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I dug post holes yesterday! The clay was just the right consistency... cheddar cheese, perhaps? The first was a hole for a repurposed 4x4 from the old porch railings, on which i would (and did) mount my rain gauge. That hole went through lovely loamy clay mixed with bits of driveway gravel down to the clay. When we had the driveway put in, the scrapings (of loam!) were piled in the center island: my decision to grow tomatoes in the island and generally convert it to vegetable garden seems like a good plan. I'm not sure how deep i did this hole, but as the post is short, i suspect it is sufficient.
The next two post holes were to hold 4x4s for propping up the king mattress springs into a trellis. I didn't want to set in concrete, partly because i want to be able to take this down someday. The western up hill one i got to about 20" and the eastern down hill hole was about 24".
It was odd how soon i hit the yellow clay and saprolite layer (around 17") in one of the holes -- uphill -- and never hit it in the other, 10 ft away. Saprolite appears to be the technical term for the bedrock that is weathering away. This yellow clay layer i hit has an almost rocklike quality, and i would chip away at it and then break off a chunk. Terms which might apply are goethite and limonite, but i don't think it really gets a name. It is yellow ochre-y in color. I think i'll save the chunks and not loose them in all the clods. Anyhow, i am curious what the rock is, but i suspect it is of no interest to anyone else: thus saprolite.
The other hole never hit the yellow rock/clay layer, just some quartz and green stones. I assume the green stones are slate, as i live in the slate belt, but they aren't what i think of as slate. Quartz i can recognize. One might be pretty clear. It is a nice flat crystal, broken on the edge from the digger.
I like thinking about how no one has seen the rocks i dig up -- once i am into the clay, it's been undisturbed by mammals since the volcanic flows formed (well, i'm sure there are localized areas, like in stream banks, where critters dig dens). I do find little pencil diameter holes in the soil where insects or snakes or worms must be tunneling. The tunnels are awfully deep, since we have such active miner/digger bees i assume that's what they are, but -- wow. That's amazing work.
The next two post holes were to hold 4x4s for propping up the king mattress springs into a trellis. I didn't want to set in concrete, partly because i want to be able to take this down someday. The western up hill one i got to about 20" and the eastern down hill hole was about 24".
It was odd how soon i hit the yellow clay and saprolite layer (around 17") in one of the holes -- uphill -- and never hit it in the other, 10 ft away. Saprolite appears to be the technical term for the bedrock that is weathering away. This yellow clay layer i hit has an almost rocklike quality, and i would chip away at it and then break off a chunk. Terms which might apply are goethite and limonite, but i don't think it really gets a name. It is yellow ochre-y in color. I think i'll save the chunks and not loose them in all the clods. Anyhow, i am curious what the rock is, but i suspect it is of no interest to anyone else: thus saprolite.
The other hole never hit the yellow rock/clay layer, just some quartz and green stones. I assume the green stones are slate, as i live in the slate belt, but they aren't what i think of as slate. Quartz i can recognize. One might be pretty clear. It is a nice flat crystal, broken on the edge from the digger.
I like thinking about how no one has seen the rocks i dig up -- once i am into the clay, it's been undisturbed by mammals since the volcanic flows formed (well, i'm sure there are localized areas, like in stream banks, where critters dig dens). I do find little pencil diameter holes in the soil where insects or snakes or worms must be tunneling. The tunnels are awfully deep, since we have such active miner/digger bees i assume that's what they are, but -- wow. That's amazing work.
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