After we spent a good ten minutes talking about elk hunting, wildlife, firearms, and eventually why pronghorn are so damn fast, uncle Courtney brought up my desire to become a taxidermist. Since he and his family have been hunting since they could hold a bow steady, and uncle Courtney was a game warden for over 25 years, he's got plenty of taxidermy laying around. In his barn, he has a growing collection of antlers that are only collecting spider nests and cat fur, so he offered me a couple. The only challenge was getting them down. 

Since I'm smaller than Courtney, I was expected to be the one who climbed up various objects in the barn to reach the antlers. Courtney hasn't cleaned his barn in 30 years, so God only knew what I'd find near the rafters. 

I first climbed onto the back ladder of Courtney's old camper, and carefully stepped one foot onto a window ledge, while keeping a firm grip on one of the 2x4's that made up the skeleton of the old barn. Courtney encouraged me to step onto a steel trash can lid, assuring me it was full to the brim of horse treats and could support my weight. It ended up being empty, and I clung to the skeleton of the barn as my boot effortlessly plunged through. Instead of that, I stretched my leg further to reach an old cat tree that I knew couldn't support my entire weight. I looked down and realized just how screwed I was. I was basically stuck on the wall doing the splits between the camper and a cat tree above a concrete floor covered in various dangerous objects, including rusty nails and a hacksaw. I could reach the antlers from there, but I wasn't about to let go of anything. To make matters worse, a Great Black Wasp took interest in me, and I looked back at uncle Courtney, pleading for help and paralyzed in fear. 

After a full minute of us bickering back and forth, Courtney gave up on encouraging me further, and clambered up on a freezer to reach the antlers for me. I was still stuck there on the wall while Courtney carefully took down an old elk rack. 30 years of spider webs and dust all fell on my head at once. 

"Dude, you should've told me that you could reach it that easily." I said as I started looking for a way down. 

"I just wanted to see if you could do it." Courtney replied laughing, "It looks like you got yourself in a tough situation. Here! I'll help you."

I sighed with relief while Courtney supported one of my boots with his hand so I could get back to the camper and jump down. Once I was on the ground, I shook off the dust and cobwebs, and took the antlers out of Courtney's hands. They were furry with spiderwebs, to the point I thought they still had velvet on them, but Courtney said it was a winter bull he took with his bow, and the "velvet" was actually 30 years worth of old spider webs. 

We brought it to his front lawn and set it down on the grass. At first, I figured a leaf blower would get rid of all of the dust and webs. Courtney got his strongest one and set it on high. While the spider webs and some dust was blown off, most of it was stuck to the antlers like clay. So I took an old wet rag, and rubbed the antlers down until they were completely clean. Under that thick layer of grey dust was a beautiful set of chocolate brown elk antlers. Courtney also gave me a pair of whitetail deer antlers he took off the skull of a deer that got hit by a car. Had that deer lived another year or two, he would've been a freaky trophy! While deer, elk, and moose shed their antlers every late winter, they grow them back bigger and stronger every summer, just in time for the rutting season every fall and early winter.

So, I have to say, my struggle in the barn was totally worth the antlers Courtney gave to me today, and they should keep me busy for awhile. I'll get rid of the dried hide on the elk antlers and clean the skull cap so it's a bright white. The deer antlers don't need much work, but I will drill both sets onto wooden plaques when they're all nice and clean.