The joys of soil sampling

I just had the best little 4-minute bicycle ride to Rite Aid. And the best day at work even-while-fighting-a-cold.

I think it is because I had full maneuverability over my fingers and did not bemoan the existence of ears--basically: because I was not cold today! Thank you, Weather.

One of the last work days on the research farm today; I was sent out to sample soil for pH. I worked alone all day, no music, no company, but was quite incorrigibly at peace. The skies were like a theatre, the blasting wind shifting scene changes by the minute, the sun an intriguing spotlight on it all. There were moments I just had to spread my arms wide and gaze in happy awe at all the sky's activities. Piles of clouds. Swatches of blue. There was nothing homogeneous about looking up at all today. A double rainbow, so bright the colors were smartly distinguishable, stretched in a complete arc. I could even see the farm house from across the lake, where the end of it touched to earth.

Oh but I do love working outside.

It was so windy though--from the south--that I needed rubber bands around my clipboard to keep all that in place, and my plastic mixing cup skittered in circles; the pencil blew out of reach, my coat flapped in my face. I felt like I was working in outer space, where you set objects down and they just won't stay where they were.

I had the RTV to drive around the field, bearing me and my equipment zippily. This brought back memories of my soil sampling days as a graduate student--which were in sharp contrast to anything zippy. I'd schlep my Field Bike out to the plots, somehow balancing all my equipment along too. Then I would tread from plot to plot, juggling buckets, soil probe, clipboard, water bottle, screwdriver: clanking along like a one-man band.

At least my soil sampling style has increased a bit...