wind, 6 mph
53% humidity
Sore muscles tonight...I spent a couple hours on this gorgeous day digging the last few feet of sod out between the herb and veggie gardens. It got up to 51 degrees today, and not a cloud in the sky. It went from this:
to this:
It's a 90 square foot addition to my garden, making it a total of approximately 280 square feet.
Removing sod by hand is not an easy task. I found that getting a roll started with a shovel would allow me to get enough of a hand hold to then pull the sod out and roll it up.
The amount of biomass that results is quite remarkable. I am hoping to dry it out and get more soil back before composting it.
While toiling away, I was contemplating the drive I have to do this work. It is not necessary per se; gardening at home rarely is, particularly in this culture. I could simply go to the store or a farmer's market to buy produce. If it was important to have something locally grown, I could subscribe to a CSA (and have in the past). So if not out of necessity in the basic sense, then what?
"Vitality" is the word that arises.
1 a : the peculiarity distinguishing the living from the nonliving
b : capacity to live and develop; also : physical or mental vigor especially when highly developed
2 a : power of enduring
b : lively and animated character
I love "peculiarity" in the first definition. As if this is a strange thing, to be alive.
My reading this morning:
ReplyDelete"The most salient and noteworthy feature of the behavior of animate entities is that it is organized. The actions of living things reflect a directed coordination of functions and processes toward specific ends."
and this:
"Human behavior betrays an internal organization, actively operating within its environment and employing layered, interacting functions and processes. Humans are clearly motivated, goal-directed creatures. They seek out specific ends, ranging from concrete goals such as obtaining food and shelter to abstract ones such as developing a sense of meaning or attaining aesthetic ideals."
and this:
"Motivation is a problem unique to life scientists. It is the organized nature of actions that separates the life sciences from the physical sciences, where organized, purposive behavior does not occur and where entropy is the dominant force."
Ryan, R.M. (2012). The Oxford Handbook of Human Motivation. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.