Heloise Part 3

Dear (deer) Heloise;

Each year after a successful deer hunt, my brother Davis and I always make every effort to utilize every part of the animal, including the deer hide. Butchering is a big job and just like you, Heloise, we sometimes find ourselves hard pressed to do an adequate job of stretching and flensing the hide. After all, the priority work is the meat butchering job. When I shot my deer this last Thanksgiving Day, Davis wasn't here and I was sorely pressed for time (I still had the turkey to prepare).

After stripping the hide off I spread it out "butter side down" on the concrete floor of my workshop. An hour later you would have sworn that the deer skin had been carefully stretched and tacked down to the floor.

The action of the deer blood and the rough concrete was akin to an effective glue. The hide partially dried flat and smooth and I was able to remove the tail as if I had an extra pair of helping hands holding the hide flat. What a time saver! Next year I hope you and your readers get to try out this trick; it works great!

Well all that talk of butchering put me in the mind of another trick I learned at the doctor's office. I guess you could say that I'm a little accident prone because I tend to cut myself fairly often and I have a lot of experience bandaging those cuts. Well the other day I really laid myself open across the top of my index finger. Every time I bent my finger it pulled open and bled like a stuck pig. What to do? I didn't want to waste the day in the emergency room, not to mention the three or four hundred bucks they'd charge for a few stitches. So I improvised what 'Ole Doc Gamin did for me a few years back. I got out my bottle of skin glue and tore the plastic and gauze pad off a nice new cloth Band-Aid, TM. By holding the finger straight with a splint and squeezing hard I was able to get the blood stopped long enough to lay down a coat of glue. I quick slapped the thin "saran wrap" part of the bandage pad onto the wet glue and then applied a few more coats as it dried (all the while holding my hand way above my head. Well you wouldn't believe how nice that rig held everything together until it healed. Less than a week later I'm completely back in business. Doc Gamin had special glue and special sterile cloth material. He told me that I couldn't buy them for myself due to abuse of medications regulations. I guess that somebody knows how to have too much fun with stuff like that; you know, like prescription drugs. The government just has to regulate these things and protect us. My version will work just as good as the Doc's just as long has you don't get it infected. I guess the Government would prefer that you get infected while they complain about rising medical costs (emergency room). The good news is that lots of bleeding cleans out a cut pretty good. It made a real neat scar too.