Sheep Hide Tanning and Whole Animal Processing (July 19th-25th)
with Callie Russell and Rain
Dates: July 19th-25th 2024
Location: Kalispell, MT
with Callie Russell and Rain
Dates: July 19th-25th 2024
Location: Kalispell, MT
with Callie Russell and Rain
Dates: July 19th-25th 2024
Location: Kalispell, MT
Hide Tanning and Whole Animal Processing
with Callie Russell and Rain
July 19th - 25th 2024
Kalispell, MT
Limited to 10 students
Tuition: $1800
This course covers two cornerstone skills; hide tanning and animal processing. This week will be empowering and transformational as we embark on the journey of harvesting an animal life.
We will humanly harvest a sheep or goat and learn how to honor the animal’s life by using all of their parts for food, tools, and textiles.
Come camp on the banks of the majestic Flathead River and dive into the ancient art of hide tanning and whole animal processing. If we travel far enough back, all of our ancestors softened animal skins and fashioned them into clothes, bags, and other useful items. Connect with your ancestors and the animals in this hands-on immersive experience.
In this course you will learn how to transform a raw sheep skin into a soft and durable textile. We will guide you though the steps of brain tanning (more accurately called “fat softening”) where we will use fat, smoke, and our own hands to preserve the hides. An ethically harvested sheepskin from will be provided. In this course you will get hands on experience in all of the steps of animal processing, skinning, gutting, quartering, cutting meat into steaks, and jerky, making bone broth, harvesting sinew for thread, and more!
You will leave this class with:
a sheepskin that you tanned with your very own hands
the knowledge and experience to tan more animal skins
the deep reverence for life that comes from connecting with death
knowledge and experience of how to utilize all the parts of an animal
and good memories spent around the campfire.
When we are not working on tanning hides, and making awesome food, we will be swimming in the river, going on walks with the goats, and sharing stories by the campfire. If you have instruments feel free to bring them!
Instructors
Rain Woodwind Paw
Rain has spent the last several years taking a deep dive into the art of hide tanning, he specializes in working fur-on skins, from bison, to sheep, to road kill coyote, he strives to honor the animals through his craft.
Rain has always been captivated by the natural world, however, he did not grow up tanning bison hides. He grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin insulated from wild places, though he couldn’t be kept from his desire to connect with nature. Whether it was chasing after snakes on his grandparents farm or teaching himself to make a bow and hunt rabbits in the backyard, he consistently found ways to foster his connection with his own wild spirit.
Rain has spent many of his adult years traveling near and far, cultivating his proficiency in many of the earth skills one needs to live intimately with the land and his food. He’s become completely enamored with the craft of hide tanning and has developed a great degree of skill over his years of study. He continues to explore the nuances of preserving animal skin, unraveling the transition between life and death and finding reverence in the transformation that takes place.
He’s traveled all over South America, India and Nepal, always with his mandolin or guitar in tow. Whether he’s surfing in Costa Rica, hunting for mushrooms in Oregon, or diving for Jade in the ocean, he brings his special spark and joy for life everywhere he goes.
Callie Russell
Callie grew up loving and nurturing animals, saying she wanted to be a veterinarian when she grew up. She made a pact to herself as a teenager to not eat meat until she learned to harvest animals with her own hands. She thought she would be a vegetarian her whole life and never imagined that she would actually accomplish her goal of learning to hunt, trap, and raise animals for food.
She values life to the upmost and does not take the taking of life lightly, however, she also appreciates the deep reverence for life that comes when you know death and life are intimately connected.
Who this Class is for
Hide tanning is work, it requires a certain level of physical fitness and dedication. You will need to be on your feet for the entire day and the process requires arm and back muscular endurance. We will teach you tips and tricks on how to be most efficient with you energy output, but it is physical labor. So be ready for a workout!
Tuition
The tuition includes:
your very own sheep skin
a beautiful camp spot right on the Flathead River
3 meals a day, simple camp fare, but delicious and made with whole food harvested by our hands :)
the use of life jackets, kayaks, and paddle boards to use during our free time
pick up and drop off from the airport if you need it
Trades - cash is appreciated, however we are open to certain trades as well.
Scholarship Fund - I take a percentage from every class I teach and put it into a scholarship fund, for this course we will be able to provide one student full tuition! (the scholarship completely covers the tuition of the course, however travel to and from and other expenses are still the responsibility of the student). If you need a scholarship to be able to participate in this workshop please email me at callie@caprakhan.com with a paragraph or two about why you want to come to the class and why a scholarship would make it possible, feel free to write a poem or get creative in whatever way you feel inspired!
Scholarship submissions are due by April 1st and selection will take place within a week of this deadline. All applicants will be notified at that time.
Start and End times
Class starts 4 pm on July 19th.
Friday July 19th is arrival day, arrive anytime after 1 pm to settle in before opening circle at 4pm, our first meal together is dinner this day.
Class ends 12 noon on Thursday July 25th.
July 25th is departure day, our last meal together is breakfast on this day. We will wrap up any last details on this day you will be free to go by noon.
Other Details
If you need a ride from the airport (Glacier International Airport) let us know we’ll find a way to get you here. If there’s any camping gear that you don’t have, let us know, we may have something you can borrow (on a first ask first serve basis) or be able to offer some alternative options.
Once registered for the class you will be provided with more information, including a packing list, exact location/directions, the class schedule, ect.
If the class is sold out and you would like to join the waitlist send an email to waitlist@caprakhan.com and include the name of the class in the subject line.
Full refunds (excluding transaction fees) are available until 42 days prior to the class.