Calling all Hydrostaticsicians(?)

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ChrisGreaves
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Calling all Hydrostaticsicians(?)

Post by ChrisGreaves »

Hydrostatics
Or failing that, anyone with a High School knowledge of physics. Or a knowledge of High School physics.

Newfoundland's local name is "The Rock", as in "I live On The Rock". I have limited knowledge of Newfoundland, but in Bonavista, every man and his dog complains that "we's got no soil so we's can't grow nuttin'".
Excepting, of course, those of us with no dog, who embark on a Soil Remediation Project.
We had a seven-month winter, which gave me time to think about rocks.
20220512_094958.jpg
A small tolt in the second driveway bed. I have uncovered it so we can roto-till around it.
20220512_095024.jpg
The two tolts where was the oil tank.
20220512_095030.jpg
Detail of the second tolt. Note the fine crack, and the even finer crack.
From what I remember of physics, water achieves its maximum density at 4ºC, and so expands as the temperature drops towards, through, and below zero. I remember examples of exfoliation in the granite outcrops in The Yilgarn where water froze (yes, from time to time) in crevices in the rocks.
I figured that if I live another few thousand years my garden would be free of rocks.
Or I could use electrical energy to speed up the process.

Here is the plan: Starting when the next winter sets in, days of consecutive sub-zero temperatures, and especially during the two month big-chill of January-February, if I wander outside ten or twenty times a day with my electric jug of boiled water, and pour water at 100ºC on the rocks where lie cracks, the hot water will melt the immediate surrounds of water, and then bleed heat into the rock, and finally the water will drop through the 4ºC threshold and - start to drive a wedge of ice into each crack, even cracks that my old eyes can't see.
I don't really fancy spending five minutes of every hour pouring cash into my electricity bill, but if I made a practice of this act whenever I went out shopping, or went to my shed, then we might see results.
Comments please!
Cheers, Chris
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HansV
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Re: Calling all Hydrostaticsicians(?)

Post by HansV »

You'd probably have to keep that up for thousands of years...
Best wishes,
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stuck
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Re: Calling all Hydrostaticsicians(?)

Post by stuck »

It's an idea but it would be much quicker to hire a jack hammer to break up the rock. However, even that sort of brute force is unlikely to reduce the rock to anything even vaguely like soil.

Your best bet is to move to a more hospitable location that already has soil. I hear it's warm and sunny in Western Australia.

Ken

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Graeme
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Re: Calling all Hydrostaticsicians(?)

Post by Graeme »

Would the local top soil supplier be able to help you out?

https://www.topsoilshop.co.uk/products/ ... gKLRPD_BwE

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Re: Calling all Hydrostaticsicians(?)

Post by Leif »

ChrisGreaves wrote:
12 May 2022, 12:58
... and finally the water will drop through the 4ºC threshold and ...
But, if I remember correctly, water also expands above the +4ºC threshold, which means that by the time your +100ºC water has cooled down to +4ºC, it will be but a fraction of the volume is was. So you'll have to stand there adding more and more.
Why don't you just pour in water at +4ºC and save the planet?

And while you're at it, can you explain why it is that when I type in Alt+ 0176, Firefox takes me to Google to offer me the "º" symbol?
Leif

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Re: Calling all Hydrostaticsicians(?)

Post by BobH »

I agree with Ken on this one. Hire someone to run a pneumatic hammer on those rocks - or rent said hammer, name it Irma and dance with it for a day or three. Work on your near-the-surface rocks and break them up to a depth of about 16 inches. Remove the rubble and use it to make paths or walkways. Fill holes with topsoil amended with compost and as they say (refer to my signature) . . .
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Re: Calling all Hydrostaticsicians(?)

Post by GeoffW »

In our last place, we had some extremely.poor soil. So we built raised garden beds using treated pine. They worked extremely well. However, the soil was enough to allow enough hole to be dug to allow quick set concrete used to anchor the vertical posts.

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Re: Calling all Hydrostaticsicians(?)

Post by GeoffW »

Alternatively (or perhaps as well) cover the yard with tarmac. You're not going to have an issue with your car being asphalted in.

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Re: Calling all Hydrostaticsicians(?)

Post by Leif »

Leif

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ChrisGreaves
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Re: Calling all Hydrostaticsicians(?)

Post by ChrisGreaves »

Leif wrote:
12 May 2022, 16:06
But, if I remember correctly, water also expands above the +4ºC threshold, which means that by the time your +100ºC water has cooled down to +4ºC, it will be but a fraction of the volume is was. So you'll have to stand there adding more and more. Why don't you just pour in water at +4ºC and save the planet?
Thanks Leif. Yes indeed, the density forms a smooth curve either side of that maximum (Ignoring quanta).

