[erich]

HUMOR, POEMS, PROSE & WIT


The Terra Preta Prayer

Our Carbon who art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy name
By kingdom come, thy will be done, IN the Earth to make it Heaven.
It will give us each day our daily bread and forgive us our atmospheric trespasses
As we forgive those who trespass against the Kyoto protocols
And lead us not into fossil fuel temptation, but diliver us from it's evil
low as we walk through the valley of the shadow of Global Warming,
I will feel no evil, your Bio-fuels and fertile microbes will comfort me,
For thine is the fungal kingdom,
and the microbe power,
and the Sequestration Glory,
For ever and ever (well at least 2000 years)
AMEN



Climate Change

Climate change is a serious event,
We cannot say it is heaven sent,
Though in the sky the heat's contained,
Our actions are the ones to blame,
The carbon fuels we daily burn,
We really don't have much concern,
"It's just so little and the world is so big",
We don't care a feather or a fig,
But slowly like the hare and tortoise,
The heat creeps up and rigor mortis,
Sets in to our continuing wasteful ways,
We don't even notice the gathering haze,
The rising waters, the deserts expand,
The violent winds, the useless lands,
A mockery we have made of our Earth,
But the joke is on us, for all it is worth.

adrianakau@aol.com




More Coal & Oil...........MORE Soil !



Wee Beasties : short hand for all the bugs, worms, microbes and fungus

[Michaelangelica]

Erich's wonderful poem/riddle is everywhere on the net but here

Consider the following riddle:

I am renewable;
I am a chemical element;
as a fuel I am often less expensive ($/GJ) than natural gas;
my energy density (GJ/m3) can exceed that of ethanol or LPG;
and my combustion does not add to the CO2 in the atmosphere;
I am easily stored and safe to transport;
I clean the water you drink and the air you breathe;
Plants grow best in soils that are enriched with me;
I am a key ingredient in the production of semiconductors;
When eaten I settle an upset stomach and clean the intestines; and
No one is afraid of me!
What am I?

"We want ours to burn good and slow," said Young Billy.
"If he burns fast he leaves nowt but ash.
The slower the fire the better the charcoal".
Susan was watching carefully.
"Why doesn't it go out?" she asked.
"Got too good a hold," said Young Billy.
"Once he's got a good hold you can cover a fire up and the better you cover him the hotter he is and the slower he burns.
But if you let him have plenty of air there's no holding him."
Arthur Ransome, "Swallows & Amazons", 1930.
seen at:
The page you are looking for has not been found - University of Reading)

“A number of his paintings are made with charcoal. Kiefer shows not just destructive forces, but rejuvenation. The landscape is ravaged, but it will one day become very fertile.”

Anik Fournier

On indigenous burning i am discovering many other native peoples used fire other than Australian Aborigines But Yourkshiremen?
I am a "Who-dun-it" fan and love quirky detectives. I am currently delighting in Nicholas Rhea's delightful D.I. Montague Pluke He is an expert on horse troughs and local folklore. (Yes I know only in an English/UK book could you get this)
In the first few pages of "Prize Murder' we came across a body in a burnt field.
Just before this we get a little history of Yorkshire Moors. Pluke is talking to his long suffering wife, Millicent.I hope you find this quirky bit of information as interesting as I did.

Quote:
"'A whole area of heather has been burnt away'
'It's a swidden, sometimes called a swizzen.' Pluke aired his knowledge.
'It's a result of controlled burning. It's done every year, often in march before the grouse start their nesting. The landowner burns off about a sixth of a given area of heather, then the following year it will be the turn of another sixth and so on, so that over a period of years, the entire mooreland is burnt.'
'Goodness! But why?'
'It destroys the old heather, clears and refreshes the ground and encourages new growth. New shoots of heather grow quickly and they're stronger and healthier than the old; the new shoots are needed to feed the grouse too, and in former times local people would remove the turf after the burning and use it for domestic fires.'
'So turf is not the same as peat? I know a lot of mooreland farms had peat fires,' said Millicent.
'That's right but they had turf fires too. turf burns more slowly and gives out a lot of heat with a very pleasant scent. The thick heather stems which survived the flames were collected for kindling to light home fires.Those stubby stalks were called cowls, they were collected in big bundles called boddins, the local way of saying burdens. Boddins o' cowls, as the local people called them.
The whole exercise of controlled burning was, and still is, a necessary, useful and very effective means of maintaining the moors.'"

