Them Bones

Blessings, Darlings!

Being Green and Organic and witchy and Frugal, I like to re-purpose everything that we use at least one time.  More if possible.

Tonight's re-purposing theme, in line with Mystic Trad/Amok oral tradition, is FIRST YOU TAKE A DEAD CHICKEN.  So, the dead chicken - in this case, two backs, three drumsticks, and one thigh (all out of the freezer, bought on sale, etc) - will start off being breaded and fried.  And eaten for dinner by the family - purpose #1.

Usually I re-purpose chicken bones into soup stock.  I'm rather lazy on how I do that.  Roast the bones after removing all edible meat.  Take the container of dried veggie scraps - onions, celery, carrots - out.  Put both in big pot, add water, some salt, a few whole allspice/pepper corns/cloves, a few mashed cloves garlic, a few slices of ginger.  Bring to a boil, covered, for 5 minutes.  Put in the hay box cooker
 that I'm sure you've already built.  Leave it there 12 hours.  Strain.  Put back in pot.  Reduce by half.  Done! Purpose #2

However, I don't like what the breading left on them after being dipped and fried does to the stock, and I've been after some vertebra for a while.  So these bones are going to be re-purposed for magic. Purpose #2B

So I'll have to invest time removing tendons and ligaments from them all, and separate them all from each other.  I may simmer them to do the latter, so the house is still going to smell really good.  I'll probably have to bleach the vertebra to get all the gunk out of them, experience tells me.  Then the fun begins!

Using a saw (I'm hoping I can find a friend with a band saw, ours died years ago), I plan on making 'round' slices of leg bones, maybe for beads.  The vertebrae will certainly be used for 'beads'.  If I had ribs, I'd be making Ogham staves out of them.  Some bones will be kept for healing work - when a friend was hit by a hit and run driver, cracking vertebrae, I used some for that.  Some might get kept for artwork. 

I can't WAIT to get my share of our next steer - if no one else wants bones, I'm gonna have LOTS of fun.

All of this might also be used in a sideline online sales business, along with the runes and ogham I already make.  I love having multiple income streams!