Moving Around

Apologies for the lack of updates here, I was considering moving my blog to my website domain, but have now decided that I like it better here.

My website has undergone a new look: http://www.foxtrailtaxidermy.com/ , feedback is very welcome!

I am going to attempt to update this blog once or twice a week from now on. I will include tips, tutorials, taxidermy articles, book reviews etc etc!!

If you would like to request anything in particular, please let me know via this blog! Alternatively, you can send me an email at foxtrailtaxidermy@hotmail.co.uk (Mark it 'Blog')

I hope that all the Americans who read this are having a great holiday!

How to use Google Checkout to purchase items

Hi guys!

I am still having some problems with my paypal account and so I have switched over to Google checkout. I prefer it by far so far! Many people seem pretty confused when it comes to using google checkout as a payment method though. So I have written up this little guide!

How to use Google Checkout!

1) Determine the total cost of your purchase, including shipping. The currency will be converted to £GBP, but anything you pay will of course be paid in your own currency, from you bank account.

2) If using Etsy, purchase the item and select 'other' as your payment method.

3) I will need your EMAIL. This can be a google email, or anything else. You will be prompted to create a google wallet account to pay for your purchase/s. DO NOT WORRY, this is a one time thing and it will be linked to your bank account or credit/debit card. It functions very similar to paypal with the same fee structure.

4) I will email you an invoice of the full amount required.

5) You will then pay the invoice, and I will charge it to you card/bank etc

6) That's it! You will also receive a shipping confirmation and/or tracking number when the item is dispatched.


Also I have a 10% OFF Etsy coupon code! Enter 'INARI1' for your discount!

My Etsy store is here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/TheFoxTrail

Busy!

Sorry for the lack of updates, I am really busy with getting everything ready to launch my business! I am trying to make lots of taxidermy examples at the moment too, for a photo portfolio to show the 'board' next Thursday. Very nervewrecking indeed.

This week I have been doing various things, including preparing some cute rabbits for taxidermy. Here they are frozen whole:

Unfortunately the smallest black one slipped badly on it's face and back, so I just kept some of the pelt and the feet. The rest are all being preserved in denatured alcohol, or being tanned. Hopefully I will get to mounting them in a day or so :)

Finally I got around to tackling my fox cub! It took me a long time, as I had to correct various mistakes, and I was going off only measurements, no carcass drawings or anything.

She turned out like this:

I am pretty happy with her, with her being my first ever fox! She's very cute and fluffy, and I will have a hard time parting with her, I feel. I had some issues with her ears and such, and her face, but I think she turned out okay, and I learned a lot!

Well, I am off to work on a squirrel now!

Recent projects

Apologies for the lack of updates recently, I have been doing a lot of artwork as well. You can find my art blog here: http://foxtrailart.blogspot.co.uk/

Today I mounted two rats using the traditional wrapped method. This time I did not use foam or casted heads, but instead built them with clay and woodwool. This was a bit of an experiment, but I am quite happy with the results for a standard ebay mount. For a more professional mount for a competition or art gallery, I would probably make sure to use the original skull, or make a cast.

Champagne coloured rat

The first rat was a young, champagne coloured rat. I really like his colour! Below is a hooded rat, that I don't think turned out as well, but still an improvement on my earlier rats!

Hooded rat

Here are the rats together! The champagne rat stands up on his hind legs :)

I am going to make a follow-up post to this showing my process of wrapping bodies. I will have photos of the full process including skinning, wrapping and mounting in my future e-book on mounting rats and mice.

I am also working on some mouse 'rugs', with multimammate mice. These mice are LARGE, the size of small rats! These are beautiful white and grey coloured, and I hope to also get some mounted this week.

Here is a WIP rug, it needs to be mounted on felt still:

Please keep an eye on this blog for the future blog about wrapping small animal bodies! :)

Upcoming Taxidermy Seminars

The Guild of Taxidermists are holding two seminars this year. These are as follows:

September 15th 2012, Sutton bonington campus , Loughbrough
Contact Rob marshall (rob@thetaxidermist.co.uk ) 07790831987
or steve Newcombe ( newfarbulls@yahoo.co.uk )

Programme: Unknown as of yet, trying to find out
-------------------------------------------------
October 27th 2012, Lancashire conservation studios ,St.Marys street. Preston.
Contact James Dickinson (James.Dickinson@lancashire.gov.uk)
Tel 01772530213 ( monday, tuesday or wednesday office hours only )

Programme:
Making your own Plastic eyes by James Dickinson
Making replica "flesh on" skulls by wax dipping by Dave Astley
Sculpting a squirrel head by Mike Gadd"
-------------------------------------------------

All members of the Guild of Taxidermists have a wonderful opportunity to learn from the UK masters! There is a £5.00 fee for the one day seminars.

