Good Luck Today, YCC (Not That You'll Need It)

[Rick]

Good luck on your demonstrations today. I hope you have great weather and lot's of questions!!

For those in the area, YCC will be braintanning at Landmark Park. He will be set up along the nature trail so stop by and say Hey!

[crashdive123]

Good luck YCC - Hopefully some weekend when I'm not working I'll be able to make the drive out for one of your demonstrations.

[Justin Case]

Hope all goes well,, I am excited for you !

[hunter63]

Cool, wow them,........ like you do us.

[welderguy]

Good luck. And have fun.

[RangerXanatos]

We're all excited! Hope you have a nice turnout.

[BENESSE]

How did it go? Spill it, brother.

[your_comforting_company]

Oh wow, thanks guys!!

I ain't braggin, but it went GREAT!
At one point there must have been 20 people standing around. My first demonstration run went from 30 minutes to 2 hours banking on all the questions. I was as thorough as I could be but there was so much genuine interest.. folks standing 3 feet away from a stinky ol' hide so they could see the skin layers. Folks handling brain-soaked skins to feel the texture differences. Kids helping stretch a skin. Deer-hide tug-of-war. Examples of good jobs and bad jobs, details about tick holes..
I just couldn't believe how receptive and interested the folks were. One lady swore it was just too gross, but I convinced her to touch a partially softened part of the hide and then I couldn't keep her away!
One set of folks stood and watched through 3 demo sets, stayed with me for about 4 hours.

There were dulcimer workshops, woodturning workshops, and a few other things going on at the park, and except for the playground, my little booth looked to be the busiest place, till about an hour before closing!

It was a 70% chance of rain yesterday, so I bought a few tarps, got to the Park and the gentleman said they were gonna move me to the cotton shed; An old pole-barn with open walls. It only sprinkled a few times until after closing, and I got loaded up and out of there just before the bottom fell out. Thank you Lord!!

It was great under the shed because folks could walk completely around my setup and still be out of the rain. I invited all of them to walk around and touch the hides. One older couple wanted to buy one... till I told them what it was worth, LOL. So I sent my littlest one to the truck to grab some buckskin scraps. I cut them up into 2x2 squares and gave everyone a piece. I told them to take it home and wash it. One lady said "What will happen if I wash it?" and I said "Nothing. It'll just be cleaner!" hehe.

It was really cool and I would guess that somewhere around 60 people came by. I ran through the demo at least 5 or 6 times and one gentleman came all the way from Miami just to see the tanning demo!

I just couldn't believe how much genuine interest there was. I'm also surprised that several of them had done some study on the subject and knew a little bit, but still had questions. Their questions were the things I was pointing out, like "how do I know when I've scraped the grain off", or "how can you tell it's dry".

I think they want me to come back on the 19th for the spring festival.

I met a falconer who wanted to stuff squirrel hides for training his bird. I gave him one of the brown squirrels I had tanned and told him to have lots of fun with it. He didn't want to take the squirrel hide ("no way man, I can't just take your hide!"), but I told him I had a dozen in the freezer and a dozen more still in the trees in the yard, so please take it and enjoy!!

One pair of fellas was from a deer processing hut not far from there, and they offered to donate hides to any of the classes we hold later in the year. He said they just incinerate them, and if we could use them to benefit the park, they were more than willing to donate!

Out of all those people, only one or two little girls and a two "proper ladies" didn't want anything to do with it, but still thought it was very educational. I was super busy the whole time, and really enjoyed doing it.

I thought it went really well. Couldn't have asked for better.
My arms are a little sore tho, hehe.

[your_comforting_company]

Oh, and one of the guys there was from my bee class, and we tied all of it together with self-sufficiency. Even threw a little friction fire in there, since you need fire to smoke your hides, and I explained WHY we would learn to do these things, instead of just flicking a bic. Folks were AMAZINGLY receptive to the idea of "Doing something for yourself"

[Pocomoonskyeyes3]

Now THAT was what I was waiting for. I knew you would do well, so I didn't wish you "Luck", Just hoped it stayed nice weather for you.LOL

[crashdive123]

Outstanding. Glad it went well ---- knew it would.

[Justin Case]

This is GREAT,, you ARE on your way !! I am happy for you ! I hope you get Video, I think there will be a TV opportunity in your not too distant future,, start send those vids to discovery, nat geo, etc,, The Interest IS there ! jmho

[Pocomoonskyeyes3]

This is GREAT,, you ARE on your way !! I am happy for you ! I hope you get Video, I think there will be a TV opportunity in your not too distant future,, start send those vids to discovery, nat geo, etc,, The Interest IS there ! jmho

I have to agree. I think you are the "Next Generation" in this field. If I had to pick someone to take nothing in the wilderness with them but knowledge, Knowing that they would be "safe", You are one of my top picks, if not the top pick. You are well rounded and versed in several aspects of Primitive technology.