Proper Bone Preparation

Proper Bone Preparation
One of my favorite items to use in my Craft are bones. I have a boar's skull, mole skull, turtle shells & bones, Badger skull, muskrat skull, and many others. My favorite though are the bones I acquired last year when our 30 yo horse died out in the pasture.


There was no way I was going to let all those wonderful bones from our favorite horse, go to waste! So, I waited until they were picked as clean as possible. I was hoping the buzzards would go to work on them but they didn't, only the bugs. It took about a month but they were finally "ready". One bone I could not get cleared of the skin as it had literally sealed itself on it, and one bone was taken by coyotes. But I did get all the others! They are my prize possession.


Most people would place the bones in water with a bit of bleach. I know, I've done it myself. Well, have you ever noticed how these wonderfully white bones feel chalky? Yep, that's the bleach. And it's eating your bones away, turning it to chalky dust. So absolutely do not use bleach! 


Here is the way to do it and to preserve the natural beauty of the bones:


Need:
Bones to be cleaned
Large barrel(s) or buckets
Water
Wood ash (1 cup wood ash : 1 gallon water)


Instructions:
Place the bones into the large barrel(s) (I needed 2).


Begin filling the barrels with water enough to cover them completely.


Pour the wood ash into the water as the barrel/bucket is being filled.


Let the bones & ash water stand for several days, check every few days to see how it's progressing.


Small bones will clean up in a few days, larger ones may take more than a week.


Once the bones are clean (note that some skin or other material may still be one them, but easily removed), remove from the ash water.


Wash, scrub, and rinse each individual bone. You may have to scrub some bones more than others depending on how much softened material is still attached.


Once completely cleaned let it dry completely.


Your bones are now clean, natural colored, will not powder and disintegrate, and are ready for what ever you want to use them for.


Here is the Old Man's skull, which sits under the buffet in the living room of our home.

Gardening Tips & Tricks

To make a "black" flower look as dark as possible, plant it in full sun with alot of light green foliage.

For pink hydrangeas add lime to the soil (will only work if there is no aluminum in the soil).

For blue hydrangeas add aluminum to the soil.

Turn your long-handled garden tool into a measuring stick for proper spacing of plants! Set a ruler or tape measure next to the tool handle, and using a permanent marker, write the inch & foot marks on the handle.

To have garden twine handy when you need it, just stick a ball of twine in a small clay pot, pull the end of the twine through the drainage hole, and set the pot upside down in the garden. You'll never go looking for twine again.

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Here's an entire list specifically for ideas on what to do with all those garden catalogs - hint, hint!: don't throw them away! 

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20 Ways to Recycle Your Plant and Seed Catalogs

Written by: Dottie Baltz

If you are anything like me, you hate waste and I have a hard time throwing anything away, even if I am recycling it with the garbage company. I get a ton of seed catalogs, and it occurred to me that maybe there were more uses for them than we originally thought. Some are so gorgeous with their glossy pages and excellent photographs. So I've compiled a list of 20 creative ideas of things you can do with those seed and plant catalogs once the growing season is over. From the wacky to the practical, there is definitely something for everyone on this list.

Research your garden plant purchases. Many of the better nurseries provide all sorts of plant information in their catalogs. Keep the better ones that specialize on plants that grow well in your region.

Use the catalogs as a learning experience with your kids, grand kids or donate them to a classroom or community group that will be learning about plants and gardening.

Cut out the pictures to help design your own gardens or use them to make a collage.

Use the colorful pages to wrap a gift for a gardening friend.  Use ribbon to camouflage any seams.

Cut out the photos to embellish greeting cards, calendars, gift tags, or to make a story book with your kids.

Make seed envelopes. Complete instructions can be found here.

Cut out the flower images and decoupage on glass, dress up cardboard boxes or coasters.

Make paper chains or those chains we used to make with gum wrappers. I found instructions for those here.

Embellish garden journals with instructions or photos from the catalogs.

Glue the flower pictures on top of an old table top then coat it with several layers of polyurethane to dress up an old craft table or kids table.

           

Cut out the flower images and make magnets or stickers. I have a Xyron machine, like the one above, that makes this super easy.

Shred them for colorful packing materials or to use in gift bags.

Dress up an old trash can to use in your greenhouse or garden shed.

Roll up the catalog to form a tube, and then use it to store twine or panty hose for tying plants to stakes during the growing season.

If you have a lot of catalogs, use them to line a pond before laying down the rubber lining. This will help prevent punctures in the lining from roots or sharp rocks. Newspaper can be used as well.

Line drawers or shelves with catalog pages in your greenhouse or garden shed to help keep them clean.

Make a paper mosaic. Paint the base object that you want to mosaic black or white (or any color of your choosing).  Then cut or tear the pieces and glue them on the object making sure the base color is showing between pieces. The base color will act as the grout for your project.

Use the plant photos to embellish the outside of a doll house, or if you don't want to glue directly on the doll house, glue the pieces to cardboard to make a landscape scene you can sit behind the doll house.

Cut out the photos and growing instructions and glue them to a piece of card stock paper. Then laminate them and staple to a wooden stack for plant tags in your garden.

Cut one inch strips and weave them into coasters, or make a cool handbag like I found here.

Great Re-Purposing Ideas

Here are some very cool ideas that were found on Urban Homesteading is a Way of Life Not a Copyright's Facebook page:


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Chip Bag Clip

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Hanging planter from an old metal collander

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An awesome log planter!

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Love these re-purposing ideas for old rake heads!

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Here's a neat wire hanger idea

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Love this little bird feeder!

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Interesting re-purposing of gutters into gardens

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Very cool idea for an old sewing machine base and an old sink!

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Store your seed packets in a small photo album