One Gross (that's a dozen dozens)

How can one sell an idea? Well, here is my shot at it. I'm a man. So much more than just a man, but on one level, nothing more either. I have created a product...(admittedly, with some help) these dozen dozens of posts on an obscure blog. I certainly never expect to get rich writing, but how can one value one's work unless some value can be ascribed to the labor of it? I have grown as a writer, but this value accrues to folks who read what I write in the future. I have become what I believe to be a better person by looking critically at information, turning ideas over in my head as a geologist might inspect a sample of rock. I have developed a deeper sense of self by stripping away the lies that I told myself about who I am. Now, I am coming to my readers with an outstretched hand, asking for you to value what I write in ways that feel appropriate to you.

I was recently at the store with my mother. She needed eggs and so did I. She selected the styro-trash container for a buck and a half. This woman, who was in the first graduating class from (University Wisconsin at green Bay, UWGB with a degree in Analysis/Synthesis, the trendy name for broadly educated with a major in ecological principles and a minor in Art Education. The same woman who was reprimanded by her school administrators that she was not to subject her art students to term papers. After all, the implication was, art is only for people who don't fit in, or to fill elective credits by drawing. The former teacher, whose room my mother inherited, only had tens of thousands of sheets of grey paper and about half a ton of chalk and pastels, more than half of that stock had been just black and white. The former teacher was training them to see the gray scale and render objects as the old masters did, but what the ancients learned over days of work and toil needed to take place in an hour each week. But I digress, this is about the eggs. A dozen dozens. I selected the Phil's eggs, I know Phil, or at least I have written him letters, he cares about the birds and their health is of primary concern. Phil puts his eggs in paperboard, which I recycle or pass on to folks I know who have eggs.

Mom's eggs have a definite ecological impact. I worked in an egg house that provided those kind of eggs. Mine were nearly five dollars, triple the price, and Mom was aghast. She asked "Why do you spend so much on your eggs?" Having had chickens, I knew what to say. "It is a lot of work to create an egg and I certainly wouldn't want to have to pump one out every day." I said, I appreciate that. So does Phil. I know he does, because I can see, feel and taste the difference between the two "eggs".

The point of the egg story is to draw a parallel between the cost of eggs and my work. I urge everyone to go back and read all of my posts, all 144. It is truly a dozen dozens. If it seems as if I'm just pumping out as many posts as I can, like the egg factory, please value my work (and please, please, pay me accordingly) at roughly the cost of the cheap eggs in your area. These will undoubtedly be petro-chemically underwritten to a massive degree. I'm not exactly sure about other parts of the world, but in The U.S. of A., the corporate food giants who deal in these sorts of commodities receive other corporate tax breaks and subsidies, but I have no hard proof of exactly what that might be in the case of my local eggs. The simple accounting practices that allow taking feed and energy bills off the top of one's profit actually encourage buying feed from elsewhere and concentrating birds too close together for health. If you can see, feel and "taste" the difference between corporate schlock and rich and nutritious writing, then pay me like the expensive eggs in your area.

I often think of my writing as an egg, meaty but easily assimilated. Like an egg to our body and mind, I seek to nourish both. I want to inform, invigorate and activate my readers, or at least prepare them for growth. I want the writing to hold together, for each post individually and the collection of ideas as a whole. I see the value of my work as helping bind divergent ideas into a light sponge, pliable and yet able to hold ideas in a suspended state of animation for future use. The neural net that is established by these ideas are for each individual to fill in as their experiences allow. I hope to never be as pretentious as to tell anyone what to think of the ideas I render, nor how to piece any of that into a larger world view. Each of my messages is about the need to collectively realize what we are up against and how we might retain as much of our humanity as possible within a corrupt and collapsing system.

