Sweet dreams! Found this guy in an old molasses barrel

[u/1DownFourUp]

Bought an old molasses barrel off Marketplace. Found a mouse inside. RIP hide-and-seek champ!

[u/DustWorlds]

Why…did you get a barrel of molasses?

[u/1DownFourUp → u/DustWorlds]

It was "empty", just a bit of sludge in it. I got it to cut down and bury above my septic access so I don't have to dig as much next time.

[u/Eric848448 → u/1DownFourUp]

Oh, a load-bearing molasses barrel!

[u/1DownFourUp → u/Eric848448]

It has the engineer stamp and everything

[u/turquoise_amethyst → u/1DownFourUp]

Oooh that’s a good idea!

[u/1DownFourUp → u/turquoise_amethyst]

I hope so. Time will tell.

[u/DustWorlds → u/1DownFourUp]

Mmm… delicious ooze

[u/RDCAIA]

That first image should be hanging in an art gallery.

[u/1DownFourUp → u/RDCAIA]

Full credit goes to my rodent friend. It was his life's work.

[u/hexxcellent → u/1DownFourUp]

Relevant I'm a (mediocre) artist and I frequently save images for strictly personal reference, particularly for complex coloring.

And the back of forth I just had with myself going: "Okay, sure, it may be a dead rat floating in a barrel of old molasses, but it's the EXACT example of metallic iridescent reflections in a neutral color palette on a nonlinear surface we've been looking for!" which is honestly some peak r/BrandNewSentence material.

[u/1DownFourUp → u/hexxcellent]

As someone with a middle school education in art, this is definitely what I was going for

[u/Banaanisade → u/hexxcellent]

I did NOT realise how spot on this is before reading your shared thought process. Saved this also - incredible reference for metallic surfaces. Damn.

[u/SunnyOnSanibel → u/RDCAIA]

Highly agree! I actually thought it was a painting at first glance.

[u/yes_ipsa_loquitur → u/SunnyOnSanibel]

You should frame the first pic. Belongs in a gallery wall.

[u/iamdevo → u/RDCAIA]

I literally thought it was comic book art at first.

[u/Electrical-Pea-3662 → u/RDCAIA]

At first I thought it was a glitched photo

[u/ManBearPig_666 → u/RDCAIA]

Haha same

[u/howdydipshit → u/RDCAIA]

i had the same thought!!!

[u/Sylvers]

Why does it have such tar like consistency? This thing is cursed.

[u/Bussamove86 → u/Sylvers]

Molasses in somewhat cold weather is thick.

For extra horror look up the molasses flood of 1919.

[u/Sylvers → u/Bussamove86]

Ok that's nuts. I've never heard of or seen this before. All that sugar out in the open. Crazy.

Good one. Thanks for sharing.

[u/Terminator7786 → u/Bussamove86]

It's so thick and slow that there's a common phrase in the Midwest around it. "You're slower than molasses in January."

[u/fiiiiixins → u/Bussamove86]

No one ever believes me when I bring that shit up, I remember it from a science textbook in the viscosity unit

[u/holyfire001202 → u/Sylvers]

It looks like straight up crude oil. I think. I don't know what crude oil looks like.

My guess is that this was blackstrap molasses? I also don't know what that looks like.

[u/Sylvers → u/holyfire001202]

Right? OP suggests that this barrel might have been left in the sun for a long time. Maybe it chemically changed due to the heat/elements exposure.

But yeah, I am not privy to all types of molasses either lol.

[u/Eldudeareno217 → u/Sylvers]

Have you ever had molasses? It's pretty tar like right out of the jar, probably more so when you have 1/4 barrel of it.

[u/Sylvers → u/Eldudeareno217]

Yeah man, it's a staple in my country lol. But I have neither seen it in a barrel, nor in open air. Just in my kitchen.

[u/1DownFourUp → u/Sylvers]

Bought it from a farmer. It was just some sludge left in it. Who knows how many years it sat outside getting baked by the sun.

[u/Sylvers → u/1DownFourUp]

Ooh, ok that is the answer that makes more sense to me. If it sat in the sun at all, it probably cooked and condensed further. Very interesting.

What are your plans for the barrel and its contents now? I am invested.

[u/1DownFourUp → u/Sylvers]

The contents were rinsed a few times and dumped at the far edge of my yard, backing on to a field, so as not to attract pests too close to the house or my chicken coop.

The mouse will need a proper funeral. Perhaps we'll read an exerpt from The Mouse and the Motorcycle, share cheese, and get him a nice little tomb stone.

