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Short Stuff: Backyard Burials · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to the Short Stuff. I'm Josh, there's Chuck,
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: There's Jerry. This is short Stuff. Getty up. So a
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: while back we did a podcast. Um, I'm not even
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: sure which one it was, but you said that your
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: ultimate wish was to be Uh was it fired from
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: a cannon? Yeah? Yeah, that's like so like yesterday's news.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: Then yeah, what's your current plan? Um? I actually am
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: still in the process of figuring that out. Again. I
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: am trying to figure out just how much or what
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: parts of my body might be donated to science, uh
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: if any I've kind of been creeped out by a
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: lot of the stories where it's like we found a
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: head in the woods and it was clearly surgically removed
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: and I guess the people who it was donated too
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: didn't need it anymore, so they just dumped it in
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: the woods kind of stuff, right, And you don't want
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: to one day become a soccer ball for a wildlife.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: But the weird thing is is like when I read
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: about stuff like what we're about to talk about, I'm like, well,
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: it doesn't matter if this land gets subdivided a hundred
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: years from now and somebody accidentally digs up the grave.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: Who cares? So it's weird, like part of me is
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: very precious about what happens to me after I die,
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: and another part of me is like, it does not matter. Yeah,
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: I'm in that camp still. I I have an alarming
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: amount of um or a lack of reverence for human
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: corpse after they're they're gone. I know I've seen you
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: p on one before. Now I wouldn't do that, but
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: it just I don't know, man, I just think that
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: once you're gone, you're gone, So you know, burn me up,
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: ash me up, spread me around someplace. I liked cut
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: you into lines and snort you up. I did bury
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: my cat Lauren in the backyard, but all of our
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: other animals have been cremated. And Emily didn't love the
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: idea of bearing Lauren, but she was like, he's your cat.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: You do what you want, and I like, I like
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: him being out there. Yeah, I'm with you. So there's
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: really no beef that you're gonna get from anybody for
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: burying Lauren in the backyard. And by the way, r
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: I p Laurent. He was one of the great ones.
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: But um if Laurent had been say your father for
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: your brother or something like that. Let's go with my brother. Okay,
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: if Lauren had been your brother, if Lauren was Scott,
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: and you tried to bury Scott in your yard, but
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: you would have probably run into some issues with the authorities.
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: At the very least, your neighbors would have been rather
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: upset with you, and they could have called the cops
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: on you, and the cops would have been like, dig
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: your brother up, and that would be that. And I'd
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: dig up Laurn and be like here he is, right,
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: Blio switcher too. Yeah, Well, this is definitely an old
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: prairie kind of thing, the idea of bearing relatives on
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: your land. Um, and it is still really very much
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: legal in a lot of states. California won't let you
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: because I guess the real estate is just super valuable
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: in that. They said that are concerns that in the future,
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: like you were talking about, if they subdivide their land
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: to sell parcels and plots, that someone might be disturbed. Uh.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: Washington State, Indiana and Washington d C. Is on record
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: is just being like there's no room. Sorry, right, barrier
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: dead in Virginia probably so right sore so that, but
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: anywhere else you can if you own enough land bury
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: anybody you want to on your land, especially a family member.
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: I think that probably greases the wheels a little more
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: if you're actually a blood relative or relative by marriage
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: of them. But there are some rules that you have
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: to follow no matter what. But one of the first
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: questions you want to ask yourself before you actually do
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: this is do I really want to do this? Because
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: if you're not planning on, you know, spending your your
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: dying days on this piece of property and handing it
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: down to your your kid who wants that property, there's
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: a good chance you might want to sell that property
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: in the future, and it may it may affect the
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: resale of that house and property knowing that there's a
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: dead body buried in what's now a cemetery on your land. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Like I got to give my house one day to
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: my daughter and she's like, uh, gross, Uncle Scott and
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: Laurnner back there right, No thanks, And why did you
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: make them share the same great? Yeah, it's under the
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: bird bath, it really is. Um. So if you were
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: going to do this, uh, And we'll get into the
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: nitpicky details after the break, but there are definitely going
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: to be nitpicky details. You can't just say, well, it's
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: legal in my state. Here we go, give me a shouble. Um.
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  Speaker 1: There are rules and regulations depending on the state and
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: the county or the district that you're in. Um, they're
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: definitely gonna be setbacks, like you can't bury it right
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: next to your property line or next to a stream
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: because it's pretty Um, it's gonna have to be well
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: away from the water table any kind of water, and
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: any kind of building or adjoining properties. Yeah, which are
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: I mean, really good things to keep in mind. You
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: don't want the could ever fouling up the local water
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: supply basically, so you want to take a break and
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: then come back and get into the real deeds. Let's
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: do it. Okay, okay, Chuck. So you've donned your overalls
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: and taking your shoes off, got a little thing of
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: grain in your teeth, and you're saying, I'm ready to
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: bury a loved one. Just give me one first, which
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: I would not do barefoot. You wouldn't know. So there
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: there are some states where you can just basically do that.
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: You can show up at the hospital or the hospit
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: this or wherever your deceased loved one is and say, hey,
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: I'm a blood relative. Here's proof, give me the body.
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: Put the body in your station wagon, and take it
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: to your house and bury it, depending on the time
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: frame of when all this happens, and again where you live. Yeah,
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: I mean, I looked up Georgia just out of curiosity,
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: and I found a few little interesting tidbits. But one
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: of them is that. And imagine it's like this. In
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: a lot of states, embalming is is not a state law. Uh.