I assure you that ECO-tours has received no government subsidy other than business planning consulting services and the guy who actually collected the money was truly a huckster and subsidized suit. Having a business plan, heck even paying back double that cost to hire another subsidized suit, a lawyer, for drawing up incorporation papers. The State payed out a few hundred in assistance, the lawyer collected $1,200. Another thousand or so slipped away to petrochemical giants through fuel use and our purchase of a few hundred dollars worth of black plastic pots which harbor our seedlings while they are in nursery status. At least I am aware of, and keep track of my subsidies. I have never taken them for granted. I certainly didn't feel entitled to them. My work through ECO-Tours has been with the intent of getting the biggest bang for the bucks that are given to our efforts.

For our part, we seek to plant more trees. We do it as efficiently as possible. ECO-Tours and our 100% volunteer staff as well as the many guests who tour with us have planted tens of thousands of native trees over the years. Additionally, we have begun to plant far more tree seeds, leading to higher rates of survival and trees that are better adapted to their sites. We plant about a dozen dozens of trees per acre and if you would rather make a donation to further that work instead of the writing of this blog, I will put your donation in perspective. It costs nearly ten dollars per tree for seedlings, but that includes purchase, planting, protection and care. If you would like to plant 144 trees, that's about 1440 dollars. When we plant, all the labor is done by volunteers or paying guests, so the donation you make is more than doubled by human effort, given with love by people who care about restoring the Earth, protecting soils, stabilizing climate and fixing carbon.

At five dollars per dozen, ($60 for the lot) that's less than fifty cents a piece for these first one hundred and forty-four blog posts alone. I'm willing to pay that to get good eggs and my goal is to put as much or more into each post than I get out of having an egg for breakfast. If you agree, send a check to ECO-Tours of Wisconsin Inc. 1445 Porlier street Green Bay, WI 54301 or you can use our paypal account: tnsaladino42@hotmail.com We are also working to build a new char burner that will allow us to build soils in areas that we are reforesting, reducing the numbers of trees that we will lose in the future has always been an overriding concern for us. Typically we lose lass than ten percent of the trees we plant, but when you plant as many trees as we do, that is still more than we wish to accept. Making biochar part of the soils that we plant into reduces stress, increases available soil moisture increases nutrient availability as well as beneficial soil organisms and protects against drought.

Any donations over $1,000 will come with a free week-long ECO-Tour so that you can see some of our operations up close and personal.

Sacred Days On A Lake

When we looked across our lake at Thanksgiving, it looked more like Solstice, today, the ice has all but released the grip it had on the surface back then. To the casual ECO-Tourist, it has become all to clear that the biosphere is out of balance. Fukushima continues to release energy into the biosphere and we continue to wreak havoc with hydro-fracking, exploding massive amounts of energy into rock that has sequestered carbon for millions of years. We do it to capture the fumes upon which old way thinking was based. We now pump three BTUs into the ground to release five. A losing hand in poker and underwater business loans for the Mother Earth rapists. The energy center, which has boomed the last few years is going through upheaval and the majority of the population wants none of the business as usual that could keep the petrodollars flowing. We see all around us the extreme weather events that used to be extreme, but have become commonplace. Longest droughts followed by heaviest rains, record cold, wind and heat, record snow cover and warmest water temperatures, aquifer depletion etc. all combine with the fuels we burn to wrench the quilt of air that envelops the planet in ever-more tortured ways.

Now, when virtually all people realize in every fiber of their being that conservation matters, the corporate welfare whores who purchased our representatives are cheerleading for wasteful practices that belong in history books. Electric cars are becoming common at the same time that gas is not being purchased at the past rates. China, once the fastest growing automobile consumer on the planet is seeing a drop in registrations. There is enough common knowledge about ecological catastrophe and the relationship between fossil fuels and ecological quality that we no longer want their black goo. We don't want the plastics that are made from that crap and we certainly don't want the waste disposal nightmares of consuming more and more trash.

The rebirth that I see coming to pass in the coming year is rebirth of community, not in the traditional sense. Many of us live in urban environments so geographically contiguous communities are few, but our "home" will begin to be seen as a series of domains, our community an integration of geographically diverse locations, but the re-birth will be more about how we get to these places than anything. Walking, riding bike, ride sharing and multi-owner vehicles are just one way to share costs and cut fuel use/emissions. Co-operatives owning fleets of electric vehicles could dispatch themas needed or have neighborhood-wide stations for pick up and delivery of seldom used vehicles. Another business venture that I would like to share widely is the personal concierge service.

