20th Post special! B+W Edition

In honor of our 20th post special and our common atomic friend, carbon, This episode is in black and white. 

While tying up my walls and rafters I followed sailor rule #1-

If you can't tie a knot, tie a lot. 

The charcoal making experiment was a 50% success - 

As in 50% Carbon yield and 50% ash. Is all the energy embodied in wood and other organic matter just stored up solar energy? A tree takes 100 years to grow and about 30 minutes to burn, releasing heat that it's stored for years. Trees are, among other things, a bunch of energy capacitors...For the next experiment I will need a welder and welding practice in order to make a proper charcoal-making device. What can we use charcoal for? 

1. - Grilling on an open flame without the taste or carcinogenic injection of petroleum accelerants

2. - Terra Preta! This is the mythical Amazonian 'Black Earth'. I've been doing some side experiments with this... Basically, strange black soil was discovered 40 years ago in the middle of the rainforest (most of the soil there is an 'oxisol' which is orange). - (here's a good pic that gets around the B+W decree)

This soil amazes scientists because plants absolutely love it (and the microorganism count is off the charts (if there are any pedological microorganism charts)) and it increases in thickness every year - it grows; like the blob. The supposed secret to the soil? Charcoal. And lots of it. 

Charcoal has this amazing ability to link up with lots of other atoms. Which is why it is the backbone of what we're made of I guess... It is said that an ounce of carbon (in the form of charcoal) has a surface area of 3 football fields (more nooks and crannies than a Thomas' English Muffin).

Among other things, 2 factors that make an excellent soil are porosity and nutrient retention. Soil is a living thing. A collection of uncountable species of bacteria and fungi, symbiotically related and not...Charcoal not only creates the porosity for mushroom mycelium and bacteria to hang out in, but also attracts and holds onto water, nutrients and other stuff, which the afforementioned little bugs make available to plant roots; Super Soil! I'm making some. I already have good soil so I might not notice much of a difference. But Haiti doesn't have soil; and the people are starving. maybe we can find a way to rebuild their soil using stuff they already have...reliance.

The soil used in agribusiness is typically tilled to death and dusty and the water will either run off or through it and leech the nutrients out - This is one reason why they require constant and increasing petroleum-based fertilizer inputs to maintain crop yields. This is how 95% of food is grown now. This is a liquidation of a natural resource. And I'm told that if we didn't do this, we wouldn't be able to feed the number of people that are being fed now. I call bullshit.

Anyway - I also had the problem of the roof to solve. I had a 1/2" piece of plywood which I had used for a couch I made back in 2003. The couch was a bomb so I ripped it into little strips* -

 

Many ideas were sketched out to try and solve the mysterious spiral failure. In the end, I reasoned that in order to prevent it from failing spirally, I needed to strengthen it spirally. Seemed simple. So I did. First put up some supports -

Then added the spiral strips -

Can you see them around the edges? I am realizing that this is a cool pic, but not very explanatory. Anyway this was an absolute success! I was able to swing from the circle without a problem now. I might even hook my rings up to it. 

Here's a closing shot of the last round of germinations -

Open Questions:

1.) What will my floor be made out of?

2.) What will my walls and ceiling be made out of?

3.) How will I insulate? 

Creativity and budget-mindedness are encouraged.