Composting Chromium
Oregon is set to become the second state in the nation to permit human composting.
Yeah, you read that right, giving new meaning to "Pushin' up Daises". Washington being the first to do so.
Earthling 2 and I have been mulling over what's to be done with ourselves for a couple of years now. She leaning towards a Green burial, and we have looked around for parks that cater to that. While I have been thinking about cremation and being sent on my way down the Cowlitz River to the sea.
But this composting thing has thrown a wrench in the works, being the naturalists that we are. Heh.
So I started doing a little investigating into where and how this is done. What I found online was a place called Herland Forest Natural Burial Cemetery, located in eastern Washington State that does Green Burials, Cremations, including scattering in a beautiful meadow or burial, and what is called Natural Organic Reduction, or composting the body.
Without going into too much detail, you are put into a container and subjected to varying amounts of heat until your remains are thoroughly decomposed and are free of any bad organisms such as E.coli and a sample is sent to a state agency for testing.
You are then free to be scattered or buried in the park at a place or your choosing. You can even be buried at a proper depth so as to have a tree planted on top of you, again, of your choosing.
The owners cite their efforts to rehabilitate the wilderness landscape as it is a state certified Stewardship Forest and whether planting trees, natural vegetation, or daises, they maintain the plot or meadow at no extra expense.
I gotta admit, having a big cedar tree as a tombstone does sound appealing.
But I'm not sure I qualify with these chromium knees. They'll take a while to decompose.
So enough talk about dying and disposal, what's on your mind today?
Comments
Interesting escape option
Have also wondered what would happen to my titanium hip upon cremation.
Maybe thrown into the spare parts bin? Is there a market for used hips?
Another business opportunity: Parts-R-US for bargain hunters.
Retail price $13K, on sale now for only $99.99 while supplies last ..
certain restrictions apply ..
Thanks for hosting!
LOL
Low mileage would fetch premium $.
Thanks for posting.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
just a heads up
on the resale of used hips and knees and such. I am fairly certain the FTC is clear on this sort of thing, and you will have to inform potential customers that there may be a slight installation charge.
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein
HA!
Some assembly required.
LOL
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
Sort of like
an Ikea year-end sale ; ).
Alabama has lax burial laws...
Like OPAL (who was buried in Alabama) we plan to be wrapped in a cotton shroud and rolled into a hole to compost naturally. The law on this is it must be within 48 hours of death. Doesn't leave much time for a ceremony, but we've discussed having the burial followed by a life celebration at a later point. Now if we both go at the same time in an accident, I'm not sure what will happen, but at that point I don't think we'll care.
We have the oldest European cemetery in the area on our place dated 1790-1810. The last burial there was 1908. So we'll have company if our plans work out.
Here's one of the older graves with a newer one in the foreground. We think there are about thirty graves all total. One is a little girl killed by a bear in her front yard. Most of them are Civil war vintage. We have some of their words in testimony in a suit filed in the US archives for McCook's troops stealing all their crops and livestock. My favorite line in the doccument come when they asked if they aided the Confederate troop - "Well they stole a chicken every now and then, but they never took everything we had." They won the suit in 1872 (after most of them had passed on) with a $102 payment. To show you how times have changed, the lawyer only took $2.
Thanks for the OT.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
.. at that point I don't think we'll care
But they never should have taken the very best.
Good day
Really interesting
having a graveyard on your property. Do any responsibilities come with that? Is it open to the public? Are property taxes levied against it that you must pay?
Just curious, you don't have to answer.
Nice touch, the two dollar lawyer.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
When we punched our road back in here...
We could have had it be a public road (maintained by the county). We choose not to have it be a signed county road which people would travel out of curiosity. Good and bad with all decisions, we've had to pay for for our own road maintenance, but every Tom, Dick, and Harry doesn't wander back here in this remote holler.
However we've always welcomed anyone ho has learned about the cemetery's existence. As a result we've been able to collect it's history from a variety (at least three) different families. It is a project we've enjoyed, and have learned so many interesting stories. For example one of the marked graves is a local moonshiner from the late 1800's who got drunk and fell off his porch and broke his neck. I take that as a warning and avoid sitting too close to our porch edge when drinking.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Interesting history Lookout,
and quite a tragedy, as well as a 'funny' lesson.