With very little space and overhead, just a an electric car a bicycle, fitted with a trailer, a computer and motivation to start, you could take orders and make deliveries of groceries, tools, hardware, etc. The primary market would be those too busy to run errands themselves and those who would prefer to leave their gas guzzling car idle for the day. Just eliminating a car from the family budget can save over $9K dollars per year. Perhaps with a prudent and available personal shopper for many of your errands, you could afford to take a cab occasionally to a doctor's appointment or longer trip. Even if you are making lots of money, lopping off nearly ten thousand dollars from your annual budget could give you an extra something special.

Staying off the fossil energy bandwagon is ethically defensible and some customers will want to take advantage of the service just to do the right thing. We all lie at the edge of a great, once frozen lake. The ice that is clinging to the shore is as fragile as the exoskeleton of a cicada and it is time to grow beyond this old, dead shell. Taking our first timid steps into the great lake is the only way to decide if it is something we will enjoy. break the ice, reach out and let yourself float free from the shores of old way thinking. time is changing and the time signature of life has been revved to a fever pitch, help relieve the strain on everyone and you will be rewarded. This is not to say that there will no be hard days, dark days or set-backs along your path, but they will all become burdens easily lifted when you know that right is on your side.

When you falter, or work yourself to a frenzy, or feel frayed and burnt at both ends, Take some sacred days on a lake to remind yourself about what matters, what ties us to the breast of Mother Earth, and what life would be like without her, or worse yet, with her poisoned, than get to work finding ways to live without fossil energy. It had been done from the beginning of time until quite recently. We have technologies that make it possible once again. As the shoe company who I cannot advocate said, Just do it! You may not feel compelled to build a community in that specific way, but if you reach pout and ask what people need, you may be surprised at the lifestyles that you might rise to, just providing folks with things or experiences that are simply not available in this day and age. Think creatively about problem solving and you will find that the only thing there is no shortage of in the universe is opportunity.

Blessed Be and may all your days be filled with sanctity and reverence.

e to get out into the world is the personal consierge service.

Momentary Lapse Of Reason

I try to remain apolitical in my approach to ECO-logic principles but the recent election bears at least cursory scrutiny because of the horrible and tragic influences that are swirling in the houses of government and the halls of justice. First, we might take some solace in the fact that in most of the areas that just elected a new crop of seemingly stupider and less pragmatic representatives. The nation is moving toward a population far more interested in sanctifying the living mother, Earth and less compelled by claims that, raping the planet instead produces the "greater good". It is important to understand why and make sure that this stops happening.

To be sure, only about 1/2 of 1/3 of the population felt compelled to go to the polls to vote in the most recent "crop" of representation. Only one third of the nation came out to vote. About half of them did the electin'. Assuredly, the 1/6th were some of the, most dissatisfied with the way things are going and have the most extreme views about what is right, good and worth going to the polls for after all. This is like trying to describe the signs of the zodiac, but only letting on that there are two.

Anyone thinking that the well-funded rabble, that we will have to put up with for years, have any interest in making significant change to protect the planet from exploitation is not paying attention. We have seen rollbacks in environmental protections across the board for years and more and more responsibilities are passed off to local jurisdictions, assuring that unless a complaint occurs, no records of ecologic catastrophe will be kept. We used to see cancer clusters, now, we are displacing people from contaminated zones into other contaminated zones and cancers are occurring everywhere. Luckily, many have realized that the rush to get somewhere is fiction. There is no escaping and that the only way to make life better is to focus more effort in smaller areas.

