H2SO4

Day 31: Sheep are wonderful creatures. Depending on the variety, they may provide you with wool or meat, or in the case of certain crossbreeds, both. I kept Romney-Suffolk and/or Romney/Corriedale crosses in the years that I raised them, generally shearing twice before turning them into lamb-burger. I was particularly fond of the Corriedale fleeces which fell in locks about five inches long. Rather than let the hides go to waste, I read up on tanning "hair-on," and decided to try it. I had ready access to sulphuric acid. My husband bought it by the gallon to use in etching glass and in his jewelry work. The process was messy, tedious and time-consuming, but the results were rewarding: soft, silky sheepskins to throw over the backs of chairs.

When I moved here over twenty years ago, I was down to two sheep. I brought them with me, intending to keep them for another six months before having them butchered out. Unfortunately, my health took a downturn right at the time I should have been processing the hides, so I asked the butcher to discard them. I gave up sheep-farming at that point, and tucked my tanning supplies away in the back of a cupboard in the garage. Every now and then when I pull the shop vac out, I am reminded of an old "Little Willie" poem:

Little Willie's dead and gone,
Of him, we'll hear no more.
What Willie thought was H2O
Was H2SO4.

I really need to neutralize this stuff and dispose of it properly!