Brettuns Village Trunks & Leather
Old Trunks, New Leather. All from Maine.
March 5, 2007
Back to the grindstone today, after a brief trip to sunny South Florida
to help with that mess I told you about last time. Things will straighten
out in time, and thanks to those of you who sent along your kind thoughts
and well wishes. I appreciated each and every note greatly.
I got back up here just in time to get a chance to shovel huge mountains
of soggy snow – this is the heavy kind that most emergency rooms really
enjoy. Fills the beds so that the occupancy rate is way up there
and no hospital manager goes barking at the staff about how they need to
get out on the streets and drum up business. Aching backs, strained
muscles, cardio-vascular hysteria, and, believe it or not, dehydration
are the usual culprits. For me, shoveling around the barn and house,
the driveway, walkways, porch, etc, the challenge is to stay upright more
than 90 percent of the time. It’s not that it’s slippery or that
I’m feeble or dizzy – like most physical challenges around here the true
blame lies right at the feet – all four of them – of That Dog.
You can’t move snow without having her out there. She usually
sits a few yards away from where I’m grunting away, and every so often,
no real rhyme or reason to it, probably just a couple of loose wires in
that noggin of hers make a random connection, it’s time to hang on because
here she comes, hoo-rady-cut-to-bingo (thanks, Grandma Churchill, for teaching
me that one) right at your legs at land speeds formerly reached only on
the Bonneville Salt Flats. I’m usually down before I even realize
I’m falling, and then you’ve got to cover your face quick or you’ll get
slobbered on. This can then freeze and leave you looking like some
bizarre snow creature that just happened to wander out of the woods and
take an immediate interest in cleaning off driveways. I get the idea
that Jenny and I will end up in the hospital one of these days, probably
in the same room, both in traction thanks to some sort of hip injuries,
only she’ll be wagging her tail the whole time and I’ll be thinking about
ways to make useful souvenirs out of her various parts. That’s some
dog, right there.
A lot of new stuff around here – so I thought I’d make you a list.
The site grows every week – that’s our goal.
First – leather laces in Cougar Tan, 6 feet long per lace, sold in bundles
of 10 or 100, or you can just buy them individually if only one of your
boots is loose. These are on the ‘Leather Lace’ page if you can believe
that.
Semi-Tubular rivets – new sizes in aluminum or stainless steel,
lengths around 3/8″ so these are perfect for joining a total thickness
of somewhere around 16 oz (1/4″) of leather. These are on the Parts
and Hardware page.
Metric Arch Punches – Maybe you’ve purchased some of our standard
arch punches (made in Maine!) before; now we have them in metric sizes
from 4mm up to 52mm. These, surprisingly, are shown on the Tools
page.
Also on the Tools page is a new small tool kit we’re offering.
I like this thing. It’s simple, inexpensive, and contains a lot of
neat little tools to help you through a one-time leather project or through
several small projects. It’s got hole punches, tweezers (?), pliers,
a splash setter, some other stuff and a hammer that looks like it would
fit in the hand of your old GI Joe, but it’s a useful kit. Only fifteen
bucks to your door.
Woven Leather Panels – I think these are very cool – we’ve got a few
thousand panels of chrome-tanned calf leather in nice shades of tan,
brown, oxblood, and black, each about 7 by 7 inches. These would
make great inserts for the front of a book or whatever. Someone,
somewhere, had to weave these things, and it wasn’t me or you, so this
is a case when a lot of the work has been done for you. You’re a
great manager. The more panels you buy, the better manager you are.
See these on the Sides and Hides page.
Shearling – We received a shipment of little sheep hides, dyed all the
way through, with the hair still on and all the hair cropped to a uniform
length of about 1/2 of an inch. Lamb shearling I guess, but maybe
it’s some other wee beastie from far, far away. Nice shearling, I
can tell you that, and we’ve got them for $20 each, with free shipping
to all USA locations. These, as you may guess, are shown on the Hair-on
Hides page.
Braided leather belting – something we had in stock years and years
ago, and now we’ve got more of it. Spools of chrome-tanned cowhide
leather in black or brown, 3 strands woven into a nice sort of belting
leather that’s about 5/16″ wide. We can sell you the entire spool
if you need it, or just order it by the yard and we’ll chop it off for
you. This is on the Leather Laces page because it looked closer to
being lace than it did to being a hide, if you ask me.
I think the best way to reach all this new stuff is through our Site
Map, which is here:
https://brettunsvillage.com/sitemap.html
The Site Map is sort of like the watchtower from which you can see the
entire kingdom. The Kingdom of Brettuns Village. Has a nice
ring to it. That’s it for today – so watch out for wet snow – keep
your center of gravity low and hold the shovel tightly – and remember to
lift with your knees or you’ll end up at the krankenhaus waiting for the
Ibuprofen to kick in.
The phones are supposed to be fixed this week. I’ll believe it
when I hear it.
Out-
Churchill
Brettuns Village Leather
Auburn, Maine