Little Mongoose
(Dear Fenrir, I know you don't really like reading about my dead things, and in this post I talk about a couple beavers I was given, but I would be much obliged if you'd at least read the last few paragraphs. <3)
I got a call this morning from my best friend's mom. I was a little concerned at first and then she told me that Mr C had found two roadkill beavers down the road and was wondering if I wanted them. I said yes, naturally, and picked them up on my lunch break. They were medium-sized, about twenty-five pounds, and were identical in size and fur color. They must have been littermates. :<
I was a little hesitant about the beavers, and still am, because I've got two other beaver pelts salted and folded up in a bucket because I can't flesh them they're so fatty! Somebody on FHB gave me some fleshing tips last week and I'm eager to try them out.
I invited Mr P to come over and help me skin them, but his car battery died so we made a raincheck. He'll probably come over this weekened. He's a bone person, and artist, too, and has a very beautiful collection. He's given me some really lovely bones and fossils.
So I put the nicer looking beaver in the freezer and went about skinning the other. Another reason I'm not a terrible fan of beavers is because they all like to come out and die in winter, which makes skinning them a whole other task because my fingers freeze. I got it skinned fairly quickly and by the time I was done, I didn't really care about how nice the pelt looked. I've never put holes in a beaver pelt from skinning before until this one, and it's a rectangular pelt again because I really didn't want to mess with the head. >.> So, one pelt salted and I've got the tail to skin out tomorrow. I want to make a sheathe for my ulu out of the tail.
I'd really like to see a live beaver in person. They're really pretty animals and it'd be a shame if my only experience with them is when they're under my knife.
EDIT: There was a -third- beaver on the same road yesterday, about a mile from where the other two were found. I didn't have a shovel with me and he was right in the median, and a little nasty, so I left him there. Found my shovel and I'm reconsidering scooping him, if just for the paws and tail.
Here's a nice article about beavers - taxonomy, ecological importance, and history. http://www.shawsheen.org/Beavers/Natural_History_of_Beavers/natural_history_of_beavers.html Poor guys.
Fen: I think this is part of the reason why I scoop roadkill and collect bones and wild things. It's all about learning and treasuring the knowledge gained and the creature it came from. I learn about creation and the things that God has made and I can marvel at its construction and build and purpose when it's in my hands or under my knife. Yes, it can be a disgusting thing, and I've been desensitized to a lot of the gore, but I've learned that there is beauty and design even in that. I do censor my posts when I talk about the dead things because I know that as fascinating some of these things are, they really are gross.
Dej: I learn to value not only the animals, but the environment that the animal lives in. As I learn my craft, I am partaking also in the rich history of the aboriginal peoples and my European ancestors. My curiousity and thirst for knowledge and beauty is provoked and so I take to the woods, barefoot and quiet and wide-eyed and I train myself to observe, investigate, and praise God for what He has made. I like to think that God made the beavers just for me so I can find one on the side of the road and appreciate its design; that God makes the squirrels smell wild just so I can delight in it; that God paints the flowers and the clouds and the birds just so I can marvel and sing His praise. So I value the earth and the things in it because I am learning to love God and see His hand in it. More than just environmentally concerned.
Someday, I'll have to write a post about what I think of nebulas. I'd like to think that Jesus has a playdate with me sometime during eternity and we'll go explore the colors of the nebulas and look for hours at what all is living under a fallen log.
I rediscovered the phrase 'natural history' the other day and my world lit up. I am an artist, yes, but at the moment I think I am a natural historian first, or together, or something. I am at my very happiest when I am learning about the Crippled Craneflies and how the frogs sing and why the beaver looks the way it does and the names of the trees and how the rocks were formed and how I make things out of them and then teaching and telling the things I have discovered to anyone who will listen. And sometimes I grieve because I see that right now I don't have that same enthusiasm for my God and Bridegroom.
I think church would be so much better if we all sat outside. There's a little ampitheatre near the marsh in my favorite park that would be perfect for a smallish group.
I've always loved a certain quote by Rudyard Kipling in The Jungle Book, "The motto of all the mongoose family is "Run and find out,'" and I am a true mongoose. But I was considering what it means to be a natural historian and I will add this to my book of sayings: "When you learn, teach; when you teach, you will learn."
