Chestnuts and Dying

by | Jan 10, 2013 | Talk Dirt to Me

One of the most ancient traits distinguishing humans from other animals is that we bury our dead. We’ve done this for a long time, perhaps more than a hundred thousand years. We can never know exactly why our ancestors choose to honor their dead in this...

Secret Spinach

by | Jan 17, 2013 | Talk Dirt to Me

Freshly fallen snow covers the earth indiscriminately. So does a patina of filth in a poorly cleaned home. The patina has more of a negative connotation for some reason. Most of us like to think of snow as a lovely warm blanket covering the earth. Oh how comfy and...

Quinzee

by | Jan 31, 2013 | Talk Dirt to Me

Quinzee Amongst the under 10 male set in my neighborhood the computer game Minecraft is a big hit at the moment. It follows in the wake of Wizard 101, last month’s his. The game’s conceit, at least as I understand it, is intriguing. You are suddenly in a...

Squashing bugs

by | Feb 7, 2013 | Talk Dirt to Me

By the time this article makes it into the pages of The Advocate temperatures will once again have returned to the new normal for January – that is to say not quite cold. At the time of writing though, it is just a bit chilly out . Each morning the chickens...

Transitions

by | Feb 7, 2013 | Talk Dirt to Me

Water is an “unusual” substance. Not “unusual” like a thoughtful Republican, or living Dinosaur. Unusual in that it has properties that most other kinds of matter don’t have. The most obvious example is that when water freezes it becomes...