Dirt rich instead of dirt poor!
We buried our wife’s panties in the backyard yesterday. Not ashamed to admit it. (No, she wasn’t in them! PEOPLE!)
If (the royal) we had our life to do over again we would have studied law (did as an undergraduate) or taken soil science. Maybe both. Got to be a niche law practice buried there, somewhere.
Topsoil is like human skin — a living organ in its own right. Wisconsin even has an official state soil: Antigo silt loam (as Mrs. Olson would say about mountain-grown coffee, “The best kind.”)
The creator chose to bestow kiln-worthy clay onto the Blaska Experimental Work Farm (and Penal Colony). Over the years the unlettered field hands have worked in manure from Brother Mike’s farm, kitchen waste, and macerated fall leaves to the point the soil is black and fluffy as brownie cake mix.
So, an exhibit at the Farm Art D’Tour (sponsored by the Worm Farm Institute) caught our attention. It was the “Sauk County Soiled Undies Challenge.” What a concept! Farmers and other land owners buried their BVDs in the ground — some in pasture, some in tilled soybean fields, others in no-till corn fields, more in lawns or woodlands. Left their undies (presumably cotton or silk) for a month or so, then dug them up. The more raggedy the remains, the healthier the soil — evidence that the hills were alive (not with the Sound of Music) but with earthworms, protozoa, arthropods, and healthful bacteria. It is claimed one teaspoon of healthy soil contains more organisms (7.8 billion) than there are people on our planet.
It is why we aerate the greenswards at the Stately Manor, so those critters can breathe and roots can spread. We buried the Lovely Lisa’s unmentionables in the compost dirt pile out back. It takes the daily supply of banana peels, coffee grounds, egg shells, and various rinds. In mid-June field hands populated the pile with one-half pound of red wigglers and European night crawlers. (“Blaska has worms!”)
The Soiled Your Undies Challenge is sponsored by the Sauk Soil & Water Improvement Group (SSWIG), which sounds like a fun bunch. (Are they on Meet-Up?) Came across their exhibit (pictured) in the hamlet of Witwen on County Hwy. E (stop #16 of the Farm Art D’Tour) which runs through Monday 10-10-22.
Blaska’s Bottom Line: We’ll dig up Lisa’s briefs early next month. Drove a stake into the compost pile to mark the location. If we’re lucky, there’ll be nothing left but rich soil and fat worms. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust and all that. Christmas is only three months away, we’ll buy the wife another pair.
Education
Blaska Policy Werkes 
Go for it, Mike. You are onto how to make a huge dent in your greenhouse gas emissions if you follow this path — which is to recognize that about half of the things you throw out is organic and can be composted instead of sent on its merry way to the landfill, where they rot in oxygen starved conditions that creates methane, a greenhouse gas on steroids with 84 times the near term warming impact of carbon dioxide.
Landfills have ostensible systems to collect that methane, but, as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded (at FAR, ch. 10, p. 600), they are inherently inefficient and let about 80% of the methane escape.
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“about half of the things you throw out is organic and can be composted instead of sent on its merry way to the landfill”
GREAT POINT, PA! Folks, non-gardeners included, that aren’t composting are missing the boat.
When the Gotchberg Organic Gardens And Lefty Conversion Therapy Emporium began composting with a vengeance ~ three (3) years ago, we cut our garbage virtually in half; down to one (1) bag per week.
Bartered for three (3)…um…non-participating composting bins from neighborsnextdoor (The Report/You Decide!) in exchange for some of The Gotch’s (arguably) World Class organic Tomatoes and Sweet Peppers.
Right now, two (2) are near capacity, with wicked nutritious, dark, rich, loamy soil amendments.
Need to keep two (2) each of 20″/9 kg & 15″/6kg weights dumbbells on top of the day-to-day unit to keep out what are apparently some pretty buff, and insatiable, raccoons.
The Gotch
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“soil is black and fluffy as brownie cake mix.”
Sounds enviably potent, Blaska!
Anywho, does participation in the “Sauk County Soiled Undies Challenge” preclude those who…um…Go Commando?
Asking for a friend…
The Gotch
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In your case, you could bury your socks but my guess is they’re already sprouting mushrooms.
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“my guess is they’re already sprouting mushrooms.”
Not far from the truth; running outdoors, year-round, in all manner of weather leads to, if not fungi, some pretty funky hosiery. By the time laundry day rolls around (Sunday), anyone with a functioning olfactory system will give ’em a wide berth!
Anywho, the Soiled Undies movement started out in, of all places, the State of Oregon; really the best thing to come out of there….other than an empty bus…
The Gotch
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The benefits/results of good soil:
A whoppin’ 25 ounces/709 grams The Guido Heirloom, and who doesn’t LUV a ‘mater named The Guido?.