I am not sure if non-members can attend, I have emailed Rob to find out.

The Guild of Taxidermists is the only officially recognised organisation actively working with the legislative authorities to secure the future for legitimate taxidermy in the UK.

You should not commission ANY UK taxidermist who is NOT a member of the G.O.T.!

Website: http://www.taxidermy.org.uk/

Alum Tanning and New Blog

Today I made a new alum tan/pickle as my previous one was unsuccessful; the skins didn't tan  - they seemed to just be stuck in a suspended state of preservation. After asking a taxidermist I know for exact measurements he told me:

2 pounds salt
1 1/2 pounds alum
1 pound borax

All dissolved in hot water, and then left to cool.

Well, my mixture has been made, and I have stirring it every now and then to help all the powders dissolve before the water goes cool. Hopefully it will all dissolve and go cool by tonight, and I will then put the pelts back in. If this doesn't work, back to the white tan!

Apart from this, I haven't been working much on taxidermy things this week as I was at home the weekend and also have been working on commissioned artwork.

I have a new blog for my pagan and fantasy artwork here: http://foxtrailart.blogspot.co.uk/

I will be posting sketches, commission slots, tutorials, photos and all that good stuff on there! Be sure to follow if you are interested in that kind of artwork :)

Tomorrow I will be preparing some rats for a client, and also working on some mice for another client. They want them hanging dead for some owls, so that will be interesting! They are house mice by the look of it, I have only ever mounted their domestic counterparts so I am hoping I can pull them off.

Always learning

Beware this is a picture heavy post!!

So I have been pretty busy on the taxidermy front once again! I currently (still) have no internet but before my phone internet decided to fizzle out, I spent hours a day on the taxidermy.net forums. In particular a certain thread 'Lifesize mammals only'. I learned a LOT about the wrapping of specimens from their carcasses. I applied this knowledge to my taxidermy and am already seeing results!

A Least Weasel and a Domestic rat, both wrapped, and both sleeping.

The weasel was originally going to just be standing but I noticed an unfortunate furslip on the underside of him after I had mounted him. So now I have a new plan, I'll post it here in a few weeks when the weasel mount is completed :) The weasel is mounted on a woodwool and wire form, using a casted head and the original leg bones.

Two mice for an art installation.

Once again I have been working on mice for a client, for her art installation. These are mounted on clay forms while it is still wet, and then sculpted from the outside.

Close up of the WIP weasel.

I am a lot happier with the shape of the weasel's head than my previous one (which was a soft mount). All my moulding and casting materials arrived, so I have been using them to make heads. They are so worth it! I will be doing a step by step on how to cast heads in the future! The weasel still needs painting up and such, but overall I am very happy.



Mannikin for a fox cub, WIP



I am also in the process of making a mannikin for a fox cub, as seen above. The skin is soaking in denatured alcohol for about a week, this sets the hair.This is being made with woodwool. The head is cast in plaster and the original leg bones are going to be used. I am still fiddling around with the pose I want her in. Today I found this photo on Google.com:

I think something like this would be a cute pose for her! This cub is about the same size as my cub also. At the moment the mannikin is a bit all over the place as you can see from the mess below:

WIP mannikin: legs need to be wrapped, along with the tail.

I will take photos of my progress, this is my first fox mount, so I really hope that it will go well! I have another young cub (even younger, poor thing) in the freezer so I will probably mount that one in a sleeping pose also.

Empty coffee mug, need more coffee!!!

Lastly, I wanted to mention this amazing book by Mike Gadd, one of the UK's leading taxidermists that I purchased recently. I was a bit put off at the price, but it is very VERY worth it. It has anything you could even want to know about mounting a small mammal on a wrapped form. It goes into the anatomical details, troubleshooting, materials needed, importance of reference etc etc etc and there are photos for every single step of the way! PLUS it is nice to have a book aimed at the UK taxidermists, and not US. So the materials he mentions are obtainable! :)

Expensive but well worth saving up for! And besides, it is a lot cheaper than his courses.

