Chicken Mummy - Day 4

In order for the mummification process to work you have to make sure your chicken stays dry. That said, you have to check and change the salt mixture relatively frequently. This is especially true during the first week. I changed it myself the first time on Day 2 because the day got away from us. While doing it on my own, however, I realized the whole point of this project is for the girls to understand the time and care involved in creating a mummy so it made no sense for me to be doing it without them. That said, when Day 4 rolled around and the day had gotten away from us again we got busy after bath time with the assistance of Jackson (and Daddy) in our pjs.

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Jackson was one happy baby to be included in this project!

 

 Egyptians used spices to assist in the preserving process as well (maybe the smell process :). We forgot to add spices the first day and I didn't want to do it without the girls on Day 2 so Day 4 was the first time we included spices (we decided on cinnamon and cloves). No matter what we're doing all three kids always love to smell spices and herbs so they all had to check everything out before dumping it in. 

 Mixing

 Once we had our natron mixture ready with spices we set it to the side and pulled our chicken out of its bag. You have to brush off all the old mixture from the chicken before you can place it in the fresh mixture. Surprisingly it really didn't have much of a smell. Certainly not what you would expect from an entire chicken that had been sitting out for 4 days. Kennedy was pretty excited to get back to work on our chicken mummy.

 Reagan, not so much...

 Reagan agreed to help pour our natron mixutre into the empty bag as long as she didn't have to do anything with the chicken. She refused to even put on the gloves. I guess she thought I might trick her into touching the chicken if she was wearing gloves? lol :)

 My little embalmer Kennedy, however, got right to work filling the chicken 

 You may have noticed Jackson disappear from the pictures. He was one unhappy baby when the dumping and mixing of ingredients was over. Part of the problem was he had decided to begin dumping it all over the floor... It was funny because I typically try to do projects during his afternoon naps so we can avoid any major issues. Things started out so well this particular evening I was beginning to think well maybe he's old enough to begin including in these sort of activities. Or not... Poor Jackson, it's just hard to understand all the rules! Luckily Daddy was there to bail us out. He got Jackson calmed down and then they came back to watch the girls complete the process.

 Reagan finally decided maybe she was brave enough to pour a little on top of the chicken once it was in the bag and practically buried.

So far things appear to be going well with our chicken mummy. No major issues as of yet, but we do have almost 2 months to go...