P 14 -15

[Turtle]

Turtle: Hey Mom; did you hear about the new terra preta enthusiast who used a fired-clay brick to hammer their charcoal into bits?

Mother Nature: No Turtle; how'd that work out?

Turtle: Well, it broke up the charcoal just fine, but the enthusiast got some bad cuts on the hands trying to pick out the clay shards.

[Michaelangelica]

Perhaps we do need a thread for alternative/other/unusual uses of charcoal
BUT
I thought I'd put this one here.
There could be some major environmental benefits. A similar invention for cows?
Ananova - Fartypants launched

[freeztar]

If only they could attenuate the noise as well, then my girlfriend would probably quickly become a paying customer.

What did the little char say to the larger char?
My surface area is bigger than yours!

How do you make soil dirtier?
Char it!
How do you make soil clean?
Char it!

If things ain't good...in your char bustin' world....
Who ya gonna call?
"CHAR BUSTERS!!!"

AgriChar...better than spam.

Did you hear about the log that went to jail?
It got Char-ged with bioterrarism.

[mjodvis]

New source of biochar:
After explaining to my wife, over supper one evening, the wonders of Terra Preta and my goal of slowly adding charcoal to our garden, she kindly suggested that the quickest way for me to generate a large supply of charcoal was for me to continue cooking our meals.

[erich]

Hi All;

Here's an image of a wood sculpture sent to me by Jerard Pearson, a crop/compost artist who is planning a large scale charcoal / Chalk piece of field art at the state fair grounds near Omaha. He has been trying to buy Char from T. Beer at Kingsford, but getting no response. He plans to use a hydro-seeder with a mixture of Char and cellulose mulch as a wet "air brush" to paint the field. I hope it will draw some media attention for TP soils.

This wood sculpture, in my mind, conjures up inoculant spores carried aboard the "char delivery vehicle" beginning the process of sending out hyphae. Gorgeous.

Check out the other wood sculptures by this Frenchman dude. Pretty cool.

THE VILLAGE : Alain Mailland's recent work





Erich J. Knight
Shenandoah Gardens
1047 Dave Berry Rd.
McGaheysville, VA. 22840
(540) 289-9750
shengar@aol.com

[Michaelangelica]

The Charcoal-Seller

Po Chü-i is famous for the simplicity of his language and his sympathy with the oppressed, as in this poem depicting the sufferings of a charcoal-vendor exploited by arrogant aristocrats.

An old charcoal seller
Cutting wood and burning charcoal in the forest of the Southern Mountain.
His face, stained with dust and ashes, has turned to the color of smoke.
The hair on his temples is streaked with gray: his ten fingers are black.
The money he gets by selling charcoal, how far does it go?
It is just enough to clothe his limbs and put food in his mouth.
Although, alas, the coat on his back is a coat without lining,
He hopes for the coming of cold weather, to send up the price of coal!
Last night, outside the city,--a whole foot of snow;
At dawn he drives the charcoal wagon along the frozen ruts.
Oxen,--weary; man,--hungry: the sun, already high;
Outside the Gate, to the south of the Market, at last they stop in the mud.
Suddenly, a pair of prancing horsemen. Who can it be coming?
A public official in a yellow coat and a boy in a white shirt.
In their hands they hold a written warrant: on their tongues--the words of an order;
They turn back the wagon and curse the oxen, leading them off to the north.
A whole wagon of charcoal,
More than a thousand pieces!
If officials choose to take it away, the woodman may not complain.
Half a piece of red silk and a single yard of damask,
The Courtiers have tied to the oxen's collar, as the price of a wagon of coal!