Soon after we moved here, the young daughter of a mother who died here in the 70s came to visit her grave, which was under a tree on the property. Because it was NZ in the freedom of the 70s it was probably not that uncommon a burial. We had wondered why there was a pile of marbles uncovered beside the tree.
More on green burials
https://www.greenmatters.com/p/eco-friendly-burial-methods.
Texas State University has one of the largest body farms in the country. For those who don't mind donating their body to science.
This is a site
that helps parse the money end of the funeral business.
https://www.lhlic.com
The Herland Forest site
price list indicated $3000 for green or composting.
Not a bad price.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
I still prefer something cheaper.
. I wish my family could just put me on the roof of the shed and let the buzzards take care of me. It's free!
It’s called “sky burial” in Vajrayana Buddhist culture
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sky_burial
AKA Excarnation
per wiki ..
Good Morning earthling. Sounds great. Off and on
throughout my life I've wanted to be just left on some hillside for the critters to feed on, or some elevated platform to feed the vultures and such. Traditional burial removes so much accumulated nutrients, minerals and such from circulation. Glad to see that some recycling is going on.
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
An ocean burial
would put you back in the web of life.
Think Blue Whale. Majestic!
Thanks for posting.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
There is handy checklist
to help plan for funerals etc.. It can help inform all the family members ahead of time and make things easier for them when we croak.
https://www.greenburialcouncil.org/your_green_burial_planning_guide.html
I've always wanted
to be cremated, and have my ashes mixed in with the cement used to make a nice mooring in one of my favorite harbors down island- Clarke's Court Bay on Grenada, or maybe Port Elizabeth on Bequia.
However, I suspect that I'll simply be converted into plasma along with everybody else, once the empire has truly fallen and decides to take everyone else with it out of spite. You don't need a mooring if there are no more boats, or people to sail them. Perhaps the cockroaches will develop sailing skills, given enough time.
Twice bitten, permanently shy.
I've seen advertisements
hawking turning your ashes into rough diamonds.
It's an option. But who would wear it? You might wind up in a junk drawer for decades and then get sold at an estate sale as costume jewelry. Ugh.
I still like the idea of floating downriver to the sea where eventually I'll get absorbed by the clouds and travel the world.
Or rain on some shithole like D.C.
YMMV.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
One of my clients is the director of a funeral home.
Cremation, maybe a price deal. I get spread where my horses are buried. B gets cremated, some spread here by mine, some given to his son. No service of any kind. Let people say what they wish, whenever and wherever they are, to whom everyone they want.
Compost is good, green is good, a tree for a monument is good. I, for one, with no children, hardly any family, don't give a shit.
now, I DO have a problem with the implants in the ground idea.
Recycle them! There is an irony that what we put in our bodies is an "eewww" moment for implanting in the soil. hmmm...
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
hi all
Hey E1, Yeah man, I am with you, and randintx, and EL, et.al., on this one... please let my nutrients be fed back into the system. What a waste for them to rot in me. So much could be done with them. Condors would be nice, maybe some nice beetles, and plankton is good too, it becomes krill, and maybe ends up in a whale or penguin. All sorts of great possibilities. I realize there were times when maybe I could have been considered hazardous materials or a toxic substance in some states, but that was a long time ago...
thanks for the thread!
be well!
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein
Hi dystopian
I’ll bet you are the secret ingredient to a Michelin Star dish ; ).
Like you and others,
I have thought about what I want done with my remains. When I was younger I wanted to wander off into the forest, but now I don’t find it as appealing. If it’s winter then I’d be wet and cold during my last hours/days. If summer, then I’d be tormented by mosquitos. My more current wish would be to die in the comfort of home and then be cremated. One of my favourite life-long activities has been building wood fires for warmth and comfort. You can even do something like this with your ashes …
https://www.heart-in-diamond.co.nz/cremation-jewelry.html