Preparing for Winter

I was just looking out at the yard work that needs to be done before winter and thought about some natural materials I might want to collect before the snow flies in Wisconsin.

I’ll be looking for flat leaves, stones and maybe even sticks or small branches to try out.

Any other ideas?

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Looking forward to doing some bone and antler, I’m sure it will stink terrible! But should look nice.

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Acorns? We mostly have pines around here, and the high resin content might not be the best to try to laser. :neutral_face:

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If you could do leaves, you could do maple seeds. (Imagine somehow being able to release a whole cloud of maple seeds onto a crowd, all of them with writing and images)

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Sadly a nice young buck was hit just in front of our house yesterday. I thought I might sneak out that evening and collect the antlers, but the city came and got it too quickly. Normally something like that would lay there for days. Figures.

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Bone and antler are pretty valuable for knife handles aren’t they? - Rich

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Oh, I love that idea!

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Antler (and bone) are both highly valued, and difficult to find without shooting a deer yourself. When they shed every year the antlers tend to disappear quickly (eaten by various insects). It’s not technically legal, I think, to take the antlers off of road kill, but I hate the idea of waste.

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Great idea. On my calendar for Spring gathering. I’ll be looking for acorns as @Jules suggested. I’ve got a friend who would LOVE for me to come over and bag up a bunch of the acorns dropped on his lawn.

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My neighbor is a duck-hunting guide. He has offered me hundreds of duck skeletons. The catch is that they would come still inside the ducks, and I would be responsible for removing them. Not sure if that is a task I want to take on.
Duck skulls should fit into the Glowforge though, so I am still considering it.

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Ugh, without some taxidermy equipment that sounds line a very unpleasant job (as if the taxidermy way is fun to begin with. )

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Put it on/near a red ant hill…they should way them bones clean…

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Hmmm acorns…we’ve got plenty…may have to have a go.

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Just call your local game warden/DNR officer. More often that not, they will be completely fine with it and give you a receipt for possession.

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But the smell so delightful!

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