That's it for now! I will update again soon, and as always, if you have any questions for me, you can email me at: foxtrailtaxidermy@hotmail.co.uk

Of Water Deer and Skulls

I have been pretty busy lately on the taxidermy front!

A few weeks ago I skinned a Chinese water deer head for a trophy mount. This was sent to me in the post by another taxidermist who I am in regular contact with. These deer are not a native species to the UK, introduced in 1870 to zoos. Eventually some were released and others escaped. They are very odd looking deer, they have the nickname the 'vampire deer'! And you can see why!

Male Chinese Water Deer have tusks instead of antlers!

The Chinese Water Deer (CWD) I had was a doe, so her 'fangs' were a lot smaller and didn't even protrude over her lower lip. Apart from that, she looked identical to the male. Gorgeous deer, but from the front they actually look rather dog-like.

So a few weeks ago I skinned the head and fleshed the hide. This all took a few hours. I then stuck the cape back in the freezer. Normally I salt everything but I didn't want to do this, as her hair was brittle and I didn't want to lose any. Of course I made some holes in the skinning and fleshing process, but nothing I can't repair.

The CWD deer cape after skinning.

After the cape had been soaked and degreased the following day, I put her in the tan as normal.

The next day the tan had turned brown! I washed the CWD again and put her back in the freezer for now as I had to throw away the tan. As I can't afford a new kit of white tan again at the moment I made an alum/salt/sodium bicarbonate broth and stuck the smaller skins (guinea pigs and rabbits) in that. Gonna see if that works now! I haven't tanned with alum before but I am pretty sure that the white tan Snowdonia Supplies sells IS the alum tan.

Yesterday I also received a muntjac doe and three squirrels in the mail. I also have a form and eyes for the doe, as I got them free with the specimens from the seller. She was getting rid of her taxidermy stuff so I purchased it all cheap. I was very happy with that!

Apart from the deer, I have been working on some 'soft mounts'. This is where the head is mounted in a tanned skin, and the remainder is filled with foam, stuffing or something that makes the body 'floppy'. Although I am not sure how I feel on this type of taxidermy, I do take them as commissions :) I make sure that the buyer understands that this is the skin of a dead animal and not a toy or plushie.

The two heads I have mounted lately are for another taxidermist who wants to finish them off. They are a stoat and a mink.

Stoat head only mounted.

I am quite happy with the stoats' head, and I feel it is definately an improvement from the last few. I still have a long way to go though and I need to practice more with lips and eyes, in particular.

Mink head only mounted.

The mink was more difficult as it was larger. It is my first mink though, so I will take photos when it's finished, and hopefully it will turn out better when I've done the finishing work.

ALSO (yes I have been busy!), I have been cleaning skulls!

CWD, Rabbit and Guinea Pig skulls

The above skulls were all cleaned using the simmering method. I will post a tutorial on that in the upcoming weeks! The skulls are also for sale! Please email me at foxtrailtaxidermy@hotmail.co.uk if interested!

Also I ordered some alginate, plaster of paris and some sillicone and I am going to have a go at making deathmasks and head forms! I am hoping that this will improve my taxidermy a lot, and I will post photos of them for other people's reference as well.

So that's what I have been up to!

Taxidermy Suppliers in the UK

Even though the taxidermy industry in the UK might seem dwarfed by it's American counterpart, we are thankfully not at a loss when it comes to suppliers. There are four suppliers that I am currently aware of, and use regularly. This blog post will deal with them, including my own personal experiences.

JHT Supplies, South Wales - http://stores.ebay.co.uk/jhttaxidermysupplies

Search for any taxidermy supply on Ebay and you will inevitably find JHT supplies within seconds. They are the largest taxidermy supplier in the UK, as it seems. They stock a large variety of forms, eyes, chemicals, tools and bases for the amateur and expert taxidermist. Also available through them is a yearly subscription to the US' premier taxidermy magazine Breakthrough, as well as individual issues. I have used JHT for 3-4 years now, and they never fail to impress.

They do have a paper based catalogue which is full of wonderful things for the taxidermist. It also provides information on measuring your specimen for a form, and also explanations of, and examples of mounts made with the various products. All their products are high quality and their customer service is excellent. I cannot recommend them higher.

