The Experiment

My husband, Mitch, is a wetlands biologist.  He does all kinds of science-y things with water and wetlands and soil.  Over a year ago he made up this little experiment to see how long it took sediment from a particular wetland to settle.  He put the water and the sand and sediment in a peanut butter jar and left it on the deck to see how long it would take for the solids to settle to the bottom and the water to clear up.

In over a year, it has never settled.  Of course the sediment particles are extremely small and take a long time to settle to the bottom even if it was left alone, but whenever the kids or I see it clearing up we clandestinely give it a good shake.  Mitch has never said anything about it; not, "Who keeps shaking my damn peanut butter jar!" or "I'm done with that experiment, so feel free to use it as a toy," so I asked him about it.  He said he stopped the sediment experiment when he realized what we were doing, and quietly started a new experiment:  Seeing if and when we will ever leave it alone. 

I gave it a good shake right before I took the picture.  I'm not sure I like being the subject of one of his experiments, but I'm sure it isn't the first time.  In fact I know it isn't.  He hasn't come out and told me this, but he is doing an experiment on us right now.  He thinks he's the only person who changes the toilet paper roll in the downstairs bathroom so he has decided not to do it and see how long it takes one of us to do it.  It's been a few weeks.  But guess what, I know that he hides a roll in the shower, so go figure that into your data, Egghead.