Wishbone. If wishes were horses... well, I'd have a whole herd. (wishes and horses are two of my favorite things ever-) I save wishbones- used to have many, but now only three as the others became part of a students art project. Since Grendel is at school, I don't eat whole chickens usually. Two that I have are from when he was home and I made soup, the other one I found on the road- it is not a poultry bone but belongs to an egret.
Collecting bones is one of the odder things that I do. I have always loved the mystery of them, their shape and form. My school studio has many antlers (from Texas Tom- though the kids are convinced that I am a mighty hunter, thus establishing my 'redneck' credibility), Bob the longhorn skull, a whole huge box of miscellaneous bones including deer, pelican, sea turtle, regular turtle, possum, dog (found it! no dogs were harmed), a huge cow femur and a tiny mouse skull. At home we have 20 million cow bone sections (but they belong to the doggs), my bear jaw (thank-you Ariel!), wishbones. All of my bones are found- one of those things that I am good at is finding bones, and it's rather funny. I always think 'oh no! someone else will be along to claim these' not realizing that most people are *not* interested in bones and find collecting them kinda creepy. It's all about the science though, science and art and magic. Of course.
Right now out side I have most of a deer skeleton (including the skull and a right impressive ribs/spinal section), a few assorted jaw bones (dog and possum), the rest of the egret (wingbones, long legs, a partial skull). I don't work at cleaning them anymore- I have a drying rack and just let nature take it's course. I don't collect them if they are 'messy'- I wait until they are skeletonized.... a few months outside in the sunshine cures them, the birds take care of any stray fibers, the ants any flesh. Waste not, want not.
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