The Mystery Square

Here it is - this is it - an 11 x 11 foot section of dead grass (sorry/had to post another pic with it since one was too big and I couldn't get it smaller - and that house pic is where I'll be in NC :))

Anyway - this mystery square appeared over night one day last week. One day it wasn't there, and the next day it was. It's as if someone came here during the night, measured out 11 square feet, and then sprayed it with grass and weed killer. The grass is dead and brown and crunchy underfoot. There is a small area you can see toward the interior that was starting to green back up, but that was gone again when I looked at it this morning. There are no underground lines that could cause anything like this. There is an underground electric line that runs from the garage in the left of the picture to the house which is out of sight to the right, and a water line that runs from the well in the front yard to the pump house which you can see a portion of on the right side of the picture. The septic tank is about another 150 feet back from that area - anyway - if there was a problem with it - the grass would be super green and not dead. Many years ago (about 25 - 30) there used to be a shed in that general vicinity, but the ground hasn't been disturbed in any way, such as plowing up or turning under, in over 6 years when the garage was built. Nothing!!!

This was farmland for many, many years, and it was divided into 2, 5, and 10 acre parcels and sold off. My ex and I bought a 2 acre parcel when it went up for sale back in 1971, and I have been here since then. In that time, many strange and unexplained events have taken place here - nothing bad or harmful - but some have been just plain bizarre - and now I'm adding this mystery to that list. If I told you about some of them, you'd swear that I'm certifiable - seriously! :eek: We always jokingly said that before this was farmland, then it must have been sacred Indian burial grounds, or some horrific event took place on it. Since we have no idea what it was before it was used for farming, then I suppose anything is possible, and Delaware does have it's own native Indian tribes, so who knows?????

I don't think I can blame this mystery square to an alien spaceship landing there, since the side window in my bedroom faces that area, and I would have seen all those flashing and blinking lights - right?? :rolleyes::eek: And besides that - who ever heard of a square spaceship???? :p

My son and I are totally stumped on this one - and maybe even a wee bit spooked too. Does anyone who took the time to read this, have any ideas at all??? It is just so darned totally weird.......:eek:

Wow, that IS spooky! :eek: My first thought was that some kind of poisonous stuff has surfaced and killed the grass, but since nothing has been going on there for so many years, it's really strange. Even that shed was removed over 30 years ago. :confused:

If you ever find out the reason, let us know.

How very odd - no one laid a tarp down there or anything?

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Originally Posted by Karen

How very odd - no one laid a tarp down there or anything?

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Nope - nothing! That was my thought when I first noticed it and I asked my son if he put down any kind of lumber or a tarp. Nope! We are both wracking our brains on this one.....

I'm thinking of taking a soil sample over to Southern States (an ag store) to see if they can analyze it.

My first thought was if it was sod and that section of sod died, but obviously that's not the case.
That is bizarre! And what makes it even more strange is how it is a perfect square.
:confused::confused:

Very odd, I'm just gonna go with the Spaceship theory.:D

Could there be some cement not to far under the square? Maybe an old cistern is under the ground in that spot?

I was thinking your septic bed because it's so squareut usually the grass is always thicker and greener on there. Did you pour anything caustic down your toilet or sinks that could have cause some bubbling and affected the grass? Can't be cinch bugs, they don't cut a nice square patch like that. Does make you think that maybe something hovered just on top of the spot...:eek:

Spooky for sure but there has to be an answer.

This was really bugging us both, so son got a shovel out of the garage and started digging - carefully to avoid the live electric lines, even tho they are encased in PVC. About 6 inches down, he hit cement. I thought maybe it was just part of a broken cinder block, so he went to an entirely different location within the square and dug another hole - hits cement again. So we really had to reach back in time and search memories and put the pieces together.

Well - we found a partial answer and Bonny had it right to a point - but it still doesn't explain that this is the first time that it has ever happened. We got down to serious thinking, and remembered that there had been another shed in that area after the first one was demolished, and it sat on a cement pad. When that one got demolished and yet another bigger one put in, it was just installed over the old cement pad. That shed stood for many years when it ultimately got torn down when the garage went in. The cement pad was never broken up and hauled away, and soil was just piled on top, dozed level and grass planted.

So it seems there indeed is a cement pad under this square. But since it has been buried there for the past 6+ years, why didn't the grass die off 6 years ago?? Why now?? Every year it has been just as green as all the other grass around it, and it can't be said it's because of drought conditions, since we're far from that!!!

Well, at least now I know it wasn't a square space craft ~~~~~ was it? :confused::eek:

Mystery half solved.

It could be the cement, as it is deteriorating, is leaching chemicals into the ground, and because it has been so wet this season, the chemicals it is leaching have finally reached the roots. I am guessing that square has a different pH than surrounding areas.

Concrete is very basic. (Basic as in pH, not basic as in simple)

Once it starts breaking down, the lime could leach out and burn the grass roots, killing the grass.

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Originally Posted by Lady's Human

Concrete is very basic. (Basic as in pH, not basic as in simple)

Once it starts breaking down, the lime could leach out and burn the grass roots, killing the grass.

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Well - I"lllll beeeeee - that sounds like a ding dang good old explanation to me!!!! :D

Shucks -- now I won't have no reason no how, to sit in that there window seat in my bedroom, and look out at that square, and wait for that thingy that the little green people ride in, to hover there with it's a-winkin and a-blinkin bright and shiny lights. Dang.............:(

Let's hope that a dead body isn't buried in that cement block :eek: - sorry, I just finished a John Grisham book... "The Client". ;)