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Warning: this is not for the faint of heart, or stomach.

Posted on May 29th, 2008 by Deanna

Today after mom killed it, we did an autopsy on the snake that ate our barn swallows.

First, you see the little kids staring in morbid fascination as Lydia, and Megan cut the vile beast open with my knife, and below that you see the adult and baby barn swallows that we found in his stomach.

We found three birds in all, one adult, and two babies. The snake STANK of unspeakable things. I took a few pictures and then retreated to the house while they explored his insides in the name of homeschooling, and then cheerfully dumped the whole mess on the compost pile for the ants.

This whole adventure reminds me of the time when Mom and Grandma found a freshly killed armadillo on the side of the road, and then brought it home for an autopsy. We found his heart, his intestines, and his lungs, and then after failing to break open the skull, we disposed of it on the trash heap.

Like the total girls that we are both times me and my sisters squealed a little, and then settled down to a regular pattern of “ooohhh, aaahhhhh,” and “eeewwww, cool!”.

Once Lydia and I did an autopsy on a hog head, but I won’t go into the details of that one. It’s just too gross.

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You loved it, right? Here's more like it:

  1. My stomach and I have come to an agreement
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  5. Don’t read this. You don’t want to know.


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17 Responses to “Warning: this is not for the faint of heart, or stomach.”

  1. kerri, on May 29th, 2008 at 10:13 am Said:

    What a day! I’m sure your girls will never forget it. I know I sure wouldn’t!

  2. Kristi, on May 29th, 2008 at 10:42 am Said:

    GROSS!!!!!!!!!!! Well I was *going* to eat breakfast, LOL! Can’t say you didn’t warn us though ;-)

  3. Sharon, on May 29th, 2008 at 10:46 am Said:

    Ewww! Gross! Amazing girls you got there. Now was the only girl growing up so I left that kind of stuff to my brothers, but perhaps if I had a gaggle of sisters I might have been a little bit more adventurous.

  4. Kristi, on May 29th, 2008 at 10:59 am Said:

    P.S. I was wondering if you could post (or e-mail me) with how you deal with discipline issues? You seem like such a close, fun loving family and I’d love to know how you deal with disciplinary issues when they come up. I only have one girl (my third boy is due next month) but she puts me through the ringer!!! Sometimes I’m glad I only have one girl, she seems so much more trying and confrontational than my boys. Everything is a fight. Can you help?? How do you keep your home joyfull and balanced??

  5. Lana C., on May 29th, 2008 at 11:08 am Said:

    LOL!! I remember doing this with a possom…. It took quite a while to get the head open… Eewwww… :-D

  6. hm, on May 29th, 2008 at 11:36 am Said:

    You girls are brave. While in high school I took college classes and we had to disect a cat, I paid someone else to do mine I just could not bring myself to do it!

  7. Mrs. C, on May 29th, 2008 at 12:06 pm Said:

    That is two hours of science right there! Good job, girls!

    Just think, Kim, they dissected an animal and you didn’t have to pay for all the science-y equipment!! Looks like a dead carcass, a knife and a stick are all that is needed for hours of amusement!!

  8. Domestic Chicky, on May 29th, 2008 at 12:35 pm Said:

    That’s awesome! It’s a much more real experience than cutting open a pickled pig in a boring classroom…

  9. Jana, on May 29th, 2008 at 12:48 pm Said:

    EWWWWWWWW. That is so homeschool-y of you guys! I am sure my boys would have been so involved with that one!

  10. julie@love,laughter&laundry, on May 29th, 2008 at 1:11 pm Said:

    Your girls are very brave. I am very impressed.

  11. Mommaofmany, on May 29th, 2008 at 3:14 pm Said:

    How cool! I think I’d put the head in a jar and watch it mummify! Or leave it out in a protected place and collect the skull then the ants are finished stripping it. i think the teeth would be neat to look at. Did you examine and scales under the microscope?

  12. Tommy Funcle, on May 29th, 2008 at 8:43 pm Said:

    Good job Kaity girl on the disecting…….

    Not my cup of tea.

  13. Ruth, on May 29th, 2008 at 11:17 pm Said:

    These posts on the snake have got to be the vilest blog posts I’ve seen! A sort of a fascinating dread draws me to look at the pictures. Now I know why my dad, at 57, has an abhorrant dread of snakes. Let’s just say that I’m glad the Last Frontier state doesn’t have any slithery reptiles.

  14. You know you are a homeschooler when… « Yes, They Are All Mine, on May 30th, 2008 at 5:32 am Said:

    [...] You know you are a homeschooler when… May 30, 2008 Filed under: Family Life, Homeschooling, On the Homestead, The Youngin’s, Uncategorized — yestheyareallmine @ 7:16 am Tags: chicken autopsy, Homeschooling … dead critters equal a chance for an autopsy.  (We are not the only ones!) [...]

  15. Meredith_in_Aus, on May 30th, 2008 at 6:00 am Said:

    Wow - gross but groovy!

    So, how did you girls know where exactly to find the snake’s stomach?

    PS My boys are in awe.

  16. Kaitlyn, on May 30th, 2008 at 9:23 am Said:

    Meredith,
    When the snake was pinned with the shovel we noticed a suspiciously thick spot. That is were we found the baby birds. Cool huh?
    -Kaitlyn

  17. homemakerang, on May 30th, 2008 at 10:40 am Said:

    COOL! I just butchered chickens with the kids this week and it went great… That is until I smelled the GUTS! ewwwwwww! Very fun!

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