Necro-fertilizer: The Teeth and Bones of a Fox

This is so interesting! I'm still mad about Joe being a dumbass, but this was a great distraction this morning!

LOOK AT THESE PEARLY WHITES!!!

Found it in the garden, keep reading to hear the full story and see more pictures!

Part of the jaw of a fox, and some teeth! 

I was helping dad dig a post hole so we could install a birdhouse to attract swallows. (All the rain has made our fly problem explode, and the sticky fly-hats need some aerial support! I know its not spring anymore, but shut up it'll help next year.)

While we were digging I saw something white and shiny in the dirt, when I looked closer I saw it was a sharp tooth!!!!

Sharp little tooth, all washed up

Needless to say, we did not end up installing the birdhouse, we just ended up sifting through the dirt to see what else we could find.

A mostly decomposed bone! Can't tell what part though.

So I asked dad what all these animal remains were doing in the garden. I thought it was cool.

He said that last year towards the end of Fall, he accidentally hit a fox with a mower. 

I imagine it yelped pretty loudly, but he said didn't say one way or the other. 

Positioned like this, I can almost imagine these bones trying to bite my hand! I wonder how many mice and birds felt these teeth, before the fox finally BIT the dust?

He did say it was really messy though, fur and bone fragments all over the place. 

Well he felt bad about killing the thing so he decided to put it to use. He chopped up the big pieces, and scattered them in the soil. 

According to dad, flesh and hair release a lot of nitrogen as they decompose... Even the bones will rot if the soil is healthy and alive. 

Proof that bones rot! I tried cleaning this one for a picture, and it just crumbled in my hands. 

So he scattered the pieces, and tilled them into the earth. He also said the repeat freeze and thaw of a mild winter helps to break down the remains even faster, and that by spring, the harmful bacteria that grows on rotting flesh will have diminished to pretty much harmless levels- but the raw nutrients will remain. 

Apparently that's why the beets and other vegetables have been doing so good- despite the late sowing!!

Another shot of the teeth, they don't rot anywhere near as fast as the bones. 

Dad said we've been digging in the decomposed bones and fur since the beginning, and that the only reason we noticed now was because the teeth hold up better and got us to look closer. 

Eventually though, even they would rot. I guess it should be obvious that the soil itself came from thousands of years of dead plants and animals. 

As you see, the jaw has started to rot.

I suppose some of the very matter we are made of once passed through some pitiful, idiotic caveman 10,000 years ago... (or cavewoman, I'm PC!)

So the plants we've been growing and eating were themselves feeding an a fox carcass. 

The more you know!

The now toothless jaw- Get that fox a dentist!!

Sharp teeth- wish I had some chompers like these. You think I could get a surgeon to install them? LOL

Cool Canines! Whad'ya think the Toothfairy will give me for these babies?
Just kidding, I think I'm gonna keep 'em

Dad says soaking the bones in hydrogen peroxide overnight they'll come out clean and white! I'm gonna give it a try. 

Another close up of the partial upper and lower jaws- high detail.

It was lucky that dad seemed to "scatter" all the good parts in the same general area of the garden. Would've loved to find a paw with the claws intact, oh well. maybe next time we dig we will turn up more buried treasure!

Gonna remove the gunk and soak them in hydrogen peroxide!
can't wait to see how cool they look when they are clean!

Maybe I should also start saving the remains from the creatures I trap. Might as well recycle them, right?

It'd be cool to catch another one of these and put it to more good use (besides stress relief LOL): https://mydadsnameisharold.blogspot.com/2018/08/ugly-distraction.html