 I write routinely about our sense of ecology, how big, or small are we focusing our attention? There is an internal ecology inside our skin, the surface of the body provides habitat as well. Our outstretched arms enclose a sphere, our room, apartment, property, our backyard, town, village or metro, we can find ECO-logic principles at every distance. Bear in mind that if the biosphere was made to scale, at the size of a balloon, all life, from the deepest ocean depths, where bacteria survive in hot jets of sulfurous volcanism. All the way up to the highest atmospheric life forms, inhabit an area about the size of the rubber sheath enclosing the air inside the balloon.

The oligarchs have nearly as tenuous a situation. Their wealth is like the balloon skin as well. Their methods of social and political control have been discovered and found out. If we can mobilize the other five sixths of the population to participate, stop allowing the money to "speak" and for all of us, who see the very real possibility of finding a path to sustainability clearly to get involved. The teach-in of old has been replaced by You tube. I know dozens of people who do not own a how-to book, but they have all of them in their phone. Validating a system that exploits everyone for the wealth of a tiny few is getting harder and harder to "sell" to the population of the world. A tiny pin could drop now and the whole thing (the ballooning big lie) would contract into tiny shreds, falling limp and lifeless on the floor. When the boom stock Market pops this time, no one will be able to bail out the bust, or perhaps, we will decide not to. The time has come to re-invest in the things that last, the things we have been giving thanks for in this special season. Friends, family, fruitful endeavors. Investing in anything else, or betting on more of the same in the future is a fool's errand.

I read the accounts of the Donner Party as part of my Fall Feast of the Mind. What struck me hardest was the frivolity with which the pioneers confronted unknown hazard. Nearly half of the Donner Party perished, but perhaps they can teach us something across the years, so their lives were not lost in vain. At this time in human evolution, we need to adapt or perish. We have made some terrible decisions based primarily on what the richest people wanted. We may be unable to step back from the edge of the abyss. We may free fall again no matter what we do in the short term, but how well we do and whether we make it as a species or not depends on the choices we make today. do not dwell on the past, and like one of the survivors of the doomed Donner Party wrote afterward, "Never take no cutoffs and hurry along as fast as you can."

Do not become distracted. Mobilize, organize, educate and unleash love (for others and Mother) with at least the same intensity that the Earth rapists spew their hate. we are one giant family and there is no away. No planet to run to when this one gets ready to spit us out. The establishment of our living history museum of the now is about to take place. I can nearly hear the waves lapping at the shore! If you have money to invest in creating a sustainable resort that is like a summer camp for all ages, send it to ECO-Tours and note when you would like to schedule a stay. Now, let's get this show on the road! 

Fourteen Acres Per Handful

Much of the time I feel like Jack, the poor little lad from the English fable that we were all told when we were young. Jack and the Beanstalk Jack, poor lad whose mother told him to go sell his beloved cow at market Jack, that boy who returned with magic beans, but was belittled Jack. The boy who climbed above the clouds and brought home a bag of gold coins on his first trip, the goose that lays golden eggs on his second climb up the stalk and ultimately the golden harp which plays by itself. The Giant, who "owns" all three of these treasures is killed by the boy when he cuts down the magical beanstalk, ending the threat from this over-sized beast. You may remember the refrain..."Fee, fi, fo, fum, I smell the blood of and Englishman. Be he alive, or be he dead, I'll grind his bones to make my bread.", a variant and elaboration of what was originally written by Shakespear (from King Lear, act three, scene four) When Jack traded his prize cow, who had gone dry, for a handful of beans, his mother thought him daft. She flew into a rage and thrust the magic beans to the ground outside their cottage. Overnight the beanstalk grew taller than the clouds.

In my own time I have had many valuable resources that have run dry. I routinely had to sell off all of my prize possessions so that my mother could move the family cross country in search of her fortunes, or in fact, even her whims. My own magic beans were the bits of information that I was able to glean. some came from research and study, others came from strange old men, mystical yet intrigued by my rapt attention. There were even some magic beans that I found within my own psyche, but they were all tossed out the window by the adults who raised me. Instead of growing into a mile high beanstalk overnight, the tendrils continue to grow and the length of their magic is infinite. I have spent my life climbing up and down, bringing back treasures.

