Working and softening rabbit hides

I've been using this rabbit "stake" to soften the hides from the kits we dispatched in December, plus a backlog of stiff, dried hides from whole rabbits I'd purchased some years back.

I had heard that some people work their hides over the back of a chair but I wasn't having any luck with that, and doing it with my fingers (as the person who taught me about processing rabbits does) was a nightmare. Chase discovered this tool in a book. I was surprised, as I'd already read a lot about working hides online and had never come across this.

It was a revelation. The pointed edge is much more effective at scraping and stretching than anything I'd tried before. I can sit comfortably in a chair with my thighs over the base to keep it steady, and use minimal arm movement.

Now that I finally have an effective tool, I'm learning more about the proper dampness of the hide to soften it permanently. I'd definitely been working with the hides too wet when I first tried a few years ago - I would stretch them and then they would stiffen completely as they finished drying. Lately I've been erring on the other side with too dry. I've been using a squirt bottle and damp towels to soften just the hide and not the fur itself, and experimenting with various degrees of dampness. I'm doing one at a time instead of a big batch.

Here's a hide that dried out soon after I started working on it:

Here's the same hide a few days later, after I'd re-moistened it and was able to work it thoroughly:

24 hours later it had still stiffened a bit more more than I expected, but is still suitable for my primary goal (dog toys).

So far I've done seven and only one has come close to perfect. I'm guessing it will take 30 or so to really get this down.

Sewing 101: Self-lined drawstring pouch tutorial

I whipped up these four self-lined drawstring pouches the day before leaving for my Christmas vacation. I filled them with homemade cookies and gave them as presents. They were a hit!

They were so fun and versatile that I decided to put together a tutorial for making your own. It took me two hours to make these four, so about thirty minutes each. It's a perfect beginner project. Lots of pictures included to help! Click on any picture to see it pop up in a bigger size.

What you will need:

• Paper, pencil/pen, and scissors to draw and cut out your template.
• Fabric (large enough for you to hold in half and cut out template twice).
• Sewing machine, thread, fabric scissors.
• String or yarn.
• Tapestry needle (for pulling yarn through bag).

First draw up a template for how you want the pouch to look. It should have a straight line at the top (where it will open). I wanted mine to be fishbowl shaped, like a classic old-timey pouch. You can make your pouch rectangular or square or longer or shorter. It needs to be wide enough that the opening of the bag (double the length of your straight line) will be able to fit around the base of your sewing machine so that you can sew parallel to that edge.

Sketch your pattern out on paper, and fold the paper in half vertically as you cut it out, to ensure that it will be symmetrical.

Lay out your fabric so that it is folded in half where the straight line at the top is. Cut out TWO of these. (I recommend ironing your fabric after you fold it, before cutting. Go ahead and iron over the crease, as it will be helpful later.)

This is what I've cut out (second one not shown). You need two since the pouch will have two sides.

Unfold it at the top. For each side of the pouch, one half of this shape will be on the outside and the other half will be the inside lining.

Lay the two parts you've cut out together, with the pretty side of the fabric hidden between.

You're about to sew the two parts together all the way around, EXCEPT where I've indicated between my index finger and thumb. You'll want this section to be about 2-2.5 inches. This will be where you flip the pouch inside out so that the pretty side of the fabric is showing. It will also be the hole through which the string comes out, so this hole MUST start just below that horizontal crease in the fabric where it was previously folded.

 

Start sewing at the bottom part of where the hole will be, and go all the way around until you get to the top of the hole.

Ta-da! (I ironed the fabric after sewing so that it would look nicer for the picture. This isn't necessary for this project, but if you move on to sewing clothes or other fancy things, you'll want to get in the habit of ironing over all of your seams to help the thread settle in and help everything stay even.)

Now go to that hole and open it up.

Gently start pushing the fabric from the inside of the pouch through the hole, to turn it inside out.

Almost all the way inside out...

 

Done flipping inside out! It won't look very nice at this point.

Use your fingers, a capped pen, or other blunt narrow object to push against the seam from the inside, and even everything out.

Looking much better after pushing the seams out.

Now here's where the magic happens - flipping it so that it will have its final pouch shape! Hold your fabric so that the hole is toward you, on the bottom half of the pouch. Pull the left and right sides of the fabric apart, so there's space on the inside.

Begin stuffing the top half down into that space.

Now it's self-lined!

And it has our final desired shape!

Iron the pouch so the fabric lies nice and flat, and the top is creased instead of balloon-y.

