Posted

Feb 25th 2005

I'm outta here again.

For the 'so manyth' time I'm doing the ETF weekend, but this time I'm bringing my dad. He wanted to came and follow the workshop for skeletons and I'm going to help as usual with the bird and mammal division, probably on a shared table (people follow both bird and mammal workshops) so I'll be all over all kinds of stuff again. Who knows, maybe my favorite father and son combo from Belgium will be on my table again (like usual). I had a blast helping the kid last time... especially laughing at what he picked with the other teachers at night.. not so much what he picked... but the darned muskrat was about to explode from gas upbuild during the de-freezing.. we had a dare and one of us had to move it to a safe location.. should it burst it wouldn't be all over the other stuff.

But yeah, it'll be odd and fun at the same time having my dad over there, sitting at a table and me standing at another helping people.. forget the father to son business... this is the daughter to father one!

I'll be back probably monday morning. Just in time for MY BIRTHDAY!!

Last afternoon I had the first time I went 'daaawww' while receiving a taxidermy bird. Willem, a kid from the neighborhood was someone I've known for a long time. I even helped his mom out with washing him and cleaning when he was a baby. Apparently he had a Budgie, and was teaching him neat tricks.. the bird was attached to him, and he to the bird.

Last morning the found him dead.. and they weren't able to comfort the kid. His sister and him wanted to bury him, made a little box with a heart drawn in it and all, when the mother suddenly remembered me, and what I do for a living (well, one of the many things).. so asked him if he would like it if I would do taxidermy on him, and he broke down crying begging his mom to do so.

Unable to come himself I found his mother, the sweet Brazilian woman, and his sister.. how old is she...9? 10? at the door with the box. Sadly is got 'dominated' by parakeet, and so the neck is missing a lot of feathers. And I needed to do some repair work on that.

Last night I finished the kid's Budgie.. I can let it dry over the weekend and give it to him on monday when I come back. It's neck was bold, but I fixed that.. the bird was also missing a lot of wing feathers on the right side.... either that or the wing was underdeveloped.

But the colors on this budgie are amazing! Not really symmetrical, but who cares? There are even sure peacock pattered feathers on this bird! The front of the crest is eye-blinding yellow, then the back of the head is white, with light grey stripes on the neck. The back is deep sea blue and had some green/yellowish feathers here and there. The wing colors are amazing.. all kinds of colors.. the base of the tail is deep blue with peacock green and yellow, and the tail itself has the same qualities!

Click here for a picture with the drying pins still in it

And now I gotta run