Unlike Jack, I have not raised the ire of the giant. I keep it on the down low, only taking what the beast thinks is waste. This has not always been a pleasant occupation. Once, when I found enough sash cord to make a person-sized nest of tangled asbestos laced string, I got deathly ill from untangling the mass and making skeins for use as art material. The skeleton that I created with the waste nearly killed me, but the resource was distributed into a safe finished product that keeps the asbestos contained. In slides yet to be transfered I have a few photos of the skeleton that I fashioned. A masterwork done entirely with rope, string and twine, woven and wrought into human form.

Making biochar is a perfect example. I live in a part of the country where wood products are big business. Finding pure sawdust, without glues or chemical treatment of any kind is easy. Most producers of this kind of waste would rather give it away for free than pay to haul it off. Turning that liability into value added product (char and bio-char) is relatively easy and although it takes energy to get the process to completion, it can be done with minimal equipment and a campfire, which allows folks to get together and participate in the char-making process.

Understanding the value of char requires seeing several co-mingled aspects of the material. First and foremost, it holds six times it's own weight in water. Areas that are drought prone can be stabilized by using biochar. The water holding capacity alone is only a tiny fraction of the benefits that accrue by using this amazing substance. The entire surface, on a microscopic level are covered with fissures, craters and micro-topography that provides habitat for soil organisms. Anywhere char exists in soil, with air, but without direct sunlight, billions of beneficial organisms can exist in a single tablespoon. These organisms hold additional water within their cell membranes, increasing water holding capacity many fold more than the char itself. Biochar is inhabited by organisms that provide the interface between compounds that exist in the soil and the plants themselves. Just like the bacteria in our gut, the soil microbes inhabiting the char help create easily absorbed and adsorbed nutrients. The life that biochar holds in the soil is perhaps more important than the amazing water holding capacity of the material.

This is the char making vessel that I have been using. It creates just over one gallon of char per three hour burn.

If you are not yet questioning how this miracle substance can be flying under the radar, read the last two paragraphs again. It is easy to explain why. Money. No one and no corporation can corner the market on bio-char. It is best when created locally with as little transportation cost as possible. There are a handful of people in the country who can teach about this material, but anyone willing to look into it themselves can learn the ancient technology, experiment with it and start to comprehend the art and science of creating healthy soils. Monsanto cannot patent it, no corporate welfare could make sense if we all have the knowledge of how to make and use char. When mid-sized small commercial char generators are utilized, the costs of adding biochar to an agricultural system can be as low as $90 per acre. Home gardens can be enriched for a few dollars and half a dozen hours worth of home brewed biochar. Full details for home and small commercial scale materials, devices and enrichment methods can be obtained through our state not-for-profit. donations of fifty dollars get you access to our full seminar notes, ideas book and glossary of terms. Interested parties are asked to write ECO-Tours directly to find out about having seminars in your area. Fourteen forty-five Porlier street, G.B.WI 54301-3334 USA. Or just stay in touch by leaving comments here.

Two Superior Properties

They say that changes come on the wind. I certainly have seen it happen enough in the past to know when the spirit of change is nigh. this is one of those times.

My Grandaughter exhibiting my coat of many colors...well half of it anyway. I am working on a book describing the story that goes with every patch on this jacket, What would you pay for 180 stories? That's enough to read one a day for six moons!

 We have discovered property on Lake Superior! This takes us one step closer to having a Northern ECO-Tour Resort. We have also found a property that is less than two hours by bicycle from the shoreline property that is nearly forty acres and includes the headwaters of a creek. It has been heavily impacted on about ten of the acres and will provide plenty of opportunity for reforestation, ECO-Agriculture and aquaponics. Donations for these properties can be made through our normal Paypal account or by sending direct to ECO-Tours at 1445 Porlier street Green Bay, Wisconsin 54301 USA.
 We were talking of the ways of the winds not very many days ago. You see, they come this time of year. Brutal and sustained, they speak to our souls of winter beginning to push back summer and they echo the insight that will be gleaned by breathing the frostbitten air of the long dark nights to come.