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: Funeral directors do that because they have a body for
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: you know, a period of time sometimes before the the
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: actual burial or ceremony or whatever you're gonna do. So
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: they inbalm for that reason. But you're not required by
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: law to embalm a body. And if refrigeration is okay,
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: But even if it's within a really short time span,
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: you may not even have to refrigerate a body, right.
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: Typically in states that allow you to take possession of
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: the body yourself and handle a burial yourself as family,
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: they usually say about twenty four hours. And actually I
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: shouldn't even say about within twenty four hours. If you
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: bury the body within twenty fours you don't have to
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: embolve it. You don't have to refrigerate it. You can
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: just again go to the hospital, put in your station wagon,
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: bring it home and bury it. Probably, just to be smart,
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: you should dig the whole first, dig the grave first,
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: have it ready. It's not very cinematic, but sure, no, no, no,
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: it really is. And now that I think about, usually
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: dig the hole with the body right there, you know,
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: right exactly. And also, if you're gonna do this, just
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: a little tip from us, like make sure that somebody
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: can see you, and that they see you like nervously
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: looking over your shoulder a lot. And maybe let's do
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: this at like dusk or night time. Okay, right exactly. Um,
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: And here's the thing you're also gonna have to be
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: You're also gonna have to create an easement for your property.
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: And that doesn't mean you have to pay like a
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: a concrete path that leads to the grave, but it
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: you do have to provide for some sort of future
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: public access to that grape site, right exactly, like like
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: it has to be on the d that that is
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  Speaker 1: a possibility. Um. There are some states who say no, no, no,
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  Speaker 1: the funeral directing lobby is far too powerful in our state.
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: You have to hire a funeral director. UM. It varies
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  Speaker 1: on a spectrum of just how involved the funeral director
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: has to be. In some states, the funeral director would
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: have to take possession of the body or would at
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: least have to file the death certificate. In other states
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: it's like a total free for all, like you can
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: handle all that, but you do have to file a
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: death certificate, which from what this article says, I think
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: Dave Ru's actually wrote this for on how stuff works. UM.
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: He says that there are no funeral police, but they
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  Speaker 1: typically want you to um file it within I think
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: five days of death. Um. But you just have to file.
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: It's one of those things that has to get done.
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: So there's a lot of stuff, a lot of responsibility
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: you take on when a loved one dies and you say,
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: I'm just gonna bury him in the backyard. Yeah, And
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: this was another little thing that I would never have
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: thought about out or considered. Um. This is like a
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: county clerk, so they have regular business hours. So if
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: this happens at one on a Friday, you're not gonna
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: be able to file that certificate until Monday. But if
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: you're a funeral director, you can party seven, right and
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: just file it electronically, which I would guess would be
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: the big advantage of working with the funeral director. And
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: the best way to do this also if you're gonna
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: handle it yourself, is to be waiting outside of the
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: county clerk's office that when they show up the next
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: morning and be covered in gore and grave dirt, waiting
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: to file this death's death certificate and they're like, I
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: gotta give my coffee first, mondays um, So bearing a
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: body you always hear about, you know, six ft under
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: that's the sort of rule of thumb. Um. That's actually
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: not the law in most places, only New Mexico as
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: far as the United States, where it's legal to bury
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: about in your backyard require six ft um. New Jersey
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: is four. It's astounding to me, but most states are
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: between eighteen and that. But see that to me makes
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: the most sense. Like six ft you're removing all the
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: um body from a lot of the aerobic processes that
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: happen in soil, right, So all you're doing is prolonging
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: this decomposition where I guess if you're trying to decompose
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: the body, shallow or grave is a better bet. But
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: you're you're walking a balancing act here, Like you wanted
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: to be shallow enough so that the soil is it's
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: like part of the soil, but not so shallow that say, like, um,
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: coyote is going to come along and be like, oh yes,
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: and dig it up because you can smell it. Yeah,
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: which we have in our neighborhood. There are coyotes all
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: over Atlanta. They're everywhere. Um. I have buried Laurent I
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: feel like a couple of feet because I wanted to
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: make sure that he, like, the whole idea was that
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: he became part of the land. And uh, quite frankly,
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: I didn't want to dig any further than I'm being honest.
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: That's when I hit that really hard clay pan. But
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: you don't want a smell, And apparently eighteen thirty will
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: take care of that. That's enough. That's that's what my
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: dad always said. That's right. Um. And then so one
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: of the other things, one of the last things is um,
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: when you do this, you um are by definition your
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: land becomes a cemetery. That's like you don't go in
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: and say I need to file this little plot of
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: land as a cemetery. Just the act of burying somebody
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: legally on your land, that portion of your land because
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: the cemetery, so it's it's protected by all sorts of
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: um you know laws and anti desecration laws and cemetery
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: laws and actually these laws like go back to Roman
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: times from what from what I saw, UM. But to
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: do that you need to file it with your UM.
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: There's usually like a cemetery or some sort of commission
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: that keeps track of all the graves in the town
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: and and has some giant book. Yeah, that's kind of
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: the cool this thing. It's a giant book, the black
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: book covered in dust with gold leafing all around it,
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: and when you open it it makes a giant echoe
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: thud when you open it. It does wow when you
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: open it. In the you know, down the middle, let's
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: say I got to yeah, yeah, and then a creaky
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: old finger with a yellow fingernail runs down until it's
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: the spot where they're going to enter your name in
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: blood and says, excellent, Well, let's sit huh. Yeah, that's
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: all I got. It's uh, it's an interesting option, that's
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: all I'm gonna say. Yeah. Maybe if you're thinking of
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: doing this, look into all the laws first, agreed. Uh, well,
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: thank you very much for joining us on short stuff.
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: This is the end of this short stuff. Stuff you
• 12:47
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