Nad R wrote:
songbird wrote:
....
yesterday was also the first run of making
charcoal. not sure i will do it again. too
hard on my lungs if there's any drifts of
smoke. still was interesting and fun. i've
always liked fires. a little more study and
perhaps some engineering and tinkering eventually.
we shall see...

how's moomoo?

Bessy is due date is today. Fresh milk in a few more weeks... If thing go
well.

walking on pins and needles?


Making your own charcoal... There is something I have not thought off...
Another dangerous thought. I remember the history channel had a show on how
to make charcoal a long time ago.

sometimes i just try things to see what
happens. i figured i could do it by
deepening part of a trench i'd already dug
last year (about 32 cu ft), piling in the dry
easy burning stuff on the bottom, smashing it
all down, and then stacking the bigger stuff
on top, smashing that down, then on top of it
all i put some wet cardboard and clay/dirt.

by the time it was all together i'd say it
was about 60% air. left the ends open to get
some air in there and lit it up at one end.
the winds were constantly shifting, so i lit
the other end too.

i walked miles with the smoke following me
around. a good comedy time-lapse video...
tinkering to keep it going and from completely
caving in. taking dirt off the top, moving
the big pieces to get them charred all the
way through. getting the wet cardboard pieces
dried out and then charred...

i probably got a few cubic feet from it
all when done. can't tell for sure, it's
all under water now. can't wait for it to
dry enough to dig it up and look underneath
and around. i wonder if any of the clay
in the soil was able to get hot enough to
fire. that along with the charcoal would
be a nice addition to the texture of the
soil. i'll be able to test it all out this
year because i'll be growing five stripes
of different plants through it.

can't wait to get back out there.
going to have to get a canoe and plant
rice this year the way it's going now.
rain, rain and more rain.


songbird