When first I thought of this as every-waking-hour, I considered that the crevice would contain ice, and so figured that boiling water would be a vehicle for heat that would melt the ice in the crevice and replace it with water well away from the freezing point, so that as walked away, that water would expand. Pouring water at or near the freezing point, I thought, might not replace the already-expanded water from the previous visit. I think that if I poured in water at 4c, then that water would not replace the solid water in the crevice.

That plus sheer laziness: I flip on the kettle and most of the time it turns itself off, which means I can go see why the washing machine is making that noise again ... plus i can get a hot beverage while I am at it.

You can trust me on this one: I have NO intention of standing there in sub-zero temperatures.

I save the planet between May and September when I accept grass clippings from two contractors, saving them a twenty-kilometre round trip to the tip for each load; less gasoline, less CO2 etc.

Thanks, Chris
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Re: Calling all Hydrostaticsicians(?)

Post by ChrisGreaves »

Hans> You'd probably have to keep that up for thousands of years...

Would that I could. Three days ago I was chatting with Kim, she who explained Fish Bruce to me on Tuesday, October 10, 2017, and I mentioned that I would be happy to be here, in Bonavista, a thousand years from now, gardening, reading books, listening to music, while the pension rolled in as regular as the tides ...

Stuck> It's an idea but it would be much quicker to hire a jack hammer to break up the rock. However, even that sort of brute force is unlikely to reduce the rock to anything even vaguely like soil.

Ken, I agree with the speed of the jack-hammer, but it is a different storey (:evilgrin:) from living in the Big Smoke with a 60-floor condo going up on every corner and jack-hammers left lying around in a six-storey below ground parking cavity.

Stuck> Your best bet is to move to a more hospitable location that already has soil. I hear it's warm and sunny in Western Australia.

You have started listening to SBS-Spanish from Sydney, haven't you!

Graeme> Would the local top soil supplier be able to help you out?

Not at all. I ***am*** the local top-soil supplier. Last year I had one customer drop off stale soil (gravel, weeds, soil etc) for me to improve. Improve it I have, and scattered around my 90'x60' lot; told him he is free to reclaim his load if he can find it.

I broke open two compost tubs which were basically grass-clippings and sawdust started last September. They are not fully decomposed, but well enough to spread across the top of the artichoke and garlic beds.

Three stores in Bonavista supply plastic sacks of top-soil, but Leif would be down ion me like a ton of bricks, and then I would have to buy some plastic sacks of concrete mix and build a better barbecue.

Seriously: if people composted their grass-clippings and leaves and saw dust, they would have rich soil and glorious flower-beds.

Leif> And while you're at it, can you explain why it is that when I type in Alt+ 0176, Firefox takes me to Google to offer me the "º" symbol?

I can see what you are doing here, Leif; you are trying to get me to hijack my own thread, aren't you?

Bob> I agree with Ken on this one. Hire someone to run a pneumatic hammer on those rocks - or rent said hammer, name it Irma and dance with it for a day or three. Work on your near-the-surface rocks and break them up to a depth of about 16 inches. Remove the rubble and use it to make paths or walkways. Fill holes with topsoil amended with compost and as they say (refer to my signature) . . .

You rich pampered Texan big-city slickers are all the same: hop into the SUV and head for Bob's-Rent-All, right next to Wal-Mart. We don't have a rent-a-tool place in Bonavista, and probably not in Clarenville.
Bonavista_20200601_181412.JPG
I did hire Bernard who tore up the bitumen in the second driveway with his hands; his pal Chris carted the stuff away for a credit at the local asphalt plant, so we were all happy. Then Lloyd Cooper dropped by to break up the gravel with his Meccano back-hoe and blade. Three days later he was back asking if he could have the gravel, so I said Yes Please and he came back with his cousin who has a licensed 4x4 and a trailer, and within two hours I had a 20x8x1' hole which we filled with grass clippings and sawdust last year. This year it is soil, and any day now Hubert will test out his new roto-tiller.

I removed the rocks and piled them in a heap about four feet across, dumped compost on them, sprinkled 300 crocus bulbs, another layer of compost, and as an afterthought three packets of nasturtium seeds. We had a great display of green-orange-yellow last summer, but not yet much of a purple-and-yellow this spring. Still, it's early days yet, Monday and Tuesday we will dip below zero, again, still.

If you are really my uncle, then leave me ca$h in your will so can start buying up vacant lots in Bonavista and turn them into market gardens.

Geoff> In our last place, we had some extremely poor soil. So we built raised garden beds using treated pine. They worked extremely well. However, the soil was enough to allow enough hole to be dug to allow quick set concrete used to anchor the vertical posts.

That's what I have done. Two raised beds so far, and once the aspens are trimmed, two more beds, so that my south-facing back yard turns into avenues of vegetables and flowers. I use wooden pegs, split from old fence palings, rather than concrete with posts.

