Anne Miller

I agree it is an ash.

BTW, you have a beautiful malamute.  What do you call it?

Purple Coneflowers, Echinacea purpurea, are both beautiful and medicinal. They are also drought resistant.

There are a lot of reason why dogs chew on things.  There are many factors involved also.  Age of the dog and breed of the dog, just to name two.

Labrador retrievers are really bad as puppies.  I have heard they grow out of this.  The one we had once brought me a neighbors' shoe.

Our dachshund will tear up her toys to get to the squeaky. Otherwise she never chews on anything.

Mandy, I hadn't thought about the children until you mentioned them.

I thought getting the idea into dear hubby would be difficult enough though our daughter would probably be fine with what I want to do.

We did our wills years ago as my dear hubby is very thoughtful about protecting his family after he is gone.  I feel that what would be best is to write a letter with my wishes, sealed in an envelope with any necessary legal forms (like I read in another thread).  A copy of this would be given to our attorney to put in our file with our wills.

Before doing this, I want to learn as much as I can so I will do it properly.  

Bruce Woodford wrote: In addition to funeral planning you will want to prepare an "Advanced Care Directive" and "Power of Attorney for Personal Care" in the event that you become unable to make decisions for your own physical care before you die.

I have an article on DIY funerals from the National Post Feb.21,2016,  a letter from our Provincial Coroner's Office which verifies that families can indeed care for their own dead without the assistance of a funeral director, some excellent sites on death midwives and how to care for a corpse at home, planning a green funeral at home, "Predetermination of Disposition of Remains" letter for informing a hospital or other institution of the person's wishes so if they die in that institution, the powers that be know they can release the body to the family rather than a funeral director etc.   Also, if cremation is planned, a "Certificate of Cremation" must be acquired from the Coroner before the cremation can take place.      

Bruce, Thank you for sharing this information.  This has answered a lot of my questions and also confirmed some of the things that I have been told over the years.

Having these items is a must.  I just need to confirm what my state and county require.  I was thinking I would call the Dept. of Health or the Coroner's office.

If I am planning a burial on my land do I need a certificate or would a letter from the proper County Department would be sufficient?

Welcome to the forum!

Here are some threads you might enjoy:

https://permies.com/t/110472/Rocket-mass-heater-stove-nomadic

https://permies.com/t/107870/linear-RMH-design-idea-tiny

https://permies.com/t/71700/Tiny-House-Cook-Stove-Heater

Dave Burton wrote: What other green burial techniques exist that intrigue you? What would you want for your burial?

Dave, Thank you for sharing the video.

I have thought much about green burial since I first heard about it here on permies.  I want to be buried on our land much like the pioneers, our ancestors, did it.  I would love to find a beautiful oak tree to be buried under.  Alas, our land is very rocky so digging a six foot hole would be hard.   My dear husband questioned that when I told him of my plans.  My answer is to be buried in the clay pit.  It is already 3 or 4 feet deep so it only needs to be made a little deeper.

Hi, Mandy
I have had some of the same questions as you have mentioned and have given this a lot of thought.

When I lived in a foreign country, I found that writing my questions out, then translating them into their language worked for me. I was uncomfortable about handing someone my questions so I mailed them in a letter.

I patiently waited for my husband to mention something about death.  Then I said I was planning to be buried on our land.  That opened the discussion so I could explain about green burials.

Maybe something like this would work in your situation.

Welcome!  I am looking forward to reading some great threads on this topic.

I agree! It is a fig, yummy.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_fig