Farm Forensics

Things on the farm have been pretty quiet the last two weeks (relatively speaking...).  Andy is traveling for work and I am busy keeping up with two kids.  Regardless, though, chores still have to be done such as taking waste to the compost bins and turning the piles.  On one of my recent trips to the bins, I stumbled upon this:

A HUGE pile of poop.  Our past life of suburban living, we would come across the occasional "surprise" left by a  neighbor's dog but nothing of this caliber.  Upon further investigation of the area, I came across two more piles leading behind Andy's shop toward the barn.

As parents of a one and three-year-old, we are very comfortable talking about poop.  At least one conversation during the day revolves around poop- color, consistency, size, frequency.  A hazard of the job as a parent.  So, when Andy called us on FaceTime later that evening, I recounted my find, detailing the pile to determine what animal could have left it.  Size? Large.  Consistency?  Clumpy with hay bits.  Cow pie?  No.  More piled with several large clumps.  Color?  Almost black.  Yes, folks... Andy has been gone for a week and we discuss poop.  Very glamorous over here.  Anyway, we decide based on appearance and opportunity, the most likely source is a horse.  Our neighbor keeps three of his horses fenced in on our back two acres which helps with our yard maintenance. After a quick head count confirmed three horses still fenced in, I determined the culprit was not one of them.

So, it appears that our our horses have a midnight visitor.  Perhaps some Don Juan is roaming the neighborhood looking to chat up a filly or possibly a horse performed a prison break and stumbled upon some left-over food in the compost pile.  Regardless, now I have three piles of crap to scoop up in the yard. Thank you horse, thank you.

See you later, alligator!

This evening, Andy and I decided to move the leftover hardwood boxes that we used in the den and master bedroom floors (post to come soon!) from the floor in the living room to the basement.  Andy assigned me the job of finding a place for the boxes in the basement and clearing the floor.  On a scale of 1 to 5 (5 being finished basement; 1 being murder zone) our basement is a 0.

Creepy basement

It is dank, dark and small.  The full basement is only under the living room, bathroom and kitchen areas of the house and the ceilings are low enough for easy spider access into a passerby's hair.  The floor is concrete and the walls are cinder block.  The most Iowa part of our basement is the cellar door leading down to it which I refer to the "Twister" cellar door.

Cellar door for murderer and critter access

Said door needs replacing to properly seal up the basement.  In the past year, we have found the usual critters:  spiders, mice, insects as well as the more unusual critters: a bat and a toad.

Anyway, tonight I am tasked with moving various basement sundries to make room for the hardwood boxes.  I lifted up a cat carrier and was shocked to find a lizard-like creature under it.  Unsure if it was alive, I tentatively called up to Andy, "Andy.... there is an alligator in the basement...."  I froze in statue form to not alert it of my presence but prepared to jump cat-like on top of a box if it moved at all while I waited for Andy.  Finally, Andy creeps down the stairs in tennis shoes and boxers (he was in the middle of changing out of his work clothes).  "Cool! A lizard!  Let's keep him."  Typical boy response.  Since my savior was now there, I dashed away from the mini alligator's strike zone and ran to get a bucket and cardboard to capture it.  Andy was convinced it was going to bolt as soon as he got close (though I still wasn't even sure it was alive) so he crept slowly toward it and dropped the bucket on top.

Edited for the sake of your eyes

Sliding Esther's place mat under the bucket he captured the reptile and we took it outside.

More editing needed...

After barely escaping with our lives, we checked online and found out the lizard was a tiger salamander.

It was alive but moving very slowly.  Apparently, salamanders spend most there time underground in burrows and are very secretive so, though abundant, they are rare to see.  We can only imagine it got in the basement and found a warm, dark place under that cat carrier.

Cobwebby/cat-hairy from the basement

 Hopefully, he will find a new burrow before it gets too cold for him... or I will find that Andy has taken him to his shop and is keeping him as a pet in there.  Hopefully not....