Freedom and Charcoal

Freedom from Fossil Fuels and Freedom from Worry

First off, I am not going to comment or venture an opinion on the current political and overseas happenings. Enough has been said, and anyways, I just want to keep myself to myself when it comes to politics. However, the crunch that is happening and will be happening for, more than likely, a good long time is what I am thinking on right now. In my area, the Pacific Northwest, gas has cracked $5 a gallon is some places. Ouch. As a thirty-something with a couple kids and plans for the future, it would be nice if the “now” were living in was not so expensive and stressful. Seems that we have yet another “once in a lifetime” event, AGAIN, and its been a few of those OIAL’s in my not so long but not quite short lifetime. Do I think the world is going to end? Probably not for this very moment. It is, however, going to be Hard Times here and there for the rest of my life, or at least that’s the direction the wind looks to be blowing. I sit here and type this from a mass produced fake desk, typing at my modern computer and talk about hard times like I’m not living in some incredibly blessed situation (which I am), but the Hard Times do not look the same for all of us. Many have it worse and many have it better. I desire some level of separation, not in the sense that I never want to see anyone or have anything to do with them, but separation from the tumult I sense. Whats the point of this rambling and long winded introduction?

Freedom and Peace

Its two of my top desires, as the guy I am. Freedom to live how I like and the peace to do it with the least amount of stress as is possible, most of the time anyways. God has taught me so much in the past few years, through loss, gain, sadness, joy and many other things besides. The overall feeling I am trying to convey here is that stressful times are, and have been, upon us. War, famine (climate change one way or another), inflation. The list can go on and on and the amount of worrying and stress can go on and on as well. That means the best time to prepare and insulate myself from the myriad of “things” that are out there as bogeys was 5 years ago, the second best time is now.

My exhortation is to prepare your spirit and mind first. Be right with God, read your bible, pray for discernment, seek wisdom. All of those things that many people before me have advised us to do and that I know I need to do better in.

I do think that we all need to consider adding some freedom from fossil fuel in a real tangible way, a way that you can add as something incidental on the side. The black ooze that powers this world isn’t going to get any easier to get out of the ground and the costs sure aren’t going down anytime soon. Even if they do, I look around and just desire some kind of safety net. This point/opinion brings me back to the title.

Charcoal – The Why and The Freedom

Once used extensively at the beginning of the industrial era and even into the distant past of the Middle Paleolithic (~30,000yrs ago according to the internet), charcoal has been an essential part of life. Heating, forging, art. The uses are myriad, just about anything that needs heat, it has uses in gardening and medicine, and it even serves as an excellent medium to use for basic filtration in a water or air purification system. We’ve “lost” some of the art form that was charcoal making simply because people found something better in the form of coal and oil. There’s plenty of evidence for how it was done and small and growing part of various communities are using it as a hobby and tool for that all essential heat that powers so much of what we do and need in the modern world. In many areas of the world, careful management of our woodlands, specifically on your own private property, will yield an incredibly plentiful resource that you need no supply chain or machinery for.

So there’s a history and some personal feelings on it, now the kicker. The liberation of your power, transportation, hot water, and a multitude of other things is only limited by your needs and imagination. Charcoal, I think, can integrate into almost every part of what you do to participate in today’s economy and society. The thing that drives that, literally and metaphorically, is the combustion engine. While it won’t replace the role of diesel and heavy duty trucking for those really heavy tasks, the gas that is produced from gasifying charcoal can be piped into a modern combustion engine and used to run your car, run the generator for your house, your battery bank, your freezers. Whatever you might need power for, if you have a place to procure bits of wood any larger than your thumbs diameter, you have the ability to free yourself from the oppression of the gas bill, even in some small way. Have I done it? Not all the way. I work a full time job, raise kids, be a husband to my wife, manufacture blacksmithing tools, ect, ect {insert excuses here}. Even so, I can and do make my own charcoal and I will be integrating it as much as I can, wherever and whenever I can. I get such a feeling of peace and freedom, knowing that I can manufacture something that is able to power the things I need.

Sounds ridiculous, you might say. Indeed, can’t disagree with you there. This thing I am positing is not a new invention or way of doing things. There were cars that ran off wood-gas, not steam. They were inefficient, not super powerful and downright inconvenient to run. When the alternative becomes gasoline that only keeps going up and other costs of living that only keep going up, having a finicky car that does take you somewhere on fuel that you made on your own property becomes something so invaluable that I do not think I am equipped to convey what that even means, as its so individual and personal. My motivation is not to instruct you in how best to convert your car to char-gas, or the amount you may or may not integrate charcoal into your life. I want to just point you in that direction, plus I make a cart that makes the process easier, so there is some bias there. Full disclosure, but I make the CharCart not just because its some product, but because I really think that having this kind of thing that makes it just a little easier might get some more people thinking about and messing with the dusty sooty stuff that is charcoal and seeing just how it has the capacity to free you from dependence on imported fossil fuels.

I don’t have the answers for every possible issue that could come up in the pursuit of a charcoal powered lifestyle, but I know I will have some idea as I adapt its use to my life.

I hope you can see the shape of what I am talking about and that you use it as fuel to power your dreams and that it gives you a feeling of freedom and peace as well. A simple YouTube search for gasifying or wood gas will give you a better idea of the mechanics and equipment needed than I could at this moment. Consult forums, do some search engine forays. This information is out there and there are many people advancing this wood gas re-revolution that have inspired me. Grab you some freedom and lets make some charcoal.