I've been laughing at this thread as I read it but then it dawned on me that I would have done the very same thing had I decided to "bake the dirt". Thanks for saving ME from making the same mistake!!! Besides that, the wife would have surely given me so much grief about it that I'd never hear the end of it. AD
Your flair for flaky flagrancy in assiduously assimilating my allocution into the, "Hall Of Stupid Mistakes" and allocating the double dipped digit of "85" to my .... Aw heck !! Mr. Nolan, Sir, now that we are such close associates may I call you, Pete. It is an honor and a privilege to be included in your, "Stupid Mistake" association. I shall have the Number 85 printed on my caboose. And as I stroll down the street, all may gaze in wonder, as first the "8" bounces up and the "5" bounces down. And know who I am..... A What? What was that? Who said that? Seriously, Thank you Pete Nolan. See ya Ron
I got a bucket of dirt from a 10 ft deep hole at a construction site about 10 or 12 years ago. I've been sifting and using it for years without treating it and haven't had any surprises. Maybe there aren't many organisms that far down in the ground like you would find near the surface? I just hope I have enough of it left to finish the layout expansion.
Wow! I hope for your sake that list never grows. When I was much younger than you I spent some time in a soils lab where we tested a lot of samples every day. Rule #1 was to always have clean samples. To obtain those we often requited a dozer to remove all of the top soil from the test site before extracting the sample. I could not have stated the reasons for that better than you did in your post. Rule #2 Most biologic contaminants will perish if the temperature rises above 140°F Rule #3 Water still boils at a temperature of 212°F If you are going to play with this stuff in the future, please play by the rules. Use Clean Dirt - 140°F Kills Bugs - 212°F Evaporates the Water. When the sample is in the oven, stir it often and allow an hour or two to bring the moisture content down to <5%. Have fun, play safe and please do not go near the red box labeled "Explosives". Jerry
I used "untreated" dirt on my layout. Just sifted it through a screen, then a flower sifter, then a fine kitchen strainer to get a real fine grade. It's been on my layout since 1992/3 and have never had any problems. I used white glue and wet water as the bonding medium. The dirt is in a very thin layer so it's hard to imagine anything could "grow" from it. If there were any "bugs" in it, they are cemented to the layout now. Just hope they're in scale.....
Actually, water boils at 212 degrees F. at sea level. Where I live it boils at 188 degrees--at about 6000 feet above sea level. Man, did we have trouble adjusting recipes for the first few months! My first breads could have been bricks in adobe walls. I still bake my dirt--er, decomposed granite--at 350 degrees. It still stinks up the kitchen, so I do it when Jeanne's traveling. On the cookie sheets I've already ruined, not the good ones! Im' going to have to assemble my Stupid Mistakes soon, so I don't start repeating them. Both here and on the layout!
