What Weirdos Do For Fun - Part 1

Such a classy title, I know, but our family is a little weird. We're so far out of the box, there's no box in sight. My kids are like, "Box?? What box, Mom?"

I can hear you asking, "How is your family weird, Alisha?"

Well, for one, we're super big into self-sufficiency skills. My husband, J, has always been interested in them, he got me interested (There was eye-rolling and fake smiles for a while, I will admit.), and then the kids got interested. ESPECIALLY the youngest one. DJ, the 9 year old mancub, is obsessed. Take his Dad's interest and multiply it by 1000.

He likes to watch Bear Grylls and have a running commentary on what he's doing wrong. Loudly. And frequently.

Now Ray Mears, that guy is a genius, according to DJ. 

All of this interest leads to weird activities.

Weird Activity #1) Tanning hides.

While J isn't an avid hunter, he does enjoy tanning skins and using them in his leather work. He usually has friends save hides from their game, he tans it, and puts it to good use. So far, he's done hair-on tanning, but we do have plans to do brain-tanned buckskin. Think the soft, supple leather that the Native Americans used for so many things. So I currently have 2 deer hides in my freezer caressing my groceries, and a ziploc bag of brains in the other freezer that I have almost mistaken for ground sausage. Oh, the breakfast of champions - brains and scrambled egg burritos.

If that's what it takes, I think I'll pass on the champion part. Just sayin'. 

Occasionally, here on the farm/ranch, my Dad will have a bovine die, so J will take the hide to tan as well. Circle of Life and all that jazz...

NAAAAAAAAAATAKENYAAAAAAAA ABA BEE SHE WAA WAA!!!

Sorry, Lion King moment.

There was also a suicidal coyote who got tanned. He electrocuted himself by biting an electrical wire at my brother's house. He's may make a hairy pouch or quiver for some homemade arrows.

It's not always mammal hides that are tanned. We do live in Texas and that means snakes. Rattlesnakes. We do have creepy crawly, venomous visitors from time to time, and due to safety of family, dogs, and livestock, they have to be dispatched with haste. There was a giant 4.5' long one heading up to my parents' house the day before Thanksgiving and he had to go to the Great Big Den in the Sky. His skin is currently tacked up and drying after being soaked in glycerin for several weeks. And I also have another skin in a mason jar in the living room. Nothing says, "Welcome to our humble abode! No, we're not weird! Why would you say that?!" like a clear jar full of soaking snakeskin in your living room. This one is an experiment. It was salt-dried first several months ago, so it may not take the glycerin as well as the one that was soaked immediately. We'll see.

Snakeskin soaking... in the living room. 

Weird Activity #2) Knapping arrowheads. 

DJ's box of knapping goodies and other project miscellany. 

Our house is not far from an old Native American camp site. We will find hollows in large stones where grains were ground and flakes from where arrowheads and knives were knapped. The flint used isn't native to this area, so it was brought in from other areas. So this caused a predicament. When you have a dad and son who are jonesing to knap their own arrowheads, you have to get creative. Glass knapping. Many, many hours of tap-tap-tapping and knap-knap-knapping have taken place on the porch. Then Mom is sweep-sweep-sweeping because she doesn't want glass shards in the yard or tracked in the house.

Here is a glass arrowhead and an arrow tip made from a used casing. 

DJ has been DYING for some flint and we weren't able to find a decent amount for him to knap until a few weeks ago. So I had to special order my kid some rocks for Christmas. There is just something so funny, yet messed up about that statement. What kid wants rocks for Christmas?? Mine.  

We actually found flint and obsidian from this company and J was so excited to get it that he actually grabbed a piece out of each kind to try out. 

Patience, you're doing it wrong.

On the weekends, my porch looks like an organic mixture of tree bark in strips and shards of flint and obsidian. That's the remains of creativity in action. 

It looks like a caveman salad.

Handmade knives DJ made from obsidian shards, tree bark, and mesquite twigs.

There is no way I can cover all the weirdness in our family in one post without it rivaling War and Peace, but there's a small peek. We will visit the world of weird again soon.