I would like to thank you for your fast reply again.

"For what purposes are your story characters tanning furs?"

This is actually a bit of a difficult question, when it comes to the story. My characters will be doing a lot of trapping, both for meat and for furs to trade. One of the two will have been from a hunter-gatherer background, and will both know how to tan skins AND how to use them. She will have much use for furs to make clothing, as well as leather for tools.

The other character... he will have been raised on a farm, not in the wilderness. He will be used to wearing woven cloth, though he will probably know how to make shoes from leather (and skis from fur?). And this goes back to another question I've been wanting to ask someone, but it always seemed too vague: I don't know how well someone who grew up on a permanently settled farmstead (with cows and sheep and regularly tilled fields) would adjust to the swidden and hunting lifestyle. Would it be an easy transition? Would it be difficult? This is the sort of thing I cannot understand without experience.