Problems

[dail_h]

   Thanks Jeff

[craigc90]

I will second that. THANKS JEFF.
I have never felt comfortable about posting on forums till I found this place. The way I type and spell people could make fun of me Ha Ha. But nobody has ever said a word here.

[Bro. Noble]

Craig,

I think it's normal for sawmillers and loggers and foresters to type and smell funny ;)

Now as far as not making fun of you-------that can taken care of :D :D

[Norm]

Ya know Cktate I'm going to have to give that a try. Hogs are the worst to skin out. Almost as bad as squirrels. I usually just tie em to the front end loader, tie em off and lift it up. Works great for everything but piggers.

Probably more information than most folks wanted to know. :D

[Duane_Moore]

 :D ya skin em???? ya don't eat em with the feathers on??boy am I all mixed up now.,, Duane ;D

[etat]

Norm
, try it, it'll amaze you.  Now, squirrels are easy and fast if ya know how.  Gonna tell ya how to skin em. I learned from my GRANDMOTHER once long ago.  They don't skin like other animals.  Right in the center of the backbone make a cut with a sharp knife.  Don't cut too deep.  Don't cut all the way around. The cut should be about a inch or so long and sideways to the length of the squirrel.  Work ya fingers under that slit, one hand toward the front, the other hand toward the tail.  Pull.  The hide'll strip plumb to the end of the feet which you then cut off.  I've seen folks eat squirrel brains scrambled with eggs for breakfast, not my favorite.  My favorite is to boil a few of those squirrel's til the meat can be separate from the bones with the fingers.  Take them strips of squirrel meat and have the wife cook ya up some squirrel and dumplins, use a lot of pepper.  Good eatin.  Again, sorry for the off topic post.

[Buzz-sawyer]

I have always had a lot more trouble skinnin beaver and coyote...(particularly yodle dogs)...have to literally cut skin off...
bout squirrels...I used to skin the tate way but bout 20 years ago started making a cut under tail...stand on tail then pull up on front feet...skins all but hind legs in 3 seconds...
Don

[beenthere]

Seems to be close to the way I skin squirrels, but after I make the cut under the tail, I then cut just through the tail bone. Then I stand on the tail and pull on the back legs. End up with just the tail and the skin loose down over the head and the front legs. Then, while still standing on the tail, just grab a pointy piece of skin at about the 'belly button' position and pull the skin off the rear quarters. Seems years ago I saw a drawing of how to do this, and it has worked well for me (that is when I don't cut clean through above the tail on the first cut :-[ ).

Maybe I should try pulling on the front legs while standing on the tail, but seems to me I wouldn't get very far.  :

[Kevin]

I can't imagine them getting very far once you let go of them!  :D

[Stephen_Wiley]

WOW  talk about making lemonade out of lemons.

I have not looked at this thread for several days........as the subject matter was a fore-gone conclusion.

But hand it to CKtate for making this thread interesting again.  Skinning animals with an air compressor. :D :D :D

As soon as I read about the squirrels ........my mind wander back to college in Iowa, my first year they decided (the college administration) that enough students were going home for christmas that they would shut down the cafeteria.

One other fella and myself being short on cash, decided we would feed ourselves from the birds , squirrels running in the woods of the campus.

After a long chase we managed to bag one squirrel,.with nothing but an electrical warming plate to cook him on.    :

The more we chewed the more rubbery and bigger the piece of meat got.   :D

I figure we must have done just about everything wrong that you squirrel consiuer's would tell us. I suppose to get the meat tender you must have to shoot um while their asleep.

[Norm]

Thanks for the tips, cktate I skin squirrels the same way but I still think their tough to skin out in comparison to other stuff.

