Foraging

Today marks day 15 since I had my surgery. I've cut back on my painkillers, and avoided entirely the use of narcotics. I went on a very long walk today; 17 kilometers, give or take. And I came away with some excellent finds.

I came across a roadkill deer carcass, which was obviously not recent but also far from being totally stripped. There were no horns worth salvaging, but I came away with several bones that might prove useful. I also came across a buckeye tree shedding seed pods; I later learned that buckeyes can be used to make a laundry soap, being in the same family as the soapberry tree. Makes me happy I grabbed a couple handfuls. Finally, on the beach, I found a handful of large shells. Upon getting home, I scraped the bones as best I could, and took two of them that still has some fleshy remains clinging to them to the water's edge, where I weighed them down with stones to await the tide. Hopefully that will help soak those remains off.

All of the long bones I got were fractured, but hopefully I can still turn them to some use. Perhaps I can even make a knife from one of them. In time, I should return to where the carcass is and see what other bones I can salvage. One of the shells should work as a vessel to melt and purify pitch in; I still have a large lump of pitch from what I gathered a few seasons ago. And if I can find a good way to pulverize the buckeyes, I plan to peel, pulverize, and dry them for future use as laundry soap.