Elly May has been building up a collection of dead rattlesnakes in her freezer over the past year. They were mostly gifts from a friend (don't you wish
you had a friend like that? ) who had run ins with them on the farm where he works or at home in a shed . Anyway, she gratefully accepted them all and stashed them away for when she had a spare moment to skin them out. That happened the other day. After a full morning of canning applesauce and running some errands, the snakes had defrosted and everything was ready. Oh... I should say.. again.. if you are squeamish you may as well stop right here because I know for a fact, you will not like the pictures in this post. Don't say I didn't warn you.
What are we doing?
The work table .
The specimens.
Exhibit A. He was a baby... and it looks like he killed himself.... hmm.... This one is kind of unusual because it still has its head. Normally we get ones without heads and sporting some wounds from things like hoes and shovels and so forth.
Mmm... ouch
This guy had been ready to shed ... so underneath his dull exterior was a brilliant green.
His skin was soooo thin and delicate. It was very hard to get it off without tearing. It did tear.. but most of it is still salvagable.
So pretty.
It looks like there is another snake laying down the center of the skin.
Fleshing...
Stapling to the board so it can cure.
Okay.. this is actually exhibit C... somewhere along the line I lost the one of B... hmm.. I'll find him later . This is a really large Red Diamond Back.
He suffered some... uh... blunt force trauma...
Slitting up the belly.
Just because I thought you might like to see inside..
Notice the drool laced over his face...
The big ones peel so easily.
We have some concerned onlookers.
This is actually fat deposits. I've never seen anything like this . At first we thought it was intestines but they aren't . If we could have found the blow torch we would have checked to see how well snake fat renders but alas.. we couldn't find the torch..
Another site of blunt force trauma... normally they aren't that bloody inside..
Just in case you were interested in what the innards of a snake looked like..
Fried snake anyone? Elly May said it looks like this dude had more meat than a squirrel. Of course that isn't really saying much..
Almost off..
Isn't it beautiful?
Laying out the skin..
What are you doing over there?
Fleshing..
This is what she is taking off . Just in case you were curious.
Just a change of scene in case you were getting squeamish.
Staples work much better than tacks... you just have to clean the stapler really well before you return it to your mom's desk drawer....
Painting on the tanning solution. Snake Tan.
Now in case you were still interested in the anatomy of a snake ... here is a quick peek.
This seems to be inside the trachea.. we think...
Snake heart. Kind of small... hmm.
Liver.
Empty snake... Sorry for the gore. I forgot to get a picture of all the skins drying on the board. Well, I'll get one when they are finished. They have to have a few more applications of the tanning solution. And they have to dry. But other than that... that is it. See, snake skinning isn't all that hard. ;-)
A fleshing machine saves HOURS. I helped her flesh a squirrel once and it took ... years. Okay, maybe just hours, but it was so tedious and I was so bored. Snipping away with our sister Violet's quilting scissors (Shhhhhhh.. we washed them up and decided she wouldn't want them back anyway so got her another pair... they were nice and sharp.. and what she doesn't know can't hurt her right? You aren't reading this are you Vi??? If you are, sorry. We really are.) 
Aren't you all jealous? 
Aren't you all jealous? 