They do not have a website, but they do run an ebay store. You can also email them at johnharletttaxidermy@hotmail.com with orders, catalogue requests (which is free) and for general advice on the products that you need to make your mount look the part.

Snowdonia Taxidermy Supplies, Wales - http://www.snowdoniasupplies.co.uk/

Snowdonia Taxidermy Supplies previously stocked a lot more items, including forms. However, JHT have surpassed them in sales in this area through the ebay selling platform. Now, they stock only chemicals and tools for taxidermy and sculpture. Their glass eye products are now over at another website, which is mentioned below.

Despite this, they do have some products worth purchasing. Their chemicals are very good, and I purchase my 'white tan' from them. JHT stock Lutan-F, but I haven't tried that out yet. For now, STS white tan is good for me as it's great value for money, and very efficient. Their 'supa-soft oil' is also excellent for pelts. They also stock instructional DVDs, skull bleach, needles and knives and other useful tools.

All chemicals come with FULL instruction sheets and F.A.Q.s.

I have also had a good experience with STS and I would recommend them to everyone for their low cost, high quality chemicals and tools.

Glasseyes.com - http://www.glasseyes.com/

Sister site and side-business of STS, glasseyes.com have a massive (and I mean massive!) selection of glass eyes for taxidermy, doll making and other similar products. Expect the same service and quality as STS, and they can help you out with any enquires you have if you email them.

Watkins & Doncaster - http://www.watdon.co.uk/the-naturalists/

Primarily a store for naturalists, but they do stock some taxidermy items. Their prices are a little higher than STS and JHT, but they do sell a fox rug head that the other two do not, as well as many quirky and interesting things. Also they have earliners that are not lead, like JHT.

Worth a look, even if just to order their catalogue.


Well, I hope that helps some of you budding taxidermists in the UK! Feel free to email me at foxtrailtaxidermy@hotmail.co.uk with anything, any time!

Tanning with White Tan

Recently I have set up a little tanning system in my apartment, and have been processing some skins. In looking through my freezer, I found 5 stoat skins and 3 guinea pigs to work with.

European stoat pelt, tanned and taxidermy-ready

The stoat pelts were already ready for tanning as they were purchased from a lady in Scotland already skinned. I skipped the salting step as they had been soaked in methylated spirits prior to freezing. They turned out pretty nice, though I had to degrease them a fair few times!

The guinea pigs were processed from raw frozen and so I will explain how I process my skins here:

- Firstly the animal is defrosted, I usually spray them with 'stop slip', or soak them in methylated spirits.

- The animal is then skinned. The way in which it is skinned depends on the way it is to be mounted. Usually I skin my specimens with a 'ventral incision', this is a cut that goes from the genital area, or just above, to the mid chest or under the chin.

 

 

Winter version of the above

- After skinning, the animal is fleshed. This is the process of removing all fat, meat and membrane from the skin. This is to ensure that the salt and the tan penetrates the skin layers. Tanning solution will not work properly through fat tissue. In the fleshing process, the lips and ears are split and the nose cartilage and eyes are thinned.

- Next the pelt is salted. This is the process of rubbing salt into the skin to ensure that all fat molecules and moisture are pulled out of the skin. The tanning solution will replace that 'space' in the skin layers. The pelt is rubbed all over on the skin side with salt, and then placed on a tilted mesh to drain. 24 hours later, the wet salt is shaken off and the pelt is re-salted and then hung or placed to dry.

- 24-48 hours after this, the pelt is degreased. To do this, I soak it in a bucket of fairy washing up liquid and cold water for half an hour. This helps to draw out the grease in the skin. I then rinse the skin in the sink and make sure all suds are washed out.

Domestic guinea pig pelt

- Next is the tanning step. I use Snowdonia Supplies white tan for small animals up to a fox, and also capes. I have a large bucket which has my tanning solution in it. The same tan keeps for a while, so this is very convenient to me. I put the skin in the tan and make sure to stir it once or twice a day.

- I leave the pelt in for a week (though they take less than this, I leave them in longer to ensure that all parts of the pelt are penetrated with the tan). After this, I remove the skin, degrease it again, rinse it and hang it to dry. If the skin is to be mounted straight away, I freeze it in a plastic bag at this point.

- Once the skin is dried hard, I apply warm Snowdonia Supplies supa-soft oil to the pelt, allow it to soak in overnight, and then stretch the skin the next day. If the pelt needs degreasing again, I then do that.