I got a call this morning from my best friend's mom. I was a little concerned at first and then she told me that Mr C had found two roadkill beavers down the road and was wondering if I wanted them. I said yes, naturally, and picked them up on my lunch break. They were medium-sized, about twenty-five pounds, and were identical in size and fur color. They must have been littermates. :<
I was a little hesitant about the beavers, and still am, because I've got two other beaver pelts salted and folded up in a bucket because I can't flesh them they're so fatty! Somebody on FHB gave me some fleshing tips last week and I'm eager to try them out.
I invited Mr P to come over and help me skin them, but his car battery died so we made a raincheck. He'll probably come over this weekened. He's a bone person, and artist, too, and has a very beautiful collection. He's given me some really lovely bones and fossils.
So I put the nicer looking beaver in the freezer and went about skinning the other. Another reason I'm not a terrible fan of beavers is because they all like to come out and die in winter, which makes skinning them a whole other task because my fingers freeze. I got it skinned fairly quickly and by the time I was done, I didn't really care about how nice the pelt looked. I've never put holes in a beaver pelt from skinning before until this one, and it's a rectangular pelt again because I really didn't want to mess with the head. >.> So, one pelt salted and I've got the tail to skin out tomorrow. I want to make a sheathe for my ulu out of the tail.
I'd really like to see a live beaver in person. They're really pretty animals and it'd be a shame if my only experience with them is when they're under my knife.
EDIT: There was a -third- beaver on the same road yesterday, about a mile from where the other two were found. I didn't have a shovel with me and he was right in the median, and a little nasty, so I left him there. Found my shovel and I'm reconsidering scooping him, if just for the paws and tail.
Here's a nice article about beavers - taxonomy, ecological importance, and history. http://www.shawsheen.org/Beavers/Natural_History_of_Beavers/natural_history_of_beavers.html Poor guys.
Fen: I think this is part of the reason why I scoop roadkill and collect bones and wild things. It's all about learning and treasuring the knowledge gained and the creature it came from. I learn about creation and the things that God has made and I can marvel at its construction and build and purpose when it's in my hands or under my knife. Yes, it can be a disgusting thing, and I've been desensitized to a lot of the gore, but I've learned that there is beauty and design even in that. I do censor my posts when I talk about the dead things because I know that as fascinating some of these things are, they really are gross.
Dej: I learn to value not only the animals, but the environment that the animal lives in. As I learn my craft, I am partaking also in the rich history of the aboriginal peoples and my European ancestors. My curiousity and thirst for knowledge and beauty is provoked and so I take to the woods, barefoot and quiet and wide-eyed and I train myself to observe, investigate, and praise God for what He has made. I like to think that God made the beavers just for me so I can find one on the side of the road and appreciate its design; that God makes the squirrels smell wild just so I can delight in it; that God paints the flowers and the clouds and the birds just so I can marvel and sing His praise. So I value the earth and the things in it because I am learning to love God and see His hand in it. More than just environmentally concerned.
Someday, I'll have to write a post about what I think of nebulas. I'd like to think that Jesus has a playdate with me sometime during eternity and we'll go explore the colors of the nebulas and look for hours at what all is living under a fallen log.
I rediscovered the phrase 'natural history' the other day and my world lit up. I am an artist, yes, but at the moment I think I am a natural historian first, or together, or something. I am at my very happiest when I am learning about the Crippled Craneflies and how the frogs sing and why the beaver looks the way it does and the names of the trees and how the rocks were formed and how I make things out of them and then teaching and telling the things I have discovered to anyone who will listen. And sometimes I grieve because I see that right now I don't have that same enthusiasm for my God and Bridegroom.
I think church would be so much better if we all sat outside. There's a little ampitheatre near the marsh in my favorite park that would be perfect for a smallish group.
I've always loved a certain quote by Rudyard Kipling in The Jungle Book, "The motto of all the mongoose family is "Run and find out,'" and I am a true mongoose. But I was considering what it means to be a natural historian and I will add this to my book of sayings: "When you learn, teach; when you teach, you will learn."