The nose knows.....

The Dairy Farmer is often frustrated by my super sniffing abilities.  I admit, I am a bit more sensitive to smells than some folks may be.  I believe it comes from my veterinary technology background....one step into a room and you can decipher cat urine, blood, pus, parvo, bad teeth, anal glands.....ahh....I miss those days.  No, not really.  I don't miss my job at all. I do, however, miss my girls  (and you know who you are....shout out to TCAMC ladies...you made it worth my while!) 

I think it drives The DF nutso when I walk into a room and start sniffing....."Do you smell cat pee?   What is that oily smell?  Is the furnace going to explode?  Does radon have a smell, cuz I think I smell it?  The carbon dioxide smells a bit strong in this room, quit breathing so heavy." 

This does not bode well for him, because, well....to be frank....he always smells.   Whether it's diesel and grease (which I kinda like....like my man all rugged and tough) or burnt flesh on dehorning day ( I do NOT like that day) or the sweet, sauerkraut smell of silage (I do sortof, kinda like that one) or the nasty, nose hair burning smell of manure....his hands, his hair, his clothes.....just smell.   

 So, when he walks in the back door, chest all proud, puts down his briefcase and says in his booming husband voice, 'Honey......I'm home!"  This June Cleaver does not run over, grab said briefcase and plant a big kiss on his cheek.......this June runs the other way. 

(And, he doesn't carry a briefcase to work in case you were wondering.  Doesn't even carry a lunch box.  The only thing on that man is a cell phone and a leatherman.  Which.....is hot.)

So, yesterday, I kept saying....."do you smell that?  The house smells funky."  And it went on and on into the night.  We talked about it a bit and figured- our poor basement has been wet for about 3 months due to the rain and it's not uncommon for the mildewy smell to start rising through my floorboards  (especially through my living room floorboards who are just BEGGING to be refinished.....but.....that's another story) 

I kept sniffing and thinking.....no, this is not mildew or mold.  Until about 7:45pm when I finally said " does anyone know of any dead fish....because that's what I'm smelling!"   That was in the living room.....I walked into the kitchen and said "it's in here too!"   The DF jumped up and headed down to the basement.   When he came back up he said, "we have good news and bad news."  I thought for sure he was going to say that our ancient cat had gone down there to up and die....and we were smelling his decomposing body....which to The DF would be VERY good news.   

 But, no.....turns out one of our big freezers had been unplugged and what my super sniffer was sniffing was not a decaying cat, but an entire decomposing cow!  Well, Dairy Farmer, that there is good news!  I still am not sure what the "good" news part was....perhaps we were going to have one hell of a barbeque? 

Thank goodness for my extra special nose and his stomach of steel.  He backed the pickem up truck to the cellar doors and started unloading tons of beef.  For some reason, Junior Edition figured this was AWESOME and ran down to start helping.   They unloaded all of it, cleaned the freezer out and got her running again.  I'm not sure what he did with the meat.....but I'm betting every neighborhood dog was on high alert last night!   I know our dog, Jack, laid at the top of the basement steps whining while they carried out all that deliscious beef.

All is well this morning- my house no longer reeks of death.  We actually caught it "in time" so to speak.  DF said one more day and we would've had a real mess.  Most of the meat in the back of the freezer was still fairly cold.  And, as The Dairy Farmer crawled into bed last night, he said he had a great father/son bonding experience over a freezer full of rotten meat....and that, my friends......is priceless.