Fire As A Tool

Using Fire On The Homestead

Fire makes a great slave (and not a good master).  This old saying holds true everywhere, especially on the homestead.

Fire As A Tool

Fire can be used to clear land, get rid of pests, and cook your food.  It can store carbon so it stays underground and doesn't get released into the air.

You can use fire for heating your home, to make it more comfortable to live in. Clearing land is often traditionally done with fire, under control. What happens when it shrugs off its leash and goes into beast mode?  We try to prevent that happening with wildfire mitigation projects.

The wood ashes that are left after the fire has burned down can be used to 'sweeten' the soil, used as a dust bath for chickens, or added to the compost pile.

The charred remains of a fire capture a lot of carbon, making a 'carbon sink' which can prevent its release into the atmosphere.  It's especially effective if it's underground, and guess what? That's where the roots of plants are.

The use of fire to do all these tasks is such an old skill, one of the very first things that man learned to do all those millennia ago.

For most people, lighting a fire and sitting around it, or using it to cook over, is an atavistic experience; it makes us feel just like our ancestors did, safe, warm, well fed, and entranced by the flames.

You don't have to be a pyromaniac to enjoy lighting fires, and utilizing them for the special attributes that they bring to your homestead.






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