TWBBGWSC: 5th Annual Biochar Burn!

We'll see if I can manage to crank out a second blog post yet today. I took a break to make a fresh batch of playdough with Terah and Alida in hopes to make it possible while they play with the still-warm dough.

This year was our fifth year doing a biochar burn as the base for our humanure compost pile (now combined with kitchen compost - what doesn't go to pigs that is - and poultry coop litter). The reason we could easily remember how many years it's been is that we have four pits that we rotate through and this was the first time we were reusing a pit - which means we don't have to dig a new hole the morning of the burn (yay, some systems get easier once they are established). This year we did, however, have to siphon water out of the pit first and clean it out a bit.
 
We did the first few burns ourselves before we got smart! And Jason and Jonathan actually did one in a spot we have since abandoned, so it's actually our 6th burn. Early on Jason wrote a blog post called What We Need is in the Sky that at least started to articulate the "why" behind this now annual ritual! In 2015, Jason and I worked on the burn together with Terah in the pack on me. Then in 2016, we hosted our first party: that was a good idea! In preparation for that Jason wrote a "winter carbon party meditation."

This year we had a good turnout for our Tangly Woods Biochar Burn and General Winter Solstice Celebration (TWBBGWSC) gathering, and lots of young people. It feels like a very important yearly ritual for us now and it feels right to mark it by centering ourselves on not just what we are doing but why. So Jason modified his meditation (to hopefully accommodate all attention spans) and read it for us before lunch and again before we started the fire. Below is the shortened version and if the taste of it gives you the desire to read the full thing, you can reference the link above.

We Kindle this Fire: A Winter Solstice Meditation

We kindle this fire for gratitude.  The wood we have gathered to burn is the flesh of plants, our partners and providers on this earth.  We gratefully acknowledge that we need them more than they could ever need us.

We kindle this fire for memory.  We know that without fire, our species could never have become what we are.  To be human is to burn wood; to use its power to change things to our advantage. 

We kindle this fire for light. Through the plants and like the plants, we need light: to fully understand our world our eyes need to see it reflecting off of our landscapes, and we need it striking our skin to promote our health.  Even in our languages, light is truth and shadows are ignorance.  In this shadow time of year, the light leaping from this fire will be a comfort

We kindle this fire for warmth.  As flames spring from the branches burning here, we will eagerly hold our palms out to face them like leaves, absorbing a small fraction of the heat released there.  This world is our home and we know no other, but it can be a cold place, too. 

We kindle this fire for life.  As the smoke rises, we will be reminded that life changes form; it is always being lost and destroyed, it is always being reborn. The char that is left will be used to enrich the soil—a stable place to store nutrients and habitat for soil organisms. 

We kindle this fire for healing.  In these times too many of us are neglecting our connections to the soil, to the plants, to the Sun.  Our willful ignorance has cost us so much; has been so destructive.  We hope that this one small act of burning a char fire can be a part of a trend of restoration. 

We kindle this fire for our descendants. Like trees stretching their roots into the forest duff made of the decaying bodies of their progenitors, we too live by the gifts of our ancestors to us; gifts of resources and knowledge, skill and values that were a response to their time and place.  We have adapted these for our time in this place, and we know our descendants must do the same.  With this fire we mark our desire to leave to them a world that supports their thriving at least as well as it has ours, and our willingness to work to make it so.

For gratitude, for memory, for light, for warmth, for life, for healing, for our descendants, here and now, we kindle this fire.

This year's gathering was extra special since we welcomed Jason's brother and family, who joined us for the full weekend. We were especially honored by the visit, since they got on the road within and hour or two of Jason's brother being released from the hospital post-surgery. I hope that his visit ends up being a positive step in his recovery - and, no, we did not let him help haul brush! Our two nephews added an extra dose of fun, energy, and spunk to the whole weekend. 

