By my reckoning, the new year began at dawn on 12/22. But, I suppose it’s NYE today.

I wasn’t slash am not satisfied with the custom deer hide for the young hunter. I just couldn’t get the stiffness out of it no matter what I did. So, I took a closer look at my neatsfoot oil – the oil I used in my soap solution to dress it for tanning – and here’s the thing:

It’s not pure neatsfoot. It’s “leather conditioner”, which is basically diluted neatsfoot and other junk.

Biggest sigh. Biggest eyeroll.

Pretty big oops.

But, the good news is that I just need to, ya know, actually tan it, and it’ll be fine.

I did one egg yolk dressing the other day and will repeat this evening, frame it, and resume softening.

I also picked up a treasure today. A sweet buddy. A fox in the road. I’ll share pictures when I take some.

It’s 3:18pm and 8*.