External Brain &Garden 05 May 2005 10:36 pm

Hardcore hardpan

Gardening that requires a pickax is pretty hardcore. And that was my day. There was also a lot of collapsing into the grass and checking myself for stupor. It wouldn’t do to get so tired that I’d send a pickax into my foot. That’d be bad.

Our soil is about the worst possible garden soil short of contamination. Six inches of sand overlay a whole lot of very compact rocky clay. Some of the rocks are very attractive — there are some fist-size rounded quartzite cobbles — and I’m glad to have them available for use elsewhere in the garden. It’s fun to see them unearthed. The clay I’m not so fond of.

So I got tired enough to talk funny, and I did not disappoint. My favorite today:

The Simpsons quotation: “I’m cold and there are wolves after me.”
What I meant to say: “I’m old and there are wolves after me.”
What I did say: “I’m old and there are worms after me! Words after! Wolves! Agh!”

Some good stuff about our local geology is available from the Pacific Northwest Center for Geologic Mapping Studies. Check the Popular Downloads page for some of the coolest maps.

Comments (4)

4 Responses to “Hardcore hardpan”

  1. on 05 May 2005 at 11:20 pm 1.Wim said …

    Neat geology link. That will come in handy when I start to secretly build a pneumatic subway system under the city.

  2. on 06 May 2005 at 6:45 am 2.Rechercher said …

    Oh c’mon. Having worms after you is much more reasonable than wolves when you’re gardening. :) :) :)

  3. on 06 May 2005 at 11:36 am 3.Ted said …

    I’ve got this image of this really, really old guy shuffling toward the house, and behind him a worm crawling along at about the same speed.

    Worm: “Give it up, buddy!”
    Old Guy: “No!”
    Worm: “C’mon, you’re almost dead as it is.”
    Old Guy: “Shut up!”
    and so on.

    [Hee! -- Cam]

  4. on 06 May 2005 at 1:02 pm 4.Surlyben said …

    That geology map site is very cool…