The Case of the Missing Bucket

Written on Sep 3, 2023

This morning, I stepped outside to toss a few food scraps into our compost bucket and discovered the bucket was missing. Naturally, I checked with Mike, to see if he had moved it from its normal resting place next to our newly finished (huzzah!) covered porch. Nope. Hmm. The mystery of the missing bucket was set in motion.

I took a walk around to see if I had moved it without remembering I had done so. Nothing. No trace of it anywhere. I looked under the porch, to see if it had somehow rolled underneath it. Nothing. I did another walkabout, this time widening my search path. Nothing still. The mystery deepened. 

After what felt like an exhaustive search around our camp, I started to feel a little creeped out. Like maybe a strange human crept into our dwelling place area in the night and stole away with our bucket as a sort of odd jape. I couldn’t imagine why one might do this, but then I couldn’t imagine what else had come of the bucket’s whereabouts either. The mystery continued. 

Mike joined me and we went for a walk on the gravel road just to have a look-see around. We figured Whelp, maybe the bucket is still around here somewhere; and if it is, surely its bright white color will stick out like a sore thumb in the green woods. Not far down the road, Mike spotted a gleaming white something across the way, just up the hill from our cabin. We headed in its direction, bushwhacking our way through the undergrowth. 

Prior to our spotting of the gleaming white something, we started to question about whether an animal could’ve taken it. It seemed both plausible and also not plausible. To have taken the bucket completely away, not disturbing anything around it and not leaving behind any trace of its nocturnal visit, seemed the work of a mastermind critter. Still, we knew it was theoretically possible. We were, after all, at Deer Park Monastery during the shoe theft spree of 2020. At DP, it’s common practice to leave one’s shoes out-of-doors, just outside of your room by the door. That year, multiple shoes went MIA. I saw what I believe strongly to have been the culprit, lurking around on our doorsteps in the dark & early morning hours: coyotes. I never actually saw one take a shoe, but after I saw them literally on our doorsteps, I put two & two together. I also looked up online about whether coyotes are known for stealing shoes and I came across video footage from a residential house in the L.A area (just 2-hours north of DP) that showed proof that my suspicion was indeed possible. The family who resided in the house also had the habit of leaving their shoes outside. They had video that showed a coyote creeping up on their porch and stealing away with one of their shoes in its mouth! Apparently, it’s a little thing yotes do sometimes! After that, perhaps needless to say, Mike and I started bringing our shoes in at night. 

Okay. Back to the gleaming white something on the hill. Mike was leading the way and I was following behind, camera in hand filming our adventure. Less than a 5-minute walk from our cabin, there it was! The bucket with its lid removed, food scraps tossed all around. It didn’t even look they ate any of its contents. Perhaps they- coyotes? raccoons? a bear? - were hoping for something more exciting. In any case, mystery solved! Well, sort of. I mean, we don’t know who took the bucket, but the list of possibilities seem pretty small, given how large the bucket was.

With no chew marks on the bucket and no sign of tracks around the cabin, I reckon it will remain a bit of a mystery , at least until we get some trail cams set up!

Interestingly, it was only recently that we started feeling comfortable enough to set up a compost collection bin for food scraps. Prior to about a month ago, we were simply throwing away our food waste. But since we have a composting toilet and a bin for composting human waste, guided by instructions about such thing in the Humanure Handbook, we figured we could venture into adding food scraps into the mix, without much fuss. Whelp, turns out, our original cautiousness about not keeping food stuffs outside was spot on. Though we were more concerned about attracting bears than coyotes. 

Now our compost bucket is tucked neatly away inside our little cabin. Problem solved. PSA: If you live in the woods, keep your food under wraps. You never know when a late night lurker might sneak on in hoping for a quick meal. Oh, and P.S on the PSA: Maybe bring your shoes inside too.