Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Dem Dry Bones

THOMAS came across an antler-less deer skull while hashing, and brought it home. While researching how to clean it up, I came across this young man's blog. I followed Jake's instructions, and soon we had an interesting addition to our backyard.

We wondered why it didn't have any antlers (bucks lose their antlers every year after mating season - between January and April) and made him new ones from branches. We played "hunt the deer," trying to creep up on a "deer" who had his head buried in yummy grass and could be alerted to his hunters' presence by hearing alone. We discovered the jawbone as a musical instrument. Jawbones (usually of mules, horses or donkeys) were used for centuries as percussion instruments. Though we didn't remove the jawbone, we did notice how the teeth rattled and made a pleasing sound! Our deer was even invited to a tea party, where he enjoyed sand cake with worm icing.

The skull was played with in many capacities and shown off to friends for many days before Basil (the labrador) could no longer resist the temptation... and ate it.

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