- Then the skin is left to dry, stretching it several times a day until dry and soft.

A red fox vixen pelt that I currently have in my tanning bucket. 

And that is how I process my small animal skins!

I would also like to add that all guinea pigs were purchased frozen from http://www.frozenreptile.co.uk and were not killed for the purpose of taxidermy.

Update

Hey everyone! Sorry it's been so long since I've updated my blog. I moved to an apartment and have been unable to get online a lot of the time. Taxidermy will be resuming very soon. I have some pelts in the tan as we speak, stoats and guinea pigs. I'll upload photos if they come out okay :)

Anyways expect new updates from me soon!

Today I finally took some photos of the first soft mount stoat commission I did:

This one gave me a lot of trouble around the face, especially the lips. The head also had a bald spot that I had to fix with a hair transplant :0

All in all I am quite happy with it :)

He is tanned and 'stuffed' with a clay and foam head, taxidermy glass eyes, teddy bear stuffing in the neck and legs and 'beans' for the body. He is slightly pose-able (I would say 'manipulable').

Also, here is the WIP head for the second commissioned stoat! I feel it's an improvement :D

No, the pins are not for some weird voodoo ritual. They keep the skin in place and such while the clay and skin dry :)

I also tried to mount some mice and moles, but the furslip on all of them was too bad but ONE mouse. He has a little behind his ear but hopefully it will look fine once dry. I have another 5 mice in the freezer so it's not the end of the world, but still :(

Sorry for the lack of updates! I have been busy, but not so much with taxidermy, just personal life things.

Anyways, today I skinned two stoats! One was fine but the other was pretty badly freezer burnt, so I just kept it's tail :( The other one is being salted and is being used for a 'soft' mount. I need more stoats ASAP!

My friend brought me a female mallard today too, that she found on the road!

Here she is!

I think she's lovely! So far all I have done is taken her measurements, logged her and put her in the freezer as I haven't yet done a duck. I can't wait to try her! As her breast is a bit damaged from the car, I am thinking a flying pose, which would be a great challenge.

Tomorrow is post day but I am also hoping to get some mice and maybe rats or squirrels done then.

Oops, sorry it's been a while since I updated this! I recently lost my full time job so that left me a bit confused on what to do and how to take life. But on the up-side, it's going to give me more time for taxidermy, which is great!

Here are some updates on commissions and other projects:

Two stoats for soft-mounting for clients are salted, and will be rehydrated and put into a fresh bucket of tan today. The previous stoats did not turn out very well, so I trimmed them for just wallhanger use. They are still lovely and soft though! One is on ebay, and the other may be sold to a client.

Salted stoat, anyone?

I have a lot of birds to skin today. Near me defrosting are several juvenile rooks, a crow and three jackdaws! I also have two wood pigeons in the freezer that I might skin later or tomorrow. Three birds (one rook, one crow, one jackdaw) are for a client.

Various birds, two stoats and a muntjac head defrosting

All the mice are finished and ready. I filled in small bits with white milliput and will paint them a flesh colour. They will be going in the post on Monday.

I also made two rat rugs and also a guinea pig on Thursday! It was a nice change being productive after a rather unproductive week.The rats white fur has actually turned yellow though, though I have tried to whiten it with various different methods, that have failed. I am thinking perhaps I did not degrease them for long enough or something. It's odd though, in my three+ years of skinning and preserving rat skins, it has never happened. I am wondering if I let them defrost too long before fleshing and preserving. There is no smell or furslip though, which is good! I will be selling them at a lower price because of the discolouration though.

Rather discoloured looking rat 'rugs'

First guinea pig mount, which is a bit... 'long', but I like her anyway!

The crow I was working on is almost done too. I had a lot of problems with feather loss due to me making holes (I am going to be a LOT more patient next time, I'll tell you that!) I also noticed it's right eye was enlarged, so I filled it with some milliput. I will be painting it later. I also had to milliput the back of a leg where some wire came through due to the fact I was unable to sharpen the wire, and again lost patience. I learned my lesson on this one! Although the feathers are ruffled and the feet are damaged, I am still proud of this one. My first crow of many, I hope.

My first crow, needing painting.