We also now have a You tube video that explains a bit about our work and the Leave No trace Ethics that help guide tourists to not only be respectful stewards, but to leave the natural world in such a way that others can enjoy it in the same condition as they found it. This visual ECO-Tour shows several places that we have planted and gives sound information on some of what we do. One caveat, at 0:45, (forty-five seconds in) the video says we are a 501(c)3 org. We are a state registered not-for-profit, but the costs of federal registration have been too great for our current budget. We are looking to register with the federal government in the future, but for now, we are only a state institution. We will be making a video of our biochar process soon and hope to create videos featuring benefits of ECO-Tours for guests, landowners and folks who donate soon.

Essentially, ten hours of sustained, twenty mile an hour winds, brings the air that was over Lake Superior  last night, fresh to our morning lungs. Some of the least disturbed, and consequently least polluted air on the continent, and my spirit is blessed with it. This element of change that the winds represents makes one restless and energized, no matter what time it is, day or night. Some things need to be done. With gusts of fifty, the north shore of Lake Superior has come to my lungs. Biochar made at this time would help capture some of that northern influence, inoculating it with whatever bacteria, fungi and spores it carried with it. The unique Breath of the North might well be used to best effect on north slopes and cooler wetter sites, I would imagine, because they most nearly replicate where the air brought them from.

Immeasurable thank-yous go out to Brenda Huisman for her video capture and editing, as well as the voice over for our first video. In spite of horrible conditions, extremely limited resources and having very little time to spend on it, she, of course, did what she does best, and her efforts are deeply appreciated.

To "finance" the northern acreage, we are looking for ten folks who can put $1K into "Deer Camp" it would allow you to stay during the 10 day deer gun season for a Cultural Heritage Encampment, Northern Folk School. This is not only a traditional deer camp, but living history encampment with fall chores being part of the gig.

Great Spirits passing frequently bring high wind events, and when we honor the ancestors, their spirits too, are disrupted. rustled as it were, like sheets in the wind. They know that we humans will once more re-live passed grief, and try to cast off shackles that we have created in our own minds; that there will be attention paid to them constrains them in ways that they cannot express yet, it has reigned them in at inappropriate times, the rest of the year and probably don't want to be bothered. That is why it is essential to make peace with the past and it is such a blessing to be blessed with what the dead have given us. In these nights of Sowen, What we unburden ourselves of will return to the Earth with those echoes that trace infinite, passed, other lives. We literally breathe the same noble gasses that the dinosaurs did, and in the night huddle together for warmth, and the blessed return of the Sun.

One more order of business...to make the Shoreline property a reality, we need ten people to step up and pre-pay a week rental on the beach, also $1K. We are having a beautiful and sustainable time with our Air B&B listing and will be running all three properties to make the payments, that is why we can offer such awesome rewards for your participation. Redemption of your "gifts" can take place at any time and will come with as much programming, or lack of it as you desire. From full-blown ECO-Tours and guide services, to utter solitude, you only get what you come for.

Tonight, as I breathe the air of restlessness solitude, that lives over Lake Superior, Part of my soul is tied to her breath. This is one of the parts of my soul that I love to share through ECO-Tours. If you can develop your own affinity for place in the world, we have done our job. Letting go of our old souls and stepping into fragile territory, like an insect shedding it's protective cover, we are vulnerable at this time too. Treading on ice for the first time each winter, we are hyper-cautious, but without great sacrifice, great rewards will never come. If the Sowen season cannot allow your shackles to be shed, Lord and Lady help you make it through 'til next year.

Focalizing is a process of allowing collective will to express itself, by sacrificing your own idiosyncratic intention for what works for everyone.  This concept is at the heart of ECO-Tours. Every adventure that we orchestrate is the result of what participants bring with them, what they choose to leave behind, a spirit of revelation that distills the essential abundance around us, and perfecting the ritual and art of the give back.

There are things to do, arte to be made, miracles to participate in. When you are ready to, join us for your tour and learn about a place inside your self as well as all that surrounds us and that many of us forget to enlist in our grappling with the distractions of a modern world.

