Compost ... why ...
 

...when everything else rots down in a compost heap, don't bones? When a body
vanishes over time in the ground, the bones remain.

Just a thought

Mike

Compost ... why ...
 

In article ,
'Mike' wrote:

..when everything else rots down in a compost heap, don't bones? When body
vanishes over time in the ground, the bones remain.

Just a thought

Try chaining them together. If that were absolute, many places
(e.g. drove roads and their stockyards) would be many feet deep
in bones from the millennia of debris.

Bones rot down in an active heap in between a few months and a few
years, depending on the size and age of the animal and whether the
bone was load-bearing. For example, the carcass and leg bones of
a chicken typically take 2 years, but the smaller bones disappear
within a year. The leg bones of a mature ox would probably take
the best part of 10 years, but lamb shanks take about 3-5.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Compost ... why ...
 

On 09/07/2013 09:11, 'Mike' wrote:

..when everything else rots down in a compost heap, don't bones? When a
body vanishes over time in the ground, the bones remain.

They do eventually although how quickly depends on the conditions. A
neighbour is a mycologist and turns up with exciting finds of obscure
fungi growing on rams horns and bones from time to time. They do rot
away eventually - just a lot more slowly than grass clippings and flesh.
Mostly the calcium phosphate remains and if it gets mineralised by
groundwater faster than it erodes then it becomes a fossil.

Kept totally dry, frozen or saturated and/or oxygen free the entire
corpse can be preserved for many centuries in deserts, glaciers and bogs
respectively (or combinations thereof like Arctic tundra).

Just a thought

Mike

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

Compost ... why ...
 

On Tue, 9 Jul 2013 09:11:21 +0100, "'Mike'"
wrote:

..when everything else rots down in a compost heap, don't bones? When a body
vanishes over time in the ground, the bones remain.

Just a thought

Mike

I remember Bob Flowerdew saying that he puts road-kill on his compost
heap!

Pam in Bristol

Compost ... why ...
 

In article , says...

Bones rot down in an active heap in between a few months and a few
years, depending on the size and age of the animal and whether the
bone was load-bearing. For example, the carcass and leg bones of
a chicken typically take 2 years, but the smaller bones disappear
within a year. The leg bones of a mature ox would probably take
the best part of 10 years, but lamb shanks take about 3-5.

My dog is still excavating the huge knuckle bones of mature ox which
she buried fresh up to 10 years ago. In her opinion they haven't
deteriorated at all.


Janet

Compost ... why ...
 

On Tue, 9 Jul 2013 09:11:21 +0100, "'Mike'"
wrote:

..when everything else rots down in a compost heap, don't bones? When a body
vanishes over time in the ground, the bones remain.

Just a thought

Mike



You need acid to disolve bones. Or lime.

http://www.sciforums.com/wich-chemic...e-t-70985.html

Hmm I wonder what list I'm on for searching for bone disolving acids..

I'm sure in the serial killer books I've read one used lime ..
--
http://www.voucherfreebies.co.uk

Compost ... why ...
 

In article ,
Janet wrote:

Bones rot down in an active heap in between a few months and a few
years, depending on the size and age of the animal and whether the
bone was load-bearing. For example, the carcass and leg bones of
a chicken typically take 2 years, but the smaller bones disappear
within a year. The leg bones of a mature ox would probably take
the best part of 10 years, but lamb shanks take about 3-5.

My dog is still excavating the huge knuckle bones of mature ox which
she buried fresh up to 10 years ago. In her opinion they haven't
deteriorated at all.

Perhaps not. But that's not the point. The rate of decomposition
will depend a great deal on the biological activity, and a compost
heap is several times as active as even the top 6" of the soil.
Below that, the activity drops off rapidly.

That is why exhuming bodies from 6' down is still viable decades
on, whereas a body on the surface would be beyond most forensics.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Compost ... why ...
 

In article , says...

In article ,
Janet wrote:

Bones rot down in an active heap in between a few months and a few
years, depending on the size and age of the animal and whether the
bone was load-bearing. For example, the carcass and leg bones of
a chicken typically take 2 years, but the smaller bones disappear
within a year. The leg bones of a mature ox would probably take
the best part of 10 years, but lamb shanks take about 3-5.

