One
beautiful day in early spring we walked the property with Eugene Boudreau,
a legend in local well drilling and geology circles. Gene is a real field
geologist. He knows the taste and feel of the rocks in the area and can use
his decades of experience to determine the most likely locations for finding
good water. Walking with him is a treat. He'll stop and explain why this piece
of rock is greenstone and that one is schist which might be similar in appearance
but is something else entirely. He'll stop and use some of his encyclopedic
knowledge of anthropology and history to talk about how a piece of obsidian
might have gotten to the property and how to chip an arrowhead.
Mostly,
though, it's fun to watch him use his powers of observation and critical thinking
to understand the three dimensional character of the earth directly beneath
us. We're in an area of strange and varied formations that are so chopped
up the term of art for the rock is "melange". According to Gene,
many people from simpler geological areas simply can't make sense of the shifting
nature of our hills and valleys.
By the end of the day, Gene had found some likely spots for well drillling and climbed back into his 500,000 mile battered Volvo to head for his office and write up a report.
The
last sight of this grizzled, wise geologist was the same as when he first
appeared, loafered and sockless, ready for an all day hike.