On 2/12/2016 11:38 AM, (PeteCresswell) wrote:
Per Gordon Shumway:
I'm not saying let's kill all the stupid people. I'm just saying let's remove all the warning labels and let the problem sort
itself out.

I like it....

On various prescription pills I get from the local pharmacy, I am
starting to see the admonition "Take by mouth..".

My kneejerk reaction is "What do they think I'm going to do, shove them
up my ass?"

Upon reflection I think there must be a lawyer/legal-action-based reason
for that admonition.... right up there with the "Do not dive into the
hot tub."

Because people *do* stupid things!

Can you honestly say you've never used a screwdriver as a pry bar?
Makeshift chisel?

We have lots of clay in the soil. Coupled with the lack of
regular rainfall and organic material, the hardpan can be
almost like concrete!

Anyone who does any work in their yard has a "caliche bar".
This is just a heavy (mass is the key aspect!) metal bar with
a pointed or "chiseled" end (usually one or the other). You
essentially THROW it into the soil (letting the mass/inertia
do much of the work -- instead of trying to "press" it into
the soil) and break up the solid layers of clay (caliche).

For example:
http://www.lowes.com/creative-ideas/images/2014_04/RG-Common-Soils/soil-desert-2.jpg
mine has a wider blade that comes to a decent "cutting edge"
(so you can slice through the clay and lift it out of the hole
you are digging).

Neighbor came to borrow mine, one day: "Sure"! (heck, no need to
give INSTRUCTIONS for something this simple, right?)

Later, I hear metallic sounds from his back yard. Walk over to
see him using it to try to cut through (break) a cement footer!

"WTF?? Now you've dulled the edge! It's for cutting SOIL, not
CONCRETE/cement!"

frown