The Mighty Florida Alligator

I mentioned that I've been tanning gator hides. Let me explain how this came about: I've been lucky enough to have met Dale Cebellos, a great guy who, with his wife's patient help, owns and operates Creative Aztec Taxidermy. Dale tanned my first few hides and has now beeen nice enough to explain in detail the steps of taning alligator hides and talk em through all the roadblocks I've run into. This is definitely an art combining patience, experience, some "exact" and some "not so exact" recipes and a lot of elbow grease. It's one of the strangest and yet most interesting things I’ve done-- a new skill, none the less. Being an amateur taxidermist is one of the toughest things I’ve ever jumped into feet first. Not to mention trying to learn it on the toughest animals on the water, the mighty Florida Alligator. By far the hardest hide south of the Mississippi to tan. I just finished tonight and dropped off one of the hides I tanned at my dad's house as a thank you for letting me use his land to practice my new skill. Yup, that musty scent emitting from my lazyboy is me; hmm, I might still have some in my hair. It's the scent of adventure…the scent ...of...adventure.