#mycleaning

[boneyadventures]

A little late on posting my weekly manure decomp update, I did check it on Thursday but couldn't get around to posting. The squirrel has made a little bit of progress but shockingly after just 4 days, the skunk was cleaned to the bone! Warning for pictures and a little video of the dead skunk!

Top photo is from last Monday and bottom is on Thursday. I can't believe it took just four days buried in the manure pile to get this guy so clean! I think the secret was the disgusting amount of maggots in his screen tomb - he was likely dead for a day or two before I found him, giving flies plenty of time to lay their eggs and they hatched and thrived in the manure pile. By contrast the squirrel has no bug activity since he went straight from my dog's mouth to the manure pile, and he's still quite meaty after 2 weeks.

There was just the tiniest amount of skin left in some places like the paws and luckily I managed to save all 20 claw sheaths! The video below shows what lies underneath the remaining fur, everything was seriously cleaned to the bone! I think I have to give credit to the maggots for this cleaning, but burying in the manure pile definitely helped mask the smell and sight of them at work. I put him back in the manure pile to clean up the last little bits so hopefully next week I'll start to work on the skeleton.

[boneyadventures]

And back to our regularly scheduled bones!

The juvenile skunk skeleton has been painstakingly harvested - I do NOT recommend picking through skunk bones unless the body is fully decomposed, glands and all! I was impatient and wanted to get this done, so I spent a good hour inhaling skunk perfume making sure I got every last darn growth plate just in case I'm crazy enough to try articulating this skeleton. I'm keeping the leftovers in the screen just in case I missed anything but it's going back in the manure pile to cover that stench. So worth it though!!

[boneyadventures]

Unearthing my chicken's skeleton! It was a pleasant day to be outside and clean some bones, cloudy and cool - until the sky turned dark and opened up! Mother nature wanted to kickstart the cleaning process for me.

[boneyadventures]

Another manure decomp weekly update! We're three weeks into the squrriel and finally seeing the skeleton emerge, thanks again to some maggot friends. If I've learned anything from this process its that a little bit of above ground decomp can be so beneficial to burial decomp! Warning for pretty gross rotting pictures below the cut.

Top picture is one week ago, bottom is today. I'm really not a fan of all this rotting but I'm excited to be tracking this process for science!! I can't wait to flesh this out (pun intended) into an educational bone cleaning guide!

My dog grabbed herself yet another squirrel so I'm using that one to test out how much faster it decays after being left above ground first. I placed it on a piece of door screen and placed a wire cage over it, left it above ground for three days, then buried it with the other squirrel. It had just two days in the manure pile and it was already showing lots of skeleton, similar to the squirrel that's been in the manure pile for three weeks! The downside to this method is that there is a bit of death smell and decay to deal with before it gets buried, so if you really want to be hands off with the process and don't mind waiting, burying a fresh body is the best way to go.

[boneyadventures]

Week 1 check in on the manure squrriel! There's some good progress already, the feet are cleaned down to bone and the rest is decaying nicely. Comparison picture below, warning if you're squeamish about dead critters/decay!

Top picture is exactly one week ago and bottom is today. So far I'm very pleased with this cleaning method, I'm excited for next week's check in!

[boneyadventures]

This vulture is vulturing again! Many eons ago I found a freshly dead mole in my backyard and kept it as a wet specimen for years, until I figured out I'm definitely a bone gal and buried him in a pot to decompose. Flash forward many more years and I've finally got him excavated! He's in a peroxide bath now, then his skull will join my skull collection and his skeleton will be displayed in a tiny jar.

[boneyadventures]

I'm experimenting with a new bone cleaning method, courtesy of my wonderful pets: manure decomp! Trigger warning for a dead squrriel and regular warning for terrible lighting!

My little dog nabbed a huge squirrel and now has a battle scar to prove her victory. Although I have too many squirrel skeletons as it is, I thought this would be a great opportunity to see if I can clean the skeleton using my ponies' manure. I've cleaned skeletons before with regular composting piles but manure composting is a different animal so I'm curious to see how it goes!

Step 1:

Gather the supplies - dead squirrel, door screen, extra fencing, manure pile, extra manure, and water.

Step 2:

Entomb the critter in the door screen which will help keep the bones from getting lost. Place the critter on one side, fold it over, then fold over the edges to keep everything contained. This is a metal screen so it holds itself together and there are still openings where bugs can get in to do their job.

Step 3:

Place the tomb onto the manure pile, cover with more manure, and water well!

Step 4:

Place extra fencing over the pile to help deter other scavengers (there's only room for one of those around here). This is not the best piece of fencing, ideally you'll want something that covers the entire pile and some surrounding area to prevent diggers.

I think I'll check on this once a week to track the progress and I'll likely be adding more manure to the pile since I have an unlimited supply - more manure will help contain the death smells and keep the pile nice and hot for decomposing. The end result should be a fairly clean skeleton with some nice compost to boot!

[boneyadventures]

After a year my picture taking hasn’t improved but the bobcat definitely has! Finally calling it done on degreasing the final bones to this skeleton. You’d think this was a pig or bear because of how long it’s taken, but it was likely just inconsistent heating and periods of forgetfulness with some over-thoroughness. He was a very greasy boy to begin with though! Now it’s time to get official articulating supplies together and finish this project.