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That`s true, and bone dust can actually be sharp enough to cut lung tissue. Also second the imported skins issue, especially those from Turkey and Africa. Not a disease at all, but the risk of accident, especially in my part of the UK, in an isolated area, shouldn`t be underestimated. Isn`t...

Does anyone know where I could find online a pattern to make a suede/sheepskin foot muff, you know, the extra large `slipper` kind that you fit both feet into when you sit in a chair? An elderly lady has asked me to make one but I`m having a helluva time finding a pattern.

Those are lovely! Very much like the quiver too. :)

Imo, true self sufficiency is all but impossible in todays society. I live on the fringes of it..would love to be offgrid too but can`t at the moment, simply because I don`t have the cash to buy the various `eco` tech substitutes to put in place because, yup, I do like having things like hot...

I live here, just down from the Cape. :) We get lots of walkers and campers here most of the year (I did think the campers heading for the hills and moors in the winter we just had a leeetle crazy though!) The terrain can be challenging, I guess, depending on your level of fitness but you sound...

I`m 48, occasionally going on 12 but more often venturing into the realms of 80-ish. :D

Thanks Drew, will check that out. :)

Good points from you both, many thanks for responding :) I think the woman in question who took it bad when I offered help, Drew, went overboard a bit and that`s what has stuck in my mind most. Toddy, would love to attend a meeting but doubt there will be any this far out in the sticks, it can...

We live not far from Kinlochbervie, which used to be a thriving fishing port. Boats still come into harbour now, and there is a fish market but the fishboxes get bought up and sent south, and nothing remains to go into the wee shop here. :( Getting fresh fish is a problem, it`s all frozen or...

Thanks Eric and Mick, did a bit of googling and apparently it`s the rhubarb root that does the trick, so might give it a go. Not too worried over using brains but they are so hard to get here...I have to purchase my hides from a slaughterhouse and need a license to do so, they don`t trade in the...

:D I used to have a caddy lamb that I let grow past butchering age for the yearly shearing of wool. He got to be the size of (imo) a small heavy kitchen table! I also had a full grown billygoat. The pair hated each other. One day sheep (I only ever called him that, don`t usually name beasts...

I think it depends on how often the cows are handled. I lived on a small Orkney Isle where the cows in the fields were left for most of the year to their own devices, like ranch cows. As a result if anyone entered their fields they stampeded towards them at full tilt! To show how chancy they...

I know this is an ancient thread, but since I have tanned a Heilan Coo hide thought I`d contribute in case anyone else gets one. :) I did chrome tan it, so am not sure how popular in this forum that technique would be, however it did turn out fine, and kept the hair on no probs at all. The...

This is the first leather thing I`ve made...(I normally make sheepskin things) and is a tobacco pouch for the other half, made with veg tanned leather and dressed with conditioning cream. Smells lovely! The thonging is bought bronze leather. Sorry about pic quality..I`m not the best photographer!

On browsing the back pages of the DIY forum, I saw a thread where someone had bought some rhubarb tanned leather and wondered if anyone here knows the technique for doing this please? I have the sheepskins (or one red deerhide in the freezer) and lots of rhubarb! Would love to give it a go.

This is mine, a fairly short laminated ash/osage, only 30lb because I`m a wee auld wifie! :p Used to have a fabulous Steve Ralphs Hunic but had to sell it due to an arthritic shoulder which means I can shoot as heavy as I used to. :( (I can`t get the pics to work on here, so here are the...

As a middle aged woman, I`m sensible enough to know that if a couple of blokes were trying to harrass me I wouldn`t really stand a chance, so I never go camping alone and if I did, my first aim would be to hide until they went away! Having said that when I was growing up I was taught to knife...

I drink both coffee and tea, and prefer loose tea since I seem to be able to make the tea stronger with it than by using bags (if I want to drink it hot, that is!) I have one of those wee metal strainers my grannie used, that is like an enclosed teaspoon, you load the bowl up with loose leaves...

Many thanks for the replies guys. :) (and for the link to Jack`s Shed caliban :) ) Near me we have a couple of locals who still rabbit occasionally, it was heartening to see them bring their sons a month ago to show them how.

Thanks for these pics, nicely illustrated. I always skin my bunnies by cutting into the belly skin first, otherwise it`s pretty much the same. :) (and have to get others to get them for me since I don`t own a gun :( )