Dirty Business
Over the last week, I have been ripping up old grass in my back yard and using a tiller to loosen up the soil so that I can spread it around and make it more even. This has involved a lot of me picking up a small clump of grass from a pile of such clumps and trying to shake the loose dirt back onto the ground. (I have filled dozens of bags with these sod clumps, and tried to figure out a way to make an effective “Kneel Before Sod” joke. I have not been successful.) During this process, it occurred to me that I didn’t necessarily have a full grasp of what made dirt dirt, as opposed to dust or sand or what have you. After some fiddling around on Wikipedia and the rest of the web, I found soil-net.com. I have, er, just started digging in to the site, but there’s a lot of interesting information there to help remind us that when we’re shoveling that soil around, we’re sticking our hands right into decomposed organic matter combined with mineral particles.
About Dave Thomer
Born and raised in Philadelphia. Studied philosophy at Fordham University in the Bronx, where I made many great friends and met my wonderful wife. We moved back to Philadelphia, where I studied philosophy some more and became a teacher. Online and off, I'm looking for ways that we can be better citizens and build stronger communities.