handsful

As most of you who read this blog know, we homeschool our kids. We’ve always homeschooled, this being our 6th year. There are several things that most all homeschoolers experience…reading chapter books to your kids, doing science experiments at the kitchen table, and raising all sorts of things from beans in paper cups to tadpoles in a tank. At the homeschool conference last week, Randy and I picked another “homeschool – gotta do it” item. The owl pellet.

You see, when an owl eats his “meal”, there are parts of the animal that he can’t digest. Fur and bones. His digestive system creates a pellet out of the undigested parts. He basically…uh…coughs it up. There are companies that find, sterilize (how, I don’t know!), and sell these pellets. Ours came with a bone identification chart. The girls and I spent about an hour dissecting this thing with toothpicks! (we’re very high-tech) I have to admit…it was fun! The bones are so tiny, and filled with fur. We found evidence of 2 rodents, including skulls, ribs, hips, legs, vertebrae, etc. At this point, you’re either doing a google search for “owl pellet” or you’re thinking we’re nuts. lol…