Found this lying around the house...

On my way to feed horses the other morning, I came across this in the breezeway:



Whew! There's a shocker--for a horse owner--fortunately, it ain't an equine.

Actually, I had some foreknowledge of this little specimen back in July. We were out by the trampoline, and the closer you got, the more vile the smell. It was oppressive. And, I have always considered my nose to be not-so-sensitive. I've always marked it up to smelling lots of horse manure over the years, and now of course, living with Handyman for almost two decades.

Anyway, it was just noxious. I had no idea at the time what it was, nor was I all that interested in finding out. At that time, Handyman was out of town frequently for jobs and I was not interested in coming across "something" when he wasn't home. I felt the strength of the odor was indicative of the size of the "something" and I recognize my gag limits.

Well, the smell lasted for a couple of weeks and then was done. Thank heavens! I forgot all about it actually. Then 6 weeks or so ago, Handyman and #2 came in saying there was a complete deer skeleton on our property, down by the creek. I wish I had photographed it then. It was laying out in perfect formation, the spine in beautiful alignment. The legs were spread out somewhat, and I believe the pelvis might be missing altogether. But it was clean as a whistle and pretty cool to look at. I am really amazed at the speed with which it was completely "cleaned" by all forms of decomposers.

So, a neighbor boy asked for the hooves for some boy-thing, which we allowed. And the rest have been reduced to this not-so-honorable storage for now. A great project for homeschoolers; Handyman wants to lay it all out on the driveway and draw a chalk line all around it--snicker, snicker.

Part of the cycle...