Tanning a steer hide - update and answers

Thanks everyone for the comments on my first post about tanning our first two steer hides. I was asked a few questions and I've done some more research since then, so I thought it was time for an update.

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I was asked to provide a photo of the fleshing tool, so here's the one we got with the kit. My husband made I similar tool from metal, so we'd have one each. If you're not a metal-worker, then you can probably use any blunt tool (or bit of metal) that's large enough to grip each end.

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Also, because I only described our process, I didn't go into detail about the other methods available for tanning hides. From my research (google and books I mentioned in the last post), the following methods are possible:

chrome tanning (the method we used)
"brain tanning" - using either the brain or other oily mixture to coat the hide
tanning using tannin from the bark of certain trees (would love to know which Aussie trees to use, Oak seems to be a common one for the US)
smoking the hide (apparently this doesn't keep as long and can go quite stiff)
someone told me to use baking soda, but I couldn't find out anything else about that method

Any of these would be more self-sufficient options, but as we had no idea what we were doing when we started this, we decided to try to keep things simple by buying a kit. Also, we've been able to re-use the tanning solution twice now, so it doesn't seem worth trying another method while we still have viable tanning solution.

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As the solution that we bought didn't have any instructions or an ingredients list (dodgy right?) we assumed the worst possible ingredients. As sulphuric acid, chromium sulphate and alum are commonly used for chrome tanning solutions, we assumed that the solution contained these chemicals. I looked up the Material Safety Data Sheets (google again) for each chemical to double-check the safety precautions. Alum is harmless, but chromium sulphate is both toxic by ingestion, and an irritant by inhalation and skin contact. Sulphuric acid in sufficient concentration can cause burns. The appropriate personal protective equipment for this process (especially when working with the undiluted solution) is therefore gloves, goggles, splash-proof apron and a well-ventilated area. Once the solution is diluted it is safer, but still be cautious about splashing it on your skin or near your eyes.

Another important point is never add water to acid, always add acid to water. This is because the solution heats up as it mixes and if you are adding acid to plenty of water you'll hardly notice, but if its water to a small amount of acid, you will know about it, the heat could be sufficient to cause the liquid to boil, which is even more dangerous! To be safe, we put the water in the wheelie bin first and added the tanning solution to that.

Some of the other methods listed above would be safer in terms of human health and environment (still don't know how to dispose of the chrome tanning solution, part of the reason we keep it in the wheelie bin!).

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Rinsing the hide after tanning was done by hanging the hide over a gate and hosing it with the pressure cleaner (not sure what these are called in other countries, so included an example photo below).

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I'm happy to answer any further questions, and I'd love to hear from anyone else who has tried this. Please leave a comment below.

What to do with eight acres

Behind the scenes of my blog I can see the search terms that led people to find my blog. It can be quite interesting to look through them occasionally and see what people are looking for. Most of them involve chicken tractors, but another question that comes up regularly is “what can you do with eight acres?” or “how much land is eight acres?”. Today I will try to answer this question.

Of course it is a very broad question, there are lots and lots of things you can do with eight acres, but I’m going to assume that you want to live there, feed your family and maybe make a little extra money. I make that assumption because that’s what I know about, if you want to do something else with your eight acres, you will need to look somewhere else.

If you haven’t chosen your land yet, here a few things to look for. Focus on the things you can’t change and try to choose the best property you can find in your price range. Look for clean water in dams, bores or wells, either on the property …

Growing and eating chokos (chayotes)

Cooking chokos (not be confused with another post about cooking chooks) has been the subject of a few questions on my blog lately, so here's some more information for you.
Chokos - also known as Chayote, christophene or christophine, cho-cho, mirliton or merleton, chuchu, Cidra, Guatila, Centinarja, Pipinola, pear squash, vegetable pear, chouchoute, güisquil, Labu Siam, Ishkus or Chowchow, Pataste, Tayota, Sayote - is a vine belonging to the Cucurbitaceae family, along with pumpkins, squash and melons, with the botanical name Sechium edule.

The choko contains a large seed, like a mango, but if you pick them small enough it is soft enough to eat. If you leave the choko for long enough it will sprout from one end and start to grow a vine. To grow the choko, just plant the sprouted choko and give the vine a structure to climb over. In summer, the vine will produce tiny flowers that will eventually swell into choko fruit. The vine doesn't like hot dry weather. And it doesn&#…

Native bee hotel

Like I wrote back here, native pollinators are as important (if not more important) than honey bees for pollinating crops and native plants. There are a few things you can do to attract native pollinators to your garden:

Grow flowers and let your veges flower to feed the pollinators all yearHave a source of insect-friendly water in the garden (shallow dishes are best)Provide somewhere for them to live/nest/lay eggs - a bee hotel! In Australia, our native pollinators consist of both stingless native bees, which live in a colony like honey bees, and lots of solitary bees and wasps. These solitary insects are just looking for a suitable hole to lay their eggs. You may be familiar with these in sub-tropical and tropical areas, in summer you will find any and all holes, pipes and tubes around the house plugged with mud by what we call "mud daubers". These area a real nuisance, so I'd rather provide some custom holes near the garden where they can live instead, so I don'…

Eight Acres

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