Bozzlife: Learn anything new today?

bozz (71)in OCD • 4 years ago

I am curious, with all of the free time that a lot of us have on our hands these days due to the various "stay at home" orders, have you learned anything?

It doesn't need to be anything profound or significantly earth shaking. For example, the just the other day I learned how to put running boards on my truck.

Here is another example...

Take a look at the picture above. Several days ago I decided to buy some lump charcoal instead of the typical Kingsford briquettes that I usually buy. I did a lot of research on it (because apparently there are some crap brands of lump charcoal out there) and finally decided on the brand I was going to go with.

The next thing I know, Google in its infinite intrusiveness picked up on the fact that I was researching charcoal and presented me with an article about some guy who tried various ways to make his own charcoal.

The funny thing is, it was actually a really interesting article. As much as I thought I had researched charcoal, this guy had really researched charcoal. I learned that the ancient inhabitants of the Amazon rain forest regularly made their own charcoal and they worked it into the soil thus creating some of the most nutrient rich soil on the planet.

Something about stopping the burning process at the right time traps enough of the carbon in the wood so that it can break down into the soil and enrich it.

In the second half of the article the guy talked about the three methods he tried for making his own charcoal. The most successful method was by creating a dome or "volcano" out of wood and then covering it with weeds and mud. The idea is you want to create an air tight space where you can remove the oxygen once the wood starts burning. This will cause it to simply char and therefore create the charcoal.

I don't see myself trying this out in my back yard anytime soon. It honestly seemed pretty tedious and labor intensive for the amount of charcoal that you actually get out of it. I still think it was very interesting and I am really glad I read the article.

So what have you folks been learning about as you are dealing with all of this extra time at home? Have you picked up a new hobby? Have you finally gotten around to learning something that you always wanted to learn in the past? Or have you just read an interesting article that taught you something you didn't know before?

I'd love to hear about it in the comments! Better yet, write your own post about it! No tag required!