Stephen your story reminded me when we went camping as a kid. Shot a couple of squirrels and decided we would cook them in the campfire. Wrapped em up in a couple of layers of aluminum foil and threw em in the campfire coals. Fire was probably hot enough to melt lead but we didn't know any better. Figured a half an hour they'd be done. That meat was so tough I imagine I now know how it would be to eat shoe leather. :D

[Kevin]

You think squirrels are tough to skin, try a beaver sometime!

[Tom]

I wouldn't touch that with a 10' pole. :D

[Fla._Deadheader]

        ;D

[Duane_Moore]

  Don't touch it Jeff, He'll get ya, skin a beaver,  ok, skin a coyote, ok,   Duane ;D ;D

[Mark M]

Hey - I tried that skinnin squirrels with the loader trick and it snapped that little sucker right in half. The first try just pulled his tail off. :D

[Stump Jumper]

need pictures or drawings or sumpin :D :D :D :D :D :D

[Gus]

Mark,
I think there's a trick to it. :D :D :D :D

[Gus]

I wonder if a guy took a battrey operated air compressor on the trap line if ya' could air up them beaver and bounce 'em back to the pickup. That might take some of the work out of beaver trappin'. ;D
Gus

[Kevin]

You might have something there.
I remember some talk about beaver hoops.

[Buzz-sawyer]

Gus...I am affraid ifn you took the work outaa beaver trappin ...then there would be nothin left!...Meaning beaver trappin is all work...and I love it!

[Kevin]

Buzz;
Are you clean skinning or rough skinning and fleshing?

[Stan]

It don't matter, Kevin, there ain't been enough money in 'yotes to make skinnin' worth doin' in about 30 years.

[Buzz-sawyer]

Hey Kevin I always clean skin....then a little bit on the fleshing beam too ....around ears eyes...etc.
I was going to say something earlier bout how much I like to eat them...but thought better of that... with the ten foot pole present ;) ;)...didnt want to seem off colour....I like them as much as deer if not more...

Stan
 was getting pretty good money for yodle dogs just the other day...(1986)(bout $50 red fox was $100!!)  that was the last year I trappped proffessionally
Don

[etat]

Tired, real tired.  Got slapped again today, hard.  Over the years a lot of bad stuff has happened to me.  Way worse than what a person should supect.  Always been lucky after the fact.  Things turn out.  Happened again today.

This morning I was thinking about telling my methods for roastin a pig.  Close to the same as what I read somewhere here a while back.  Maybe just a little different.

My parents life a quarter mile down the road.  As I've said I'm finally building a house.  They come by and check the progress, if there is any every day.  Just about the time I turned the computer on this morning my parents drove up.  I had one crew out working, and needed to go check on a couple of other jobs.  I asked if they wanted to ride along, and of course they said yes.  Before we left they wanted to see what I got done on the house last night.  I was up late, late, trying to finish some sheetrock upstairs.  There's two bedrooms up there, stairs coming up in the middle and gonna be a bridge over the stairs with rails connecting the two rooms.  The bridge ain't there yet, just a 18 inch aluminum walkboard.  Mother and pop comes up, and dad cross the walkboard.  Mother walks straight off without looking down even though she has been up there dozens of times before.  She feel almost straight down 10 feet.  Bounced once off the stairs and hit the floor on her back.  The stairs are curved.  Wife callin the ambulance I'm checking on her.  Dad wants to get her up.  I said no way, she hit too hard and right there on the end her head slammed against the floor.  All day at the hospital dozens of test.  x=rays and cat scans.  NO BROKEN BONES, NO HEAD INJURY!.  She'll be sore a while.  I am so thankful.  I don't know how I could have ever lifed in that house if she'd of been bad hurt.  She's a tough old bird, 66, slim build, and still thinks she can do anything.  Heck, I'm a lot like her.  Hope I didn't ruin the thread, just needed to talk.  She's back at home now and I'm sure she'll be ok when she gets over the soreness.  She has too.  Yall that pray throw a word in for her now and again.  Maybe later I'll tell ya how I bury that pig if you're intrested.  I really enjoy herarin yall talk.