July 23, 2024

Exhumed
Bozeman, Montana
2024

Probably the most charitable description of my workshop is that it has existed long term in a state of controlled disarray. It certainly doesn’t look all need and tidy like all the ads you see for workshop cabinets and equipment. But everything more or less has it’s place and I’m more or less always able to find what I’m looking for with little or no searching. Similarly, cleaning of the space follows a “good enough” policy. I sweep the floors fairly regularly, but usually only the readily accessible space, not behind all the tools, workbenches and stacks of pipe, lumber, etc. that crowd every corner. But once in a while I do spend some time moving things and getting out all the accumulated detritus from around the edges. So, although it was a first,  it wasn’t much of a surprise to me when I unearthed this well preserved skeleton buried in a corner under a pile of sawdust behind a collection of pipe clamps and wood cutting guides. I assumed at first it was a mouse, of which we have plenty. But it was really too big for a mouse so I assume it was a chipmunk, which we also have plenty of and which I’m periodically having to chase out of there (along with squirrels, rabbits and the occasional marmot) when I work with the shop’s garage door open in the summer.