Important... Please read all

[White Fox]

This is a post by Francoise 1970 in the Old Fur Den stories area. As you know that area did not make the move and as such it is gradually being torn apart now.

 

This is indeed a story that I wanted to stay here in the Den. So I am moving it here now.

 

Thanks again Francoise 1970 for finding this in a newsgroup for us!

 

________________________________________________________

 

A fur farm from the daughters point of view.

 

Winter Time

By Cristina

(The author is a second-generation mink farmer from the eastern US. She is a

high school junior, and hopes to be a teacher one day. Her hobbies are

reading, martial arts, and gardening. The loves of her life are three pet

dogs, a pet cat, and a pet ferret who lives down in the minkyard and sleeps

in her own hammock.)

WINTER TIME AGAIN. For most my age it means Christmas vacation. That

wonderful time when you have no homework and can just relax. But it's just

the opposite on a farm. Winter time is one of the busiest, and one of the

most rewarding times of the year.

I live on a mink farm. My dad runs the farm, but when winter time comes

around, all of us family members help out.

The very first thing on the list of things to do is grading the mink. Each

one must be graded individually. The biggest and best ones are kept for next

year's breeding stock. The rest are harvested to be sold at the auction

house.

For some, like my dad, the job has just now started. At this point the

harvesting and processing becomes really hectic. My dad owns and operates

his

own processing plant. We not only do our own mink and foxes but sometimes

other people's too. In addition to the normal feeding and watering, he has

to

work in the processing plant and make sure that everything runs smoothly.

There are separate rooms for each part of the drying process. This is where

my job comes in. A few years ago I started out with the easiest job first.

That was putting paper sleeves over the stretcher boards. Since then, I've

learned how to put mink on the boards, tack them down, and hang them on the

air wall. Our air wall holds approximately 350 stretchers. The furs usually

take three to five days to dry, depending on size. When they're dry, dad

takes them all down and ships them out. It's quite a time consuming job when

you have a couple thousand mink to do. It usually takes up the majority of

my

Christmas vacation.

Just this past year I've learned how to skin mink. I'm not very good at it

yet, but I'm glad my dad was willing to teach me. Since we first started

out,

I learned how to do many jobs in the processing plant. It's hard work, but

after it's all done we get to go to the sale in February.

Going to the sale makes all the work we did over the winter seem worth

while.

I enjoy all aspects of the sale: the ride to New Jersey, the atmosphere, the

people, and the entertainment. It's all so much fun.

I enjoy listening to foreign people speak in their own languages. There is

quite a diversity of nationalities all brought together under one roof. I

also like to sit in the balcony and watch the buyers place bids on the furs

they want to buy.

If the market is good, North American Fur Auctions might sponsor a dinner

cruise on a boat. A couple years ago we rode around Manhattan Island. That

was a lot of fun. I enjoyed standing at the stern of the boat and watching

the waves roll out and disappear behind it.

My favorite part about going to the sale is the show room. As soon as I walk

through the large set of double doors, I am immediately hit with the potent

smell of fur. It's one of those smells that I will remember for a lifetime.

There is a wide variety of furs. So many to look at. There are wild furs

such

as bears, sables, fishers, bobcats, and my favorite, the timber wolf. I like

the timber wolf because of its immense size. And there are the ranch furs

such as mink, fox, ferrets, and my favorite ranch fur, the chinchilla. I

especially like the chinchilla because of its powder soft fur.

It is such a wonderful experience to watch the sale and see the results of

all our hard work and effort. What a great reward after giving up my

Christmas vacation!

 

 

_________________

Female (02)

Edited March 11, 2006 by Guest

[FurKyle]

I Just checked back there And it seems that mine and A LOT of the stories there have been DELETED. That really SUCKS, as all of the stories ARE very good that they chose to get rid of. Mine wasn't a work of art like most. But, I did work hard on it and am ashamed to NOT see it there, as well as the countless Masterpieces from the other authors there!

 

Tsk-Tsk

 

Kyle

[s1m17]

A good insight into what goes on in a fur farm. There's a lot of stuff I didn't know about in there, I never knew a fur farm was so similar to a normal agricultural farm whereby the family can live on it. It's good to see at least one story survived.

[White Fox]

Kyle and others.

Now please do not have a fit here! You aparently have not taken the time to read the messages that will keep you up to date on what is going on!

Remember that we cannot keep the old Den forever, and it is not fair for us to use Melody's area for these stories forever.

 

Remember what we told you before we even moved? That the stories would be saved?

 

We have been working at just that for quite awhile. We have been gradually deleting replies to the messages, and intigrating stories with three chapters in three different posts for instance into one. Then, we are gradually moving them out into a safe area where they will stay until they are moved into a new safe site.

 

Folks PLEASE give us a chance here. This is indeed a difficult move to complete this new site. Please help us by reading the FAQ and the messages that explain the process. Off, and I have been working on moving these stories for hours and hours per day for well over a week with FurBabe's help. We indeed hope to have that stories forum closed as soon as this weekend. When we have completed the process all stories will be visible in the stories areas that will at that time be posted in our links section.

White Fox

Admin

[fur_babe]

To get a good idea on fur farming and what makes a fur farm work, I recomment visiting the following site.

 

http://www.furcommission.com/

 

They have many items concerning farms, fur bearing animals and their care. Rather than post specific items, I suggest that you visit the site and select subjects which you think would interest you. Often this leads you to other sections. It is a great educational site about furs.

[s1m17]

I'm browsing through the site and finding it very interesting. A lot of good info on fur farms there.

[Fox]

Good save White!

[White Fox]

You know when I started into that project I was stupid enough to think that if I went in there for a couple of nights for three hours or so each that the project would be finished and the forum closed. Man did I get a surprise! The amount of work cleaning up those messages and transferring them was huge. I have to thank Off for a whole lot of help in there!

However, now it is finished I know that it will be all worth it!

W

[FurKyle]

White Fox, I am extremely sorry for the harshness in my message here. In the transfer from the old to the new, I forgot that you and the other mods have a lot to do yet as far as getting the MelFurDen cleaned up and freeing up the space for the folks that are still there.

 

With this top notch new site and community opened up, I forgot that you guys are still doing stuff over there too.

 

I feel bad for jumping to conclusions, and not thinking rationally about that. Just, NOT seeing my story there and others that are greater than mine, was a shock to me

 

Kyle

[White Fox]

No problem. Glad we got that straightened out.

W

[fur_babe]

So that this story does not get lost as this thread goes deeper and deeper into the forum, I have added the story to the Fur Library.