happy halloween all rewilders!
let us all rot in the earth (when the time comes).
unless you prefer to rot on top of it. or in some belly. . .
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I’ve noticed these type of stories are all over the place. Good, godamnit, there are many small towns with more gravemarkers than people living in them!
And it used to be ‘weird’ to want to be buried under a tree. I’m glad this is coming to greater acceptance.
Happy Halloween, Yarrow D, and thanks for the new thread. Yeah and sorry I don’t have anything to contribute to it now but hopefully in the future I will come up with something.
i long ago let my wife know how i wanted i my body treated after death:
dig a hole, throw me in, plant a tree. preferrably an oak, but not set on that.
[quote=“jhereg, post:4, topic:480”]dig a hole, throw me in, plant a tree.[/quote]Yeah, I have similar plans, but worry about my kin having to deal with legal repercussions if for some reason my body was found. The whole retrieve my skull thing makes it a little tricky too.
you could always provide plant POTAS(H)sium, if legality is a concern. Plan on dying before the apocalypse? I hear a lot of people plan on dying in it, where, skulls would be building materials, not forensic evidence.
Why did you choose an oak? I think I would choose an apple. Have you read The Golden Bough?
I have no idea when I will die, if it happens when law enforcement still is kickin around I don’t want to burden friends with a sketchy sitch. You should PM me with info on the POTAS(H)sium, don’t know shit about it. Guess others might want to know too if you just want to post it…
that’s what your ashes are made of, highly nutritious and available potassium, I’m pretty sure pot ash is where potassium got it’s name
Here is another article about my friend June:
[url=http://"http://www.portlandtribune.com/news/story.php?story_id=117098228777161900]Q and A with June Rzendzian[/url]Every Friday, the Portland Tribune puts questions to a prominent – or not so prominent – local person. June Rzendzian  part-time barrista, part-time college instructor  doesn’t look like an early-1900s sort of woman, really. But this 33-year-old has some old  some would say very old  ideas about death and burial.
Mainly, that if you’re going to live green, you might think about dying green. And, for that matter, decomposing green. After stumbling upon the subject for a research project to get her Portland State University master’s degree in education, Rzendzian now has become an expert on “green burial.â€Â
It is a burial that returns the body to a much simpler connection with the Earth, absent steel coffins or embalming or traditional cemeteries.
Rzendzian is starting an online directory (www.lowerriversdirectory.org) for people to learn more about green burial services, and even hopes to start a business that will help people find ways to make the unusual burials happen for themselves, or people they love.
But let’s let her tell us about it.
Portland Tribune: So what is “green burial�
June Rzendzian: It is the simple burial of an unembalmed body wrapped in a shroud, or a biodegradable box. People usually choose to plant a tree over the body. Sometimes they choose a very small monument, maybe a native rock.
Tribune: How long have people been doing this?
Rzendzian: This is an old practice. This is the way people used to do it, before the turn of the 20th century. This is the way most people did it.
And I think as people became more transient, or living in cities, as the U.S. became more urbanized, folks started being buried in local cemeteries. And there was an increase in control over what you could have and couldn’t have by the cemeteries.
Tribune: Why do people want this?
Rzendzian: I think people have a variety of reasons for wanting to do it. For one, I think folks aren’t even aware it’s an option for them. That they can be on their own land, and don’t have to be embalmed. Don’t have to have a casket.
The folks I’ve talked to about green burial, they want to become part of the soil again. They look at this as (helping feed) a tree over them, which will eventually fruit and people being able to use that fruit.
Tribune: Is there a type of person who’s normally most interested?
Rzendzian: I’ve talked to a lot of different people, and I’m often surprised by people who are interested. My family  not really the most environmentally conscious people  are really excited about the possibility. They are really attracted to the idea of having that option. And maybe even being buried in their backyard with an oak tree over them.
But there have been a variety of responses. Some people don’t want to go back to the land. (They don’t like) the idea of their body going back to the soil, and being eaten by microbes and bugs. The idea is that there are options for everybody.
Tribune: Are there cemeteries that specialize in this?
Rzendzian: Valley Memorial Cemetery in Hillsboro … they have set aside one acre for green burial. For folks who want to become part of the Northwest, and part of the land again, they’ll have a difficult time finding a cemetery in the Northwest that will allow them to be buried without a concrete box. Most cemeteries require that you buy a concrete vault or box to “uphold the integrity of the land.â€Â
Tribune: How did you get interested in this?
Rzendzian: When I was walking through Mount Calvary Cemetery (off West Burnside Street in Portland’s West Hills), I came across an open grave and I saw the box inside … . I saw the concrete box and wondered, first, why we’re burying people in concrete boxes.
And then I wondered if it was my only option. And if so, that wasn’t going to be OK with me.
So I started asking questions, and that led to more questions. And it was an acceptable topic for my culminating project (for a master’s in the ecology, culture and learning program at PSU’s college of education). So I ran with it and never looked back.
Tribune: Is green burial cheaper than the usual route?
Rzendzian: Prices can range from close to nothing if you have a green burial on your own land, to close to $6,000 for a burial site at Valley Memorial. What I’m working on are partnerships with conservation groups (who have conservation lands available), and it will be about half of that price.
Burning is an option of course, but I want my bones as intact as possible for future use.
Her in South Cacalacky you can still be buried in your yard except in some city limits. Might make it hard to sell the house though. I want to feed the shark gods when I pass on.
no, i haven’t read The Golden Bough. i like oaks. a lot
granted, i like all trees a lot, but oaks seem to stand out above the rest for me