Salt the Earth by Absurdum
October 6th, 2008 3:07 AMAnyway, I've had my supplies in the front seat of my car for a month, and finally, today, go time. Not a particularly complicated process, all things considered, but I made pretty sure that nothing will be growing in that specific spot for quite some time.
And finally - a suitable political statement....
Let the sight of this blighted patch of earth stand as a stark and harsh warning to all those city-states who seek to challenge the hegemony of SF0. I say to thee - Yesterday Carthage, Today Fairlight, Tomorrow... Chicago?
Mmmm Salty
Deliniating the patch
Burning the earth
Due to a lack of flamable material this was mostly symbolic.
Scraping the topsoil
In order to accomodate the volume of salt and gravel.
Lining the patch
I used Newspaper to prevent any shoots left from reaching the light. THEN a layer of salt.
Gravel.
Apart from being salty, this leaves no suitable soil for sprouting seeds.
More salt.
FULL of salty goodness.
Final gravel
The final layer of gravel. I declear this earth officially salted.
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"Must never show a sign of life", care to comment on that? Why there?
I agree - as often - with susy derkins. More! Please? Why there? Feelings while burning and salting? It could be an angry task, I imagine. Depending, though, it could also be extremely satisfying.
If it needed to be done, then I am glad it is done.
Suzy... Ahh Suzy, I thought I'd get away with minimal explanation on this one... Why there? Well, I've spent 3 years trying to obliterate life in that one particular spot. I managed the little train station near there, and that particular part of the property was covered in grass, broom and gorse. All these things are hard to kill, especially whent hey team up. I've set it on fire properly twice (week long burn-offs), mowed it countless times, dug and hand-pulled roots from it many many times (because broom and gorse reproduce from rhyzomes). Finally I got it to proper grass, and then decided to go one step further... Also, I will confuse the people who camp there most nights during the warm part of the year.
Jennifer... feelings... Well, as so often in situations like this, the overwheleming feeling was one of hubris and a great satisfaction on getting one over on mother nature - looking her in the eye, and then scarring her up. Not a very pretty emotion, but one I suspect of being near-universal. I wouldn't say it was an angry task by any means, in fact apart from the hubris and satisfaction it was remarkably neutral feeling - which was one of the reasons I never really strayed from the basic desription...
Where is the location? Is the message posted, or is it to be a remnant of a bygone era, to which mournful Chicagø players pilgrimage in the after-years?
OK, geotagged just for you Waldo. For those of you looking at the satelite photo, the white oblong blobs are house buses, hence my reference above to those who camp there nightly - we get up to 10 sets of people a night staying there for free (it's kind, but also good security when the nearest town is 15 mins drive away, and the nearest police over an hour). It's an old capture - I burnt the building to the rear of the main station down over a year ago (after we scavenged re-usable materials).
As for the Chicago stuff - mainly tounge in cheek. It's just the kind of thing you say at times like this - Just ask Cisero.
Thank you Absurdum, my time was due. Also now we all have an obtuse excuse to run off into the hills of New Zealand next time we have a layover on the way to Sydney. Which, ya know, is all the time.
That´s more like it!
You can´t expect junkies let their dealer walk away like that...
Huh, never come across that description before... It doesn't really fit either, it's too... astringent for coconut - Medicinal and bitter. They're right it's a very distinctive smell though, I always think it smells like burning.
Yikes.