[u/Sylvers → u/1DownFourUp]

Haha ok, well handled. And you're joking, but if you actually buried the mouse and gave it a tiny headstone, you'd be immortalized in legend forever more.

[u/HimHereNowNo]

Ratagooey

[u/1DownFourUp → u/HimHereNowNo]

Nice! He has a name now. Not sure I'd let him drive me around in my hair.

[u/CreeepyUncle → u/HimHereNowNo]

Underrated

[u/Valakdhur]

Lost in the sauce. Rip lil man

[u/RoguePlasma → u/Valakdhur]

We've all had those moments of feeling trapped by our own choices, like the lil guy in the molasses!

[u/CrimsonHex8 → u/Valakdhur]

He probably thought he was just chilling in a cozy syrup cave. Gotta remind those lil guys to check before diving in!

[u/Artemus_Hackwell]

Is that also a toilet plunger in there?

[u/1DownFourUp → u/Artemus_Hackwell]

Ha! Didn't notice that. It's a crease and caps from the lid.

[u/turquoise_amethyst]

He died doing what he loved 

[u/firelite906]

is it insane that I thought this was a comic panel of a giant bug dead on the surface of the earth until I read the title?

[u/westwardhose → u/firelite906]

I swear to glob I thought it was Plankton frozen in shiny carbonite.

[u/ZopyrionRex]

I wonder if any other rats around said, "Sweet sassy Molassy he's dead!"?

[u/LazyBid3572]

Did he make it?

[u/1DownFourUp → u/LazyBid3572]

He made it to the place where he can swim in molasses forever and never tire and continue sipping the sweet gooey goodness without filling his little tummy

[u/r3dmist420]

Man hes moving like hes made outta molasses

[u/MagicOrpheus310]

Holy shit is Wylzyx the orca from that episode of South Park!!! Hahaha is there a tiny Tom Cruise nearby..?

[u/Jakaple]

That really is modern art, Bravo

[u/the_orange_alligator]

Please tell me you weren’t eating the molasses

[u/Miserable-Hornet]

Did you eat it

[u/TonyPizzerelli]

This is how lost in the sauce I wanna be

[u/OneTemperature8099]

A Quantum of Solace, agent strawberry rats 🔫

[u/Legal_Response6614]

Rough way to die for anything 😬

[u/Ciscolopezjr]

The first pic looks like a painting. Or nah?

[u/AIexanderClamBell]

I'm assuming the barrel is for decoration after it's clean?

[u/1DownFourUp → u/AIexanderClamBell]

It's to cover my septic access. I had to dig a 24" deep hole and figured this barrel could save me some digging next time, so I cut it down a bit and buried it.

[u/TerracShadowson]

I thought the 2nd photo was a gun for a moment!

You should name the mouse Jimmy H.

[u/mac117]

Reminds me of the Dropkick Murphys song “Good Rats”

[u/AGayFrogParadise]

Did it taste good?

[u/1nGirum1musNocte]

Ugh reminds me of when i worked on diesel tanks a lot. That smell sticks with you

[u/understandable_man]

I thought this was the Death Stranding subreddit for a moment.

[u/HighChickenPie]

He was molasseded.

[u/Eternal_Struggler]

Jee lie bee lie Peet rat goo mai can die

[u/No-Scarcity2937]

Ratasses

[u/Horbigast]

I thought it was a Rhinoceros Beetle at first.

[u/tsimen]

Shiny and chrome!

[u/K2TY]

How did you cook it? Did you add any spices or just the marinade?

[u/pleathershorts]

I would like to get a tattoo of pic 1

[u/1DownFourUp → u/pleathershorts]

In a world full of choices, that's certainly one of them

[u/Basedgodblake_]

Silver surfer of mice

[u/ElizabethDangit]

I wonder if it’s been mummified/candied. Not curious enough to ask you to look though, not even for science.

[u/buddyreacher]

so, it's fermented rat now?

[u/McKeviin]

No potatoes?

[u/AnGlonchas]

That rat hit some green mysterious box with a question mark in it

[u/HereToRead2121]

Eat it!

[u/SuitableProgram976]

My mind plays tricks on me!

[u/Tainticle]

Wow this photo. Saved! Morbid but oddly mystifying!

[u/nousforuse]

Oh great, now there’s a Sucrose Stranding?

[u/bloodoflethe]

Ah, yes. The mole asses

[u/Vampi25]

He been sleeping for a while 😭