Geoff > Alternatively (or perhaps as well) cover the yard with tarmac. You're not going to have an issue with your car being asphalted in.

Please see "Bernard" above. I now use the upper-half of the first driveway as a staging area for Soil Remediation Materials and Working.

Leif> Alternatively... Moon soil used to grow plants for first time in breakthrough test - BBC News

I saw that and was surprised that it has taken them so long (fifty years) to get around to it. Me, I would have begun adding grass clippings and saw dust a long time ago!

Cheers, and thanks to all.
Chris
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HansV
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Re: Calling all Hydrostaticsicians(?)

Post by HansV »

ChrisGreaves wrote:
13 May 2022, 12:40
Me, I would have begun adding grass clippings and saw dust a long time ago!
I don't think NASA would approve you covering the moon in grass clippings and sawdust.
It wouldn't turn into soil anyway...
Best wishes,
Hans

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Re: Calling all Hydrostaticsicians(?)

Post by BobArch2 »

ChrisGreaves wrote:
13 May 2022, 12:40

Would that I could. Three days ago I was chatting with Kim, she who explained Fish Bruce to me on …..
(Going off topic) Lardy Jezzus George if ye is going to mention me favourite meal me dearly departed Mom made fer me when I twas a wee lad, call it by its real name “Fish and Brewis”

I could send a bunch of Fish and Brewis links but just know you will want to Goggle it yourself. Hopefully you have savoured this delicious meal by now. If not, you have not truly settled into The Rock. Git to it bye!!! :clapping:

P.S. Don't fergit to get “Screeched” :hairout:
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Re: Calling all Hydrostaticsicians(?)

Post by ChrisGreaves »

HansV wrote:
13 May 2022, 13:43
ChrisGreaves wrote:
13 May 2022, 12:40
Me, I would have begun adding grass clippings and saw dust a long time ago!
It wouldn't turn into soil anyway...
Why not? The grass clippings and sawdust should be harbouring a good variety of microbial life, and they contain water too. Admittedly no worms or worm eggs or other macro biological life for stirring things up.
True: the water would soon boil off the lunar surface, unless we had a glass dome ...
Cheers, Chris
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Re: Calling all Hydrostaticsicians(?)

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BobArch2 wrote:
14 May 2022, 13:59
..., call it by its real name “Fish and Brewis” ... Hopefully you have savoured this delicious meal by now. If not, you have not truly settled into The Rock. Git to it bye!!! :clapping:
Kim is a stickler. She made me stand there and pronounce it "Fish Bruce" before we could progress further. I had ordered it as "fish-and-brew-iss" as written on the menu board, but my interpretation was incorrect.
I have since made my own Fish Bruce, and have allowed it to generate into numerous sealed jars of "fish stew" for local consumption on days when i don't feel like cooking.

P.S. Don't fergit to get “Screeched” :hairout:
Like getting Hyderized? from my 1998 trip through Alaska?
20220516_095026.jpg
Right now I have a problem getting Newfies to drink beer. Foodland stocks a four-crate of Grolsch Pilsener - imported lager - at only $5 per bottle. I bought two four-packs because I wanted the lever-action resealable tops for my ginger beer this year. Wine bottles with corks are too much hassle since I don't drink wine and corks are not sold in town.
David won't drink it, Kerry doesn't drink, Bernard won't drink it ... but he took a four-pack home thinking that his dad might drink it. I told him "just rinse the bottles with water, no detergent, no dishwasher, no bleach" because I don''t want the rubber stopper damaged.

Cheers, Chris
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Re: Calling all Hydrostaticsicians(?)

Post by HansV »

Only $5 per bottle? :yikes:
They go for €0.70 = $0.94 (Canadian) at my local supermarket.
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Re: Calling all Hydrostaticsicians(?)

Post by ChrisGreaves »

HansV wrote:
16 May 2022, 13:01
Only $5 per bottle? :yikes:
They go for €0.70 = $0.94 (Canadian) at my local supermarket.
Well, OK, I was exaggerating a bit.
20220516_164331.jpg
When Kerry went in for me on the Friday, she picked up my first four-pack for $15.70, but when she picked up the second four-pack six days later the price had shot up to $18.66, which, to a non beer-drinker like me is close to $20.00.
I did NOT tell her to keep the change.

And there is no bottle-deposit wossit here.
Cheers, Chris
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Re: Calling all Hydrostaticsicians(?)

Post by HansV »

Yeah, you have to add €0.10 = $0.13 bottle deposit to the €0.70 that I mentioned.
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Re: Calling all Hydrostaticsicians(?)

Post by ChrisGreaves »

HansV wrote:
16 May 2022, 19:28
Yeah, you have to add €0.10 = $0.13 bottle deposit to the €0.70 that I mentioned.
:yikes: :scream: :weep: :mad: :broke: :sad:
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