The storage and inventory of materials is something all tyers do sooner or later. It can range from everything that's just stuffed into a box (Lee Wulff) to systems championed by extremists who will remain nameless, but whose habits, and names, are well known by many. If storage could be handled with an eye toward inventory, a number of issues could be resolved.

No one questions the value of the ziplock polyethylene bag until they insert or remove materials "against the grain". Our concern for damage may be more than justified in some cases.

Some of what we use lives in the natural, and real, world. It spends every day of its life in the out-of-doors dwelling in smelly damp burrows and holes or encrusted nests lodged in rotting weeds or spiny bushes like briars and cactus.

It forages in terrible places for barely enough lousy food and at times is preyed upon. It travels great distances in all kinds of weather without the benefit of Gore-tex, polaroid sunglasses, a compass or sunblock. It is finally shot and free falls a good number of yards into slush-filled salt water or CRASH! onto ground frozen rock hard.

Our plumage ends up in the strong jaws and sharp teeth of some eager beaver flapdoodle-brained retriever salivating with excitement. The hunter upon receipt throws the sodden carcass into the corner of a muddy blind. At day's end what we're going to buy is jammed into a filthy game pocket along with half eaten sandwiches containing mayonnaise, pepperoni (soaked in Mazola and vinegar), raspberry jam and peanut butter. Our bird is then hung near the ceiling, above the dog's reach in a poorly ventilated garage that traps the warm, and rising, exhaust fumes.

Two weeks later the bird is plucked by the guy's kids "so they can learn how". By now the skin is sufficiently dilapidated to make this an inexperienced hands-and-both-feet operation. Now free from their original owner some can be given to a shop owner who packages them. He doesn't know that we need rights and lefts, and not just lefts - the rights were obliterated way back on that day in December. We rush to purchase them anyway knowing from experience that the missing half will be supplied by the guy on the other side of the river. Despite everything we know, we are delighted with our Premium Bronze Mallard at 50 cents or more per feather.

There isn't much I can do about anything up to and including the purchase. However, from that point I can eliminate the problem of pawing through stacks of slippery bags and sooner or later saying "I forgot I already had some of that". It will also stop the minor rumpling of material that comes from even the tenderest handling:

Take a ziplock bag, preferably squarish and begin to turn it inside out so that the former bottom runs just under and parallel to the zipper. Poke the corners out with a pencil and make sure that the lower part of the bag, now inside the upper part, is flat and has its sides even with the sides of the upper part.

Put two staples through the four layers of plastic close to the edge of the inner bag. They should be parallel to the edges as shown.

These keep the bag you now have from turning back right side out. They are protected from tearing by the ends of the zipper which do not permit the opening to extend all the way to the edge under normal pressure.

What we have is one bag with two compartments that is horizontally oriented.

Small pieces of material are easily removed since the opening is large and the bag is shallow. Nothing is inserted or removed "against the grain". Both operations are done from one side. Rights and lefts or rights and pieces of the same can be stored separately in the same bag. A 12" x 12" bag treated this way becomes a "pair" of 12" x 6" bags. It will hold 2 capes or a cape and saddle in half of the size they will need for separate storage.

Above the zipper are the two sides, one of which is longer than the other. The larger one will accept stick-on labels and has plenty of room for Sharpie pen lettering across its length. These bags will stand empty on their bellows bottoms without support and can therefore be "filed". This and staggered labeling means materials and their inventory can be treated like documents.

In a stroke those who live in Wyoming and California will be able to double their capacity to subdivide the organization of their materials. Marvin Nolte said that the prospect of it boggled his mind! I never dreamt that could be done!