"What the...?" Part 1

Once upon a time, I started to write a blog post that went like this:


Recently I went to, according my zero research, the world's largest antique fair(!!!) in Round Top, TX.  Fried pickles, fried mushrooms, funnel cake, fresh fried pork rinds, and popcorn may or may not have been devoured ravenously.

We may or may not have found the perfect vintage accessories.

While in town, in a pine forest, I also happened upon a cut in the soil that showed the native clay a few inches below. It had weird yellow veins going through it.  The veins were very fine grained, like a flour-fine powder.  I dug deeper to see if they thinned out, but after several inches of digging through dry clay, the veins were still there.  Can you see them below?

You don't see the yellow veins?  Let's try again, with "magnification."

OK? 
OK.

"What the...?" I was being SoilDuck's good kind of stupid: stupid yet curious.

Internet research was boring, so I checked in with my fellow twits, to see what they thought.  Here were some ideas:

• Fungus.
• But the location (deep) and orientation (horizontal) look wrong.  
• Sulfur.
• But sulfur precipitates as gypsum, and gypsum is white (ahem, it can actually come in different colors).
• Pollen.
• But the powder goes preeeeeetty deep into the cracks...
• Microscope it!
• Oh yeah, and I work at a high school, so this is feasible...
• Do you know the series?
• Maybe.

 I forgot to mention that there was something else interesting too: a white crystalline crust on the outer surface of the clay.

Here is your first official look at the '"mystery of nature" observed under a stereoscope.

See? It is right there, under the stereoscope.

(Thank you, young scientist, Manuel Lopez for taking this picture.

Thank you Mr. Moldyenhaur for setting up the learning apparatus.

Thank you Eastside Memorial HS for hosting this scientific inquiry.)

Actually, were looking at the white crystalline crust here, not the yellow vein powder. Our computer screen is showing a blurry version of it.


But then I hit a stopping point.  I hit Publish anyway.  I hope this post finds you well, and if we don't chat sooner, Happy Mother's Day!  Thank you to both Granny Sharon and Mother Earth.

Join us next time, in "What the...?" Part 2, How do you identify a mystery substance?

Hello Sandbox, my old friend

Hello Dear Readers!
How are you today? How is your sun shining?  We're having nice, crisp cool weather here.  Oh, by the way-

Happy Sandbox Appreciation Day!  

Remember that one time (at band camp), when I referred to Sand as boring?  Wasn't that ignorant and rude!?  With a spirit of atonement and reconciliation, I declare today Sandbox Appreciation Day (I can do this because, who is stopping me?).

Dear Sandbox,

New sandbox courtesy of the very civic Hubs.

You are a pretty cheap way of introducing science and engineering to youngsters of all kinds and abilities (and their reminiscent parents).  You are super fun.  I remember playing in you for hours and hours under the grateful eye of The Parents (cuz I was quietly and productively occupied without their effort, heh.  Love you!).

Hours add up to days and weeks of scientific inquiry.  Who knows how long I played in there-  my concept of time has evolved.

And now I realize how much I learned from you.  Days spent with you, Sandbox, were my first physics lessons.

What did I learn? How to build, in my minds eye, buildings, mountains, rivers, dams, lakes, canals, pits and moats and other natural and man-made wonders. That you have a sweet spot, a preferred soil moisture for forming stable shapes with molds, and reducing your stickiness to the molding buckets.

You subconsciously led my life interest to the earth sciences.  You may have led others to NASA.  And you are pretty fun.  Thank you Sandbox, and thank you Hubs for making one for The Kiddo.

Dear Sandbox, 

Big Hugs,

The Dirt on soil