Planet Walk Day Two 2015

Steps: ~19,000

Today my walking partner is Anisa.

A photo of Anisa taking a photo

          I know we are going to go about twice the distance today. We're gonna start from a small town called Marion where we ended yesterday. A degree of calm leaving ng that small town. Their way of finding themselves seemed to be their little teenage-life crisis (as opposed to a mid-life crisis).

          I had walked through their feelings and we had lent an ear to their troubles. It felt as if there is a wide variety of troubles. There are the drivers’ troubles with seeing walkers. They seem to drive with caution, giving us right-of-way. It has probably been a few months since they had to know how to deal with people on the side effects of the road.

          I had taken a soils class and we were talking ab it about soils and how they are more directly important for different practices. As an environmental scientist, I feel I need deep understanding of soil in order to do research and talk to people about land and how they treat it. I found myself not walking on grass at the camp we are staying at with respect for the bulk density of the soil (amount of compaction (density) of a particular pedon (area and profile of soil)).  

America's praised 'white picket fence.'

A CAFO behind America's praised white picket fence.

          We treaded past a pile of snow that had fallen perhaps a month ago and was finally shrinking as the frozen water took its slow trip back to the soil. There was soot on the snow making it look darker than it would normally be. There were sediments as well. Sediments are broken down soil clods that can freely blow roll or float with the whims of the natural laws (usually pertaining to friction gravity and aerodynamics). The freeze-thaw cycle had gotten to this unfortunate portion of the soil. Thankfully it’s all part of a cycle.

          The cycle that we rely on for generating soil is impacted by the soil forming factors. Climate, parent material, biota (biology) relief (topography) modified by time. We humans are part of biota and deal significantly in the soil formation and deformation.