Light duty, Chestnut trees, Stoves, Kraft paper and Tee-shirts

You would think I would know how to count. I had room for five trees and only planted four

I am on light-duty. The doc diagnosed "tendonitis" in my right foot and I am on the ice, ibuprofen, elevation and rest regimen.

The early part of my day was spent annoying the gentleman who came to install the gas stove. He changed the orifices, adjusted the regulator, installed the anti-tip bracket, adjust the flame height and all that other stuff. I told him jokes to pass the time.

I asked if he was OK with multi-tasking. He said he was, except when he was writing up the invoice/bill.

The hot fishing tip from the gas-heated appliance expert was that Cotton Cordell Big O crankbaits will catch anything that swims, including water snakes and softshell turtles.

Seeing how I am on light-duty, I only got four chestnut trees into the ground today. Somehow I missed the fifth spot. I am going to pretend that I PLANNED to let the roots of the apple tree I cut down rot for a year before planting that spot at the top of the hill.

I also got the last two persimmon trees into the ground, completing that row. So the tally as-of 11/7 is a row of two pecans (as seed nuts), a row of 4-of-5 chestnut trees, two rows skipped until spring, and then a row of 12 persimmons.

After planting the persimmons, I took a break and I was visited by a cute, red dragonfly. It wouldn't leave me alone. I don't recall dragonflies in November.

My niece, who died when she was 23, was very fond of dragonflies. They were her totem animal. I may share that "I got a visit from Sarah" with my sister. She gets comfort when I share oddities like that with her.

Charcoal

Different kinds of materials produce charcoal with varying amounts of "ash". 

Most of the elements that turn into "ash" in wood are in the lignin, the glue that holds the cellulose fibers together. Most of the elements that turn into "ash" in paper are added to make it smoother and brighter and to accept ink better. Some kinds of paper (glossy, magazine stock for instance) are 50% "mineral".

Two sources of inexpensive, very high-quality (low ash) material to turn into charcoal for making black powder are kraft paper and stained tee-shirts.

Kraft paper is the kind of paper that is used to make grocery bags. It has no fillers or brighteners. It is just cellulose. It can be purchased in rolls that can be cut with a band-saw into lengths that fit into a steel paint-can and baked into char. Given the density of rolled kraft paper, one can expect much higher yields of charcoal compared to sawdust and it will have much much lower ash content.

Tee-shirts: I worked with a guy who went to the local thrift/second-hand shops. He explained to the management that he worked in a welding shop and got sealer on his clothes and the welding sparks burned them full of holes. He asked them to save the tee-shirts that were stained and that they would not be able to sell to other customers. He would typically pay twenty-five cents for a garbage-bag filled with fifteen or twenty pounds of stained tee-shirts. He wore them once and pitched them. It was a win all the way around. I suspect that management would also be thrilled if they knew you were going to use the grungy tee-shirts for mulch and bio-char and other food producing products and sell them darned cheap.