Finally, I have a muntjac head/cape on the floor defrosting also. It's been there for about 9 hours but is still solid. It might be okay later, if not I will skin it out tomorrow. It's a cute buck with small antlers and both tusks in! First time skinning any type of deer, so that will be interesting!

Quail, stoats and more mice

The two clients were happy with their mouse mounts, so that made me happy also :) One of them has ordered a second mouse in a different position, so I will get onto that later or tomorrow, hopefully!

My quail is pretty much dry, but I noticed that the skin has pulled away on it's belly. I am going to order some white down feathers from ebay, and attempt a repair/feather transplant! Since it is my first bird, I am not overly bothered, but it would be nice if the quail came out nice at least. The neck is also too long but I don't really know how to fix that... I know for the next quail, though!

I got some Jay forms in the mail the other day, as well as some jackdaw, crow and rook eyes. So will have a go at my array of birds this week :)

This morning I skinned a pair of stoats! I learned that I should really spray stop-slip on anything, as the stoat that was for a customer decided to slip on her belly... Hopefully she is salvageable, both are being salted right now, so I hope they will be okay.

I took some videos as I was skinning and salting, so I'm in the process of  uploading them to youtube right now. I'll link them when I'm done!

Mice, mice everywhere!

Today I did four mouse mounts! Two were for customers, and two were just to get the mice out the freezer. They'll probably be for ebay. I've been having slipping problems with mice so I am a bit worried that they might slip too. I used dry-preserve from Snowdonia Supplies instead of borax this time, so I hope that it may make a different. I didn't have time to mount the little rats tonight, but I think I will attempt that tomorrow morning.

The first mouse is in a sleeping pose:

 I still need to touch up the eyes as he dries.

The second mouse was a hanging mouse! He has some stronger wire in his front left paw, so he can hang off things.

Both are going to be used in art projects as far as I know, so that will be fun to see! I hope that the artists will show me photos when they are done!

Taxidermy mice start at £15!

Also, the entire morning was spent getting post together, so if you were waiting for something from my ebay store or DA, you will get it soon!

And finally, I got a little video camera today! I need to figure it out so that I can make some taxidermy-related videos for you all :D

Tomorrows projects:

Rat mounts
Other art things (icons etc)

Today I did quite a few things! Firstly I skinned the four squirrels I got in the post... Two were very good, but two had a bit of fur falling out in their tails. I'm not sure why this is happening as I know they were frozen right after shooting. We'll see what happens though, even if it means replacement tails! That'll be a challenge!

I also soaked two hare pelts I received from someone on ebay to get rid of as much blood and dirt as I could. They had skinned the bodies out, but left the heads, legs and paws in. I removed the heads and kept the skulls. I noticed the pelts had a lot of tiny holes in them. These will be a challenge also. In the end if the pelts REALLY aren't suitable for mounting, maybe I can do pedestal mounts, as the faces are fine. I already have some lead hare earliners in, too. I need to buy some eyes for them, though. And I left the feet in again as I am not sure how to remove them... I left a post on taxi.net, hopefully I'll get a reply.

Finally, I skinned some small rats out as I am trying to make space in my freezer. Got some stoats coming from Ireland and also some other ermine etc soon, I hope! And two more squirrels. Drowning in specimens!

Two of the rats are good for taxidermy so I tagged them and froze the skins. One was rotten so I threw it away, and the other, I made a hole in the eyelid and mouth, so I am salting it. I will dry it as a pelt.

That reminds me, my boyfriend skinned his first rat the other day! It was a cute little white one! I'm experimenting in salting them dry (they are currently hanging), before rehydrating in salt water and boraxing, and then mounting. I want to see if it makes any different, as I have lost many small animals and young animals to fur slip.

Tomorrow I have a lot of ebay post to prepare for postage, and hopefully I can get my mouse commissions, and those small rats done!

At least I now have five squirrels in the freezer to use for practice! One has white on the back of his ears, he's my favourite :)

Welcome to my blog!

I have decided to write a blog about my adventures as an amateur taxidermist! I am a taxidermist located in Wales, UK and am always learning new things. I started mounting recently, only last year and I hope to eventually be able to live off my love for natural history and art.

Today I got four squirrels in the mail from a pest controller in England. I will be skinning them all tonight and sticking the skins in the freezer. My freezer is already really full so I need to get a move on with things! I also have two rat skins I would like to mount, and two hares I need to clean and finish skinning. Busy busy busy!