THE BONEYARD JOURNAL
My adventures in the skull cleaning business, plus the odd deviation into anatomy lessons, hunting, fishing, conservation and general love for the Pacific Northwest.
A PSA For Hunters Who Like Tacos
I’m not gonna beat around the bush here. I have an agenda: I want to inspire you to eat your neck. Well, not yours. But your deer, elk, antelope, moose, etc. necks are full of meat that I’m sure has endless potential to end up as all kinds of food – but then there are tacos.
I was lucky to be able to harvest my first deer earlier this year (I’m coming into hunting as a clueless adult), and after spending hours butchering it on my kitchen table, I ended up with a lot of meat cuts I’d never had before. A […]
What kind of skull is this? Spoiler Alert: It’s not a skull!
It’s pretty common for me to get questions about bone identification. If you find a weird looking skull or bone in the forest or on the beach, who better to ask than your local bone cleaner? I have seen a lot of them, after all. There is one type of bone that I get asked about a lot, often because people misidentify it as a skull or at least part of one, and it looks like this:
So what kind of skull is it? Well, it isn’t a skull at all. […]
A Visit to Southeast Oregon & BHA Rendezvous Recap
Last week I closed up shop and headed to Boise, ID for the 2018 Backcountry Hunters & Anglers Rendezvous. I’ve been a member of this group for several years but this was my first time joining their annual event. And if you’re not familiar, BHA is a group of sports men and women dedicated to conserving our public lands – it’s a fast growing, young, diverse group of some truly inspiring and dedicated people.
It only seemed fitting to take a few days ahead of the Rendezvous to enjoy some of the gorgeous public land opportunities that are here in […]
Flesh Eating Beetle Field Trip
Last week I had the opportunity to stand in front of a classroom full of sixth graders and talk about dead things and flesh eating beetles. One might think that what I do would be too disturbing or gross for kids to handle, but, as I found out, they can handle it better than most adults!
I got invited as a guest speaker to come in and talk about decomposition, since that happens to be my specialty. I figured I’d bring some of my very own decomposers in to share, so I kidnapped some unsuspecting beetles from their warm dark home and […]
Welcome
This year, only a few months in, has already become a year full of firsts. Including one BIG one, which I’ll share below. So I figured, why not throw a blog into the mix? Sure, let’s do this.
One new thing around here has been media attention – crazy, right?! It’s been an exercise in stepping out of my comfort zone to talk publicly about myself and how I run this business, especially when I’m being recorded live (and unedited!), but it’s turned out to be lots of fun. That’s in no small part due to how supportive and kind everyone I’ve […]