The charcoal we accidentally made during our bonfire.
Status:
Relatively quiet day, feeling the need to retreat somewhat, which is no bad thing. I’ll save my reading for tomorrow.
Did make it out to the allotment for a bit of fresh air. Took the mobility scooter off-road for the first time, which was a small adventure as it’s definitely not designed for that. It made it up the hill eventually, which opens up a whole new gradient for me to explore.
Wanted to see how much charcoal was left after the bonfire the other week. My sister had dug a pit so we could try this method but we never got around to it, so we just piled everything on the pit and had a normal fire. But of course the pit still did its thing and because we doused the fire a decent amount of charcoal was left behind.
In short, the wood in the pit will get hot enough to carbonise but no oxygen can make it through the fire above it, so the carbon doesn’t burn to ash. It’s so simple you can even do it by sheer accident.
And so we have a hefty bucket of charcoal now to make biochar with. Permaculture win!
Overnight listening:
- In Our Time: Booth’s Life and Labour Survey - I’ll be honest, I took very little of this in.
Music:
- Zu: Carboniferous - to drown out the infernal charity Santa wagon that comes around each year.
- Low: Christmas - because I’m not a total grouch.
- A Very She & Him Christmas - because the Low Christmas album, while quite beautiful, isn’t actually that Christmassy.
Reading:
- ‘It’s fun to go to war with God’: Will Sharpe and Paul Bettany on their sweaty, sacrilegious take on Amadeus - this is getting a lot of hype but I’ll allow it. I’ll watch anything with Will Sharpe involved.