Putting up one's fur

[jack hamilton]

Gentlemen,

I never knew how to flesh fur till last year.
It was J.C. who 'taught me how'
and that was confirmed by the old retired fur buyer
down in Maypearl Texas.

It is so simple.
Hides are best fleshed when skinned.
{Or as soooon as possible after!}
I never knew that.
In fact, the guy who got me into trapping in 1959,
old Randy Gibson, still maintains fur has to be dried before being fleshed.
Even though Randy never fleshed a coon in his life.

In school we would hang furs unfleshed on our bedroom walls
till the hair all fell out,
and that was the best we could do.
We never knew where to sell fur.

Then when my hounds were all alive
and before I got disabled I would sell to the country fur buyer.
It felt good to be able to sell the fur to someone who could make it useful,
ie. flesh it and send it to the Hudson Bay co.
and see to it that it wasn't wasted as fur is beautiful.
I could spend my yearly profits at the beer store on the way home
but at least the fur wasn't wasted.

I have fur I tanned 25 years ago and it is beautiful.
But the work involved was monumental.
I am talking fleshing Coyotes after the season is over
and hopefully before it gets too hot.
Talk about a lot of work.

Then I get murdered and everything changed.
I wake up in the hospital after a coma of 5 weeks
and realize what is important in life
and that is being out on the trail with my hounds
and on the trap line alone again.

I had a vision from God and I ain't kidding.
I heard God say "Jack, you are pretty bad,
yes, you are pretty bad...
but you are not quite dead, so you are going back to the world."
"But first there is somebody here you might want to see.
They want to see you real bad and their right here..."
{It was my old hound Cotton Joe who had been poisoned
by the same white trash who killed me.}
Joe said telepathically:
I can't believe you are still grieving for us after all these years.
{12 years}
When we died we really suffered, me most of all
but we're alright now, I've been 3-4 dogs since then.
You are the only one still suffering and it hurts me.
You are missing your life!
We would all be there with you if we could but we can't!
Get you some hounds and go hunting!
And I woke up in Baylor hospital.

The fur buyer retired and all of a sudden
I have all this time on my hands,
like the garden, the poultry, the knife shop,
the former pantry brewery...
I will learn to handle my own fur!

Putting up my own fur is another thing I can do which ...
its not the profit...
I can find another fur buyer...
Its not spending everything on overhead, gas and taxes.
It's efficiency in life style.
Another part of living on my land
and making the best use of what I have.
To be able to make something out of nothing.
It's about not wasting anything.
About being ones own boss.

I remember seeing 500 coon on wire stretchers
each hide side as white as snow,
down at the fur buyers 25 years ago.
I just stood there and looked at them.
It was a beautiful and an inspiring sight.
I guess it was inspiring as I would rather put up my own fur
for less money than 'sack groceries at the grocery store' for more.
I consider sacking groceries to be 'low paying humiliating work'.
Whereas fleshing coon is not.

That's what it is about.
Doing a good job and finishing my own fur.
People don't do that anymore.
People have 'jobs',
which, after being self employed for 33 years,
any 'job' working for somebody else,
seems low paying and humiliating.
I always worked for myself and I'll work for myself now,
hell with a job.
I used to drive 30,000 miles a year and now drive 2,000.
That makes fleshing coon look good.
Stay home and flesh coon
or sit in traffic all day?

I don't make much off the coon or do I?
I sat in my truck all day and thought I was making money
but gas, restaurant food, truck repairs and advertising got most of the money.
After working all year and paying off all my costs...
I was breaking even,
nothing left.
I can break even now very well
at home here on my land
doing what I love to do.
In fact I am doing it now.

Fleshing and putting up my own fur is important to me.
An important and 'missing part' of my life.
Last year I tanned 3 coon but I waited just a few weeks before fleshing and I understand now!
The fur buyer said when I asked him when to flesh coon and he looked right at me and said:
As sooooon as possible!


J. Winters von Knife
Sandymay & Dukedog