Skins & Feathers

It has been such a busy couple of weeks here and animals have been coming and going in all manner of different ways. Amidst all the events we found a very injured parrot that unfortunately died before we were able to do anything else that may have helped it to survive. I carried it gently to be buried, admiring the beautiful feathers and admittingly with a want of keeping them. The idea of plucking out feathers from such a beautiful creature doesen’t come easy but I persisted. I gave thanks for them before placing the feathers carefully in a pot, thinking that I would use them somehow at a later date.

Later that week after a fair bit of searching we had a dorper ram arrive for its stay on the farm. Not having the appropriate set up to seperate the young ewes and coming into the last of the cooler days before the long summer we also got going on bringing in the three lambs to be butchered on farm for our meat. Our eldest son took part in the process, coming in later that day with a bowl full of water filled with three livers, hearts and kidneys. Our three organic and only pasture feed lambs at 5-6 months of age have supplied us with 30 – 35kg  (each) of packed butchered meat.

To be honest I still get a little squeamish over all these things, but as the sun began to set I quickly grabbed a sharp knife and headed back outside, I had the skins on my mind. I really the love the rattle as a tool in meditation and journey work processes and have often looked but not found quite found what I am looking for, this has provided me with a great opportunity to have a go at making one my self. Having scraped the fat away from the skin I have covered it in salt to preserve it and nailed it out on a wooden board to keep it from shrinking. Later on I hope to bind the feathers to the handle of the rattle and I will try some corn and sunflower seeds along with river stones to fill the skin with. I will keep you posted on the outcome…