My dog is still excavating the huge knuckle bones of mature ox which
she buried fresh up to 10 years ago. In her opinion they haven't
deteriorated at all.

Perhaps not. But that's not the point. The rate of decomposition
will depend a great deal on the biological activity, and a compost
heap is several times as active as even the top 6" of the soil.
Below that, the activity drops off rapidly.

That is why exhuming bodies from 6' down is still viable decades
on, whereas a body on the surface would be beyond most forensics.

I've had this great commercial idea for sustainable eco-funerals. It's
the Decomposerheap. Large gardens could install their own. There will be
Decomposerheaps in local parks and beauty spots for those with no
gardens, or lots more money.

Janet

Or even exhuming a wild boar skull from a cave several thousand years on, as happened on Leck Fell a couple of years ago.

Compost ... why ...
 

"Martin" wrote in message
...

On Tue, 09 Jul 2013 11:41:56 +0100, mogga
wrote:

On Tue, 9 Jul 2013 09:11:21 +0100, "'Mike'"
wrote:

..when everything else rots down in a compost heap, don't bones? When a
body
vanishes over time in the ground, the bones remain.

Just a thought

Mike



You need acid to disolve bones. Or lime.

http://www.sciforums.com/wich-chemic...e-t-70985.html

Hmm I wonder what list I'm on for searching for bone disolving acids..

I'm sure in the serial killer books I've read one used lime ..

John Haigh used acid in a bath.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_George_Haigh
--


I was a paper boy at the time of all the publicity and I couldn't understand
anybody wanting to do such a thing or even think about it

Mike







Martin in Zuid Holland

Compost ... why ...
 

In article ,
Janet wrote:

I've had this great commercial idea for sustainable eco-funerals. It's
the Decomposerheap. Large gardens could install their own. There will be
Decomposerheaps in local parks and beauty spots for those with no
gardens, or lots more money.

My wife and daughters have refused point-blank to put my dead body
on the compost heap - despite my pointing out that I shall have
lost all interest in it by then :-)


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Compost ... why ...
 

On Tue, 9 Jul 2013 wrote:

In article ,
Janet wrote:

I've had this great commercial idea for sustainable eco-funerals. It's
the Decomposerheap. Large gardens could install their own. There will be
Decomposerheaps in local parks and beauty spots for those with no
gardens, or lots more money.

My wife and daughters have refused point-blank to put my dead body
on the compost heap - despite my pointing out that I shall have
lost all interest in it by then :-)

Is that out of respect for you or the compost heap?

As I may have mentioned here before I am an organist several days a week
at the local crematorium. In that way I am fairly familiar with the
processes involved. When bodies are cremated, just about all of the
remains are burned away leaving little residue apart from the bones
which are then put in a grinder. When a family asks for the ashes of
their relative, what is actually in the urn is 99% powdered bone plus
some wood ash from the coffin which, I would imagine, is excellent stuff
for putting on a compost heap - or even directly around one's roses!

I am the only one in our family who has opted for burial rather than
cremation and we have bought a plot in the cemetery just across the road
from our house in Normandy. So, in the fullness of time, it will contain
my coffin along with urns of ashes of the rest of the family!

David

--
David Rance writing from Caversham, Reading, UK

Compost ... why ...
 

In article ,
David Rance wrote:
On Tue, 9 Jul 2013 wrote:
In article ,
Janet wrote:

I've had this great commercial idea for sustainable eco-funerals. It's
the Decomposerheap. Large gardens could install their own. There will be
Decomposerheaps in local parks and beauty spots for those with no
gardens, or lots more money.

My wife and daughters have refused point-blank to put my dead body
on the compost heap - despite my pointing out that I shall have
lost all interest in it by then :-)

Is that out of respect for you or the compost heap?

More concern about the law and neighbour's complaints :-) They
know that I am absolutely serious that I regard dead bodies
(especially mine) as being of no consequence.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Compost ... why ...