Coal man capitalises on land-clearing bonanza

YALLAHS, St Thomas: WHEN HIS employer hired a tractor operator to clear the land next to the Touch of Class Pub in Pamphret on the outskirts of Yallahs, St Thomas, Henry Thompson saw the importance of this effort to provide enough parking spaces for motorists patronising the business place. During the clearing, he recognised the bounty of trees felled, uprooted, broken, and destined for the waste heap. Burning was an obvious solution to getting rid of the tree trunks, limbs, and roots.

Burn them he did, but when it was over, he had a large cache of coal, with some 27 feed bags standing upright in the open field as if they had been planted there. When The Gleaner stopped to enquire about the unusual sight, Thompson explained that there was much more coal still underground in the 'bed' waiting to be harvested.

He had taken a break to get on with his full-time job of tending to the boss' chickens and had slaughtered a batch for the market. Burning coal was a skill he had acquired over time and he seized the opportunity to capitalise on the bonanza afforded by the land clearing. He hadn't done much business with the coal as yet, but with one bag left along the roadside for advertising, he was hopeful that things would pick up.

At an asking price of $600 per bag, he would be satisfied with making some additional money to support his children.

"Other people come buy wholesale to sell for as much as $1,000. At certain places, they might get as much as 12 bills ($1,200)," he said.

Some way to go

In the meantime, he is content to stick to his job of rearing chickens and using his downtime to put in some hard work in order to earn a little extra cash - and there is still some way to go. He had already taken the 'head' off the kiln, which was "big and tall", but there was a whole lot more coal left underground. And it had taken a great deal of work to dig the kiln, pack, and monitor it over the three days.

After packing the kiln, he went in search of grass to cover it before he "backed it around with pegs and batten up the side so it can hold on the dirt".

That was the hard work. Then came the tricky part: igniting it. Having left a hole for this purpose, Thompson then fashioned a lighter from a length of wood to which he attached a plastic bag and lit it by pushing this torch inside. After being satisfied that it was properly lit, he retrieved the stick and closed the hole.

More than three days later, with the cooling-down operation completed, he then proceeded to unpack the coal and package it for sale in used livestock feed bags. He was proud of the end product.

"A good coal, man. The regular one take all one week fi burn, but because dem wood yah dry, it take only three days," he explained.

It had taken a lot of time and effort and he was yet to sell any of the coal, but Thompson was proud of his handiwork and had more than enough coal on hand for whenever customers eventually came calling.

- C.S.