How was business at the tannery this season?

[Bob D]

You furriers,
How many hides did you tan this year?  Are you finished up for this season ? Do you ever have some that someone fails to pick up? What do you do with them ? Do you buy hides and resell ? Give us a list of the different animals you worked on and any that particular met your fancy.
Bob

[FinsnFur]

Typical year for Champion Tannery, just shy of 500 hides, which consisted of deer backs, deer capes (tons of those), bobcats, coons, otters, redfox, articfox, crossfox,  coyotes, skunks, beavers, rabbits, a cougar, and a couple badgers.

I try to steer clear of anything larger then a whitetail until I can get another tumbler built, seems like I been saying that forever but man the days aint long enough and when they are my whistle runs dry in a hurry.

Knock on wood, I been running this business since 1994 and have been licensed since 1996, I've only had one hide not get paid for or called upon once it was done. And that was many years ago.
I dont know if the guy died, or moved to mars but he was completely unreachable. It was a huge coyote hide, close to 4ft from the nose to the BASE of the tail. Hung it on my wall for years thinking just maybe....
Finally traded it for a Lightforce 170 with Rick Gonzalas of Tufflights.com. He uses it still today as a prop in his advertising photos.

I don't buy hides and I dont sell hides. I get a lot of inquiries each year and I just keep telling them all the same thing. "What comes in gets processed and sent back out, no inventory, I'm just a service provider."

Finished up for the season?.....yes. Things slow wayyyyyy down this time of year, and for what few things come in off and on through the summer I just cant justify the expenses of keeping the shop running on half batches all summer. So for the last few years I have been running full tilt until I find myself with no fur hanging. That usually happens around the end of April which it did again this year, and I just put a note on the site thanking that years clientele and explaining that incoming shipments will reside in the fall.

It gives me a chance to go through and check equipment, order up supplies and chemicals, turn in all my tax papers, etc. Plus the site runs year round and I still take a lot of how to inquiries, what not. It worked out good this year because I wanted to get Champion Tannery moved over to FinsandFur hosting so I'm not paying all these hosting bills 
Got that taken care of tonight infact.

[Brad H]

Besides that, you're a construction contractor, right, Jim?

Brad

[FinsnFur]

Yep, that's my main bread and butter...and always picks up in the summer.....most years. Been a slow spring for sure.

[Bob D]

Yep, that's my main bread and butter...and always picks up in the summer.....most years. Been a slow spring for sure.

Boy it is slow here as well. Hope it picks up soon!