Shurhold, clean and simple.
One of my favorite things to
do with the kids in the Bahamas
is collect sand dollars.
Today's clean and
simple tip is to know
which sand dollars to keep
and how to preserve them.
So what I like to do is, first
of all, talk about sand dollars
that you want to
collect and ones
you want to leave in the water.
When you find a
sand dollar, they're
usually about five
inches under the sand.
And the kids kind of
just weave their hand.
They have their snorkel
on and they go in and down
and grab them.
But when they come up white
like this, then they're dead.
And you can take them
as free souvenirs
and it's a nice
trophy for the kids.
But a live sand dollar you
want to leave in the water,
just because it's a
respectful thing to do.
So a live sand dollar's going
to be really dark in color,
like a grayish, almost black.
And they have little
feelers on the sides, still.
So if you do find
a live one, you
want to just put it
right back in the water
and let it just
live out its life.
So at the end of the day,
after very carefully carrying
the sand dollars, because
the boat ride is really bumpy
and we did have
some tragedy here--
we had a few tragedies,
but they're very delicate.
So what I like to do is
bring with me to the exumas--
I always bring a container
like this with a lid.
And you put a little
bit of water in it,
depends on how many sand dollars
you're going to be bleaching.
And I like the crystals
on the boat because to me,
carrying a huge gallon of
bleach on the boat-- what if it
breaks, spills everywhere?
It just makes me nervous,
bleach on a boat.
So I always like the crystals,
lots of different brands.
And I just put some water in
it, depending on how many sand
dollars you collect.
You just sprinkle the
bleach in the water
and then, Shane,
if you want to you
can go ahead and stir it up.
I just have it let it dissolve.
I bleach them because
you want to get
that nice bright,
white color, but also
more importantly, if
don't bleach them,
they're going to stink
really, really bad.
So what I do usually, is I
just place them carefully
in the water.
And sometimes they have
a little sand on them.
That'll bleach right off.
That'll kind of fall off.
And you just but
them really gently.
And you just stack
them and place them.
You guys want to
put them in there?
The most important
thing is when I'm
coming home on that
bumpy cross over,
I like to put some water--
fresh water, after
I've bleached them.
And I put some water
in the container
because I feel like we've
tried just putting the sand
dollars in a container with
paper towels and they break,
because the pounding of the
boat-- they crack and break,
a majority of them.
I found if I keep them in
the water, not necessarily
the bleach water,
because you do want
to get them out of the
bleach, because they'll
get really brittle.
So I usually just
bleach them overnight,
but then I take them out I
rinse them with fresh water.
And then I put them in
a little bit of water
just so they bounce
and they don't break.
This makes the sand
dollar super white
and you can make our
crafts with them,
you could do picture frames.
You could make a
table, my girlfriend
made a table out of them.
So it's really fun.
So there we have it, quick and
easy way to find and preserve
sand dollars.
Until next time, Tiann Berhoff
here with Shurhold Industries.
Keep it clean and simple.
Come on guys, who made a
mess of the end screen here?
We got to keep this place clean.
That's better.