Top Left Tray/Clockwise from upper left-Greenbush Italian, Sheboygan Heirloom (both WESconsin developed varieties), Red Sausage, Mortgage Lifter
Top Middle Tray/bottom right Cornue des Andes, the rest Giant Garden Paste
Top Right Tray/Dark Green at bottom-Ananas Noire, left-n-top Guido Heirloom, yellow Italian Gold
Lower Right Tray/lower left Mountain Pride, right Costoluto Genovese
Lower Right Tray/ Inzhir Rozovyi
Butternut Squarsh Harvest began-n-ended yesterday; the ~ 120-150#s/54.43-68kg 2022 crop.
A 12″+/30.48 cm appropriately named Giant Marconi Hybrid Sweet Pepper with a coupla runts underneath, all destined for the grill tonight!
The Gotch
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I look for a dramatic increase in interest for this project immediately following the elections, although, just by whom is open to debate.
For what it’s worth, testing the White House lawn with Depends ™ probably won’t work.
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Clearly the environmental movement is trying to recruit members from the fringes of kink!
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The benefits/results of good soil:
A whoppin’ 25 ounce/709 gram Guido Heirloom, and who doesn’t LUV a ‘mater named The Guido?
Top Left Tray/Clockwise from upper left-Greenbush Italian, Sheboygan Heirloom (both WESconsin developed varieties), Red Sausage, Mortgage Lifter
Top Middle Tray/bottom right Cornue des Andes, the rest Giant Garden Paste
Top Right Tray/Dark Green at bottom-Ananas Noire, left-n-top Guido Heirloom, yellow Italian Gold
Lower Right Tray/lower left Mountain Pride, right Costoluto Genovese
Lower Right Tray/ Inzhir Rozovyi
The Gotch
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The benefits/results of good soil 2.0:
Butternut Squarsh Harvest began-n-ended Wenesday; the ~ 120-150#s/54.43-68kg 2022 crop.
A 12″+/30.48cm + appropriately named Giant Marconi Hybrid Sweet Pepper with a coupla runts underneath, all hit the grill Thursday night.
The Gotch
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That top pepper looks like it has a mild case of Peyronie’s disease.
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You don’t say…
The Gotch
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Yikes! Calling all urologists within a hundred-mile radius!
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Say, where does one go to get Antigo silt loam? I want to start a rain garden, and I want rich, absorbent stuff. And real dirty.
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It’s available in a smattering of 13 Counties in Northern WESconsin and a few in MN; none near here, though.
You may be better off Rollin’ Yer Own with homegrown compost mixed with sphagnum peat moss (Menards) and bagged Whitney Farms Organic Planting Soil from Costco, which they usually have on sale in April & May.
If that’s too much trouble (depending on the ratio, peat moss takes a couple of seasons to assimilate), The Gotch swears by Purple Cow Organics Raised Bed Mix, delivered bulk by the cubic yard from Madison Top Soil.
Raised beds rule the roost at the Gotchberg Organic Gardens And Lefty Conversion Therapy Emporium because spade-caking clay lies mere inches below the Midvale Heights surface.
The Gotch
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Thanks, Gotch…as a matter of fact, I’m doing the composting thing, too.
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Shouldn’t be using European nightcrawlers (D. hortensis) as they are invasive in northern climes. Red wigglers probably won’t over winter outdoors so they aren’t as nasty.
I’m surprised you haven’t chastised and accused of grooming by your far right religious types, as D. hortensis is a hermaphrodite.
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“I’m surprised you haven’t chastised and accused of grooming by your far right religious types”
Leave it to a career Lefty like hankdog/old baldy to politicize freakin’ worms.
On the subject of career Lefties, they’re VERY WELL represented in GROOMING CIRCLES, a seedy demographic in which they’ve established a virtual monopoly!
The Gotch
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Geez goochie, you haven’t changed a bit. Still stuck on the bold function thinking that will make you seem a serious kinda guy (it doesn’t), and still concerned with size. Like who cares how big your tomato is? Does it taste any better, or is it any more nutritious than one of smaller dimensions?
Regardless, good stewards don’t release D. hortensis into the wild, as they can be a nuisance invasive. And they are hermaphrodites, so obviously objectionable to the evangelicals.
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Awww, widdle cranky flaccidly enfeebled hankdog/old baldy is all bunged up and overcome with envy because the only Tomatoes he ever gets are from the Rotting/Reduced For Kwik Sale Bin @Kwik Trip.
The Gotch’s? Started from seed, organically nurtured, expertly tended, featuring varieties you can’t even pronounce…so yeah…Tastes Great-Less Filling.
And don’t you have some Drag Queen Curricula to audit…?
The Gotch
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So, once again goochie, you said not a single truthful thing. And I seldom shop at Kwik trip, their gas prices suck up here compared to the mom and pop Shell station, and they make a habit of supporting political candidates with markedly anti-environment agendas.
We are hay bale gardeners, on chemical free, sustainably rotated, winter wheat straw, grown on a century farm. And I have no need to prove myself to anyone by measuring my produce.
I’ll take my chances on pronunciation, and even give you the scientific name.
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