It was followed with "Funny, the circle of life". I'm not sure many parents would be understanding of raw, animal bits being tossed around the alley.
I kept the two heads of the bucks. To get them down to beautiful skulls/antlers, I was told to take as much meat, brains, and skin off as possible. Then boil them, and then add hydrogen peroxide to bleach the skulls white.
I tried to. I ended up with skin still on it, the brains still in, and it didn't boil off very well. Just wet dog smelling skin bits, and a big skull of meat.
So, circle of life right? I take the meaty skulls over to the garden and leave them sitting there with the antlers facing down so that the birds get in there.
This was all yesterday. Today I came home from work and took a look. They looked the same and I felt a little discouraged. Then I noticed that all the snow around the heads had been trampled down by little feet.
Circle of life I guess.
Gross, Richard. I can't believe you are checking out the animal tracks around the skull. But now that all of that information is out here on the web, I can tell you what I have found about using hydrogen peroxide. It is hard on my hands, but doesn't seem to do much to the other products I am using it on.
ReplyDeleteHow are you finding it on your hands?
Arta
I have a friend who has also done this (boiled the bones to get them clean). He is an artist friend (Shawn Skabalund), but I think he usually starts with 'road kill', so maybe things are already moving along with the 'circle of life' before he gets going?
ReplyDeletecheck out his webpage... I saw a great installation of his called "Healing the circle" that used animals bones, corn, and corn grinder (to make the corn meal) and sacarement cups to sprinkle the corn you had ground over the bones. it was GREAT
http://www.shawnskabelund.com/healing.html
A couple of questions, Rebecca.
ReplyDelete1. Did you see this installation in real life or on the website you posted -- which is a great way to see it.
2. I couldn't find any of the sacrament cups. I was thinking of doing a little of the sprinkling by proxy.
Arta
I have seen a couple of Shawn's pieces 'in real life'. He and Alexandra (his partner) were at grad school in Michigan while I was there. two fabulous friends (along with Marnie...uh... was it Leavitt? all my mormon roots friends) :-) you can't see the sacrament cups in the webpage, but he had them there for people to collect their cornmeal in. I don't think they were labelled as sacrament cups... a person might describe them a fastfood Ketchup cups... but to ME, they will always be sacrament cups!
ReplyDeleteGross Richard. Grandpa Doral would be so proud.
ReplyDeleteDoral Pilling did hunt, but he had to clean up his mess so well. Wyora could not take the innards of animals, ducks, fish etc. She would let him hunt but he always cleaned up that mess, otherwise, she would be sick. She would cook his catch, but never clean it.
ReplyDeleteI cleaned out the innards. no problems there. it was all the bits and bites from my first times of skinning. All of that 'stuff' that ended up in the garage. What an adventure. I might be able to get one last animal in the next week. A cow elk if I get permission tomorrow morning. 200 elk in a heard on his land...
ReplyDeletePlease let him give me permission! That's easy hunting!