May the Dark Lord and Lady Bless you.
Peace, and BE Good STEWARDS!

Char "Meltdown"

My char retort in action. Made from a simple stainless steel vessel. Before use, I removed any plastic or rubber parts, replacing them with steel and copper. 

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words, but it is hard to capture exactly how awesome this burn was. I had trouble finding time to create this batch, because financial pressures and the rapidly closing tree planting window has required me to spend all of my time elsewhere. I had to burn some wood and decided that the char could wait no longer. Here is a bit of context to help understand what you are looking at. I reduced five gallons of very dry sawdust to char in about two hours. My last burn, with fresh sawdust which took over five hours to "cook". That burn created massive amounts of steam during the first of those five hours. This was another animal altogether!

One consequence of the speed at which the dry material liberated hydrogen and oxygen is that the pressure inside the vessel went way up. As you can see by the flame, we had some fear that material inside the vessel might fly up and clog an outlet creating a massive and rapid increase in pressure that would be catastrophic. Luckily, the removable lid had enough blow by to allow the hot gasses to escape. You can see the flammable gasses escaping around the lid (where the wing-nuts are) This burn was so fast, and so hot, that when the process was finished, the lid had partially melted. The next upgrade to the device will be to make a new lid of steel rather than aluminum.

The other thing that the image cannot convey is the sound. It was like we had a rocket engine in our yard. The clean burning flame was about two feet long for the duration of the burn and the fiery jet was almost unimaginably persistent. It became reduced slightly a couple of times, but by simply jostling the container a few times to "stir" the contents, the flame continued as the material inside was charred. Because I live in a state where wood products are a major industry, I have been experimenting with charring the sawdust. It helps to reduce waste and can easily be scaled up to industrial levels without the time (and energy) consuming process of crushing. Even though I have a great method of crushing the char from wood, it is still a bit messy and as long as clean sawdust is readily available, I will continue to use it. After seeing the efficiency of this burn, I may have to commit to using dry material for making char instead of the fresh stuff.

Wood may seem dry when you buy it, but this sawdust had aged for about a month in the open air of my garage. I suspect that it lost over half of the moisture that had been contained in it. I may have to weigh two samples, before drying and after drying to get a better idea of how much water is in the fresh sawdust. My retort and I are available for demonstrations and during my half-day presentation I will demonstrate and discuss a variety of options and methods for producing or procurement of char, grinding methods and optimal size of char for agricultural and garden use, inoculation, water holding capacity and the biology of organisms that inhabit char. All speakers fees and honoraria will help to enhance our programs and offset costs of our school of sustainability.  

Tree Planting

We have been planting trees for forty years. In the early days, we were a small group of friends, but registering as a not-for-profit in the Wisconsin, our efforts have mushroomed. We continue to seek efficiencies that allow us to plant more trees at lower cost and increase word of mouth advertising that secures the best and most loyal ECO-Tourists (guests) and supporters (donors). with protection, watering, weeding and aftercare, our seedlings cost about ten dollars each in monetary value, but we frequently cut that number significantly by planting tree seeds, which typically cost a bit less, but require a bit more effort. We have had years where we got over a million seeds at once that were perfect for planting large areas and we have had years when we were only able to plant a few hundred acorns, maple seeds or walnuts. Much of this is due to time availability and what tree seeds we do find. Some years are naturally better than others and this year has been about average.

We have recently found a supporter who cannot afford to make donations, but who has time to stop out at the City Compost Facility on a somewhat regular basis. He has found us many, many tree seeds, which are far easier to deal with in piles than they are when they are spread across the ground under a giant old tree. He has become a great source for seeds and seedlings that find their way into the Earth without draining our bank account. The reason that I explain this in some level of detail is because I see the need for doing this sort of work nearly everywhere. Trees can transform the landscape and with a bit of effort, many places that humans have deforested the land can be recovered.

