Brettuns Village Trunks & Leather
Old Trunks, New Leather. All from Maine.
October 30, 2008
Hello Brettuns Village Subscribers:
I always get a boot out of letting you know how the weather’s doing
upcountry, so if you’ve been a newsletter victim for a while you’ve
read about snow storms, sleet attacks, slush disasters, and, way back
in 1998, the 14-days-with-no-power ice storm that kept us stoking the
woodstove around the clock. So, with trick-or-treating right
around
the corner, my youngest daughter, though not all that young anymore,
wasn’t too thrilled about the snow that was swirling around last night
when I picked her up from swim team practice. She remembers very
well
the Halloween of Extreme Discomfort a few years ago when her Fairy
Princess costume was hidden by her winter coat, and the fake glass
slippers had to stay at home, replaced by the snow boots. It’s
always
a little touchy this time of year I guess.
When the economic news is all good, as it has been lately (for short
sellers), I like to buck the trend by buying up all the new leather
I
can find to add to the website. Those contrarian investor gurus
always say that the right time to invest is when ‘it’s the scariest
thing you can imagine doing.’ That would be, as luck would have
it,
right about now. As a result, there’s a mess of new leathers
on the
site, from nice calf sides to super soft brown elk sides to the
weirdest veg tan checkerboard patterned cowhide sides we’ve seen in
quite some time (like a cow walked into a 1960s diner, went wild, and
walked out wearing the seat covers), to some large sample sheets of
nice USA-tanned leathers that for some reason are the exact same size
as a full unfolded newspaper. All of these things are shown right
here on our Hides and Sides page:
https://brettunsvillage.com/leather/sides.htm
There are also some new additions to the Clearance page. We try
to
toss a few odd hides on there every week; thanks to those of you who
check it on a regular basis. Lately Cousin Chaz (Charlie) has
been
poking around the office, picking up things like woodworking tools,
piles of leather samples that some guy in India sent to us so that
we
could evaluate the high quality of his high quality leather that’s
tanned using high quality methods to produce the highest quality
leather, at the best price, or something like that, or an odd hide
of
this or that, and then Chaz has added them to the Clearance page.
House cleaning, more or less.
The other big change around here, as mentioned in the title of this
potential Nobel recipient (literature category), is the onset of long
underwear season. Just two weeks ago we worked outside in shorts;
now
it’s back to scraping the windshield in the morning, and stowing the
shorts away until next May or so. In their place, the right thing
to
do, comfort-wise, is to buy some lightweight long underwear and get
used to wearing them. Years ago, when my oldest daughter was
just a
tike, she caught me sprinting through the house after That Dog wearing
my longhandles – as I was in the process of dressing when Jenny ran
off with one of my socks. Rebecca pointed at me and said “I like
your
silk panties, Daddy” and I knew that kid would be trouble from that
point on. I can’t put the darned things on without thinking of
that
incident. I guess it makes me smile and probably turn red.
Well,
they do what they’re supposed to do, keep me warm all day at work,
so
call them whatever you want. Yes, I wear silk panties.
I sell
leather. I need serious help.
One final thought – just keep in mind that when all the news is bad
you’ve got two choices:
1. Read your latest 401K statement; or
2. Get some leather and relax by making something. Perhaps
a doll
that looks like your stock broker, and then you can run it through
the
garbage disposal and things start to look a little brighter.
Take it
from me, a guy who wears silk panties, you’ll feel better in no time.
Happy Halloween-
Churchill Barton
Brettuns Village Leather
Auburn, Maine