How to prepare a deer skull

I found a skull and backbone in the forest. The coyotes and/or coywolf took the lower jawbone. (You can see my daytime coyote video below. That is the only time I've seen them. The Trailcam picks them up frequently.) Coyotes can't take down a healthy deer, but we have a lot of roadkill, from which they harvest and haul pieces away.

 I put my skull and bones into the seed starter greenhouse, attached to the shed, for the summer. The bugs did their job, I covered it in leaves, and pretty much cleaned it off.

Next, Google 'cleaning a skull', then send hubby to the store for hydrogen peroxide! It's pretty inexpensive and a simple thing to do!

Normal people put seedlings in here,
I have the bugs process my bones!

I soaked it three times. It bubbles and froths. I used an old toothbrush and cleaned its teeth! You can see inside the skull where the fine bones support the nasal cartilage, and how complex their sense of smell and the system that supports it! There were still bits of matter in there.

Then I painted it with anti-rust spray paint, which works on metal, plastic, wood. It didn't go well with the 2nd coat on the top. Rubbed it off. Start again. I sprayed it with adhesive spray to let it have something to stick to. That worked.

Then more coats. Finally, after one coat of lacquer per day, for four days, sitting it outside in the sun on a sunny day, I tried it in water. It seems OK. I've put it into the fish tank and does it ever look cool!

I took it out after a week just to check it, and it smelled a bit like lacquer. OK. Probably not a good move. I took it over to my client yesterday afternoon. She quite enjoyed seeing it. She's a mother of 7 adult children, 19 grandchildren (she thinks!), and has coyotes, turkeys and deer on her farm. Nothing but snakes phase her!






Coyotes from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.
I can't tell if we had 3 or 4 coyotes at 3:00 a.m.!

Mississippi Riverwalk Park in Carleton Place

I wanted to see this spot, as I notice the geese on our trips into the Naturopath's office. Drive-by shootings, as my friends know, are frustrating! The homes in this area, Stonewater Bay, begin about $530,000, a 20 minute trip to Kanata. Not too shabby!

There is a lovely view of the river from a senior's residence, but driving by, this is all one can see. It is the Mississippi River, and I knew there were lots of birds down there. How to get to them?
There is a major housing development, it looks like a nice spot as a bedroom community, near highway #7, and about an hour to the city. We passed several walkers, as well as a senior using a walker. It is very user-friendly.



On the way to getting there we stopped at Gillies Bridge, surrounded by mills, and on an island, lower left on the map below. There was a terribly sad plaque, mourning the loss of a 12-year-old in the rushing water, Stacie Lee Murphy, in 1992. Riverwalk park runs along the south shoreline of the river, going up and around, and through a forest. I wondered what the other building is for (last photo), as the first is identified as a mill.



Mississippi Riverwalk Park
The map shows the path, it hugs the river, sort of. We could hear the geese before we could see them. A bit brisk, the car told us it was 8 C. in the sunshine! With hurricane Patrica's remnants flying up the continent, I asked hubby to figure the best day this week for a walk, before the geese leave us! It was a lovely fall day!

This is the bridge. You can't see much from the bridge!


We parked in the Curling Club parking lot, where there is a skate park. The entire walk is 3.63 miles, according to Map My Run.