Go back to where the hole is. You're going to sew the hole up by going along the very edge of the fabric, except for a small section at the very top (where the string will be going into the bag).

I was in a hurry and used white thread here, but if you use thread that matches your fabric color, this seam won't be very noticeable on the final product. I left about a 1/2" hole for my string at the top.

Turn the pouch so that it wraps around the base of your machine, and sew a line ALL the way around, about 1/2" from the top (or however long your remaining hole is). This is the casing for your string - it will keep the string at the top of the bag as its opened and closed repeatedly.

Again I used white, but a matching thread would have blended in.

Cut a generous piece of string or yarn and thread it through a tapestry needle.

Insert the needle through that last small hole, and pull the yarn all the way through the casing.

It's done! You have a self-lined drawstring pouch!

Filled with goodies!

Wood working projects

Pulled out the circular saw, drill, and hammer yesterday and knock a few projects off the to do list:

Cover for the chick pen, so they can't stand on their water bucket and then jump out.

Rabbit hiding boxes - the far side is left open.

Picture frame to hold the egg flier my sister drew for me. (It's inside in a plastic sheet protector.) I tried my best to cut all the angles at 45 degrees, yet none of them line up, but at least it looks basically the same at all the corners so maybe people will think it's an intentional style thing?

Rabbit "stake." Chase saw an illustration of this in a book on preserving hides. More on how it works in a future post.

Final project to show off was actually created a few weeks ago. Rabbit butchering station, with two spots on opposite sides so that people can work on two rabbits at once.

Chicken tractor

Most of my garden area has been mulched with cardboard and straw. It works well enough, though this area is prone to wind storms that send the mulch traveling.

However I've neglected other areas which are now overgrown with grasses, which will turn into dangerous foxtails as they mature.

I was thinking that I should build a small chicken tractor for these areas. The chickens inside will happily munch on the grass, getting extra food and nutrition while solving my weed problem. But time and energy are in short supply lately, so actually making a tractor was overwhelming. Until I had a sudden realization that a wire dog crate (with the plastic pan removed) would be perfect for this.

Five minutes later, the whole thing was ready to go. The hardest part will be catching the chickens to put them inside each day. Today I spread out some treats and was able to catch the Red Star and Speckled Sussex. They'll catch on and start avoiding me soon enough. I'd rather avoid making them sleep inside the crate as they won't be comfortable. But putting in a roosting bar would be easy enough, so that may end up being the solution.

Puppy proofing electrical cords

I saw this brilliant idea in one of my dog groups. 1.25" PVC pipe can be used to protect electrical cords, which puppies seem to have a particular attraction to. It's not all perfectly lined up, but it should do.

Coop and chick pictures at 3 weeks old

The new coop was designed in two separate units that stand next to each other (with an unfortunate gap due to uneven ground). Both units have large access doors for easy cleaning. One unit has a ramp leading downstairs, the chicken door to the outside, and only one nesting box so that there's room for food/water downstairs. The other unit is solely roosting bars and nesting boxes. If I ever want to expand the coop, I can just make another unit like the second and slot it in. MORE CHICKENS

Coop from the short side. Top story is all solid plywood, with two short windows to let air through but not blow directly on the birds when they're roosting. Bottom story is plywood on long sides and hardware cloth on short sides.

Top level, unit with ramp. (Door over ramp is closed for now so they don't fall and hurt themselves.)

Top level, unit with just roosting bars. The bucket has water. Food is in the back. The blue fabric strips are a "wool hen" that they can cuddle under for warmth/comfort.

Bottom level with 4 nesting boxes and ramp.

It also opens on the other side for easy access to eggs.

And here are the chicks themselves. Their wing feathers are mostly in and they have short tail feathers. Most of them have developed feathers on their shoulders and along the sides of their chests. It's so much fun watching them develop - totally worth the babying they needed during the first two weeks. Compare these photos to the ones from two weeks ago.

Black Japanese Bantam (5)

Red Pyle Game Bantam (started with 3, now 2)

Black Silkie Bantam (2)

Blue Silkie Bantam (3)

White Silkie Bantam (1)

Buff Orpington (1)

Black Star (1)

Cuckoo Maran (so pretty!!) (1)

Silver Laced Wyandotte (1)

Easter Egger (seems to be the oldest as she has the most feathers) (1)

Speckled Sussex (gorgeous feathers) (1)

Unknown freebies (5)

Golden Sebright Bantam (started with 9, now 5)