shirt-to-dirt gallery

Dug up 4/21/24 3pm a cloudy day with rain earlier in the morning. 70 degrees with damp sandy soil. No bugs just darker linen, and edges with holes and few holes on the back cover page.

The soil was dry, sandy under a cedar fir tree. Dug up this afternoon sunny out 70 degrees. There were tiny worm like bugs (my husband says termite larvae) on mostly the front and back cover of the book, and fewer on the inside pages. I can see holes eaten in the back cover, and eaten edges of the front flap and some page edges too. Mostly the inside pages look almost same color as when it was made.

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5pm 3/24/2024 Cloudy, temperature 70 degrees, buried 4” deep under outer west facing branches of our big cedar fur tree in backyard.

Sunny today, 74 degrees, rain yesterday and we have a sandy soil mix here.

Starting to feel like autumn is blowing in. Consistently having drizzly cool mornings a few day a week. Definitely cooler in the am and still warm in the afternoon. Snow peas are popping up around the dig sight.

Very little decomposition. Slight breakdown on edge of wrap.

It hasn't rained much and has been pretty hot here. The book is definitely more stiff and fragile. I am going to replant it in the ground and leave it there to fully decompose now!

Dry dry dry. No rain since last digging up of my book 2 weeks ago. Not much life in the dried out soil. Both front & back covers separated from the book, and in tatters. The rest is pretty well intact, with interesting patterns from plant material I tucked inside and from deterioration of fabric. The threads themselves held up well, and the indigo-dyed fabric is most intact.

Completely gone but for the small piece I found. Lots of worms in the area, rain the last few days as well.

As I suspected - all fibers and threads have disintegrated. Happily I was able to locate the stick that was used as my locator.

Quite fragile binding almost totally disintegrated. Brittle covers inside pages have beautiful coloration and remain intact. Overall I’m surprised at how well it held up.