PCBs AND COUNTRY LIFE

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We decided long ago, you see, that we'd just as soon have as little to do with the hustle and bustle of the "outside world" as possible. College—and previous jobs—had made it abundantly clear to us that we weren't made to slave under a "boss", or to put up with the endless frustrations that are part and parcel of a nine-to-five job.

I find that I'm much more satisfied working with my hands—creating something I can look at and feel and love—than I am sitting in an office (or classroom) all day. Sara who hand-sews light, comfortable shoes that actually fit people's feet—knows the satisfaction of working with her hands too. That's why we moved to our little farmstead ... and why we don't want to move away.

CREATING BETTER SOIL

Our concern for quality in the things we make and do carries over to the land that Sara and I own. We aren't content merely to keep our little place as it is ... we're always looking for ways to improve it.

A year ago, we knew we had to do something to enrich the soil in our garden, cornfield, and pasture. From past experience, though, we knew we couldn't carry a large enough quantity of grass clippings and cornhusks from town to do much good for our garden ... let alone for the pasture, which definitely needed a rich (but non-chemical) fertilizer.

After giving it a lot of thought, we decided to fertilize our soil with sludge from a sewage treatment plant about five miles away. I'd spent a fair amount of time researching the use of solid wastes on farmland and could see nothing wrong with the idea ... but to put my mind at ease I called the city engineer in charge of the local treatment facility and asked him about the presence of heavy metals (zinc, cadmium, etc.) and other pollutants (such as pesticides) in the digested sludge. The man assured me that sewage solids were safe to use as fertilizer— that, in fact, they were being used across the country with no ill effects—and that Bloomington's sludge was free of heavy metals and other harmful agents.

From what we could determine, then, sludge appeared to be safe to use, rich in soil nutrients, plentiful, and low-cost (it was free for the hauling). In short, it seemed to be the perfect "soil conditioner"!

When a friend of ours offered us the free use of his dump truck so we could haul our "fertilizer" home, we nearly jumped for joy!

A LURKING MENACE

So in November of 1975 we trucked home 100 tons of solid wastes from the Bloomington sewage treatment facility. And we spread it everywhere: on the pasture, the garden, and the cornfield. And when we were done, we felt elated ... for we just knew that—come springtime—everything on our little homestead would simply grow like crazy.

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