Home > East Asia >

Poetry: The elderly charcoal seller
Wen Sige
11/15/2005

The Elderly Charcoal Seller
By Bai Juyi

Cutting wood and burning charcoal in the forests of the Southern Mountain.

His face, stained with dust and ashes, has turned to the color of smoke.

The hair on his temples is streaked with gray: his ten fingers are black.

The money he gets by selling charcoal, how far does it go?

It is just enough to clothe his limbs and put food in his mouth.

Although, alas, the coat on his back is a coat without lining,

He hopes for the coming of cold weather, to send up the price of charcoal!

Last night, outside the city, a whole foot of snow;

At dawn he drives the charcoal wagon along the frozen ruts.

Ox was weary; man was hungry; the sun was already high;

Outside the Gate, to the south of the Market, at last they stop in the mud.

Suddenly, a pair of prancing horsemen. Who can be coming?

A public official in a yellow coat and a boy in a white shirt.

In their hands they hold a written warrant: on their tongues, the words of an order;

They turn back the wagon and curse the ox, leading them off to the north.

A whole wagon of charcoal,

More than a thousand catties!

If officials choose to take it away, the charcoal seller may not complain.

Half a piece of red silk and a single yard of damask,

The Courtiers have passed over the ox’s head, as the price of a wagon of charcoal!


About Bai Juyi

Bai Juyi, also known as Bai Letian, was a renowned poet during the Tang Dynasty. He lived from 772 to 846 AD. The less educated people at that time could easily understand the language used in his poems, with their explicit themes. The poems flowed so smoothly and his poetic style was so unique that it became a literary form commonly known as Fundamentally Plain Form.

Bai Juyi excelled in different forms of poetry, especially narrative and lengthy poems. Among his best works are: “Song of Eternal Sorrow”, which is a long poem describing the rise and downfall of the famed beauty Royal Concubine Yang Yuhuan and “Song of the Pipa Player” about a pear-shaped Chinese lute. Throughout the ages, poetry critics have eulogized “Song of Eternal Sorrow” as an extremely beautiful poem.


An Explanation of the Words

During the mid-Tang Dynasty, eunuchs s


Association for Asia Research- Poetry: The elderly charcoal seller


ALSO THIS???

SPILL CANVAS - CHARCOAL GREY ABOVE LYRICS


and
The Charcoal man?
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive...CF&oref=slogin
The Baldwin Project: Fifty Famous People by James Baldwin

[erich]

From D. Hennich

haiku

Lets give it a name
I say Global Carbon March
Inter our exhaust


Also Michael chidded me for not posting this idea here at hypo, from the TP list;

Subject: Re: [Terrapreta] methane, cowfarts and charcoal in the feedlot & Diapers ;

Here's a consumer marketing idea;
Carbon Negative Diapers:
Since they already have water holding polymers, just add charcoal ,( should help with the smell), and use other biodegradable materials. Then just toss on the pre-inoculated diapers as mulch in the garden.

Cheers,
Erich

[Michaelangelica]

Originally Posted by erich

Also Michael chidded me for not posting this idea here at hypo, from the TP list;

Subject: Re: [Terrapreta] methane, cowfarts and charcoal in the feedlot & Diapers ;

Here's a consumer marketing idea;
Carbon Negative Diapers:
Since they already have water holding polymers, just add charcoal ,( should help with the smell), and use other biodegradable materials. Then just toss on the pre-inoculated diapers as mulch in the garden.

Cheers,
Erich

Thankyou brother Erich
Three decades of the rosary on your knees please!

I have some research articles on water holding polymers from the Australian Nursery Industry association.
Which basically says they are useless outside a laboratory using distilled water.
Send me you email and I will send you the research

FEED BABIES CARBON ? !