I enjoyed a slow and quiet start to Saturday. As I worked on lunch and dinner and other preparations for the day, the light in the sky caught my attention. The day dawned beautifully and then late that evening I looked out to see a full moon rising (but by this point was too tired to go find my camera and just soaked in the beauty). Over the course of the day we had an additional 39 adults and children join our family for parts of the day. I tried to soak in as much as I could, but I know that I missed a lot. I feel kind of scattered on days like this, as much as I love them! I felt torn much of the day between caring for kids, monitoring kids' safety with the fire, food preparation for both meals, doing lots of dishes, bringing bedding to the pigs in the big muddy puddle and feeding them to relieve Jason of that task since he was tied up with the biochar burn, visiting with friends and family, and did I mention doing dishes? But overall the day went so well, everyone stayed safe and our only main disappointment was also a good learning. We should NOT burn wet wood! This year has been so exceptional in the amount of rain and lack of sun we have had. Our brush pile probably needed to be covered a full month ahead, and we only covered it last week when we saw yet another deluge of rain in the forecast with another flood warning. So the fire was much smokier than other years and therefore not as clean a fire and so it felt like we were taking some steps forward and a few steps back in our goals. As night fell we had gotten through our entire old brush pile and got into the newer one with dryer wood and ended after dark with a hot blazing fire that built up the char in a hurry. That's what we'll aim for for next year!

So the quiet start to the day changed about as quick as our nephews showed up downstairs. Our girls loved having them around - Terah did a lot of observing and while she can be her own ball of energy and a chatterbox, she tends to take a more tentative and observant posture when there are kids around who are louder and more energetic than she! Alida was in heaven most of the time trying to keep them occupied having fun playing with her. At one point this morning, she came into the kitchen and exclaimed, "I'm exhausted." Funny gal! 

The morning was dedicated to cleaning out the pit and preparing it for the burn. There was a fair amount of mud/soil to heap up around the edges. This was mostly one or two person work, so there was plenty of time for others to play soccer, swing on the swings, visit the pigs, or just hang out and visit. As I went down towards the pit, Kali's free range ducks were headed in the opposite direction. They decided to clear out for the day! They hadn't even come up at night when Kali went to put them in. She was pretty sure they were scared of the fire, which was right near their coop. Thankfully, when Jason finally got out to shut in chickens and turn the water off that had been running into the fire pit later on, they had returned safe and sound!

Following a hearty lunch of chili, bread and toppings, we headed out to get the biochar burn going. Then more hands were welcome to haul brush and toss it in as the fire was ready for it. We lit the first around 1:30 or so and it was after dark when Jason called it complete. He said the level of char in the pit this morning was quite adequate and it looked to be burned to the right stage (so again a less smoky fire--burning drier brush--is our only major improvement to focus on for next year).

We had some very dedicated brush haulers that stuck with it all afternoon (our eldest being one of those). Most of the rest of us bopped around a bit more. There were kids all over the place. And inside there was story reading and game playing. I love having the place bustle with activity and people having a good time together!

Those that had lasted till dinner, joined us for a potluck meal. We didn't eat until well after dark since the fire needed to be extinguished first. We had decided to cook up our two hams for the occasion so we had help tasting the two and there were varied opinions - some like the American Guinea Hog (higher fat, more diverse meat flavor) and some the RedRoc (leaner, more consistent)- so I guess they are both good in their own ways or for varied taste buds. I could tell more difference between different parts of the same ham than between the different hams (the saltier parts were the best!). While I worked on dinner dishes, I got to enjoy some live music happening in the living room. A good end to a good day!

The weekend's fun didn't end then, though I think all of us were glad for a good night's sleep before the fun recommenced in the morning. I was happy for some snuggles before the kiddos (and adults) headed back to PA! Oh, I neglected to mention that another highlight of the weekend for the kids was getting to enjoy the train that is set up currently that was my dad's when he was a boy. Speaking of when people were much younger, we are about to enjoy watching some old Benner home videos so it's time for me to wrap this up! And I think the playdough may soon lose its charm and the first request for dinner just came my way...