Happy BirthDeathBury-day![15.02.25]
Haha, yeah, whoops.
RIP notice with date of burial
Yeah, so it’s been a whole year since I buried my poor gull. Work got very busy and stressful last summer, and then the good weather for doing things outside disappeared, so I haven’t yet actually gotten around to digging up and preparing my dead. I keep researching what to do, but also then forgetting what exactly I need to do. I'm currently in a bit of a financial dip, but once I've gotten a bit more comfortable with the amount of money in my accounts, I do have a plan of action and a shopping list.
I joined the vultureculture subreddit, and their links for beginners were definitely very helpful. theboneman.com particularly I’ve spent a bit of time poking around, and I do now have some ideas of what I need:
- A plastic box (with a lid, and no holes)
- Ammonia (for 50% solution, for degreasing)
- I stab a few holes into a plastic box I don't need, then dig a hole in the back garden to place it in
- 3% hydrogen peroxide (quite a lot of it, for whitening)
- Maybe some gauzy fabric? (for holding bones while they're being rinsed/to catch them while draining)
I also want to make sure the outdoor drain is, in fact, an outdoor drain, because I get the feeling that this isn’t the kind of stuff that I want to just be pouring into the ground. But then, I suppose, the plan is as follows:
- Unbury the gull’s box and get his bones out. I am going to have to figure out the best way to unearth him from the dirt in the box. I figure so far my options are either to put on gloves and make like a mole, or possibly running everything under the outdoor tap to wash the dirt away from the bones. I’m a little worried about losing small bones, but I also don’t want to disarticulate everything too much by pulling the bones out individually.
- Soak in 50% clear ammonia for a week, in a plastic box. Apparently this might need to be done a couple of times, but I'm hoping he'll be easy enough to deal with. This is where I figure the gauzy fabric will come in, since I can use it to cover the box while I pour out the solution, and to hold the bones on as I rinse them. I'll have to see though. theboneguy also doesn't specifically mention putting a lid on this container, so maybe I can use fabric to cover the box without trapping potential gasses.
- Soak in 3% hydrogen peroxide to whiten the bones for a few days. This one does mention a lid, and I think I saw something about sunlight activating or deactivating hydrogen peroxide.... So maybe I'll have to look into whether this needs to be an opaque box and lid.
I am hoping that in a couple of months the weather will start to improve enough that I can actually make a move on this project. And once I have the bones cleaned and whitened... Well. I guess I'm gonna have to figure out articulation. That's gonna be a whole different ballgame though.
Here's to hoping it doesn't take another year to get to this guy. Sorry little gull, but hope to see you soon!