Description
Maceration is a technique for cleaning bones, instead of burying in soil you leave in water for a bacteria colony to grow in and digest away the meat... Stinky but effective!
And look what I found when looking for a new container to macerate in! :'D This old antique cauldron was filled with water and rotting leaves in the garden, I figured since the water was already quite 'mature' with bacteria it would be a good starter water for a rot pot. It's the perfect container to brew a massive stinky mess in like some kind of witch ahaha
I was macerating in covered jars but it turned out animals could knock them all over and take the skulls out to eat. I keep a heavy rock on this cast iron cauldron now, I'd like to see the magpie or fox that could move that since I barely can! I've sat it out in a sunny spot... The sides heat up a lot in the sun and after only one day the fresh skull and bones I have put in is looking very.. well rotted. I gave it a kick start with old water from the jars the animals raided so the right bacteria are already in there
I have a special animal in there right now, see if you can guess. We call them 'tree cats' here in Irish (;
Comments: 13
Exifia [2018-06-07 21:59:34 +0000 UTC]
Ohh what a great find! I wish a had a garden big enough to stink like that!
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Jewel-Wing In reply to Exifia [2018-06-08 01:22:05 +0000 UTC]
We had another warm day and now I am definitely afraid to go near that patch of the garden xD
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Joweasel [2018-06-06 19:49:13 +0000 UTC]
Oooh I've just googled it... Fascinating! I won't give it away!
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Jewel-Wing In reply to Joweasel [2018-06-06 20:26:15 +0000 UTC]
(You commented again before I saw this and replied oops!)
I have some pictures I will edit together and put up at some point since there was no blood and they are fascinating creatures! Someone might find some close ups good for references since they are so hard to get close to normally
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Joweasel In reply to Jewel-Wing [2018-06-07 20:59:09 +0000 UTC]
They are great pictures. I keep trying to convince other people of that but they're strangely not so keen to have a look....go figure...!
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Joweasel In reply to Jewel-Wing [2018-06-13 22:14:38 +0000 UTC]
Hmmm...sleeping with no skin on...!
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Jewel-Wing In reply to Joweasel [2018-06-14 14:45:18 +0000 UTC]
It's... a very deep sleep... xD
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Joweasel [2018-06-06 19:43:48 +0000 UTC]
Interesting! I'm impressed that you can stand the smell- it must be pretty nauseating!
Is it just plain old water? I'm guessing rainwater is essential because it doesn't have chlorine etc to kill the bacteria you need?
I can't really guess the species...Squirrel? Raccoon? Rat?? Not many raccoons in Ireland, I'm guessing... none here in England either, unless you count Diego!!
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Jewel-Wing In reply to Joweasel [2018-06-06 20:22:31 +0000 UTC]
It isn't that bad yet but I won't be going near that corner of the garden in the next few days though that's for sure! xD Just plain water, chlorinated will slow it down but chlorine evaporates out of standing water quickly I think. This water had leaves rotting in it so I'm hoping it has a helping hand since these things usually take some time to spin up to full speed while the bacteria multiply
None of those Fortunately it isn't your little Diego getting run over again!
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