I can only echo what Onalee and Oneta have said about PayPal and
eBay. I use both all the time for buying, and I just began to sell a
couple months ago and found the experience very easy. I read a good
book about doing eBay before I started, however (eBay for Dummies
http://tinyurl.com/2bc8ad is very useful, as is eBay: The Missing
Manual, http://tinyurl.com/25kjjn). Emails from eBay and PayPal and
very easy to distinguish from the phishing emails. I was afraid I
would miss a bonafide email from a customer by thinking it was spam,
but they really are easy to tell apart.
Regarding skull cleaning: I've never done this since I raise Barbados
Blackbelly (polled), but the folks I know who do this also put the
skull out in the back 40 and let nature clean it. If you have a
taxidermy friend or someone who hunts elk or deer, you might ask them
for pointers.
Regarding hide tanning: There is a comprehensive list of tanneries at
http://hem.bredband.net/ronpar/pelttanning.html I use Buck's County
in Quakertown, PA. They make the hide washable (although I've never
had to wash one to see if it works).
To prepare the hide, lay it out flat, skin side up (hair side down)
on your basement floor or some area where critters won't get at it.
Make sure all big chunks of fat are removed, although in my
experience, blackbelly sheep just don't have big chunks of fat, or
any other kind of fat. Pour rock salt (the kind you put on icy
sidewalks) all over the hide. This dessicates the hide (removes all
moisture). Make sure you cover every single centimeter of skin, all
the way to the edges. Any skin that doesn't get salted will not dry
and will turn bad. You should put a good inch of salt down.
Leave the hide alone for a week to ten days. That is usually long
enough for a good salting. Sweep the salt off the hide and put it
away for reuse (I store in gallon jars). Roll the hide up and put it
in a used feed bag. Put that bag in a box addressed to the tannery.
Include in the box a sheet with your tanning instructions and your
contact information. Take it to UPS to ship.
It is scary to send your valuable hide away like this to someone you
don't know. Buck's County sends you a postcard telling you they
received it. Then in 3-4 months, they send you another postcard
telling you that it's done and to please send them payment. That's
scary, too--sending money for something you haven't seen. But I've
never been disappointed by Buck's County. When I get the hide, it is
always clean, soft, and supple.
Some cautions:
1. Don't butcher with the intent of keeping the hide until your sheep
have entirely shed their winter undercoat. Any unbroken hair will
remain on the pelt and will not shed during tanning. (I have several
unusable woolie hides, so trust me on this one.)
2. Don't nick the hide when skinning. Those small nicks become large
holes when tanned.
3. You can never use too much salt.
4. If you can groom the sheep a bit before butchering, it can't hurt.
In the long run, I'm not sure it helps, either.
If I missed anything, please someone chime in here.
Carol
Now my question is. How do I clean the skull and how do I prepare
the hide to ship for tanning. I also need some places that do tanning.
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