When the Russians first invaded Afghanistan, their first attempt at making the population beholden to them was to cut down every tree in every courtyard of every compound, leaving the locals without any sort of reliable, albeit tiny, source of food in their immediate vicinity. Additionally, their shady retreats were turned into nothing more than parking lots. My idea for U.S. intervention there was to give each of our soldiers one thousand fruit and nut tree seedlings that they would have been responsible for, and when they could find places to plant them and people who would care for them, their "tour" would be over. In a scenario like this, there would have been no shots fired, no assaults on our people and no unnecessary casualties. People can tell the difference between those who want to exert power and control over them and those who want to lift them out of a difficult situation.

I recently heard that in cities across the U.S., there is a push to create Million Tree Pledges, creating plans for reforesting our cities. Here at ECO-Tours, we have expanded our area of operations steadily outward, first working in the watershed that we live within, then planting in areas that flow away from our city, ultimately expanding to plant in the watershed of two of the Great Lakes, Michigan and Superior. It is becoming harder and harder to find areas that have not been ransacked by the power and control freaks, stripped of vegetation and paved over, many of these areas may never recover, unless we humans stop abusing the landscape. I applaud the Million Tree idea, however, if cities continue to plant non-native populations, or limit themselves to just one or even three species of trees in their planting mix, we will soon find that the efforts are for naught. We have been down those roads before.

When I was a child, there were many millions of elm trees, planted along nearly every residential street in America, (at least every place that they would grow) before I was ten, a pathogen came through and nearly eliminated the population. It spread like wildfire and within a few short years, the street trees were gone. Neighborhoods that had looked like giant living cathedrals of green were turned into harsh, hot, dry landscapes that made playing out in the quiet streets a thing of the past. The cities across America that had lost those giant elm trees seem to have learned nothing because they all seem to have rushed to plant ash trees in their place. The ashes are being wiped out, a bit more slowly, but because of the same type of monoculture planting.

In recent years, city foresters are seemingly beginning to understand the need for a mix of species, but only time will tell whether their efforts will be enough to change the balance of species enough to build a resilient forest where our cities have most ravaged the natural environment. I regularly see trees that have truncated lives because the wrong species got planted "too close to a house", or "too close to a street". They are taken down because they are "Too messy" or because "the birds that sit in the branches shit on my car". I have seen trees that only wanted the moisture that would normally be there for them, but that died because the drains in the street had turned that patch of ground into a desert, or trees that had found a way to survive in spite of human interventions killed when the street was widened. I have even seen trees killed because humans deemed one afternoon of entertainment to be of more value than the trees, that had been there for decades, quietly making the air just a little bit cleaner, making that area just a bit more habitable, and invisibly taking what they needed from the planet without harm to a single living being.

When I first began planting trees, I thought that the process would one day become boring or that at least I would tire of doing the work. This has not been the case. When I gently spread the filamentous root system of a tiny shoot into the ground, I get as much satisfaction today, at age fifty-something as I did when I was twenty, or ten. when i breathe my carbon-filled breath into the hole or say a prayer of blessing into the tiny sprig's leaves, my spirit mingles with that of a living be-ing. It releases all of the goodwill and hope that one can muster into the tissues of another entity. I have seen birds show up, where none had been before, within minutes of planting a small tree. They fly in alight on one of the branches and I have seen them immediately transform the newly planted tree into an ecosystem in and of itself. See, frequently birds, as part of their pre-flight check, defecate. This nutrient rich shit not only helps fertilize the tree, but also builds the soil with much needed organisms and organic matter. Having a hand in this transformative process is always powerful, always amazing and always increases the feelings of intimacy that one feels for the world around them.

I understand that some people don't like to get their hands dirty. I do. I understand that for the uninitiated, it sounds like "too much work", but in my experience, there is nothing better than fresh air to breathe, wild berries to eat when one is on a walk, and clean water to drink. The trees we plant today will one day provide for us in ways that we may not be able to fathom. My goal is not to help myself to the benefits of all of the trees that I plant, but to offer them as hopeful messengers that speak to the spirits of all those who will enjoy their shade over the years. If it is only for the birds, it will all be worth it.