizing that I am screwed. BOTH kids are harassing me about going to the library, PLUS I gotta put Earen down for a nap and THEN go get my brains from the butcher at 3pm. I reluctantly UNSTRING the hide, roll it up and put it into a plastic bag to stay wet.
I finish everything by 4:15pm, and decide to run out to feed the critters. By 4:45 I am finally re-stringing it and working it by 5pm. By 8pm I’d given up on the frame and went back to the cable.
. . . . . . . . . . . . it was still midnight when I came to the conclusion I was completely screwed since half my hide was still wet, and the other half hard like paper.
BUT. . . . . . you’ll be happy to know that the thinnest areas (thin areas go through the liquid solutions faster, soak up brains faster, and dry faster) came out like the softest flannel. It was sooo super buttery soft you are thinking, if only the whole thing could be like this!
Upon re-refrencing my book, BOTH sides are actually supposed to be worked. It was one tiny sentence in the whole book. Ugh.
I ‘m not sure exactly what went wrong, could still be a solution issue, or maybe not in the brains long enough. I followed directions 100%.
The worst part? Erik reminding me of why I didn’t attempt this in the last 5 years: “You know how much firework you could have chopped in the amount of time you’ve spent on this?” Yes. Sadly, yes I know.