Today while at the Farm I was breaking into a large pile of compost with a shovel, busting it up, and loading it into wheelbarrows for spreading in some kale beds – when suddenly this vile, oily orange stuff pops and oozes out of the middle of the pile (all of which looks like your average pile of rich, loamy dirt). I am fascinated in that too-gross-to-look-away sort of way. Then the smell hits; not quite animal, but vegetable in the most pungent, horrid form. I cannot tell at all what I am looking at – a pocket of squash somehow partially preserved? It splutters and flows and after a while I feel kind of faint. I vow that whatever it is, if I ever find out what it once was I will never eat it again. I also wonder why in the middle of this massive compost pile it has not decomposed. One of our farmers comes over and practically screams like a girl – picking at it gingerly with a shovel he tells me this was “a fish layer” (carcasses of salmon we get from a local shop) and to NOT load it onto the field. No problem, buddy.
After a few more wheelbarrow loads I trade off with someone else so they can have their turn shovelling near the Miasma of Hellish Odor.
Last night: Family movie night watching The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra, an indie spoof of an old B-movie. Turns out it was truly hilarious and my children loved it. Nels fell asleep on my chest. Honestly? Loveliest night I’ve had in a while.
“That would be me!” While I enjoyed the escaped “handless” mutant and wild dancing of Animala (a girl made from four forest animals), the skeleton himself was my favorite. He reminded me of my brother.