If you wives out there have wondered what your husband does in his workshop, but were too afraid to ask...here's a story for you.

In a basement workshop in Oxford, you will find the June Business of the Month, Amazing Antler Taxidermy, owned by former Chamber President Rich Carpenter.

Rich found an interest in deer antlers at around the age of 19, in Reedsburg, Wisconsin. He brought his business to Oxford in 1996, when he and his family moved here. He occupies 4 rooms of his basement plus a small tv room with mounted deer antlers, deer movies and a foot-tall stack of DVD taxidermy films.

When he's not too tired from his manager's job at Merrick's of Nebraska-Oxford office, he spends time in those 4 rooms cleaning deer hides customers bring to him for mounting. He states that while his wife thinks he's crazy, that she hardly comes downstairs when he's working. Three of the rooms were converted to workshop space when their three children grew and left home. One room is for cleaning and tanning hides, another has a floor covered with Styrofoam necks and heads and a few antlers-real and fake, and the third is where he assembles his finished product.

In his work, the real isn't necessarily real, but it looks that way. The finished antlers in many cases are replicas of national and international record racks that will look great in your home's den wall. These replicas are made from fiberglass.

*source: Oxford Standard