Fauna in the Compost Bucket

I know I find entertainment in some very strange places but keeping it simple is a cheep way to be rich. So as each day passes, we are confronted with all sorts of possibilities in our immediate surroundings that have to be noticed---at least that is what I think, particularly if we can not afford to go to the movies.

Some days it might be the juvenile Bald Eagle feasting on a gruesomely flattened road killed cat right next to the road. Not a good avian idea but still the bird is young, an opportunist and maybe not a survivor if he keeps that up. Still, it it an opportunity to see a massive bird right there up close and personal. The power of his lifting wings is enough to move the car. It is that little glimpse.

I have also enjoyed having a skunk approach my ground dwelling deer stand while he did his daily activity of scrounging for fat grubs and fall berries. It is a chance to watch, to see really how his days must go. This is entertainment even if a giant buck walks past unnoticed. If he should choose to enter my abode it is more than casual entertainment, or education. It is a embarrassing comedy--hasn't happened yet but very close.

There are garden things also that on first observation may cause concern like the beans that are supposed to be bush beans but for reasons unknown  take off in early spring and wonder about the garden in great tentacles not intent on bean production. It is a cause to pause, maybe mutter some colorful profanity, maybe contemplate the meaning of life or wonder what I screwed up to cause this----or what we all screwed up.

Today we found this growing in the "gut bucket" as we call it, the bucket used to hold all chicken food scrapes or compost. We just dump it to make soil or entertain the chickens with twenty minutes of scratching to find one desirable morsel. It is a fungus I suspect, the mycelium of fungal organism that has found a comfortable home. Like a cotton ball it is growing on scraps, growing , I suspect quickly, because yesterday it was not there. It is an opportunist like the eagle looking for scraps. What a great form of momentary entertainment---not a middle class thing I suspect but still I found it most interesting.