Bort, Bones and Acorns

There's things I like about walking in the woods, specific things that are hard to ever describe in any human words - it's something that only connects with your own soul or another soul standing there with you... a soul who might be looking too. Not everyone looks, at least not in the same way.
Not everyone sees everything there, which is why I have always loved to walk with another person, another set of eyes with me so that the discoveries double, the moments are shared, the rest of the world & my own problems disappear. I forget, just about everything.
Bort has been my closest nature friend for what seems like a lifetime but is a blink of a dinosaur eye in history, today we walked aimlessly but began collecting things. First I thought I would collect some small trees for a Barnyard project...
but then Bort saw the bones.
He found a skull, some teeth, some claws, the jaw bones... we tried guessing the skull was of something like a raccoon, we tried guessing who mighta' ate it since there was also a cracked snail shell there, and animal tracks & trails. Bort mentioned an owl eating while dropping things high up in the trees, i wondered about what was the biggest animal an owl could eat.
Then I found the spine bones up a few feet...

I sometimes think if i had snacks (aka enough food) I could spend forever in the woods. Then again... I suppose I do.

In the same area we found the BIGGEST most magnificent acorns I have ever seen - so healthy, so plump and perfect. Hardly a rotten one. A neighbor later drove up as we came down the hill with our bag full of acorns, and said that lots of acorns meant a harsh winter. I can only hope this year i have worked as hard as a squirrel to be prepared.

(BTW- we plan to dry and cook these acorns! read more about it HERE.)

OUR COLLECTION(S) ::::::

I would like to use the tiny bones to make decorations for my baskets or jewelry. And to be in awe of how pretty they are.

The acorns, will be for food (upcoming post soon!).

Xoxoxo

The Bone Collector

One of the many things I love about living rural is how gracefully life and death are melded together in one grand show of perfection - rarely have I stumbled upon anything decaying in the woods and said "oh gross", but rather made my own peace with mortality. Yesterday me and my nature lovin' comrade took a walk along a fence line only to discover almost an entire cow in bones! As an artist I am drawn to the beautiful lines, biomimicry in the shapes, and the awesomeness of the anatomy - while the survivalist in me is like what can we make with bones to make our economically depressed lives easier?!! Bones have been used since the cave man days for tools, weapons, adornment, instruments, sculpture and in modern times in searching for cures. We carried all the bones (skull, hips, ribs, spine, legs, jaws, etc...) back to the house in bags and a giant camping backpack, and then put them in buckets of vinegar & salt to soak before laying them out in the sun to bleach properly. Tools and art will be made, and I will post pictures here when it's done! :)
Do you collect anything like this in nature for your creative or survival purposes? Do you have any favorite links to bone art or tools?
XOXO