A couple of years ago my very generous farmer neighbor invited me to take all the winter squash I wanted since market season was done and the rest were destined for his cows. So I purchased a BIG plastic tub, the sort you fill with ice and canned/bottle beverages....has rope handles. I carefully put the squash in with newspaper between the layers so no squash were touching lest they rot prematurely. Carried the whole heaping arrangement into my cool dry basement.
And promptly forgot it was there for a year.

My heaping tub o'squash had "reduced" to about 3 inches of slime and dissolving newspaper.

The smell was horrific! Rot with notes of sulfer and sewer.

And I swear it was twitching and writhing like something was swimming around....something BIG.
I hauled it out while screeching at DH to open doors and get out of my way....still nearly tripped over him as he tried to look at it....LOOK ONCE ITS OUTSIDE!!!!!!
Thank God I didn't drop it!
